Disorder-Induced Anomalous Diffusion in a 3D Spin Network

Abstract

Emergent hydrodynamics (EHD) bridges short-time unitarity with late-time thermodynamics, universal transport phenomena characterize the manner and speed of transport and thermalization. Typical non-integrable systems with few conserved local quantities are expected to be diffusive. In contrast, strongly disordered systems which admit phases such as many-body localization, are predicted to inhibit thermalization and thus slow dynamical transport. Disordered systems represent a uniquely poised platform to probe the quantum-to-classical transition and the emergence of irreversible thermodynamics from the underlying unitary structure. Here, we study a strongly disordered nuclear spin ensemble, using local measurements enabled by the disordered-state technique. We observe an apparent phase transition into a sub-diffusive regime, which we model as a random walk on the emergent fractal structure of a percolating network in the dipolar spin ensemble. Our novel theoretical model provides a framework for characterizing the emergence of thermalization in closed quantum systems, even in the presence of strong disorder.