Quantum correlations at infinite temperature: The dynamical Nagaoka effect

Do quantum correlations play a role in high-temperature dynamics of many-body systems? A common expectation is that thermal fluctuations lead to fast decoherence and make dynamics classical. In this paper we provide a striking example that a single particle created in a featureless, infinite temperature spin bath not only exhibits nonclassical dynamics but it also induces strong long-lived correlations between the surrounding spins. We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of a hole created in a Mott insulator in the atomic limit, which corresponds to a degenerate spin system. In the absence of interactions, the spin correlations arise purely from quantum interference. Furthermore, these correlations are both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic, in striking contrast to the equilibrium Nagaoka effect. These results are relevant for a number of condensed matter spin systems and should be observable using state of the art bosonic or fermionic quantum gas microscopes.