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Main Author: Arumugam, Darmindra
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.16210
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author Arumugam, Darmindra
author_facet Arumugam, Darmindra
contents Non-equilibrium Rydberg gases exhibit exotic many-body phases stabilized by the interplay of coherent interactions and dissipation. Strong Rydberg interactions drive sustained limit cycle oscillations, whose robustness, long-range temporal order, and spontaneous time-translation symmetry breaking establish a dissipative time crystal (DTC). Collective self-entrainment in driven ensembles leads to global synchronization and a dominant oscillation frequency. Here, injection locking of a Rydberg DTC is demonstrated using a radio-frequency (RF) electric field that gradually pulls the intrinsic oscillation toward the injected frequency. Above a critical threshold, full synchronization occurs, with the locking bandwidth scaling linearly with RF amplitude. This includes synchronization of higher-order harmonics, revealing entrainment of the system nonlinear temporal dynamics. The phenomenon parallels injection locking in classical nonlinear systems, but emerges here in a strongly interacting quantum medium. This approach establishes a new method for stabilizing and controlling quantum temporal order, with applications in precision sensing, quantum metrology, and timekeeping.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_16210
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Injection locking of Rydberg dissipative time crystals
Arumugam, Darmindra
Quantum Physics
Non-equilibrium Rydberg gases exhibit exotic many-body phases stabilized by the interplay of coherent interactions and dissipation. Strong Rydberg interactions drive sustained limit cycle oscillations, whose robustness, long-range temporal order, and spontaneous time-translation symmetry breaking establish a dissipative time crystal (DTC). Collective self-entrainment in driven ensembles leads to global synchronization and a dominant oscillation frequency. Here, injection locking of a Rydberg DTC is demonstrated using a radio-frequency (RF) electric field that gradually pulls the intrinsic oscillation toward the injected frequency. Above a critical threshold, full synchronization occurs, with the locking bandwidth scaling linearly with RF amplitude. This includes synchronization of higher-order harmonics, revealing entrainment of the system nonlinear temporal dynamics. The phenomenon parallels injection locking in classical nonlinear systems, but emerges here in a strongly interacting quantum medium. This approach establishes a new method for stabilizing and controlling quantum temporal order, with applications in precision sensing, quantum metrology, and timekeeping.
title Injection locking of Rydberg dissipative time crystals
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.16210