Fibonacci steady states in a driven integrable quantum system

Abstract

We study an integrable system that is reducible to free fermions by a Jordan-Wigner transformation which is subjected to a Fibonacci driving protocol based on two noncommuting Hamiltonians. In the high-frequency limit $\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, we show that the system reaches a nonequilibrium steady state, up to some small fluctuations which can be quantified. For each momentum $k$, the trajectory of the stroboscopically observed state lies between two concentric circles on the Bloch sphere; the circles represent the boundaries of the small fluctuations. The residual energy is found to oscillate in a quasiperiodic way between two values which correspond to the two Hamiltonians that define the Fibonacci protocol. These results can be understood in terms of an effective Hamiltonian which simulates the dynamics of the system in the high-frequency limit.