Anomalous Random Multipolar Driven Insulators

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the existence of long-lived, topologically nontrivial nonequilibrium phases in aperiodically driven quantum systems, characterized by localization and quantized boundary charge pumping, even without Floquet operators.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of topological phases in aperiodically driven systems with long prethermal lifetimes and no Floquet operators, expanding the understanding of nonequilibrium topological matter.

Findings

Long-lived prethermal Anderson localization in 2D under random multipolar driving

Existence of topologically nontrivial localization with quantized bulk magnetization

Detection of quantized charge pumping at system boundaries

Abstract

It is by now well established that periodically driven quantum many-body systems can realize topological nonequilibrium phases without any equilibrium counterpart. Here we show that, even in the absence of time translation symmetry, nonequilibrium topological phases of matter can exist in aperiodically driven systems for tunably parametrically long prethermal lifetimes. As a prerequisite, we first demonstrate the existence of longlived prethermal Anderson localization in two dimensions under random multipolar driving. We then show that the localization may be topologically nontrivial with a quantized bulk orbital magnetization even though there are no well-defined Floquet operators. We further confirm the existence of this anomalous random multipolar driven insulator by detecting quantized charge pumping at the boundaries, which renders it experimentally observable.