Harmonic Control of Dynamical Freezing in Programmable Rydberg Atom Arrays

Harmonic Control of Dynamical Freezing in Programmable Rydberg Atom Arrays | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Harmonic Control of Dynamical Freezing in Programmable Rydberg Atom Arrays Roopayan Ghosh, Madhumita Sarkar, Ben Zindorf, Bhaskar Mukherjee, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8803237/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Periodic driving enables the engineering of complex quantum matter, yet in interacting systems it generically leads to energy absorption, which limits the lifetime of the engineered states. To address this challenge, dynamical freezing has been proposed as a mechanism for stabilizing non-equilibrium states over parametrically long timescales. While theory predicts robust freezing under simplifying assumptions, realistic platforms inevitably include additional interaction processes that alter its stability. Here, we report the experimental observation of dynamical freezing in programmable Rydberg atom arrays of up to 100 atoms in one and two dimensions. We find that while single-frequency driving produces pronounced suppression of excitation dynamics, the freezing behavior is restricted to a narrow parameter regime due to interaction-induced heating channels present in realistic simulators. Using a perturbative Floquet analysis of the fully interacting atomic system, we identify the dominant microscopic heating processes responsible for this destabilization. Leveraging this understanding, we design a dual-parameter modulation of detuning and Rabi frequency that coherently cancels these absorption pathways and substantially broadens the freezing regime, making it also robust across different geometries. Our results reveal how heating processes shape the stability of dynamical freezing in interacting Floquet systems and demonstrates a route to control driven many-body dynamics in realistic experimental platforms. Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Quantum simulation Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Quantum mechanics Physical sciences/Physics/Atomic and molecular physics/Ultracold gases Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Quantum information Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files DynamicalFreezinginRydbergAtomssupp.pdf Supplementary Information for `Harmonic Control of Dynamical Freezing in Programmable Rydberg Atom Arrays' Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8803237","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":623089546,"identity":"cf43b7a3-865a-4d07-9d23-a34f503aa409","order_by":0,"name":"Roopayan Ghosh","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABA0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFADCQYGZoYKBgYDKJ+HSC1nSNbC2IbQghOYtzcfe/CzzS5PPrr58OfCeYflzdmbDzD8qGCQMcehRebMsXTD3rbkYsM7x9KkZ247bLiz51gCY88ZBh7LBhzOkcgxk+BtY07cOCPHjJl322HGDTdyDEAu5DE4gFuL5N+2epAW48+8cw7bE6VFmrftcOJ8iRwDad6Gw4mEtfAcSzeWOXc8cYNEWpo0kJO84cyxhIM9ZyRwa2FvPvbwTVl14vwZyYc/89RY22443nzwwY8KG3tcWoCAjYGRDRgdEAXNYPIAOJpwA6D6PwwM8g1gTh0+laNgFIyCUTBCAQCs0FttmY6uCAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1756-4462","institution":"IIT Bhubaneswar","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Roopayan","middleName":"","lastName":"Ghosh","suffix":""},{"id":623089547,"identity":"b523dcd3-fe2f-4d34-adea-6f47deb946e4","order_by":1,"name":"Madhumita Sarkar","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University College London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Madhumita","middleName":"","lastName":"Sarkar","suffix":""},{"id":623089548,"identity":"e6b1b9e8-6cc4-494c-81fe-943be1f1e2d2","order_by":2,"name":"Ben Zindorf","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8630-3501","institution":"University College London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ben","middleName":"","lastName":"Zindorf","suffix":""},{"id":623089549,"identity":"72020f88-41a0-4f1c-b677-645e6b05f10b","order_by":3,"name":"Bhaskar Mukherjee","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"S. 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To address this challenge, dynamical freezing has been proposed as a mechanism for stabilizing non-equilibrium states over parametrically long timescales. While theory predicts robust freezing under simplifying assumptions, realistic platforms inevitably include additional interaction processes that alter its stability. Here, we report the experimental observation of dynamical freezing in programmable Rydberg atom arrays of up to 100 atoms in one and two dimensions. We find that while single-frequency driving produces pronounced suppression of excitation dynamics, the freezing behavior is restricted to a narrow parameter regime due to interaction-induced heating channels present in realistic simulators. Using a perturbative Floquet analysis of the fully interacting atomic system, we identify the dominant microscopic heating processes responsible for this destabilization. Leveraging this understanding, we design a dual-parameter modulation of detuning and Rabi frequency that coherently cancels these absorption pathways and substantially broadens the freezing regime, making it also robust across different geometries. Our results reveal how heating processes shape the stability of dynamical freezing in interacting Floquet systems and demonstrates a route to control driven many-body dynamics in realistic experimental platforms.","manuscriptTitle":"Harmonic Control of Dynamical Freezing in Programmable Rydberg Atom Arrays","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-23 02:28:39","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8803237/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"4fb5d578-3d6a-447f-a7b0-a954ca2e833e","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 23rd, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":66309900,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Quantum simulation"},{"id":66309901,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Quantum mechanics"},{"id":66309902,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Atomic and molecular physics/Ultracold gases"},{"id":66309903,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Quantum information"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-24T09:18:19+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-23 02:28:39","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8803237","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8803237","identity":"rs-8803237","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}