Experimental Observation of Thermalization with Noncommuting Charges

Quantum simulators have recently enabled experimental observations of quantum many-body systems' internal thermalization. Often, the global energy and particle number are conserved, system is prepared with a well-defined - in microcanonical subspace. However, evolution can also conserve quantities, or charges, that fail to commute each other. Noncommuting charges emerged as subfield at intersection thermodynamics information. Until now, this has remained theoretical. We initiate testing its predictions, trapped-ion simulator. prepare 6-21 spins an approximate subspace, generalization subspace for accommodating noncommuting which cannot necessarily nontrivial values simultaneously. simulate Heisenberg using laser-induced entangling interactions collective spin rotations. The three components. find small subsystems equilibrate near predicted non-Abelian thermal state. This work bridges whose predictions now be tested.