Quantum frequency locking and down-conversion in a driven cavity-qubit system

Abstract: We study a periodically driven qubit coupled to a quantized cavity mode. Despite its apparent simplicity, this system supports a rich variety of exotic phenomena, such as topological frequency conversion as recently discovered in [Martin et al, PRX 7, 041008 (2017)]. Here we report on a qualitatively different phenomenon that occurs in this platform, where the cavity mode's oscillations lock their frequency to a rational fraction $r/q$ of the driving frequency $\Omega$. This phenomenon, which we term quantum frequency locking, is characterized by the emergence of $q$-tuplets of stationary (Floquet) states whose quasienergies are separated by $\Omega/q$, up to exponentially small corrections. The Wigner functions of these states are nearly identical, and exhibit highly-regular and symmetric structure in phase space. Similarly to Floquet time crystals, these states underlie discrete time-translation symmetry breaking in the model. We develop a semiclassical approach for analyzing and predicting quantum frequency locking in the model, and use it to identify the conditions under which it occurs.