Emergent ac Effect in Nonreciprocal Coupled Condensates

TL;DR

This paper uncovers an emergent ac Josephson-like effect in coupled condensates driven by nonreciprocity and nonlinearity, revealing novel dynamical phases with spontaneous time-translation symmetry breaking and autonomous oscillations.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal model demonstrating a new ac phase with two frequencies and spontaneous symmetry breaking, extending Josephson physics beyond traditional frameworks.

Findings

Discovery of an ac phase with two distinct frequencies

Identification of hysteretic transitions between phases

Observation of bias-free autonomous oscillatory currents

Abstract

We report an emergent ac Josephson-like effect arising without external bias, driven by the interplay between nonreciprocity and nonlinearity in coupled condensates. Using a minimal model of three mutually nonreciprocally coupled condensates, we uncover a rich landscape of dynamical phases governed by generalized Josephson equations. This goes beyond the Kuramoto framework owing to inherent nonreciprocity and dynamically evolving effective couplings, leading to static and dynamical ferromagnetic and (anti)vortex states with nontrivial phase winding. Most strikingly, we identify an ac phase characterized by the emergence of two distinct frequencies, which spontaneously break the time-translation symmetry: one associated with the precession of the global U(1) Goldstone mode and the other with a stabilized limit cycle in a five-dimensional phase space. This phase features bias-free autonomous oscillatory currents beyond conventional Josephson dynamics. We further examine how instabilities develop in the ferromagnetic and vortex states, and how they drive transitions into the ac regime. Interestingly, the transition is hysteretic: phases with different winding numbers destabilize under distinct conditions, reflecting their inherently different nonlinear structures. Our work lays the foundation for exploring nonreciprocity-driven novel dynamical phases in a broad class of condensate platforms.