Time Translation Symmetry Breaking in an Isolated Spin-Orbit-Coupled Fluid of Light

TL;DR

This paper investigates how spin-orbit coupling and nonlinear interactions in a polarized light fluid cause translation symmetry breaking, leading to Floquet band structures and oscillatory correlations with exponential growth at large distances.

Contribution

It reveals the emergence of translation symmetry breaking and Floquet band structures in a nonlinear, spin-orbit-coupled light fluid, a novel phenomenon in photonic systems.

Findings

Breaking of translation symmetry along propagation direction.

Formation of Floquet band structure in the Bogoliubov spectrum.

Exponential growth of intensity correlation oscillations at large distances.

Abstract

We study the interplay between intrinsic spin-orbit coupling and nonlinear photon-photon interactions in a nonparaxial, elliptically polarized fluid of light propagating in a bulk Kerr medium. We find that in situations where the nonlinear interactions induce birefringence, i.e., a polarization-dependent nonlinear refractive index, their interplay with spin-orbit coupling results in an interference between the two polarization components of the fluid traveling at different wave vectors, which entails the breaking of translation symmetry along the propagation direction. This phenomenon leads to a Floquet band structure in the Bogoliubov spectrum of the fluid, and to characteristic oscillations of its intensity correlations. We characterize these oscillations in detail and point out their exponential growth at large propagation distances, revealing the presence of parametric resonances.