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arXiv:1804.07728 · SciPost Physics

Integrable Floquet QFT: Elasticity and factorization under periodic driving

Axel Cortes Cubero

Published Sep 21, 2018• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In (1+1)-dimensional quantum field theory, integrability is typically defined as the existence of an infinite number of local charges of different Lorentz spin, which commute with the Hamiltonian. A well known consequence of integrability is that scattering of particles is elastic and factorizable. These properties are the basis for the bootstrap program, which leads to the exact computation of S-matrices and form factors. We consider periodically-driven field theories, whose stroboscopic time-evolution is described by a Floquet Hamiltonian. It was recently proposed by Gritsev and Polkovnikov that it is possible for some form of integrability to be preserved even in driven systems. If a driving protocol exists such that the Floquet Hamiltonian is integrable (such that there is an infinite number of local and independent charges, a subset of which are parity-even, that commute with it), we show that there are strong conditions on the stroboscopic time evolution of particle trajectories, analogous to S-matrix elasticity and factorization. We propose a new set of axioms for the time evolution of particles which outline a new bootstrap program, which can be used to identify and classify integrable Floquet protocols. We present some simple examples of driving protocols where Floquet integrability is manifest; in particular, we also show that under certain conditions, some integrable protocols proposed by Gritsev and Polkovnikov are solutions of our new bootstrap equations.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphys.5.3.025

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In (1+1)-dimensional quantum field theory, integrability is typically defined as the existence of an infinite number of local charges of different Lorentz spin, which commute with the Hamiltonian. A well known consequence of integrability is that scattering of particles is elastic and factorizable. These properties are the basis for the bootstrap program, which leads to the exact computation of S-matrices and form factors. We consider periodically-driven field theories, whose stroboscopic time-evolution is described by a Floquet Hamiltonian. It was recently proposed by Gritsev and Polkovnikov that it is possible for some form of integrability to be preserved even in driven systems. If a driving protocol exists such that the Floquet Hamiltonian is integrable (such that there is an infinite number of local and independent charges, a subset of which are parity-even, that commute with it), we show that there are strong conditions on the stroboscopic time evolution of particle trajectories, analogous to S-matrix elasticity and factorization. We propose a new set of axioms for the time evolution of particles which outline a new bootstrap program, which can be used to identify and classify integrable Floquet protocols. We present some simple examples of driving protocols where Floquet integrability is manifest; in particular, we also show that under certain conditions, some integrable protocols proposed by Gritsev and Polkovnikov are solutions of our new bootstrap equations.
In (1+1)-dimensional quantum field theory, integrability is typically defined as the existence of an infinite number of local charges of different Lorentz spin, which commute with the Hamiltonian. A well known consequence of integrability is that scattering of particles is elastic and factorizable. These properties are the basis for the bootstrap program, which leads to the exact computation of S-matrices and form factors. We consider periodically-driven field theories, whose stroboscopic time-evolution is described by a Floquet Hamiltonian. It was recently proposed by Gritsev and Polkovnikov that it is possible for some form of integrability to be preserved even in driven systems. If a driving protocol exists such that the Floquet Hamiltonian is integrable (such that there is an infinite number of local and independent charges, a subset of which are parity-even, that commute with it), we show that there are strong conditions on the stroboscopic time evolution of particle trajectories, analogous to S-matrix elasticity and factorization. We propose a new set of axioms for the time evolution of particles which outline a new bootstrap program, which can be used to identify and classify integrable Floquet protocols. We present some simple examples of driving protocols where Floquet integrability is manifest; in particular, we also show that under certain conditions, some integrable protocols proposed by Gritsev and Polkovnikov are solutions of our new bootstrap equations.
We give a general overview of the high-frequency regime in periodically driven systems and identify three distinct classes of driving protocols in which the infinite-frequency Floquet Hamiltonian is not equal to the time-averaged Hamiltonian. These classes cover systems, such as the Kapitza pendulum, the Harper–Hofstadter model of neutral atoms in a magnetic field, the Haldane Floquet Chern insulator and others. In all setups considered, we discuss both the infinite-frequency limit and the leading finite-frequency corrections to the Floquet Hamiltonian. We provide a short overview of Floquet theory focusing on the gauge structure associated with the choice of stroboscopic frame and the differences between stroboscopic and non-stroboscopic dynamics. In the latter case, one has to work with dressed operators representing observables and a dressed density matrix. We also comment on the application of Floquet Theory to systems described by static Hamiltonians with well-separated energy scales and, in particular, discuss parallels between the inverse-frequency expansion and the Schrieffer–Wolff transformation extending the latter to driven systems.
Conformal field theories (CFT) play an important role in quantum field theories as they allow for exact studies that are hard to access without the conformal symmetries in place. A remarkable recent development is the application of conformal field theory to periodically driven systems, the so-called Floquet-driven CFTs. A number of recent works have found that there are classes of periodically driven (1+11+11+1)-dimensional CFTs that can be analytically solved, and that show both heating and nonheating phases, as well as unusual properties in terms of information scrambling. Hitherto, most results have focused on the dynamics of such models at stroboscopic times, i.e., samples taken at each period of the time evolution. In this paper, we consider time evolution at arbitrary real times and derive formulas for the exact time propagation of heating and nonheating classes of Floquet-driven CFTs. This requires a subtle treatment of nonstroboscopic time that leads to different interpretations in terms of curved space-time dynamics in these systems compared to previous results in the literature.
We study the fate of interacting quantum systems which are periodically driven by switching back and forth between two integrable Hamiltonians. This provides an unconventional and tunable way of breaking integrability, in the sense that the stroboscopic time evolution will generally be described by a Floquet Hamiltonian which progressively becomes less integrable as the driving frequency is reduced. Here, we exemplify this idea in spin chains subjected to periodic switching between two integrable anisotropic Heisenberg Hamiltonians. We distinguish the integrability-breaking effects of resonant interactions and perturbative (local) interactions, and illustrate these by contrasting different measures of energy in Floquet states and through a study of level spacing statistics. This scenario is argued to be representative for general driven interacting integrable systems.
We study driven and open quantum systems described by a time-periodic Lindblad master equation. In closed systems, the stroboscopic dynamics can always be described by an effective time-independent Floquet Hamiltonian; this idea is the basis of Floquet engineering. However, in the presence of dissipation, the existence of an effective time-independent Floquet Lindbladian is not guaranteed due to the non-unitary nature of the evolution. Using Floquet theory, we construct a well-defined time-independent Floquet Lindbladian in an extended Sambe-Liouville space, transforming the initial time-dependent problem to a static and non-Hermitian eigenvalue problem. For harmonic driving, we introduce a matrix continued fraction method to nonperturbatively resum multiphoton processes and construct an effective Floquet Lindbladian acting only on the physical Liouville space. Compared to other high-frequency expansions, this method has the advantage of providing the whole infinite series expansion at once. Using a resolvent formalism, we show how to obtain a spectral Floquet representation of correlation functions of an open quantum system. As an application, we consider a dissipating two-level system in a linearly polarized field and calculate its resonance fluorescence spectrum. Furthermore, we consider a parametrically driven quantum dot with pump and loss for which we calculate its spectral function and current-voltage characteristics.
Floquet insulators are periodically driven quantum systems that can host novel topological phases as a function of the drive parameters. These new phases exhibit features reminiscent of fermion doubling in discrete-time lattice fermion theories. We make this suggestion concrete by mapping the spectrum of a noninteracting (1+1)D Floquet insulator for certain drive parameters onto that of a discrete-time lattice fermion theory with a time-independent Hamiltonian. The resulting Hamiltonian is distinct from the Floquet Hamiltonian that generates stroboscopic dynamics. It can take the form of a discrete-time Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with half the number of spatial sites of the original model, or of a (1+1)D Wilson-Dirac theory with one quarter of the spatial sites.