Exact steady states of interacting driven dissipative fermionic systems with hidden time-reversal symmetry

TL;DR

This paper provides exact solutions for the steady states of certain driven dissipative fermionic systems, revealing hidden time-reversal symmetry and a first-order phase transition in particle density.

Contribution

It generalizes the coherent quantum absorber technique to fermionic systems and uncovers hidden time-reversal symmetry in non-equilibrium steady states.

Findings

Exact solutions for steady states with arbitrary pairing and interactions

Discovery of a first-order phase transition in particle density

Hidden time-reversal symmetry leads to Onsager symmetry in correlations

Abstract

We present exact solutions for the non-equilibrium steady states of a class of dissipative spinless fermionic systems with arbitrary Hamiltonian pairing terms, global charging energy interactions, and uniform single particle loss on every site. Our exact solution is found by generalizing the coherent quantum absorber technique to fermionic systems, and our result establishes the existence of hidden time-reversal symmetry in driven-dissipative fermionic models. The steady state exhibits a first order phase transition in the particle density, with the resulting jump discontinuity in density persisting even for finite dissipation rates. A mean-field description of the model exhibits a bistable regime that encompasses the first-order transition line yet which fails to accurately predict its precise location via a Maxwell construction. We also show that the model's hidden time-reversal symmetry results in an Onsager symmetry of certain two-time correlation functions.