Wednesday 26 March 2025
Physicists have long sought to understand the behavior of matter at the quantum level, where the rules of classical physics no longer apply. One of the most promising avenues for exploring this strange realm is through the use of periodic driving, which involves applying a carefully controlled oscillating force to a system in order to manipulate its properties.
In recent years, researchers have made significant progress in understanding the behavior of quantum systems subjected to periodic driving. However, there remains much that is not yet understood about these systems, particularly when they are driven at very high frequencies or in the presence of noise.
A new study published in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters sheds light on this topic by examining the behavior of one-dimensional chains of spinless fermions (particles that behave like electrons but lack spin) subjected to periodic driving. The researchers used a combination of theoretical models and computational simulations to investigate how these systems respond to different types of driving, including coherent and incoherent noise.
One of the key findings of the study is that high-frequency driving can lead to the formation of long-lived Floquet-Bloch sidebands (FBs), which are bands of energy that arise from the interaction between the driven system and the driving field. These FBs were previously thought to be a hallmark of weakly interacting systems, but the new research shows that they can also occur in strongly interacting systems.
The researchers also found that when the driving frequency is low, the system exhibits a loss of coherence over time, which leads to a significant decrease in the lifetime of the FBs. This is because the low-frequency drive causes the system to heat up and become more disordered, leading to a breakdown of quantum coherence.
In addition to its fundamental importance, this research has potential practical applications in fields such as ultracold atom physics and condensed matter physics. For example, it could be used to design new types of quantum simulators that can mimic the behavior of complex systems at high temperatures.
The study is significant not only for its insights into the behavior of periodically driven quantum systems but also for its use of advanced computational methods to simulate these systems. The researchers employed a combination of exact diagonalization and matrix product states (MPS) calculations to model their system, which allowed them to capture the complex dynamics that arise from the interaction between the driving field and the quantum system.
Cite this article: “Periodic Driving of Quantum Systems: Insights into Floquet-Bloch Sidebands and Coherence Loss”, The Science Archive, 2025.
Quantum Physics, Periodic Driving, Floquet-Bloch Sidebands, Coherent Noise, Incoherent Noise, High-Frequency Driving, Low-Frequency Driving, Quantum Coherence, Ultracold Atom Physics, Condensed Matter Physics
