Dissipative time crystal in a strongly interacting Rydberg gas

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wu, Xiaoling, Wang, Zhuqing, Yang, Fan, Gao, Ruochen, Liang, Chao, Tey, Meng Khoon, Li, Xiangliang, Pohl, Thomas, You, Li
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Wu, Xiaoling
Wang, Zhuqing
Yang, Fan
Gao, Ruochen
Liang, Chao
Tey, Meng Khoon
Li, Xiangliang
Pohl, Thomas
You, Li
author_facet Wu, Xiaoling
Wang, Zhuqing
Yang, Fan
Gao, Ruochen
Liang, Chao
Tey, Meng Khoon
Li, Xiangliang
Pohl, Thomas
You, Li
contents The notion of spontaneous symmetry breaking has been well established to characterize classical and quantum phase transitions of matter, such as in condensation, crystallization or quantum magnetism. Generalizations of this paradigm to the time dimension can lead to a time crystal phase, which spontaneously breaks the time translation symmetry of the system. Whereas the existence of a continuous time crystal at equilibrium has been challenged by no-go theorems, this difficulty can be circumvented by dissipation in an open system. Here, we report the experimental observation of such dissipative time crystalline order in a room-temperature atomic gas, where ground-state atoms are continuously driven to Rydberg states. The emergent time crystal is revealed by persistent oscillations of the photon transmission, and we show that the observed limit cycles arise from the coexistence and competition between distinct Rydberg components. The nondecaying autocorrelation of the oscillation, together with the robustness against temporal noises, indicate the establishment of true long-range temporal order and demonstrates the realization of a continuous time crystal.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_20070
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dissipative time crystal in a strongly interacting Rydberg gas
Wu, Xiaoling
Wang, Zhuqing
Yang, Fan
Gao, Ruochen
Liang, Chao
Tey, Meng Khoon
Li, Xiangliang
Pohl, Thomas
You, Li
Quantum Gases
Atomic Physics
Quantum Physics
The notion of spontaneous symmetry breaking has been well established to characterize classical and quantum phase transitions of matter, such as in condensation, crystallization or quantum magnetism. Generalizations of this paradigm to the time dimension can lead to a time crystal phase, which spontaneously breaks the time translation symmetry of the system. Whereas the existence of a continuous time crystal at equilibrium has been challenged by no-go theorems, this difficulty can be circumvented by dissipation in an open system. Here, we report the experimental observation of such dissipative time crystalline order in a room-temperature atomic gas, where ground-state atoms are continuously driven to Rydberg states. The emergent time crystal is revealed by persistent oscillations of the photon transmission, and we show that the observed limit cycles arise from the coexistence and competition between distinct Rydberg components. The nondecaying autocorrelation of the oscillation, together with the robustness against temporal noises, indicate the establishment of true long-range temporal order and demonstrates the realization of a continuous time crystal.
title Dissipative time crystal in a strongly interacting Rydberg gas
topic Quantum Gases
Atomic Physics
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.20070