Integrable Floquet Time Crystals in One Dimension

Abstract: We demonstrate the realization of a discrete-time crystal (DTC) phase in a family of periodically driven, one-dimensional quadratic lattice Hamiltonians that can be obtained using spin chains. These interactions preserve integrability while opening controllable gaps at resonant quasienergies and pinning the emergent quasienergy modes that are responsible for subharmonics. We demonstrate that the DTC phase is rigid in the parameter space of transverse field and an additional interaction like NNN coupling strength, with the drive frequency optimized to produce the strongest subharmonic response. We also provide a detailed phase portrait of the model, exhibiting a variety of new dynamical phases, such as a fragile time crystal and both spin-liquid and paramagnetic phases, as well as sharp quantum phase transitions between them. Finite-size scaling of the Floquet quasienergy splitting between the emergent subharmonic mode and its conjugate shows that the DTC lifetime diverges exponentially with system size. Our work thus establishes a novel mechanism for realizing robust, long-lived DTCs in one dimension, and paves the way for their experimental realization in near-term quantum simulators. Motivation for this work stems from the limitations of disorder-based stabilization schemes that rely on many-body localization and exhibit only prethermal or finite-lived plateaus, eventually restoring ergodicity. Disorder-free routes are therefore highly desirable. Integrable (or Floquet-integrable) systems provide an attractive alternative because their extensive set of conserved quantities and constrained scattering strongly restrict thermalization channels. Our construction exploits these integrable restrictions together with short-range NNN engineering to produce a clean, robust DTC that avoids the prethermal fragility of disordered realizations.