Zongpei Yue

Abstract Topological phases have been widely studied in quantum pure states, where exact symmetries protect them. Such symmetry-protected topological phases have been observed in a range of systems, from solid-state materials to synthetic quantum platforms. Recent theory predicts that average symmetry-protected topological phases can also emerge in mixed quantum states that arise in realistic settings with decoherence or disorder, but experiments have not yet established them.

Quantum information scrambling, which describes the propagation and effective loss of local information, is crucial for understanding the dynamics of quantum many-body systems. We report the observation of anomalous information scrambling in an atomic tweezer array with dominant van der Waals interaction. We characterize information spreading by an out-of-time-order correlator and observe persistent oscillations inside a suppressed linear light cone for the initial Néel state.