Dissipative time crystal in an atom-cavity system: Influence of trap and competing interactions

Abstract: While the recently realized dissipative time crystal in a laser-pumped atom-cavity system in the experiment of Ke{\ss}ler et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 043602 (2021)] is qualitatively consistent with a theoretical description in an idealized limit, here, we investigate the stability of this dissipative time crystal in the presence of an inhomogeneous potential provided by a harmonic trap, and competing short- and infinite-range interactions. We note that these features are ubiquitous in any realization of atom-cavity systems. By mapping out the dynamical phase diagram and studying how it is modified by the harmonic trap and short-range interactions, we demonstrate the persistence of long-lived dissipative time crystals beyond the idealized limit. We show the emergence of metastable dissipative time crystals with and without prethermalization plateaus for tight harmonic confinement and strong contact interaction, respectively.