Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The interplay between dissipation and correlation can lead to novel emergent phenomena in open systems. Here we investigate “steady-state topological order” defined by the robust topological degeneracy of steady states, which is a generalization of the ground-state topological degeneracy of closed systems. Specifically, we construct two representative Liouvillians using engineered dissipation, and exactly solve the steady states with topological degeneracy. We find that while the steady-state topological degeneracy is fragile under noise in two dimensions, it is stable in three dimensions, where a genuine many-body phase with topological degeneracy is realized. We identify universal features of steady-state topological physics such as the deconfined emergent gauge field and slow relaxation dynamics of topological defects. The transition from a topologically ordered phase to a trivial phase is also investigated via numerical simulation. Our work highlights the essential difference between ground-state topological order in closed systems and steady-state topological order in open systems.
Source: SciPost Physics
Authors: Zijian Wang, Xu-Dong Dai, He-Ran Wang, Zhong Wang
Institution: Tsinghua University
Language: English
Topic: Quantum many-body systems
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Awards: G2448177357, G2791285188, G5583762948
OpenAlex ID: W4405374830