Discrete time crystal and perfect many-body tunneling in a periodically driven Heisenberg spin chain

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Autori principali: Chen, Xiaotong, Wu, Jianda
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Chen, Xiaotong
Wu, Jianda
author_facet Chen, Xiaotong
Wu, Jianda
contents We investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of a Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain driven by a periodic magnetic field. Based on its instantaneous integrability and inherent symmetry, we analytically study the magnetization and many-body tunneling (MBT). Both of them exhibit periodicity distinct from the driving period. The magnetization is shown to be independent of the initial state and robust against perturbations, signaling the formation of discrete time crystal (DTC) order. The DTC phase is found to be continuously tunable through magnetic field. The system exhibits perfect MBT, manifested as exactly vanishing Loschmidt echo (LE) thus divergent LE rate function at half period of the DTC. Remarkably, the perfect MBT is independent of the system size, and can be traced to an effective gap closure induced by quantum geometric effects. Furthermore, the Loschmidt echo spectra entropy shows logarithmic-dependence on system size, consistent with non-thermal nature of the DTC phase. We propose a protocol using ultracold atoms for experimental realization of the DTC and MBT.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_15565
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Discrete time crystal and perfect many-body tunneling in a periodically driven Heisenberg spin chain
Chen, Xiaotong
Wu, Jianda
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Gases
We investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of a Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain driven by a periodic magnetic field. Based on its instantaneous integrability and inherent symmetry, we analytically study the magnetization and many-body tunneling (MBT). Both of them exhibit periodicity distinct from the driving period. The magnetization is shown to be independent of the initial state and robust against perturbations, signaling the formation of discrete time crystal (DTC) order. The DTC phase is found to be continuously tunable through magnetic field. The system exhibits perfect MBT, manifested as exactly vanishing Loschmidt echo (LE) thus divergent LE rate function at half period of the DTC. Remarkably, the perfect MBT is independent of the system size, and can be traced to an effective gap closure induced by quantum geometric effects. Furthermore, the Loschmidt echo spectra entropy shows logarithmic-dependence on system size, consistent with non-thermal nature of the DTC phase. We propose a protocol using ultracold atoms for experimental realization of the DTC and MBT.
title Discrete time crystal and perfect many-body tunneling in a periodically driven Heisenberg spin chain
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Gases
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.15565