The emergence of equilibrium universality from intrinsically nonequilibrium dynamics is a fundamental open problem. Bose-Hubbard lattices realized in photonic and circuit-QED platforms provide a versatile setting to engineer nonlinear interactions, dissipation, and multiphoton processes. Here we investigate a Bose-Hubbard lattice subject to three-photon parametric driving, whose nonequilibrium steady state spontaneously breaks a
Z3 symmetry and realizes the criticality of the three-state Potts model, a three-state generalization of the Ising model. Using a variational phase-space approach with systematically controllable accuracy based on a Variational Multi-Gaussian ansatz, we perform finite-size scaling analyses in one and two spatial dimensions. We find that, in two-dimensional lattices with single-photon losses, the nonequilibrium steady-state transition belongs to the universality class of the 2D classical three-state Potts model. In contrast, in one-dimensional lattices with three-photon losses, the transition is governed by the one-dimensional quantum three-state Potts universality class. These results establish driven-dissipative bosonic lattices as a platform for emergent Potts criticality and identify multiphoton dissipation as a mechanism that promotes nonequilibrium critical behavior from classical to quantum universality classes.
Abstract We propose a scheme to investigate the topological phase transition in the generalized one-dimensional Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (SSH) model based on a circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) lattice with frequency modulation. We find that, if we keep the resonant counter rotating wave terms to map the p -wave superconducting pairing terms in the topological superconductor by dint of frequency modulation, the circuit QED lattice can be equivalent to the SSH model with p -wave superconducting pairing terms. The numerical results show that the existence of the superconducting pairing terms cannot close the energy gap of the SSH model within the feasible range of parameters, which means that the superconducting pairing terms cannot induce the topological phase transition. To induce the topological phase transition, we add the next-nearest-neighboring (NNN) interaction into the circuit QED-based SSH model simultaneously. We find that, for a given superconducting pairing strength, the appropriate selection of the NNN interaction can induce closing of the energy gap. It indicates that a new topological phase transition between the topologically nontrivial SSH phase and the topologically trivial SSH phase occurs in the SSH model. Our scheme provides a means to explore the topological SSH phase transition based on a circuit QED lattice with frequency modulation.