Discrete time crystals in the absence of manifest symmetries or disorder in open quantum systems

Gambetta, F. M.; Carollo, F.; Marcuzzi, M.; Garrahan, J. P.; Lesanovsky, I.

Abstract

We establish a link between metastability and a discrete time-crystalline phase in a periodically driven open quantum system. The mechanism we highlight requires neither the system to display any microscopic symmetry nor the presence of disorder, but relies instead on the emergence of a metastable regime. We investigate this in detail in an open quantum spin system, which is a canonical model for the exploration of collective phenomena in strongly interacting dissipative Rydberg gases. Here, a semiclassical approach reveals the emergence of a robust discrete time-crystalline phase in the thermodynamic limit in which metastability, dissipation, and interparticle interactions play a crucial role. We perform numerical simulations in order to investigate the dependence on the range of interactions, from all to all to short ranged, and the scaling with system size of the lifetime of the time crystal.

Citation

Gambetta, F., Carollo, F., Marcuzzi, M., Garrahan, J., & Lesanovsky, I. (2019). Discrete time crystals in the absence of manifest symmetries or disorder in open quantum systems. Physical Review Letters, 122(1), Article 015701. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.122.015701

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 13, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jan 8, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 11, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jan 10, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 10, 2019
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 0031-9007
• Electronic ISSN: 1079-7114
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 122
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 015701
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.122.015701
• Keywords: General Physics and Astronomy
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1461641
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.015701
• Contract Date: Jan 10, 2019