Eigenmodes in the long-time behavior of a coupled spin system measured with nuclear magnetic resonance

The many-body quantum dynamics of dipolar coupled nuclear spins I=1/2 on an otherwise isolated cubic lattice are studied with nuclear magnetic resonance. By increasing the signal-to-noise ratio by 2 orders of magnitude compared with previous reports for the free induction decay (FID) of (19)F in CaF(2) we obtain new insight into its long-time behavior. We confirm that the tail of the FID is an exponentially decaying cosine, but our measurements reveal a second decay mode with comparable frequency but twice the decay constant. This result is in agreement with a recent theoretical prediction for the FID in terms of eigenvalues for the time evolution of chaotic many-body quantum systems.