The formation of a phase of matter can be associated with the spontaneous breaking of a symmetry. For crystallization, this broken symmetry is the spatial translation symmetry, as the atoms spontaneously localize in a periodic fashion. In analogy to spatial crystals, the spontaneous breaking of temporal translation symmetry results in the formation of time crystals. While recent and on-going experiments on driven isolated systems aim to minimize dissipative processes, as it is an undesired source of decay, well-designed dissipation has been put forth as a constitutive ingredient in the formation of dissipative time crystals (DTCs). Here, we present the first experimental realisation of a DTC, implemented in an atom-cavity system. Its defining feature is a period doubled switching between distinct chequerboard density wave patterns, induced by controlled cavity-dissipation and cavity-mediated interactions. We demonstrate the robustness of this phase against system parameter changes and temporal perturbations of the driving. Our work provides a framework for realising phases of matter with spatiotemporal order in presence of dissipation. We note that this is the natural environment of matter, and therefore shapes its physical phenomena profoundly, making its study imperative.
We propose the dynamical stabilization of a nonequilibrium order in a driven dissipative system comprised an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate inside a high finesse optical cavity, pumped with an optical standing wave operating in the regime of anomalous dispersion. When the amplitude of the pump field is modulated close to twice the characteristic limit-cycle frequency of the unmodulated system, a stable subharmonic response is found. The dynamical phase diagram shows that this subharmonic response occurs in a region expanded with respect to that where stable limit-cycle dynamics occurs for the…
While the recently realized dissipative time crystal in a laser-pumped atom-cavity system in the experiment of Keßler et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 043602 (2021)] is qualitatively consistent with a theoretical description in an idealized limit, here, we investigate the stability of this dissipative time crystal in the presence of an inhomogeneous potential provided by a harmonic trap, and competing short- and infinite-range interactions. We note that these features are ubiquitous in any realization of atom-cavity systems. By mapping out the dynamical phase diagram and studying how it is modifi…
Enhanced Microwave Sensing with Dissipative Continuous Time Crystals
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and School of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University（南京大学固体微结构物理学院、先进微结构协同创新中心）；State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University（华东师范大学精密光谱科学国家重点实验室）；Hefei National Laboratory（合肥国家实验室）
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…
Semiclassical Langevin dynamics of long-range dissipative time crystals
University of Augsburg（奥格斯堡大学）；Università di Napoli “Federico II”（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics（阿卜杜斯·萨拉姆国际理论物理中心）
Symmetry-induced fragmentation and dissipative time crystal
University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Quantum Network（安徽省量子网络重点实验室）；CAS Center For Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics（中国科学院量子信息与量子物理前沿卓越中心）；Hefei National Laboratory（合肥国家实验室）；Anhui Center for Fundamental Sciences in Theoretical Physics（安徽理论物理基础科学中心）
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 are 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. In this work, we investigate whether such a Dicke time crystal is stable t…
The existence of bistability in quantum optical systems remains a intensely debated open question beyond the mean-field approximation. Quantum fluctuations are finite-size corrections to the mean-field approximation used because the full exact solution is unobtainable. Usually, quantum fluctuations destroy the bistability present on the mean-field level. Here, by identifying and using exact modulated semi-local dynamical symmetries in a certain quantum optical models of driven-dissipative fermionic chains we exactly prove bistability in precisely the quantum fluctuations. Surprisingly, rather …
Periodically driven quantum systems host a range of non-equilibrium phenomena which are unrealizable at equilibrium. Discrete time-translational symmetry in a periodically driven many-body system can be spontaneously broken to form a discrete time crystal, a putative quantum phase of matter. We present the observation of discrete time crystalline order in a driven system of paramagnetic $P$ -donor impurities in isotopically enriched $^{28}Si$ cooled below $10$ K. The observations exhibit a stable subharmonic peak at half the drive frequency which remains pinned even in the presence of pulse er…
We report the observation of the sign reversal of the magnetic correlation from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic in a dissipative Fermi gas in double wells, utilizing the dissipation caused by on-site two-body losses in a controlled manner. We systematically measure dynamics of the nearest-neighbor spin correlation in an isolated double-well optical lattice, as well as a crossover from an isolated double-well lattice to a one-dimensional uniform lattice. In a wide range of lattice configurations over an isolated double-well lattice, we observe a ferromagnetic spin correlation, which is consi…
We characterize the dissipative phase transition in a driven dissipative Bose-Einstein condensate of neutral atoms. Our results generalize the work on dissipative nonlinear Kerr resonators towards many modes and stronger interactions. We measure the effective Liouvillian gap and analyze the microscopic system dynamics, where we identify a non-equilibrium condensation process.
We study the non-equilibrium many-body dynamics of a cold gas of ground state alkali atoms weakly admixed by Rydberg states with laser light. On a timescale shorter than the lifetime of the dressed states, effective dipole-dipole or van der Waals interactions between atoms can lead to the formation of strongly correlated phases, such as atomic crystals. Using a semiclassical approach, we study the long-time dynamics where decoherence and dissipative processes due to spontaneous emission and blackbody radiation dominate, leading to heating and melting of atomic crystals as well as particle loss…
In this work, we generalize the concept of roton softening mechanism of spatial crystalline transition to time crystals in open quantum systems. We study a dissipative Dicke model as a prototypical example, which exhibits both continuous time crystal and discrete time crystal phases.We found that on approaching the time crystalline transition, the response function diverges at a finite frequency, which determines the period of the upcoming time crystal. This divergence can be understood as softening of the relaxation rate of the corresponding collective excitation, which can be clearly seen by…
Supersolids are characterized by the counter-intuitive coexistence of superfluid and crystalline order. Here we study a supersolid phase emerging in the steady state of a driven-dissipative system. We consider a transversely pumped Bose-Einstein condensate trapped along the axis of a ring cavity and coherently coupled to a pair of degenerate counter-propagating cavity modes. Above a threshold pump strength the interference of photons scattered into the two cavity modes results in an emergent superradiant lattice, which spontaneously breaks the continuous translational symmetry towards a period…
Dissipation is ubiquitous in nature and plays a crucial role in quantum systems such as causing decoherence of quantum states. Recently, much attention has been paid to an intriguing possibility of dissipation as an efficient tool for preparation and manipulation of quantum states. Here we report the realization of successful demonstration of a novel role of dissipation in a quantum phase transition using cold atoms. We realize an engineered dissipative Bose-Hubbard system by introducing a controllable strength of two-body inelastic collision via photo-association for ultracold bosons in a thr…
We investigate the three-level Dicke model, which describes a fundamental class of light-matter systems. We determine the phase diagram in the presence of dissipation, which we assume to derive from photon loss. Utilizing both analytical and numerical methods we characterize the incommensurate time crystalline, light-induced, and light-enhanced superradiant states in the phase diagram for the parametrically driven system. As a primary application, we demonstrate that a shaken atom-cavity system is naturally approximated via a parametrically driven-dissipative three-level Dicke model.
Discrete time crystals are a recently proposed and experimentally observed out-of-equilibrium dynamical phase of Floquet systems, where the stroboscopic evolution of a local observable repeats itself at an integer multiple of the driving period. We address this issue in a driven-dissipative setup, focusing on the modulated open Dicke model, which can be implemented by cavity or circuit QED systems. In the thermodynamic limit, we employ semiclassical approaches and find rich dynamical phases on top of the discrete time-crystalline order. In a deep quantum regime with few qubits, we find clear s…
Pumps are transport mechanisms in which direct currents result from a cyclic evolution of the potential. As Thouless has shown, the pumping process can have topological origins, when considering the motion of quantum particles in spatially and temporally periodic potentials. However, the periodic evolution that drives these pumps has always been assumed to be imparted from outside, as was the case in the experimental systems studied so far. Here we report on an emergent mechanism for pumping in a quantum gas coupled to an optical resonator, where we observe a particle current without applying …
We study the dynamics of dissipative spin lattices with power-law interactions, realized via few-level atoms driven by coherent laser-coupling and decoherence processes. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, we determine the phase diagram in the steady state and analyze the dynamics of its generation. As opposed to mean-field predictions and nearest-neighbour models there is no phase transition to long-range ordered phases for realistic interactions and resonant driving. However, for finite laser detunings, we demonstrate the emergence of crystalline order with a vanishing dissipative gap. Although t…
We experimentally study the influence of dissipation on the driven Dicke quantum phase transition, realized by coupling external degrees of freedom of a Bose-Einstein condensate to the light field of a high-finesse optical cavity. The cavity provides a natural dissipation channel, which gives rise to vacuum-induced fluctuations and allows us to observe density fluctuations of the gas in real-time. We monitor the divergence of these fluctuations over two orders of magnitude while approaching the phase transition and observe a behavior which significantly deviates from that expected for a closed…
We demonstrate the emergence of a time crystal of atoms in a high-finesse optical cavity driven by a phase-modulated transverse pump field, resulting in a shaken lattice. This shaken system exhibits macroscopic oscillations in the number of cavity photons and order parameters at noninteger multiples of the driving period, which signals the appearance of an incommensurate time crystal. The subharmonic oscillatory motion corresponds to dynamical switching between symmetry-broken states, which are nonequilibrium bond ordered density wave states. Employing a semiclassical phase-space representatio…
Time crystals are classified as discrete or continuous depending on whether they spontaneously break discrete or continuous time translation symmetry. While discrete time crystals have been extensively studied in periodically driven systems since their recent discovery, the experimental realization of a continuous time crystal is still pending. Here, we report the observation of a limit cycle phase in a continuously pumped dissipative atom-cavity system, which is characterized by emergent oscillations in the intracavity photon number. We observe that the phase of this oscillation is random for…
Open physical systems with balanced loss and gain, described by non-Hermitian parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) reflection symmetric Hamiltonians, exhibit a transition which could engenders modes that exponentially decay or grow with time and thus spontaneously breaks the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry. Such $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry breaking transitions have attracted many interests because of their extraordinary behaviors and functionalities absent in closed systems. Here we report on the observation of $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry breaking transitions by engineering time-periodic dissipation and coupling, whi…
We investigate an unconventional symmetry in time-periodically driven systems, the Floquet dynamical symmetry (FDS). Unlike the usual symmetries, the FDS gives symmetry sectors that are equidistant in the Floquet spectrum and protects quantum coherence between them from dissipation and dephasing, leading to two kinds of time crystals: the discrete time crystal and discrete time quasicrystal that have different periodicity in time. We show that these time crystals appear in the Bose- and Fermi-Hubbard models under ac fields and their periodicity can be tuned only by adjusting the strength of th…
