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My research interests, to which I have significantly contributed in the past include:
Out-of-equilibrium phenomena in closed and open quantum many-body systems---including scenarios inspired by high energy physics. I have been particularly obsessed with the role of symmetry in physics.
Critical and measurement-induced phenomena with applications to quantum information tasks, and experimental realization.
Mixed-state phases of matter and the stability of quantum many-body phenomena --- in particular, non-Abelian topological order--- to noise.
How do quantum systems thermalize and how can we avoid it?
Quantum thermalization is the physical process in which locally encoded information (e.g., a particular configuration of atoms), becomes hidden in highly non-local and experimentally inaccessible correlations. I investigate how thermalization occurs in general, and the mechanisms that can prevent it. On the way we discover the phenomenon of Hilbert space fragmentation, that we observed with ultracold atoms.
Key publications.
Theory:
Ergodicity-breaking arising from Hilbert space fragmentation in dipole-conserving Hamiltonians. P Sala, T Rakovszky, R Verresen, M Knap, F Pollmann. Phys. Rev. X 10 (1), 011047 (2020) [Link]
Experiments:
Observing non-ergodicity due to kinetic constraints in tilted Fermi-Hubbard chains. S Scherg, T Kohlert, P Sala, F Pollmann, B Hebbe Madhusudhana, I Bloch, M Aidelsburger. Nature Communications 12 (1), 4490 (2021) [Link]
Quantum measurements---a key instrument in quantum mechanics---are playing an ever-growing role in condensed matter physics. In the modern era, measurements can not only interrogate quantum systems but also generate novel phenomena ranging from entanglement phase transitions to efficient preparation of exotic ground states. Quantum critical points are highly sensitive to perturbations, making them ideal for exploring novel measurement-induced effects. We suggested an experimentally relevant procedure to "weakly'' measure critical degrees of freedom to yield behavior that strikingly transcends the conventional isolated system paradigm.
Transcending the ideal zero-temperature physics paradigm to account for decoherence brings important challenges with great potential for revealing novel many-body quantum phenomena. In the recent years we have advanced two important results:
Non-Abelian symmetries can lead to highly entangled mixed states. We provided exact calculations of various mixed-state measures, providing a rigorous glimpse into the entanglement structure of quantum many-body systems.
Characterized by anyonic excitations and a topological ground state degeneracy, we showed that the stability of non-Abelian topological order to decoherence can be quantified using loop models.
Key publications:
Non-Abelian topological order:
Decoherence and wavefunction deformation of non-Abelian topological order. P Sala, J Alicea, R Verresen. Phys. Rev. X 15, 031002 [Link]
Stability and Loop Models from Decohering Non-Abelian Topological Order. P Sala, R Verresen. Phys. Rev. Lett. 134 (25), 250403 [Link]
Highly entangled mixed states and novel mixed phases:
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