Long-Range Prethermal Phases of Nonequilibrium Matter

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the existence of non-equilibrium phases, including a disorder-free prethermal time crystal, in long-range interacting systems driven periodically, with key differences from many-body localized phases.

Contribution

It proves the existence of prethermal phases in long-range systems and predicts a novel disorder-free prethermal time crystal in one dimension.

Findings

Existence of non-equilibrium phases in long-range systems.

Prediction of a disorder-free prethermal time crystal.

Observable differences from many-body localized phases.

Abstract

We prove the existence of non-equilibrium phases of matter in the prethermal regime of periodically-driven, long-range interacting systems, with power-law exponent $\alpha > d$, where $d$ is the dimensionality of the system. In this context, we predict the existence of a disorder-free, prethermal discrete time crystal in one dimension -- a phase strictly forbidden in the absence of long-range interactions. Finally, using a combination of analytic and numerical methods, we highlight key experimentally observable differences between such a prethermal time crystal and its many-body localized counterpart.