Dissipation-Selected Resonant Fronts in a Driven-Dissipative Bose-Hubbard Lattice

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a dissipation gradient and detuning ramp in a driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard lattice create a nonlinear resonance that pins a density front, leading to complex dynamical behaviors and potential applications in reconfigurable transport barriers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism using structured dissipation to control and generate nonequilibrium interfaces and localized states in quantum lattice systems.

Findings

A dissipation gradient combined with a Stark ramp selects a nonlinear resonance in the lattice.

The resonance fixes the front position with an Airy-like profile influenced by tunneling and detuning slope.

Tuning the resonance yields phenomena like depinning steps, pattern locking, chaos, and localization.

Abstract

Spatially structured dissipation organizes driven quantum matter beyond Hamiltonian control. We show that a dissipation gradient combined with a Stark-induced detuning ramp selects a nonlinear resonance slice in a two-dimensional driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard lattice, producing a pinned density front in generalized Gross-Pitaevskii simulations. The underlying resonance condition fixes the front position, while its Airy-like profile obeys a width scaling set by tunneling stiffness and the effective detuning slope. Treating the front as an emergent interface explains how tuning the selected resonance toward the minimum-loss side yields Peierls-Nabarro depinning steps, discrete transverse pattern locking, spatiotemporal chaos, and minimum-loss localization. Center-of-mass and generalized-imbalance diagnostics map these outcomes into a dynamical phase diagram as detuning-ramp slope and dissipation-gradient strength vary. The results suggest structured dissipation as a mechanism for reconfigurable transport barriers and nonequilibrium interfaces in programmable bosonic lattices.