Boundary Time Crystals

Phys Rev Lett. 2018 Jul 20;121(3):035301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.035301.

Abstract

In this work we introduce boundary time crystals. Here continuous time-translation symmetry breaking occurs only in a macroscopic fraction of a many-body quantum system. After introducing their definition and properties, we analyze in detail a solvable model where an accurate scaling analysis can be performed. The existence of the boundary time crystals is intimately connected to the emergence of a time-periodic steady state in the thermodynamic limit of a many-body open quantum system. We also discuss connections to quantum synchronization.