IMSc Webinar

Evading Thermalization in Periodically Driven Quantum Matter

Sayan Choudhury, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh

In recent years, periodic driving has emerged as a powerful tool for
the coherent control of quantum many-body systems. Periodically driven
(Floquet) systems provide a versatile platform for realizing
non-equilibrium phases of matter, which may not have any equilibrium
analog. However, the driving can cause these systems to heat up,
presenting a major obstacle to these endeavors. In this talk, I will
present some of our investigations on this issue. In the first half of
the talk, I will discuss a scheme to stabilize a Floquet Bose-Einstein
condensate loaded in a one-dimensional optical lattice. I will
demonstrate that the heating rate of this system can be controlled by
suitably designing the transverse confinement. In the second half of
the talk, I will propose a route to realize a discrete time crystal. A
time crystal is a fascinating non-equilibrium phase of matter that
exhibits spontaneous time-translation-symmetry breaking. I will
demonstrate that a many-body echo protocol can be employed to evade
thermalization in a periodically driven Ising spin chain, leading to
the emergence of an eternal time crystal. I will conclude with a brief
overview of future research directions.

Google meet link:
meet.google.com/kyv-mrdd-ybp