近日，清华大学侯攀宇团队报道了相互作用自旋系综中磁强计的动态冻结。这一研究成果发表在2026年5月27日出版的《自然》杂志上。

理解并调控量子多体系统中的非平衡动力学是当代物理学的一项根本性挑战，对推动量子技术的发展具有深远意义。通常情况下，在无守恒定律约束的条件下，周期性驱动的体系会热化至一个无特征的“无穷温度”态，从而抹去所有关于其初始条件的记忆。然而，这种规律可能通过可积性、多体局域化、量子多体疤痕以及希尔伯特空间碎片化等机制而被打破。

研究组报告了动态冻结现象的实验观察，这是一种驱动体系中热化被抑制的新机制，并展示了其在量子传感中的应用。研究组利用金刚石中约10⁴个相互作用的氮-空位（NV）自旋体系，通过精确控制驱动频率和失谐量，观察到了长寿命的自旋磁化强度以及相干的振荡微运动，其持续时标超过相互作用限制的相干时间（T₂）一个数量级以上。

利用这些非常规动力学，研究组发展了一种动态冻结增强的交流磁测量技术，将最佳传感时间延长至远超T₂，相比于传统的动力学解耦磁测量方法，灵敏度提升了2.7倍。该结果不仅提供了对动态冻结现象（一种通过涌现守恒定律抵制热化的奇特机制）的清晰实验观察，还建立了一种可普遍适用于不同物理平台的稳健控制方法，对量子计量学及其交叉领域具有广泛的意义。

附：英文原文

Title: Dynamical freezing for magnetometry in an interacting spin ensemble

Author: Lu, Ya-Nan, Yuan, Dong, Ma, Yixuan, Liu, Yan-Qing, Jiang, Si, Meng, Xiang-Qian, Xu, Yi-Jie, Chang, Xiu-Ying, Zu, Chong, Zhao, Hong-Zheng, Deng, Dong-Ling, Duan, Lu-Ming, Hou, Pan-Yu

Issue&Volume: 2026-05-27

Abstract: Understanding and controlling non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum many-body systems is a fundamental challenge in modern physics1,2,3,4,5, with profound implications for advancing quantum technologies. Typically, periodically driven systems in the absence of conservation laws thermalize to a featureless ‘infinite-temperature’ state, erasing all memory of their initial conditions6,7,8. However, this pattern can break down through mechanisms such as integrability9, many-body localization2,3,10,11, quantum many-body scars4 and Hilbert space fragmentation12,13. Here we report the experimental observation of dynamical freezing, a distinct mechanism of thermalization breakdown in driven systems14,15,16,17,18,19, and demonstrate its application in quantum sensing using an ensemble of approximately 104 interacting nitrogen-vacancy (NV) spins in diamond. By precisely controlling the driving frequency and detuning, we observe emergent long-lived spin magnetization and coherent oscillatory micromotions, persisting over timescales exceeding the interaction-limited coherence time (T2) by more than an order of magnitude. By using these unconventional dynamics, we develop a dynamical-freezing-enhanced a.c. magnetometry that extends optimal sensing times far beyond T2, outperforming conventional dynamical decoupling magnetometry with a 2.7-fold sensitivity enhancement. Our results not only provide clear experimental observation of dynamical freezing—a peculiar mechanism defying thermalization through emergent conservation laws—but also establish a robust control method generally applicable to diverse physical platforms, with broad implications in quantum metrology and beyond.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10585-6

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10585-6