Extending the framework of statistical physics to the nonequilibrium setting has led to the discovery of previously unidentified phases of matter, often catalyzed by periodic driving. However, preventing the runaway heating that is associated with driving a strongly interacting quantum system remains a challenge in the investigation of these newly discovered phases. In this work, we utilize a trapped-ion quantum simulator to observe the signatures of a nonequilibrium driven phase without disorder—the prethermal discrete time crystal. Here, the heating problem is circumvented not by disorder-induced many-body localization, but rather by high-frequency driving, which leads to an expansive time window where nonequilibrium phases can emerge. Floquet prethermalization is thus presented as a general strategy for creating, stabilizing, and studying intrinsically out-of-equilibrium phases of matter.

将统计物理学的框架扩展到非平衡设置导致发现了以前未识别的物质相，通常由周期性驱动催化。然而，防止与驱动强相互作用量子系统相关的失控加热仍然是研究这些新发现的相的挑战。在这项工作中，我们利用俘获离子量子模拟器来观察无序的非平衡驱动相的特征——预热离散时间晶体。在这里，加热问题不是通过无序引起的多体定位来解决的，而是通过高频驱动来解决的，这会导致出现非平衡相的广阔时间窗口。因此，Floquet 预热化是一种创建、稳定、