Attractive-repulsive interaction in coupled quantum oscillators

TL;DR

This paper investigates how attractive and repulsive couplings in quantum oscillators lead to symmetry-breaking transitions and entanglement generation, revealing novel quantum behaviors not seen in classical systems.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum model with mixed attractive-repulsive coupling, revealing a new symmetry-breaking transition and entanglement phenomena in quantum oscillators.

Findings

Transition from quantum limit cycle to inhomogeneous steady state

Symmetry-breaking transition contrary to classical cases

Entanglement generation linked to the transition

Abstract

We study the emergent dynamics of quantum self-sustained oscillators induced by the simultaneous presence of attraction and repulsion in the coupling path. We consider quantum Stuart-Landau oscillators under attractive-repulsive coupling and construct the corresponding quantum master equation in the Lindblad form. We discover an interesting symmetry-breaking transition from quantum limit cycle oscillation to quantum inhomogeneous steady state; This transition is contrary to the previously known symmetry-breaking transition from quantum homogeneous to inhomogeneous steady state. The result is supported by the analysis on the noisy classical model of the quantum system in the weak quantum regime. Remarkably, we find the generation of entanglement associated with the symmetry-breaking transition that has no analogue in the classical domain. This study will enrich our understanding of the collective behaviors shown by coupled oscillators in the quantum domain.