English

Time periodicity from randomness in quantum systems

Quantum Physics 2022-08-31 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

Many complex systems can spontaneously oscillate under non-periodic forcing. Such self-oscillators are commonplace in biological and technological assemblies where temporal periodicity is needed, such as the beating of a human heart or the vibration of a cello string. While self-oscillation is well understood in classical non-linear systems and their quantized counterparts, the spontaneous emergence of periodicity in quantum systems without a semi-classical limit is more elusive. Here, we show that this behavior can emerge within the repeated-interaction description of open quantum systems. Specifically, we consider a many-body quantum system that undergoes dissipation due to sequential coupling with auxiliary systems at random times. We develop dynamical symmetry conditions that guarantee an oscillatory long-time state in this setting. Our rigorous results are illustrated with specific spin models, which could be implemented in trapped-ion quantum simulators.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2104.13402,
  title  = {Time periodicity from randomness in quantum systems},
  author = {Giacomo Guarnieri and Mark T. Mitchison and Archak Purkayastha and Dieter Jaksch and Berislav Buča and John Goold},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.13402},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

5+5 pages; 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-24T01:34:35.758Z