Observation of Prethermal Dynamical Phase Transitions and Resonant Melting

The source is a reference collection covering nonequilibrium quantum dynamics, quantum quenches, dynamical phase transitions, thermalization, many-body localization, quantum simulators and tensor-network methods. It includes foundational studies, reviews, experimental demonstrations and recent preprints published from 1937 through 2026.

Foundational theory and reviews

1. Polkovnikov, A., Sengupta, K., Silva, A. & Vengalattore, M. “Nonequilibrium dynamics of closed interacting quantum systems.” Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 863–883 (2011). Article

2. Mitra, A. “Quantum quench dynamics.” Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 9, 245–259 (2018). Article

3. Rudner, M. S. & Lindner, N. H. “Band structure engineering and non-equilibrium dynamics in Floquet topological insulators.” Nat. Rev. Phys. 2, 229–244 (2020). Article

4. Vasseur, R. & Moore, J. E. “Nonequilibrium quantum dynamics and transport: from integrability to many-body localization.” J. Stat. Mech. Theory Exp. 2016, 064010 (2016). Article

5. Rigol, M., Dunjko, V. & Olshanii, M. “Thermalization and its mechanism for generic isolated quantum systems.” Nature 452, 854–858 (2008). Article

6. Heyl, M., Polkovnikov, A. & Kehrein, S. “Dynamical quantum phase transitions in the transverse-field Ising model.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 135704 (2013). Article

7. Deutsch, J. M. “Eigenstate thermalization hypothesis.” Rep. Prog. Phys. 81, 082001 (2018). Article

8. Abanin, D., De Roeck, W., Ho, W. W. & Huveneers, F. “A rigorous theory of many-body prethermalization for periodically driven and closed quantum systems.” Commun. Math. Phys. 354, 809–827 (2017). Article

9. Verstraete, F. & Cirac, J. I. “Renormalization algorithms for quantum-many body systems in two and higher dimensions.” Preprint at arXiv:cond-mat/0407066 (2004).

10. Park, G., Gray, J. & Chan, G. K.-L. “Simulating quantum dynamics in two-dimensional lattices with tensor network influence functional belief propagation.” Phys. Rev. B 112, 174310 (2025).

11. Wurtz, J. et al. “Aquila: Quera’s 256-qubit neutral-atom quantum computer.” Preprint at arXiv:2306.11727 (2023).

12. Hashizume, T., Herbort, F., Tindall, J. & Jaksch, D. “Dynamical quantum phase transitions on random networks.” N. J. Phys. 27, 064506 (2025). Article

13. Eisert, J., Friesdorf, M. & Gogolin, C. “Quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium.” Nat. Phys. 11, 124–130 (2015). Article

14. Srednicki, M. “Chaos and quantum thermalization.” Phys. Rev. E 50, 888–901 (1994). Article

15. Abanin, D. A., Altman, E., Bloch, I. & Serbyn, M. “Many-body localization, thermalization, and entanglement.” Rev. Mod. Phys. 91, 021001 (2019). Article

16. Papić, Z. “Weak ergodicity breaking through the lens of quantum entanglement.” In Entanglement in Spin Chains: From Theory to Quantum Technology Applications, edited by Bayat, A. et al., 341–395 (Springer, 2022). Chapter

17. Landau, L. D. “On the theory of phase transitions.” Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 7, 19–32 (1937).

18. Sachdev, S. Quantum Phase Transitions, 2nd edn (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2011). Book

Quantum phases, quenches and dynamical criticality

19. Ebadi, S. et al. “Quantum phases of matter on a 256-atom programmable quantum simulator.” Nature 595, 227–232 (2021). Article

20. Greiner, M., Mandel, O., Esslinger, T., Hänsch, T. W. & Bloch, I. “Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms.” Nature 415, 39–44 (2002). Article

21. Sengupta, K., Powell, S. & Sachdev, S. “Quench dynamics across quantum critical points.” Phys. Rev. A 69, 053616 (2004). Article

22. Cazalilla, M. A. “Effect of suddenly turning on interactions in the Luttinger model.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 156403 (2006). Article

23. Titum, P., Iosue, J. T., Garrison, J. R., Gorshkov, A. V. & Gong, Z.-X. “Probing ground-state phase transitions through quench dynamics.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 115701 (2019). Article

24. Titum, P. & Maghrebi, M. F. “Nonequilibrium criticality in quench dynamics of long-range spin models.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 040602 (2020). Article

25. Karrasch, C. & Schuricht, D. “Dynamical phase transitions after quenches in nonintegrable models.” Phys. Rev. B 87, 195104 (2013). Article

26. Zvyagin, A. A. “Dynamical quantum phase transitions (review article).” Low Temp. Phys. 42, 971–994 (2016). Article

27. Halimeh, J. C. et al. “Prethermalization and persistent order in the absence of a thermal phase transition.” Phys. Rev. B 95, 024302 (2017). Article

28. Žunkovič, B., Heyl, M., Knap, M. & Silva, A. “Dynamical quantum phase transitions in spin chains with long-range interactions: merging different concepts of nonequilibrium criticality.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 130601 (2018). Article

29. Berges, J., Borsányi, S. & Wetterich, C. “Prethermalization.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 142002 (2004). Article

30. Mori, T., Ikeda, T. N., Kaminishi, E. & Ueda, M. “Thermalization and prethermalization in isolated quantum systems: a theoretical overview.” J. Phys. B 51, 112001 (2018). Article

Experiments and quantum simulators

31. Bernien, H. et al. “Probing many-body dynamics on a 51-atom quantum simulator.” Nature 551, 579–584 (2017). Article

32. Bluvstein, D. et al. “Controlling quantum many-body dynamics in driven Rydberg atom arrays.” Science 371, 1355–1359 (2021). Article

33. Smale, S. et al. “Observation of a transition between dynamical phases in a quantum degenerate Fermi gas.” Sci. Adv. 5, eaax1568 (2019). Article

34. Muniz, J. A. et al. “Exploring dynamical phase transitions with cold atoms in an optical cavity.” Nature 580, 602–607 (2020). Article

35. Chu, A., Will, J., Arlt, J., Klempt, C. & Rey, A. M. “Simulation of xxz spin models using sideband transitions in trapped bosonic gases.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 240504 (2020). Article

36. Zhang, J. et al. “Observation of a many-body dynamical phase transition with a 53-qubit quantum simulator.” Nature 551, 601–604 (2017). Article

37. De, A. et al. “Non-equilibrium critical scaling and universality in a quantum simulator.” Nat. Commun. 16, 7939 (2025). Article

38. Keesling, A. et al. “Quantum Kibble–Zurek mechanism and critical dynamics on a programmable Rydberg simulator.” Nature 568, 207–211 (2019). Article

39. Castelnovo, C., Moessner, R. & Sondhi, S. “Spin ice, fractionalization, and topological order.” Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 3, 35–55 (2012). Article

40. Nandkishore, R. M. & Hermele, M. “Fractons.” Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 10, 295–313 (2019). Article

41. Moudgalya, S., Bernevig, B. A. & Regnault, N. “Quantum many-body scars and Hilbert space fragmentation: a review of exact results.” Rep. Prog. Phys. 85, 086501 (2022). Article

42. Katschke, L., Farrell, R. C., Borla, U., Pollet, L. & Halimeh, J. C. “Finite-temperature dynamical phase diagram of the 2 + 1D quantum Ising model.” Preprint at arXiv:2602.16772 (2026).

43. Reinić, N., Jaschke, D., Wanisch, D., Silvi, P. & Montangero, S. “Finite-temperature Rydberg arrays: quantum phases and entanglement characterization.” Phys. Rev. Res. 6, 033322 (2024). Article

44. Stoner, E. C. & Wohlfarth, E. P. “A mechanism of magnetic hysteresis in heterogeneous alloys.” Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. A 240, 599–642 (1948). Article

45. Liu, F., Yang, Z.-C., Bienias, P., Iadecola, T. & Gorshkov, A. V. “Localization and criticality in antiblockaded two-dimensional Rydberg atom arrays.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 013603 (2022). Article

46. Bluvstein, D. et al. “A quantum processor based on coherent transport of entangled atom arrays.” Nature 604, 451–456 (2022). Article

47. Swingle, B., Bentsen, G., Schleier-Smith, M. & Hayden, P. “Measuring the scrambling of quantum information.” Phys. Rev. A 94, 040302 (2016). Article

48. Daniel, A. et al. “Bridging quantum criticality via many-body scarring.” Phys. Rev. B 107, 235108 (2023). Article

49. Hudomal, A. et al. “Driving quantum many-body scars in the PXP model.” Phys. Rev. B 106, 104302 (2022). Article

50. Chertkov, E. et al. “Characterizing a non-equilibrium phase transition on a quantum computer.” Nat. Phys. 19, 1799–1804 (2023). Article

51. Iadecola, T., Wilson, J. H. & Pixley, J. “Concomitant entanglement and control criticality driven by collective measurements.” PRX Quantum 6, 010351 (2025). Article

52. Daley, A. J. et al. “Practical quantum advantage in quantum simulation.” Nature 607, 667–676 (2022). Article

53. Wendl, A. et al. “Emergence of mesoscale quantum phase transitions in a ferromagnet.” Nature 609, 65–70 (2022). Article

54. Jiang, X. et al. “Using magnetic dynamics to measure the spin gap in a candidate Kitaev material.” npj Quantum Mater. 10, 15 (2025). Article

55. Radovskaia, V. et al. “Photoengineering the magnon spectrum in an insulating antiferromagnet.” Nat. Phys. 22, 728–735 (2026). Article

56. González-Cuadra, D. et al. “Observation of string breaking on a (2 + 1)D Rydberg quantum simulator.” Nature 642, 321–326 (2025). Article

Methods, software and additional studies

57. Bloqade.jl: package for quantum computation and quantum simulation based on the neutral-atom architecture. GitHub (2023). Project

58. Perlmutter. NERSC (2023). System information

59. Jaksch, D. et al. “Fast quantum gates for neutral atoms.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2208–2211 (2000). Article

60. Lukin, M. D. et al. “Dipole blockade and quantum information processing in mesoscopic atomic ensembles.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 037901 (2001). Article

61. Schollwöck, U. “The density-matrix renormalization group in the age of matrix product states.” Ann. Phys. 326, 96–192 (2011). Article

62. Fishman, M., White, S. R. & Stoudenmire, E. M. “The ITensor software library for tensor network calculations.” SciPost Phys. Codebases 4 (2022). Article

63. Lin, S.-H., Zaletel, M. P. & Pollmann, F. “Efficient simulation of dynamics in two-dimensional quantum spin systems with isometric tensor networks.” Phys. Rev. B 106, 245102 (2022). Article

64. Begušić, T. & Chan, G. K.-L. “Real-time operator evolution in two and three dimensions via sparse Pauli dynamics.” PRX Quantum 6, 020302 (2025). Article

65. Moeckel, M. & Kehrein, S. “Interaction quench in the Hubbard model.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 175702 (2008). Article

66. Haghshenas, R. et al. “Digital quantum magnetism on a trapped-ion quantum computer.” Nature 653, 56–62 (2026). Article

67. Landau, L. D. & Lifshitz, E. M. Statistical Physics, Part 1, 3rd edn, Course of Theoretical Physics Vol. 5 (Pergamon, 1980).

68. Heyl, M. “Dynamical quantum phase transitions: a review.” Rep. Prog. Phys. 81, 054001 (2018). Article

69. Xu, K. et al. “Probing dynamical phase transitions with a superconducting quantum simulator.” Sci. Adv. 6, eaba4935 (2020). Article

70. Hashizume, T., McCulloch, I. P. & Halimeh, J. C. “Dynamical phase transitions in the two-dimensional transverse-field Ising model.” Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 013250 (2022). Article

71. Karch, S. et al. “Probing quantum many-body dynamics using subsystem Loschmidt echos.” Preprint at arXiv:2501.16995 (2025).

72. Weinberg, P., Wu, K.-H., Long, J. & Luo, X.-Z. R. Queracomputing/bloqade-python: v0.15.11. Zenodo (2024). Record

73. Ates, C., Pohl, T., Pattard, T. & Rost, J. M. “Antiblockade in Rydberg excitation of an ultracold lattice gas.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 023002 (2007). Article

74. Osterholz, P. et al. “Collective cluster nucleation dynamics in quantum magnets.” Preprint at arXiv:2512.04656 (2026).

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