Formation of cascading discrete time crystals with ultracold atoms
We study discrete time crystal (DTC) formation in a system driven periodically by an oscillating atomic mirror, consisting of two distinct ultracold atomic clouds in the presence of a gravitational field. The intra-species interactions are weak and attractive, while the inter-species interactions ar...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | New Journal of Physics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ade469 |
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| author | Weronika Golletz Krzysztof Sacha |
| author_facet | Weronika Golletz Krzysztof Sacha |
| author_sort | Weronika Golletz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We study discrete time crystal (DTC) formation in a system driven periodically by an oscillating atomic mirror, consisting of two distinct ultracold atomic clouds in the presence of a gravitational field. The intra-species interactions are weak and attractive, while the inter-species interactions are infinitely strong and repulsive. The clouds are arranged in a one-dimensional stack, where the bottom cloud bounces on an oscillating atomic mirror, which effectively acts as a driving force for the upper cloud due to the infinite inter-species repulsion. Using a Jastrow-like variational ansatz for the many-body wavefunction, we show numerically that sufficiently strong attractive intra-species interactions drive each subsystem to spontaneously break discrete time translation symmetry, resulting in the formation of a cascading DTC evolving with a period different than the driving period. Since the bottom cloud serves as the effective periodic driving for the upper cloud, this leads to a cascade of spontaneous symmetry breaking. With increasing intra-species interactions, we first observe a pronounced effect of spontaneous time translation symmetry breaking in the upper cloud, followed by a similar effect in the lower atomic cloud. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-76af0542d02c4826ab04a8ea1db6f63a |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1367-2630 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | New Journal of Physics |
| spelling | doaj-art-76af0542d02c4826ab04a8ea1db6f63a2025-08-20T02:10:23ZengIOP PublishingNew Journal of Physics1367-26302025-01-0127606320210.1088/1367-2630/ade469Formation of cascading discrete time crystals with ultracold atomsWeronika Golletz0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8639-0227Krzysztof Sacha1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6463-0659Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Jagiellonian University , Lojasiewicza 11, PL-30-348 Krakow, Poland; Doctoral School of Exact and Natural Sciences, Jagiellonian University , Lojasiewicza 11, PL-30-348 Krakow, PolandFaculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Jagiellonian University , Lojasiewicza 11, PL-30-348 Krakow, PolandWe study discrete time crystal (DTC) formation in a system driven periodically by an oscillating atomic mirror, consisting of two distinct ultracold atomic clouds in the presence of a gravitational field. The intra-species interactions are weak and attractive, while the inter-species interactions are infinitely strong and repulsive. The clouds are arranged in a one-dimensional stack, where the bottom cloud bounces on an oscillating atomic mirror, which effectively acts as a driving force for the upper cloud due to the infinite inter-species repulsion. Using a Jastrow-like variational ansatz for the many-body wavefunction, we show numerically that sufficiently strong attractive intra-species interactions drive each subsystem to spontaneously break discrete time translation symmetry, resulting in the formation of a cascading DTC evolving with a period different than the driving period. Since the bottom cloud serves as the effective periodic driving for the upper cloud, this leads to a cascade of spontaneous symmetry breaking. With increasing intra-species interactions, we first observe a pronounced effect of spontaneous time translation symmetry breaking in the upper cloud, followed by a similar effect in the lower atomic cloud.https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ade469discrete time crystalsultracold atomsperiodically driven systemsJastrow ansatz |
| spellingShingle | Weronika Golletz Krzysztof Sacha Formation of cascading discrete time crystals with ultracold atoms New Journal of Physics discrete time crystals ultracold atoms periodically driven systems Jastrow ansatz |
| title | Formation of cascading discrete time crystals with ultracold atoms |
| title_full | Formation of cascading discrete time crystals with ultracold atoms |
| title_fullStr | Formation of cascading discrete time crystals with ultracold atoms |
| title_full_unstemmed | Formation of cascading discrete time crystals with ultracold atoms |
| title_short | Formation of cascading discrete time crystals with ultracold atoms |
| title_sort | formation of cascading discrete time crystals with ultracold atoms |
| topic | discrete time crystals ultracold atoms periodically driven systems Jastrow ansatz |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ade469 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT weronikagolletz formationofcascadingdiscretetimecrystalswithultracoldatoms AT krzysztofsacha formationofcascadingdiscretetimecrystalswithultracoldatoms |