IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v10y2019i1d10.1038_s41467-019-08596-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Observation of parity-time symmetry breaking transitions in a dissipative Floquet system of ultracold atoms

Author

Listed:
  • Jiaming Li

    (Sun Yat-sen University)

  • Andrew K. Harter

    (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI))

  • Ji Liu

    (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI))

  • Leonardo de Melo

    (Sun Yat-sen University
    Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI))

  • Yogesh N. Joglekar

    (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI))

  • Le Luo

    (Sun Yat-sen University
    Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI))

Abstract

Open physical systems with balanced loss and gain, described by non-Hermitian parity-time $$\left( {{\cal P}{\cal T}} \right)$$ P T reflection symmetric Hamiltonians, exhibit a transition which could engender modes that exponentially decay or grow with time, and thus spontaneously breaks the $${\cal P}{\cal T}$$ P T -symmetry. Such $${\cal P}{\cal T}$$ P T -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 $${\cal P}{\cal T}$$ P T -symmetry-breaking transitions by engineering time-periodic dissipation and coupling, which are realized through state-dependent atom loss in an optical dipole trap of ultracold 6Li atoms. Comparing with a single transition appearing for static dissipation, the time-periodic counterpart undergoes $${\cal P}{\cal T}$$ P T -symmetry breaking and restoring transitions at vanishingly small dissipation strength in both single and multiphoton transition domains, revealing rich phase structures associated to a Floquet open system. The results enable ultracold atoms to be a versatile tool for studying $${\cal P}{\cal T}$$ P T -symmetric quantum systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiaming Li & Andrew K. Harter & Ji Liu & Leonardo de Melo & Yogesh N. Joglekar & Le Luo, 2019. "Observation of parity-time symmetry breaking transitions in a dissipative Floquet system of ultracold atoms," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-7, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-08596-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08596-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08596-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-019-08596-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhou, Zheng & Shi, Yimin & Tang, Shiqing & Deng, Haiming & Wang, Haibin & He, Xiongying & Zhong, Honghua, 2021. "Controllable dissipative quantum droplets in one-dimensional optical lattices," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Weijie Liu & Quancheng Liu & Xiang Ni & Yuechen Jia & Klaus Ziegler & Andrea Alù & Feng Chen, 2024. "Floquet parity-time symmetry in integrated photonics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.
    3. Chenwei Lv & Ren Zhang & Zhengzheng Zhai & Qi Zhou, 2022. "Curving the space by non-Hermiticity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-6, December.
    4. Quan Lin & Tianyu Li & Lei Xiao & Kunkun Wang & Wei Yi & Peng Xue, 2022. "Observation of non-Hermitian topological Anderson insulator in quantum dynamics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-08596-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.