Matrix product operator approach to nonequilibrium Floquet steady states

We present a numerical method to simulate nonequilibrium Floquet steady states of one-dimensional peri-odically driven many-body systems coupled to a dissipative bath, based on a matrix product operator ansatz for the Floquet density matrix in frequency space. This method enables access to large systems beyond the reach of exact simulations, while retaining the periodic micromotion information. An excited-state extension of this technique allows computation of the dynamical approach to the steady state. We benchmark our method with a driven-dissipative Ising model and apply it to study the possibility of stabilizing prethermal discrete time-crystalline order by coupling to a cold bath.

Automated summary

We propose a numerical method to simulate nonequilibrium Floquet steady states of one-dimensional periodically driven many-body systems coupled to a dissipative bath. The method is based on a matrix product operator ansatz for the Floquet density matrix in frequency space, and allows computation of the dynamical approach to the steady state.