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Abstract:

We discuss the emergence of non-stationarity in open quantum many-body systems. This leads us to the definition of dissipative time crystals which display experimentally observable, persistent, time-periodic oscillations induced by noisy contact with an environment. We use the Loschmidt echo and local observables to indicate the presence of a finite sized dissipative time crystal. Starting from the closed Hubbard model we then provide examples of dissipation mechanisms that yield experimentally observable quantum periodic dynamics and allow analysis of the emergence of finite sized dissipative time crystals. For a disordered Hubbard model including two-particle loss and gain we find a dark Hamiltonian driving oscillations between GHZ states in the long-time limit. Finally, we discuss how the presented examples could be experimentally realized.

Abstract:

We study the null space degeneracy of open quantum systems with multiple non-abelian, strong symmetries. By decomposing the Hilbert space representation of these symmetries into an irreducible representation involving the direct sum of multiple, commuting, invariant subspaces we derive a tight lower bound for the stationary state degeneracy. We apply these results within the context of open quantum many-body systems, presenting three illustrative examples: a fully-connected quantum network, the XXX Heisenberg model and the Hubbard model. We find that the derived bound, which scales at least cubically in the system size the SU(2) symmetric cases, is often saturated. Moreover, our work provides a theory for the systematic block-decomposition of a Liouvillian with non-abelian symmetries, reducing the computational difficulty involved in diagonalising these objects and exposing a natural, physical structure to the steady states—which we observe in our examples.

Abstract:

Nonstationary longtime dynamics was recently observed in a driven two-component Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to an optical cavity [N. Dogra, M. Landini, K. Kroeger, L. Hruby, T. Donner, and T. Esslinger, arXiv:1901.05974] and analyzed in mean-field theory. We solve the underlying model in the thermodynamic limit and show that this system is always dynamically unstable—even when mean-field theory predicts stability. Instabilities always occur in higher-order correlation functions leading to squeezing and entanglement induced by cavity dissipation. The dynamics may be understood as the formation of a dissipative time crystal. We use perturbation theory for finite system sizes to confirm the nonstationary behavior.