Nonlinear topological symmetry protection in a dissipative system

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Coen, Stéphane and Garbin, Bruno and Xu, Gang and Quinn, Liam and Goldman, Nathan and Oppo, Gian-Luca and Erkintalo, Miro and Murdoch, Stuart G. and Fatome, Julien (2024) Nonlinear topological symmetry protection in a dissipative system. Nature Communications, 15 (1). 1398. ISSN 2041-1723 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44640-x)

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Abstract

We investigate experimentally and theoretically a system ruled by an intricate interplay between topology, nonlinearity, and spontaneous symmetry breaking. The experiment is based on a two-mode coherently-driven optical resonator where photons interact through the Kerr nonlinearity. In presence of a phase defect, the modal structure acquires a synthetic Möbius topology enabling the realization of spontaneous symmetry breaking in inherently bias-free conditions without fine tuning of parameters. Rigorous statistical tests confirm the robustness of the underlying symmetry protection, which manifests itself by a periodic alternation of the modes reminiscent of period-doubling. This dynamic also confers long term stability to various localized structures including domain walls, solitons, and breathers. Our findings are supported by an effective Hamiltonian model and have relevance to other systems of interacting bosons and to the Floquet engineering of quantum matter. They could also be beneficial to the implementation of coherent Ising machines.

ORCID iDs

Coen, Stéphane, Garbin, Bruno, Xu, Gang, Quinn, Liam, Goldman, Nathan, Oppo, Gian-Luca ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5376-4309, Erkintalo, Miro, Murdoch, Stuart G. and Fatome, Julien;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:88408
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    15 February 2024
    Published
    21 December 2023
    Accepted
    Subjects:Science > Physics
    Department:Faculty of Science > Physics
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:12 Mar 2024 11:25
    Last modified:03 Dec 2024 03:24
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/88408
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