2025/02/26 by Huang, Wenhui, Zhou, Xin-Chi, Zhang, Libo +29 · 1 citation
#Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.19185
Anderson localization physics features three fundamental types of eigenstates: extended, localized, and critical. Confirming the presence of critical states necessitates either advancing the analysis to the thermodynamic limit or identifying a universal mechanism which can rigorously determine these states. Here we report the unambiguous experimental realization of critical states, governed by a rigorous mechanism for exact quantum critical states, and further observe a generalized mechanism that quasiperiodic zeros in hopping couplings protect the critical states. Leveraging a superconducting quantum processor with up to 56 qubits, we implement a programmable mosaic model with tunable couplings and on-site potentials. By measuring time-evolved observables, we identify both delocalized dynamics and incommensurately distributed zeros in the couplings, which are the defining features of the critical states. We map the localized-to-critical phase transition and demonstrate that critical states persist until quasiperiodic zeros are removed by strong long-range couplings, highlighting a novel generalized mechanism discovered in this experiment and shown with rigorous theory. Finally, we resolve the energy-dependent transition between localized and critical states, revealing the presence of anomalous mobility edges.