English

Driving-Induced Symmetry Breaking in the Spin-Boson System

Statistical Mechanics 2009-10-31 v1

Abstract

A symmetric dissipative two-state system is asymptotically completely delocalized independent of the initial state. We show that driving-induced localization at long times can take place when both the bias and tunneling coupling energy are harmonically modulated. Dynamical symmetry breaking on average occurs when the driving frequencies are odd multiples of some reference frequency. This effect is universal, as it is independent of the dissipative mechanism. Possible candidates for an experimental observation are flux tunneling in the variable barrier rf SQUID and magnetization tunneling in magnetic molecular clusters.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9906062,
  title  = {Driving-Induced Symmetry Breaking in the Spin-Boson System},
  author = {Holger Adam and Manfred Winterstetter and Milena Grifoni and Ulrich Weiss},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9906062},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in PRL