Observation of Discrete-Time-Crystal Signatures in an Ordered Dipolar Many-Body System

Rovny, Jared; Blum, Robert L.; Barrett, Sean

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.120.180603

Cited by 294 publications

(267 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…In this quest for phases of quantum matter without equilibrium counterpart, time crystals (TCs) represent a promising candidate for a novel form of dynamical order out-of-equilibrium. In TCs, observables dynamically entrain at a frequency subharmonic of the one imposed by an external periodic drive [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], and they have been currently realized with trapped ions [19] and solid state systems [20][21][22]. In most previous studies, TCs are realized in closed interacting quantum many-body systems, which are prone to heating towards an infinite temperature state under the action of periodic drive [23,24], therefore, a slowdown of energy absorption is customarily entailed via a disorder induced many-body localized phase [25][26][27][28], or by fast driving [8,[29][30][31][32][33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dicke time crystals in driven-dissipative quantum many-body systems

et al. 2019

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The Dicke model-a paradigmatic example of superradiance in quantum optics-describes an ensemble of atoms which are collectively coupled to a leaky cavity mode. As a result of the cooperative nature of these interactions, the system's dynamics is captured by the behavior of a single mean-field, collective spin. In this mean-field limit, it has recently been shown that the interplay between photon losses and periodic driving of light-matter coupling can lead to time-crystalline-like behavior of the collective spin (Gong et al 2018 Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 040404). In this work, we investigate whether such a Dicke time crystal (TC) is stable to perturbations that explicitly break the mean-field solvability of the conventional Dicke model. In particular, we consider the addition of short-range interactions between the atoms which breaks the collective coupling and leads to complex many-body dynamics. In this context, the interplay between periodic driving, dissipation and interactions yields a rich set of dynamical responses, including long-lived and metastable Dicke-TCs, where losses can cool down the many-body heating resulting from the continuous pump of energy from the periodic drive. Specifically, when the additional short-range interactions are ferromagnetic, we observe time crystalline behavior at nonperturbative values of the coupling strength, suggesting the possible existence of stable dynamical order in a driven-dissipative quantum many-body system. These findings illustrate the rich nature of novel dynamical responses with many-body character in quantum optics platforms.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dicke time crystals in driven-dissipative quantum many-body systems

et al. 2019

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“…So far TCs have been experimentally realized [17,18] in periodically driven, interacting quantum manybody systems with spatial disorder, also known as Floquet TCs [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Typically, disorder provokes the onset of a many-body localized phase or a pre-thermal state [7,16,[19][20][21][22][23][24] where heating towards infinite temperature is suppressed [25][26][27][28], and time-resolved observables can react to the periodic drive with a dynamical entrainment at a frequency which is a subharmonic of the one imposed by the external drive. Besides those implementations, which directly break discrete time symmetry, there are other proposals of TCs that break continuous time symmetry [29][30][31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shattered time: can a dissipative time crystal survive many-body correlations?

et al. 2018

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We investigate the emergence of a time crystal (TC) in a driven dissipative many-body spin array. In this system the interplay between incoherent spin pumping and collective emission stabilizes a synchronized non-equilibrium steady state which in the thermodynamic limit features a self-generated time-periodic pattern imposed by collective elastic interactions. In contrast to prior realizations where the time symmetry is already broken by an external drive, here it is only spontaneously broken by the elastic exchange interactions and manifest in the two-time correlation spectrum. Employing a combination of exact numerical calculations and a second-order cumulant expansion, we investigate the impact of many-body correlations on the TC formation and establish a connection between the regime where it is stable and where the system features a slow growth rate of the mutual information. This observation allows us to conclude that the TC studied here is an emergent semi-classical out-of-equilibrium state of matter. We also confirm the rigidity of the TC to single-particle dephasing. Finally, we discuss an experimental implementation using long lived dipoles in an optical cavity.

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“…DTCs have also been independently proposed in periodically driven spin-1/2 chain systems by other groups [14][15][16][17], which have stimulated follow up studies [18][19][20][21][22][23] and several experimental realizations [24][25][26][27][28]. The original proposal in Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discrete time crystals in many-body quantum chaos

Nurwantoro¹,

Bomantara²,

Gong³

2019

Phys. Rev. B

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Discrete time crystals (DTCs) are new phases of matter characterized by the presence of an observable evolving with nT periodicity under a T -periodic Hamiltonian, where n > 1 is an integer insensitive to small parameter variations. In particular, DTCs with n = 2 have been extensively studied in periodically quenched and kicked spin systems in recent years. In this paper, we study the emergence of DTCs from the many-body quantum chaos perspective, using a rather simple model depicting a harmonically driven spin chain. We advocate to first employ a semiclassical approximation to arrive at a mean-field Hamiltonian and then identify the parameter regime at which DTCs exist, with standard tools borrowed from studies of classical chaos. Specifically, we seek symmetric-breaking solutions by examining the stable islands on the Poincaré surface of section of the mean-field Hamiltonian. We then turn to the actual many-body quantum system, evaluate the stroboscopic dynamics of the total magnetization in the full quantum limit, and verify the existence of DTCs. Our effective and straightforward approach indicates that in general DTCs are one natural aspect of many-body quantum chaos with mixed classical phase space structure.Our approach can also be applied to general time-periodic systems, which is thus promising for finding DTCs with n > 2 and opening possibilities for exploring DTCs properties beyond their time-translational breaking features.

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Observation of Discrete-Time-Crystal Signatures in an Ordered Dipolar Many-Body System

Cited by 294 publications

References 23 publications

Dicke time crystals in driven-dissipative quantum many-body systems

Dicke time crystals in driven-dissipative quantum many-body systems

Shattered time: can a dissipative time crystal survive many-body correlations?

Discrete time crystals in many-body quantum chaos

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