English

Anomalous Mixed-State Floquet Topology in One-Dimensional Open Quantum Systems

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2026-05-08 v2 Statistical Mechanics Quantum Physics

Abstract

We investigate the non-equilibrium topology of a periodically driven, dissipative Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chain using the ensemble geometric phase (EGP) ϕEGP\phi_{\mathrm{EGP}}-a generalisation of the Zak phase to open quantum systems. In contrast to earlier work, we use Floquet-Born-Markov theory to describe the coupling to thermal reservoirs microscopically. We show that the steady state can be characterised by a Hermitian purity spectrum, providing a direct analogue of band topology for mixed states. The periodic drive induces nontrivial winding and a quasienergy spectrum with distinct 00 and π\pi band gaps, with protected edge modes in each gap. We identify a pair of topological invariants (ϕEGP0,ΔϕEGPπ)(\phi^{0}_{\mathrm{EGP}}, \Delta \phi^{\pi}_{\mathrm{EGP}}), revealing a structure consistent with a Z×Z\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z} classification known from isolated Floquet SSH systems, and show how it extends to a dissipative, finite-temperature setting in regimes where the steady-state structure remains well defined. Our results demonstrate when and how known Floquet topology survives in a driven-dissipative Gaussian steady state and establish Floquet topology as a robust concept beyond isolated zero-temperature systems. The underlying formalism provides a general framework for quadratic fermionic systems with linear bath couplings.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.25248,
  title  = {Anomalous Mixed-State Floquet Topology in One-Dimensional Open Quantum Systems},
  author = {Görkem D. Dinc and Alexander Schnell and Andy M. Martin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.25248},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

17 pages, 9 figures