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arXiv:1911.08366 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Relaxation dynamics and dissipative phase transition in quantum oscillators with period tripling

Jennifer Gosner, Björn Kubala, Joachim Ankerhold

Published Feb 4, 2020• 18 citations

Abstract

Period tripling in driven quantum oscillators reveals unique features absent for linear and parametric drive, but generic for all higher-order resonances. Here we focus at zero temperature on the relaxation dynamics towards a stationary state starting initially from a domain around a classical fixed point in phase space. Beyond a certain threshold for the driving strength, the long-time dynamics is governed by a single time constant that sets the rate for switching between different states with broken time translation symmetry. By analyzing the lowest eigenvalues of the corresponding time evolution generator for the dissipative dynamics, we find that near the threshold the gap between these eigenvalues nearly closes. The closing becomes complete for a vanishing quantum parameter. We demonstrate that this behavior, reminiscent of a quantum phase transition, is associated with a transition from a stationary state which is localized in phase space to a delocalized one. We further show that switching between domains of classical fixed points happens via quantum activation, however, with rates that differ from those obtained by a standard semiclassical treatment. As period tripling has been explored with superconducting circuits mainly in the quasiclassical regime recently, our findings may trigger new activities towards the deep quantum realm.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.101.054501

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Period tripling in driven quantum oscillators reveals unique features absent for linear and parametric drive, but generic for all higher-order resonances. Here we focus at zero temperature on the relaxation dynamics towards a stationary state starting initially from a domain around a classical fixed point in phase space. Beyond a certain threshold for the driving strength, the long-time dynamics is governed by a single time constant that sets the rate for switching between different states with broken time translation symmetry. By analyzing the lowest eigenvalues of the corresponding time evolution generator for the dissipative dynamics, we find that near the threshold the gap between these eigenvalues nearly closes. The closing becomes complete for a vanishing quantum parameter. We demonstrate that this behavior, reminiscent of a quantum phase transition, is associated with a transition from a stationary state which is localized in phase space to a delocalized one. We further show that switching between domains of classical fixed points happens via quantum activation, however, with rates that differ from those obtained by a standard semiclassical treatment. As period tripling has been explored with superconducting circuits mainly in the quasiclassical regime recently, our findings may trigger new activities towards the deep quantum realm.

We study parametrically driven quantum oscillators and show that, even for weak coupling between the oscillators, they can exhibit various many-body states with broken time-translation symmetry. In the quantum-coherent regime, the symmetry breaking occurs via a nonequilibrium quantum phase transition. For dissipative oscillators, the main effect of the weak coupling is to make the switching rate of an oscillator between its period-2 states dependent on the states of other oscillators. This allows mapping the oscillators onto a system of coupled spins. For identical oscillators, the stationary state can be mapped on that of the Ising model with an effective temperature $\ensuremath{\propto}\ensuremath{\hbar}$, for low temperature. If the oscillators are different and are away from the bifurcation parameter values where the period-2 states emerge, the stationary state corresponds to having a microscopic current in the spin system. Close to the bifurcation point the coupling cannot be considered weak and the system maps onto coupled overdamped Brownian particles performing quantum diffusion in a potential landscape.

We study the breaking of the discrete time-translation symmetry in small periodically driven quantum systems. These systems are intermediate between large closed systems and small dissipative systems, which both display such symmetry breaking but have qualitatively different dynamics. As a nontrivial example, strongly different from the familiar case of parametric resonance, we consider period tripling in a quantum nonlinear oscillator. We develop theoretical methods of the analysis of period tripling, including the theory of multiple-state resonant tunneling in phase space with the account taken of the involved geometric phase. For moderately strong driving, the period tripling persists for a time, which is exponentially long compared with all dynamical times. This time is further extended by an even weak decoherence.

We study switching between period-two states of an underdamped quantum oscillator modulated at nearly twice its natural frequency. For all temperatures and parameter values switching occurs via quantum activation: it is determined by diffusion over oscillator quasienergy, provided the relaxation rate exceeds the rate of interstate tunneling. The diffusion has quantum origin and accompanies relaxation to the stable state. We find the semiclassical distribution over quasienergy. For

T=0

, where the system has detailed balance, this distribution differs from the distribution for $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$; the

T=0

distribution is also destroyed by small dephasing of the oscillator. The characteristic quantum activation energy of switching displays a typical dependence on temperature and scaling behavior near the bifurcation point where period doubling occurs.

Parametrically driven Kerr nonlinear quantum oscillator plays a central role in quantum optics, superconducting circuits, and in engineered light-matter interactions. For the development of future quantum technologies, it is crucial to understand the behavior of this quantum system under realistic dissipative conditions. The objective of this thesis is to investigate the phase-space dynamics of a dissipative Kerr nonlinear oscillator under different driving regimes and corresponding dissipation channels, with a particular focus on the emergence of nonclassical features in phase space. The aim is also to understand how nonlinearity and different driving mechanisms influence quantum properties such as coherence, nonclassicality, and phase-space structure. The analysis was carried out using the Wigner phase-space formalism and numerical simulations of the Lindblad master equation. The results show that in the case of finite nonlinearity the coherence time is prolonged compared to the harmonic case. In the single photon regime, the interplay between the photon drive and nonlinearity can lead to coherence revivals after which the system relaxes into a squeezed steady state. In the two photon and dissipation regime, the system exhibits parity-protected dynamics, leading to very long coherence times.

We follow the passage from complex amplitude bistability to phase bistability in the driven dissipative Jaynes-Cummings oscillator. Quasi -distribution functions in the steady state are employed, for varying qubit-cavity detuning and drive parameters, in order to track a first-order dissipative quantum phase transition up to the critical point marking a second-order transition and spontaneous symmetry breaking. We demonstrate the photon blockade breakdown in the dispersive regime, and find that the coexistence of cavity states in the regime of quantum bistability is accompanied by pronounced qubit-cavity entanglement. Focusing on the effect of quantum-activated switching for both coupled degrees of freedom, we move from a region of minimal entanglement in the dispersive regime, where we derive analytical perturbative results, to the threshold behaviour of spontaneous dressed-state polarization at resonance.

Discrete time-translation symmetry breaking can be observed in periodically driven systems oscillating at a fraction of the frequency of the driving force. However, with the exception of the parametric instability in period doubling, multiperiodic driving does not lead to an instability threshold. In this Letter, we point out that quantum vacuum fluctuations can be generically employed to induce period multiplication. In particular, we discuss the period-tripled states in circuit QED and propose a microwave setup. We show that for weak dissipation or strong driving, the system exhibits a nonequilibrium phase transition in the sense that the timescale over which the period-tripled state is generated can be arbitrarily separated from the timescale of the subsequent dephasing.