Limit cycle phase in driven-dissipative spin systems

Abstract

We explore the phase diagram of interacting spin-$1/2$ systems in the presence of anisotropic interactions, spontaneous decay and driving. We find a rich phase diagram featuring a limit cycle phase in which the magnetization oscillates in time. We analyze the spatio-temporal fluctuations of this limit cycle phase at the Gaussian level, and show that spatial fluctuations lead to quasi-long-range limit cycle ordering for dimension $d=2$. This result can be interpreted in terms of a spatio-temporal Goldstone mode corresponding to phase fluctuations of the limit cycle. We also demonstrate that the limit-cycle phase exhibits an asymmetric power spectrum measurable in fluorescence experiments.

9 pages, 6 figures