2017/08/31 by F. Iemini, A. Russomanno, J. Keeling +3 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.other #cond-mat.stat-mech #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.121.035301
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 035301 (2018) · 6 + 9 pages, 4 + 7 figures
arxiv created 2018/06/26 · arxiv updated 2018/07/23
In this work we introduce \it boundary time-crystals. Here \it continuous time-translation symmetry breaking occurs only in a macroscopic fraction of a many-body quantum system. After introducing their definition and properties, we analyse in detail a solvable model where an accurate scaling analysis can be performed. The existence of the boundary time crystals is intimately connected to the emergence of a time-periodic steady state in the thermodynamic limit of a many-body open quantum system. We also discuss connections to quantum synchronisation.