Symmetry-induced fragmentation and dissipative time crystal

Abstract: We propose a general protocol for engineering dissipative time crystals in quantum open systems through symmetry-induced fragmentation and ergodicity breaking. Building upon a U(1)-symmetry-induced Liouville-space fragmentation, we devise a generic Liouvillian possessing a series of non-dissipative eigenmodes with purely imaginary eigenvalues, which give rise to long-time oscillations breaking both ergodicity and time-translation symmetry. Illustrating our proposal using a dissipative lattice model, we show that, even when the U(1) symmetry is broken, a prethermal time-crystal behavior survives, with distinct oscillation frequencies at different times of the steady-state approaching dynamics. The richly structured prethermal dynamics derive from Fermi statistics and the Liouvillian skin effect of our model, under which excitations above the boundary-localized dark states can be mapped to the irreducible representations of the permutation group. The branching rules of the permutation group then dictate that the Liouvillian gaps acquired by the non-dissipative eigenmodes should be higher-order powers of the symmetry-breaking perturbation, protecting the prethermal time crystal.