1:30 pm VIA Zoom
Interacting phases of matter protected by multiple time-translation symmetries in quasiperiodically-driven systems, Wen Wei Ho, Harvard
The discrete time-translation symmetry of a periodically-driven (Floquet) system allows for the existence of novel, nonequilibrium interacting phases of matter. A well-known example is the discrete time crystal, a phase characterized by the spontaneous breaking of this time-translation symmetry. In this talk, I will show that the presence of *multiple* time-translation symmetries, realized by quasiperiodically driving a system with two or more incommensurate frequencies, leads to a panoply of novel non-equilibrium phases of matter, both spontaneous symmetry-breaking ("discrete time quasi-crystals") and topological. I will demonstrate that these phases are stable in a long-lived, 'preheating' regime, by outlining rigorous mathematical results establishing slow heating at high driving frequencies. As a byproduct, I will introduce the notion of many-body localization (MBL) in quasiperiodically-driven systems.