Driven topological systems in the classical limit

作者：Duncan Callum W; Ohberg Patrik; Valiente Manuel

来源：Physical Review B, 2017, 95(12): 125104.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevB.95.125104

Periodically driven quantum systems can exhibit topologically nontrivial behavior, evenwhen their quasienergy bands have zero Chern numbers. Much work has been conducted on noninteracting quantum-mechanical models where this kind of behavior is present. However, the inclusion of interactions in out-of-equilibrium quantum systems can prove to be quite challenging. On the other hand, the classical counterpart of hard-core interactions can be simulated efficiently via constrained random walks. The noninteracting model, proposed by Rudner et al. [Phys. Rev. X 3, 031005 (2013)], has a special point for which the system is equivalent to a classical random walk. We consider the classical counterpart of this model, which is exact at a special point even when hard-core interactions are present, and show how these quantitatively affect the edge currents in a strip geometry. We find that the interacting classical system is well described by a mean-field theory. Using this we simulate the dynamics of the classical system, which show that the interactions play the role of Markovian, or time-dependent disorder. By comparing the evolution of classical and quantum edge currents in small lattices, we find regimes where the classical limit considered gives good insight into the quantum problem.

• 出版日期2017-3-2