Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Li, Haowei, Yi, Wei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.16592
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915765165228032
author Li, Haowei
Yi, Wei
author_facet Li, Haowei
Yi, Wei
contents Time crystals are a peculiar state of matter. Their emergence hinges on ergodicity breaking, which typically originates from many-body localization or Floquet prethermalization. Here we propose a novel scheme for devising robust dissipative time crystals where the ergodicity is broken through symmetry-induced fragmentation. Building upon a U(1)-symmetry-induced Liouville-space fragmentation, we first propose a generic Liouvillian with long-time oscillations typical of time crystals. We then show that, even when the U(1) symmetry is broken, a prethermal time-crystal behavior survives, with distinct oscillation frequencies at different times of the steady-state approaching dynamics. Intriguingly, the stage-wise prethermal dynamics derive from Fermi statistics and the Liouvillian skin effect of our model -- as the excitations above the boundary-localized dark states can be mapped to the irreducible representations of the permutation group, the branching rules of the permutation group ensure the robustness of the prethermal time crystal. Our work paves the way for devising time crystals through Hilbert-space fragmentation. It also sheds light on the dynamic effects of non-Hermitian physics in many-body quantum open systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_16592
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Symmetry-induced fragmentation and dissipative time crystal
Li, Haowei
Yi, Wei
Quantum Physics
Quantum Gases
Statistical Mechanics
Time crystals are a peculiar state of matter. Their emergence hinges on ergodicity breaking, which typically originates from many-body localization or Floquet prethermalization. Here we propose a novel scheme for devising robust dissipative time crystals where the ergodicity is broken through symmetry-induced fragmentation. Building upon a U(1)-symmetry-induced Liouville-space fragmentation, we first propose a generic Liouvillian with long-time oscillations typical of time crystals. We then show that, even when the U(1) symmetry is broken, a prethermal time-crystal behavior survives, with distinct oscillation frequencies at different times of the steady-state approaching dynamics. Intriguingly, the stage-wise prethermal dynamics derive from Fermi statistics and the Liouvillian skin effect of our model -- as the excitations above the boundary-localized dark states can be mapped to the irreducible representations of the permutation group, the branching rules of the permutation group ensure the robustness of the prethermal time crystal. Our work paves the way for devising time crystals through Hilbert-space fragmentation. It also sheds light on the dynamic effects of non-Hermitian physics in many-body quantum open systems.
title Symmetry-induced fragmentation and dissipative time crystal
topic Quantum Physics
Quantum Gases
Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.16592