IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-021-22583-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Higher-order and fractional discrete time crystals in clean long-range interacting systems

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Pizzi

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Johannes Knolle

    (Technische Universität München
    Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)
    Imperial College London)

  • Andreas Nunnenkamp

    (University of Nottingham)

Abstract

Discrete time crystals are periodically driven systems characterized by a response with periodicity nT, with T the period of the drive and n > 1. Typically, n is an integer and bounded from above by the dimension of the local (or single particle) Hilbert space, the most prominent example being spin-1/2 systems with n restricted to 2. Here, we show that a clean spin-1/2 system in the presence of long-range interactions and transverse field can sustain a huge variety of different ‘higher-order’ discrete time crystals with integer and, surprisingly, even fractional n > 2. We characterize these (arguably prethermal) non-equilibrium phases of matter thoroughly using a combination of exact diagonalization, semiclassical methods, and spin-wave approximations, which enable us to establish their stability in the presence of competing long- and short-range interactions. Remarkably, these phases emerge in a model with continous driving and time-independent interactions, convenient for experimental implementations with ultracold atoms or trapped ions.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Pizzi & Johannes Knolle & Andreas Nunnenkamp, 2021. "Higher-order and fractional discrete time crystals in clean long-range interacting systems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-7, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-22583-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22583-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22583-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-22583-5?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. Bang Liu & Li-Hua Zhang & Qi-Feng Wang & Yu Ma & Tian-Yu Han & Jun Zhang & Zheng-Yuan Zhang & Shi-Yao Shao & Qing Li & Han-Chao Chen & Bao-Sen Shi & Dong-Sheng Ding, 2024. "Higher-order and fractional discrete time crystals in Floquet-driven Rydberg atoms," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Hossein Taheri & Andrey B. Matsko & Lute Maleki & Krzysztof Sacha, 2022. "All-optical dissipative discrete time crystals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, 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:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-22583-5. 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.