We study a dynamical phase transition in optical bistable systems subject to a time-periodic driving field. The phase transition occurs in the structure of a limit cycle as a function of the frequency of the driving field. In the thermodynamic limit, a single limit cycle is divided into two separated limit cycles at the transition point. In finite-size systems, however, there is always a single limit cycle due to the quantum tunneling effect. We use a Floquet dissipative map, which is a time-evolution operator over one period in dynamics given by a quantum master equation, and discuss the decay rate of relaxation dynamics into the limit cycle based on the dominant eigenvalue of the map. We found that the decay rate exhibits qualitatively different system-size dependence before and after the phase transition and it shows a finite-size scaling of spinodal phenomena around the transition point. The present paper provides a systematic way of studying a dynamical phase transition observed in time-periodically driven open systems in terms of the Floquet dissipative map.
We study a dynamical phase transition in optical bistable systems subject to a time-periodic driving field. The phase transition occurs in the structure of a limit cycle as a function of the frequency of the driving field. In the thermodynamic limit, a single limit cycle is divided into two separated limit cycles at the transition point. In finite-size systems, however, there is always a single limit cycle due to the quantum tunneling effect. We use a Floquet dissipative map, which is a time-evolution operator over one period in dynamics given by a quantum master equation, and discuss the decay rate of relaxation dynamics into the limit cycle based on the dominant eigenvalue of the map. We found that the decay rate exhibits qualitatively different system-size dependence before and after the phase transition and it shows a finite-size scaling of spinodal phenomena around the transition point. The present paper provides a systematic way of studying a dynamical phase transition observed in time-periodically driven open systems in terms of the Floquet dissipative map.
Time-periodic quantum systems are present all over science and technology. They have been successfully studied using Floquet theory, and a broad diversity of interesting phenomena such as coherent destruction of tunnelling, dynamical localization and creation of new phases of matter have been discovered. Furthermore, periodic driving has also been introduced as a tool for engineering novel quantum systems that have no static analogue. Besides these remarkable achievements for isolated systems, in reality, systems always interact with their surroundings. Taking the effect of the environment into account, time-periodic quantum systems have been mainly described using the Floquet-Markov approach, which consists in deriving a weak coupling master equation in the Floquet basis. In this thesis, we focus on how to overcome these standard approximations in the description of driven open quantum systems. We start by providing a general review on the topics of isolated driven systems, open quantum systems and the Floquet-Markov approach, before presenting the main results of this work. Under the effect of high-frequency driving, we provide an analytic solution to a large class of open quantum systems. Our method relies on discrete symmetries of the system-bath Hamiltonian and grants access to the time evolution operator of the full system, including bath degrees of freedom. The solution can be interpreted as the stroboscopic evolution of a family of observables under the influence of an effective static Hamiltonian. This provides a flexible simulation procedure of nontrivial Hamiltonians. The results are exemplified with the driven spin-boson model, where a coherent control of dissipation is observed. By a novel combination of Floquet theory, full counting statistics and a Markovian embedding strategy (reaction coordinate mapping), more intricate scenarios with additional driven system-environment interactions are addressed. Hereby, we can access the dynamics and thermodynamics of a periodically driven thermal machine. For the particular case where the working medium is a two-level system, we identify four different operating regimes, including a heat engine and a refrigerator. As the coupling strength is increased, their efficiency and coefficient of performance decrease and the refrigerator regime disappears. Notably, our model reproduces the setup of laser cooling of trapped ions in a specific parameter limit. Following the same combination of methods, we investigate electron pumping through a single quantum dot with periodically modulated energy and tunnelling amplitudes. In the high-frequency regime, the direction of the current can be controlled with the driving phase and a rectification effect that is exclusive to the non-Markovian character of the model is observed. In the low-frequency regime, we apply an additional transformation to view the model as three independent transport channels and observe that the coupling strength also controls the current direction. Studying charge fluctuations we validate that our model behaves as a single-electron source.
We study the time-dependent circuit complexity of the periodically driven transverse field Ising model using Nielsen's geometric approach. In the high-frequency driving limit the system is known to exhibit nonequilibrium phase transitions governed by the amplitude of the driving field. We analytically compute the complexity in this regime and show that it clearly distinguishes between the different phases, exhibiting a universal linear behavior at early times. We also evaluate the time-averaged complexity, provide evidence of nonanalytic behavior at the critical points, and discuss its origin. Finally, we comment on the freezing of quantum dynamics at specific configurations and on the use of complexity as a tool to understand quantum phase transitions in Floquet systems.
Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians provide a simple picture for inspecting dissipative systems with natural or induced gain and loss. We investigate the Floquet dynamical phase transition in the dissipative periodically time-driven XY and extended XY models, where the imaginary terms represent the physical gain and loss during the interacting processes with the environment. The time-independent effective Floquet non-Hermitian Hamiltonians disclose three regions by analyzing the non-Hermitian gap: pure real gap (real eigenvalues), pure imaginary gap, and complex gap. We show that each region of the system can be distinguished by the complex geometrical nonadiabatic phase. We have discovered that in the presence of dissipation, the Floquet dynamical phase transitions (FDPTs) still exist in the region where the time-independent effective Floquet non-Hermitian Hamiltonians reveal real eigenvalues. Opposed to expectations based on earlier works on quenched systems, our findings show that the existence of the non-Hermitian topological phase is not an essential condition for dissipative FDPTs (DFDPTs). We also demonstrate the range of driven frequency, over which the DFDPTs occur, narrows down by increasing the dissipation coupling and shrinks to a single point at the critical value of dissipation. Moreover, quantization and jumps of the dynamical geometric phase reveals the topological characteristic feature of DFDPTs in the real gap region where confined to exceptional points.
The dynamics of open quantum systems is commonly described by quantum master equations derived under the assumption of weak system-bath coupling and a separation of timescales between system and bath. When the system is additionally subjected to a periodic driving, the validity of the resulting Floquet master equations is further restricted to regimes of weak or high-frequency driving. Here, we benchmark a set of commonly used Floquet master equations for a model of two locally driven spins coupled to a shared Ohmic reservoir at finite temperature. We systematically probe the accuracy of the equations as a function of the driving parameters, thus identifying limits of their applicability. Dynamical maps predicted by each master equation are compared against numerically exact non-Markovian simulations, tracking the full relaxation dynamics. We find that the accuracy of each master equation closely reflects the assumptions underlying its derivation. For the Floquet-Lindblad equation, errors can be strongly amplified near resonances where the secular approximation breaks down, while approaches that avoid the secular approximation perform better and exhibit a more systematic dependence of the error on driving frequency and amplitude.
Stimulated by the recent progress in engineering topological band structures in cold atomic gases, we study the dynamic topological phenomena for atoms loaded in a periodically driven optical lattice. When the frequency of the periodic modulation is low, the time-dependent Hamiltonian can be mapped to a two-dimensional topological insulator, with the discretized frequency components playing the role of an additional, synthetic dimension. In the high-frequency limit, we derive the effective Floquet Hamiltonian of the system, and reveal the occurrence of Floquet dynamic quantum phase transitions---an emergent topological phenomenon in the micromotion of the Floquet dynamics. Addressing the relation between the topology of the effective Floquet Hamiltonian and the presence of dynamic topological phenomena, we demonstrate that the topologically nontrivial nature of the Floquet Hamiltonian is a sufficient but not necessary condition for the onset of the Floquet dynamic quantum phase transition. We further discuss the relation of the topology of the Floquet Hamiltonian with the existence of dynamic skyrmion structures in the emergent momentum-time manifold of the micromotion, as well as the fate of these dynamic topological phenomena when the modulation frequency decreases away from the high-frequency limit. Finally, making use of the rich level structures of 171Yb atoms, we show that the system under study can be implemented in a one-dimensional Raman lattice where states in the 1S0 ground-state manifold are coupled by Raman beams with periodically modulated amplitudes.
The stroboscopic evolution of a time-periodically driven isolated quantum system can always be described by an effective time-independent Hamiltonian. Whether this concept can be generalized to open Floquet systems, described by a Markovian Lindblad master equation with a time-periodic generator (Lindbladian), remains an open question. By using a two-level system as a model, we explicitly show the existence of two well-defined parameter regions. In one region the stroboscopic evolution can be described by a Markovian master equation with a time-independent Floquet Lindbladian. In the other it cannot; but here the one-cycle evolution operator can be reproduced with an effective non-Markovian master equation that is homogeneous but nonlocal in time. Interestingly, we find that the boundary between the phases depends on when during the period the evolution is stroboscopically monitored. This reveals the nontrivial role played by the micromotion in the dynamics of open Floquet systems.