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  • Bath-Induced Zeno Localizat...
    Maimbourg, Thibaud; Basko, Denis M; Holzmann, Markus; Rosso, Alberto

    Physical review letters, 2021-Mar-26, Volume: 126, Issue: 12
    Journal Article

    We study a quantum interacting spin system subject to an external drive and coupled to a thermal bath of vibrational modes, uncorrelated for different spins, serving as a model for dynamic nuclear polarization protocols. We show that even when the many-body eigenstates of the system are ergodic, a sufficiently strong coupling to the bath may effectively localize the spins due to many-body quantum Zeno effect. Our results provide an explanation of the breakdown of the thermal mixing regime experimentally observed above 4-5 K in these protocols.