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arXiv:2404.18512 · Communications Physics

Floquet amorphous topological orders in a one-dimensional Rydberg glass

Peng He, J.M. Liu, Hong Wu, Z. D. Wang

Published Jun 6, 2025• 4 citations
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Abstract

The topological orders in amorphous systems that lack crystalline symmetry have gained considerable attention recently. Here we propose the Floquet amorphous topological matter, among which the topological orders are explored in experimentally accessible one-dimensional array of randomly pointed Rydberg atoms with periodic driving. The topological properties are comprehensively characterized, considering both the single-particle and many-body perspectives. It is found that the periodic driving leads to rich topological phases of matter. At the single-particle level, we evaluate the real space winding numbers and polarization, revealing robust amorphous topological phases with 0-type and π-type edge modes. We show a structural disorder induced topological phase transition associated with localization transition in the nonequilibrium system. Remarkably, in the many-body case it is discovered that the amorphous topological order exists in the chain of hardcore bosons, captured by the topological entanglement entropy and the string order. Moreover, feasible experimental probe protocols are also elaborated. The topological phase in amorphous systems that lack long-range order brings a fresh perspective to the topological states of matter. Here, the authors propose the concept of Floquet amorphous topological order and consider its realization with periodically-driven Rydberg atoms.

DOI
10.1038/s42005-025-02164-4

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The topological orders in amorphous systems that lack crystalline symmetry have gained considerable attention recently. Here we propose the Floquet amorphous topological matter, among which the topological orders are explored in experimentally accessible one-dimensional array of randomly pointed Rydberg atoms with periodic driving. The topological properties are comprehensively characterized, considering both the single-particle and many-body perspectives. It is found that the periodic driving leads to rich topological phases of matter. At the single-particle level, we evaluate the real space winding numbers and polarization, revealing robust amorphous topological phases with 0-type and π-type edge modes. We show a structural disorder induced topological phase transition associated with localization transition in the nonequilibrium system. Remarkably, in the many-body case it is discovered that the amorphous topological order exists in the chain of hardcore bosons, captured by the topological entanglement entropy and the string order. Moreover, feasible experimental probe protocols are also elaborated. The topological phase in amorphous systems that lack long-range order brings a fresh perspective to the topological states of matter. Here, the authors propose the concept of Floquet amorphous topological order and consider its realization with periodically-driven Rydberg atoms.
Recent theoretical studies predict that structural disorder, serving as a bridge connecting a crystalline material to an amorphous material, can induce a topological insulator from a trivial phase. However, to experimentally observe such a topological phase transition is very challenging due to the difficulty in controlling structural disorder in a quantum material. Given experimental realization of randomly positioned Rydberg atoms, such a system is naturally suited to studying structural disorder induced topological phase transitions and topological amorphous phases. Motivated by the development, we study topological phases in an experimentally accessible one-dimensional amorphous Rydberg atom chain with random atom configurations. In the single-particle level, we find symmetry-protected topological amorphous insulators and a structural disorder induced topological phase transition, indicating that Rydberg atoms provide an ideal platform to experimentally observe the phenomenon using state-of-the-art technologies. Furthermore, we predict the existence of a gapless symmetry-protected topological phase of interacting bosons in the experimentally accessible system. The resultant many-body topological amorphous phase is characterized by a Z_{2} invariant.
Recently, anomalous Floquet topological phases without static counterparts have been observed in different systems, where periodically driven models are realized to support a winding number of 1 and a pair of edge modes in each quasienergy gap. Here, we focus on cold atomic gases in optical lattices and propose a driving scheme that breaks rotation symmetry but maintains inversion symmetry of the instantaneous Hamiltonian, and discover a type of anomalous Floquet topological phase with a winding number larger than 1. By analyzing the condition of band touching under the constraint of symmetries, we map out the phase diagram exactly by varying the driving parameters and discuss the quasienergy spectra of typical topological phases, which can present multiple pairs of edge modes within a single gap. Finally, we suggest to characterize the topology of such phases by detecting the band inversion surfaces via quench dynamics.
The periodically driven quantum Ising chain has recently attracted a large attention in the context of Floquet engineering. In addition to the common paramagnet and ferromagnet, this driven model can give rise to new topological phases. In this work, we systematically explore its quantum phase diagram by examining the properties of its Floquet ground state. We specifically focus on driving protocols with time-reversal invariant points, and demonstrate the existence of an infinite number of distinct phases. These phases are separated by second-order quantum phase transitions, accompanied by continuous changes of local and string order parameters, as well as sudden changes of a topological winding number and of the number of protected edge states. When one of these phase transitions is adiabatically crossed, the correlator associated to the order parameter is nonvanishing over a length scale which shows a Kibble-Zurek scaling. In some phases, the Floquet ground state spontaneously breaks the discrete time-translation symmetry of the Hamiltonian. Our findings provide a better understanding of topological phases in periodically driven clean integrable models.
One of the most fascinating properties of topological phases of matter is their robustness to disorder and imperfections. Although several experimental techniques have been developed to probe the geometric properties of engineered topological Bloch bands with cold atoms, they almost exclusively rely on the translational invariance of the underlying lattice. This prevents direct studies of topology in the presence of disorder, further hindering an extension to disordered interacting topological phases. Here, we identify disorder-driven phase transitions between two distinct Floquet topological phases using the characteristic properties of topological edge modes with ultracold atoms in periodically-driven two-dimensional (2D) optical lattices. Our results constitute an important step towards studying the rich interplay between topology and disorder with cold atoms. Moreover, our measurements confirm that disorder indeed favors the anomalous Floquet topological regime over conventional Hall systems, indicating an enhanced robustness and paving the way towards observing exotic out-of-equilibrium phases such as the anomalous Floquet Anderson insulator.
Phases of matter are traditionally seen as families of static systems exhibiting the same long-distance and low-energy correlations. In this work, the authors propose and classify a new family of phases of matter. They are novel insofar as they are intrinsically driven and out of equilibrium --- they can only be realized in systems with time-dependent Hamiltonians. The phases we consider arise in 1D periodically driven systems, in the presence of strong disorder and interactions, and are similar to but qualitatively distinct from the symmetry-protected topological phases now well known in the equilibrium setting. In a companion paper, the authors examine similar intrinsically driven families of states with long-range order, and an order parameter that oscillates at a frequency that is robustly an integer multiple of the underlying drive frequency.
Abstract Topological phases of matter can appear in noninteracting systems, as in band topology, or interacting systems, such as in spin models, with their defining features typically robust against weak disorder. Intriguingly, disorder itself can also induce topological phases--exemplified by the Anderson topological insulator in noninteracting systems. Experimental studies on disorder-induced topology have so far been limited to band topology. Here we report direct observations of disorder-induced many-body interacting average topological order in an atom array at half-filling, whereby random offsets to tweezer locations forming a lattice implement structural disorder, causing fluctuating long-range dipolar interactions between tweezer confined single atoms. The ground state degeneracy in disordered configurations is detected and compared to the regular lattice. The induced topological phase is vindicated by the spatially resolved atom-atom correlation functions for different forms of dimer compositions. By probing the quench dynamics of a highly excited state, we observe markedly slower decay of edge spin magnetization in comparison to the bulk spin, consistent with the presence of topologically protected edge modes in disordered lattices. Our experiments open a new direction for studying the interplay between disorder and strongly interacting topological matter in Rydberg atom arrays.