Unpolarized prethermal discrete time crystal (2501.09461v2)

Abstract: Prethermal discrete time crystals (DTCs) are a class of nonequilibrium phases of matter that exhibit robust subharmonic responses to periodic driving without requiring disorder. Prior realizations of prethermal DTCs have relied on the presence of either spontaneous or induced finite polarization. Here, we introduce a new class of prethermal DTCs termed unpolarized prethermal discrete time crystals (UPDTCs) that do not require finite polarization. By studying a spin model of periodically driven trapped ions, we show that robust period-doubled dynamics can persist in the autocorrelation function of the staggered magnetization for paramagnetic initial states, even when the staggered magnetization itself vanishes. The key insight is that quantum fluctuations alone are sufficient to reveal coherent DTC-like dynamics. We demonstrate that UPDTCs are exponentially long-lived in the high-frequency driving regime, consistent with Floquet prethermalization. Our results expand the known phenomenology of prethermal time crystals and underscore the role of quantum effects in stabilizing novel nonequilibrium phases. We propose an experimental protocol to observe UPDTCs in trapped-ion simulators.