Floquet Engineering Topological Many-Body Localized Systems

Physical Review Letters, vol. 124, pp. 190601

Abstract

We show how second-order Floquet engineering can be employed to realize systems in which many-body localization coexists with topological properties in a driven system. This allows one to implement and dynamically control a symmetry protected topologically ordered qubit even at high energies, overcoming the roadblock that the respective states cannot be prepared as ground states of nearest-neighbor Hamiltonians. Floquet engineering-the idea that a periodically driven nonequilibrium system can effectively emulate the physics of a different Hamiltonian-is exploited to approximate an effective three-body interaction among spins in one dimension, using time-dependent two-body interactions only. In the effective system, emulated topology and disorder coexist, which provides an intriguing insight into the interplay of many-body localization that defies our standard understanding of thermodynamics and into the topological phases of matter, which are of fundamental and technological importance. We demonstrate explicitly how combining Floquet engineering, topology, and many-body localization allows one to harvest the advantages (time-dependent control, topological protection, and reduction of heating, respectively) of each of these subfields while protecting them from their disadvantages (heating, static control parameters, and strong disorder).

Authors 4

1. Kevin S.C. Decker

   Technische Universität Braunschweig

   Affiliation as printed

   Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institut für Mathematische Physik, Mendelssohnstraße 3, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany

2. Christoph Karrasch

   Technische Universität Braunschweig

   Affiliation as printed

   Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institut für Mathematische Physik, Mendelssohnstraße 3, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany

3. Jens Eisert

   Freie Universität Berlin

   Affiliation as printed

   Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems and Fachbereich Physik, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany

4. Dante Marvin Kennes Aachen Institut für Theorie der Statistischen Physik

   Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · Center for Free-Electron Laser Science · Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institut für Theorie der Statistischen Physik, RWTH Aachen University and JARA-Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, 52056 Aachen, Germany

   Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, 22761 Hamburg, Germany