Stalled response near thermal equilibrium in periodically driven systems
Abstract The question of how systems respond to perturbations is ubiquitous in physics. Predicting this response for large classes of systems becomes particularly challenging if many degrees of freedom are involved and linear response theory cannot be applied. Here, we consider isolated many-body qu...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-01-01
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Series: | Nature Communications |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44487-2 |
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author | Lennart Dabelow Peter Reimann |
author_facet | Lennart Dabelow Peter Reimann |
author_sort | Lennart Dabelow |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Abstract The question of how systems respond to perturbations is ubiquitous in physics. Predicting this response for large classes of systems becomes particularly challenging if many degrees of freedom are involved and linear response theory cannot be applied. Here, we consider isolated many-body quantum systems which either start out far from equilibrium and then thermalize, or find themselves near thermal equilibrium from the outset. We show that time-periodic perturbations of moderate strength, in the sense that they do not heat up the system too quickly, give rise to the following phenomenon of stalled response: While the driving usually causes quite considerable reactions as long as the unperturbed system is far from equilibrium, the driving effects are strongly suppressed when the unperturbed system approaches thermal equilibrium. Likewise, for systems prepared near thermal equilibrium, the response to the driving is barely noticeable right from the beginning. Numerical results are complemented by a quantitatively accurate analytical description and by simple qualitative arguments. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-08T16:16:43Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-c8fe70ec12984c139b9e741de844f9a7 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2041-1723 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-08T16:16:43Z |
publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
publisher | Nature Portfolio |
record_format | Article |
series | Nature Communications |
spelling | doaj.art-c8fe70ec12984c139b9e741de844f9a72024-01-07T12:35:05ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232024-01-0115111010.1038/s41467-023-44487-2Stalled response near thermal equilibrium in periodically driven systemsLennart Dabelow0Peter Reimann1RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)Faculty of Physics, Bielefeld UniversityAbstract The question of how systems respond to perturbations is ubiquitous in physics. Predicting this response for large classes of systems becomes particularly challenging if many degrees of freedom are involved and linear response theory cannot be applied. Here, we consider isolated many-body quantum systems which either start out far from equilibrium and then thermalize, or find themselves near thermal equilibrium from the outset. We show that time-periodic perturbations of moderate strength, in the sense that they do not heat up the system too quickly, give rise to the following phenomenon of stalled response: While the driving usually causes quite considerable reactions as long as the unperturbed system is far from equilibrium, the driving effects are strongly suppressed when the unperturbed system approaches thermal equilibrium. Likewise, for systems prepared near thermal equilibrium, the response to the driving is barely noticeable right from the beginning. Numerical results are complemented by a quantitatively accurate analytical description and by simple qualitative arguments.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44487-2 |
spellingShingle | Lennart Dabelow Peter Reimann Stalled response near thermal equilibrium in periodically driven systems Nature Communications |
title | Stalled response near thermal equilibrium in periodically driven systems |
title_full | Stalled response near thermal equilibrium in periodically driven systems |
title_fullStr | Stalled response near thermal equilibrium in periodically driven systems |
title_full_unstemmed | Stalled response near thermal equilibrium in periodically driven systems |
title_short | Stalled response near thermal equilibrium in periodically driven systems |
title_sort | stalled response near thermal equilibrium in periodically driven systems |
url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44487-2 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT lennartdabelow stalledresponsenearthermalequilibriuminperiodicallydrivensystems AT peterreimann stalledresponsenearthermalequilibriuminperiodicallydrivensystems |