Discrete time crystals enhanced by Stark potentials in Rydberg atom arrays

TL;DR

This paper proposes a disorder-free method to realize and enhance discrete time crystals in Rydberg atom arrays using Stark potentials, improving their stability and lifetime without relying on disorder-induced localization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme utilizing Stark potentials to stabilize DTCs in Rydberg arrays without disorder, extending their robustness and lifetime.

Findings

Stark potentials enhance DTC robustness against imperfections.

The scheme extends DTC lifetime independent of initial states.

Disorder-free realization of DTCs in Rydberg arrays is demonstrated.

Abstract

Discrete time crystals (DTCs) are non-equilibrium phases in periodically driven systems that exhibit spontaneous breaking of discrete time-translation symmetry. The stabilization of most DTC phases is achieved via the disorder-induced many-body localization. In this work, we propose an experimental scheme to realize disorder-free DTCs in a periodically driven Rydberg atom array. Our scheme utilizes a linear potential in the atomic detuning to enhance the DTC order, without being tired to (Stark) many-body localization. We numerically demonstrate that the Stark potential enhances the robustness of the DTC against the flip imperfections and extends its lifetime, which are independent of initial states. Thus, our scheme provides a promising way to explore DTCs in Rydberg atom arrays without disorder averaging and special state preparation.