SciPost Phys. 17, 167 (2024) ·
published 13 December 2024
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The interplay between dissipation and correlation can lead to novel emergent phenomena in open systems. Here we investigate "steady-state topological order" defined by the robust topological degeneracy of steady states, which is a generalization of the ground-state topological degeneracy of closed systems. Specifically, we construct two representative Liouvillians using engineered dissipation, and exactly solve the steady states with topological degeneracy. We find that while the steady-state topological degeneracy is fragile under noise in two dimensions, it is stable in three dimensions, where a genuine many-body phase with topological degeneracy is realized. We identify universal features of steady-state topological physics such as the deconfined emergent gauge field and slow relaxation dynamics of topological defects. The transition from a topologically ordered phase to a trivial phase is also investigated via numerical simulation. Our work highlights the essential difference between ground-state topological order in closed systems and steady-state topological order in open systems.
SciPost Phys. 15, 191 (2023) ·
published 13 November 2023
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We study the open XXZ spin chain with a $PT$-symmetric non-Hermitian boundary field. We find an interaction-induced scale-free non-Hermitian skin effect by using the coordinate Bethe Ansatz. The steady-state and the ground state in the $PT$ broken phase are constructed, and the formulas of their eigen-energies in the thermodynamic limit are obtained. The differences between the many-body scale-free states and the boundary string states are explored, and the transition between the two at the isotropic point is investigated. We also discuss an experimental scheme to verify our results.
Mr Wang: "We sincerely thank the referee..."
in Submissions | report on Scale-free non-Hermitian skin effect in a boundary-dissipated spin chain