Thermodynamics and Protection of Discrete-Time Crystals
arXiv:2503.15134 · doi:10.1103/hl8q-4wy9
Abstract
Discrete-Time Crystals (DTC) are a non-equilibrium phase of matter characterized by the breaking of time-translation symmetry in periodically driven quantum systems. In this work, we present a detailed thermodynamic analysis of a DTC in a one-dimensional spin-1/2 chain coupled to a thermal bath. We derive a master equation from the microscopic model, and we explore key thermodynamic quantities, such as work, heat, and entropy production. Our results reveal that the DTC signature inevitably decays in the presence of environmental noise, but we show that a periodic measurement scheme can mitigate the effects of decoherence, stabilizing the subharmonic oscillations of the DTC for extended periods. These findings provide insights into the robustness of time-crystalline phases and potential strategies for protecting them in experimental settings.
arXiv comment13 pages, 7 figures
References in corpus (31)
- Quantum Simulation
- Quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium
- Observation of a Discrete Time Crystal
- Observation of discrete time-crystalline order in a disordered dipolar many-body system
- Floquet Time Crystals
- On the phase structure of driven quantum systems
- Quantum Time Crystals
- Quantum trajectories and open many-body quantum systems
- Open Quantum Systems. An Introduction
- Discrete time crystals: rigidity, criticality, and realizations
- Time crystals: a review
- Quantum Zeno dynamics: mathematical and physical aspects
- Boundary time crystals
- Quantum Adiabatic Markovian Master Equations
- Observation of time quasicrystal and its transition to superfluid time crystal
- Observation of a continuous time crystal
- Colloquium: Quantum and Classical Discrete Time Crystals
- Influence of dephasing on many-body localization
- Many-body physics in the NISQ era: quantum programming a discrete time crystal
- A non-equilibrium superradiant phase transition in free space
- The fate of a discrete time crystal in an open system
- Continuous sensing and parameter estimation with the boundary time-crystal
- Quantum metrology with boundary time crystals
- Observation of a critical prethermal discrete time crystal created by two-frequency driving
- Floquet time-crystals as sensors of AC fields
- Quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects in quantum dissipative systems
- Thermodynamics of decoherence
- Quantum thermodynamics of boundary time-crystals
- Swapping Floquet time crystal
- Prolonging a discrete time crystal by quantum-classical feedback
- Zeno Dynamics for Open Quantum Systems