A Qutrit Time Crystal Stabilized with Native Chiral Interactions
Summarize this article with:
Quantum Physics arXiv:2605.14293 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 14 May 2026] Title:A Qutrit Time Crystal Stabilized with Native Chiral Interactions Authors:Noah Goss, Nishchay Suri, Brian Marinelli, Larry Chen, Akel Hashim, Sajant Anand, Alexis Morvan, Ravi K. Naik, Ermal Rrapaj, David I. Santiago, Wibe de Jong, Norman Y. Yao, Joel E. Moore, Irfan Siddiqi View a PDF of the paper titled A Qutrit Time Crystal Stabilized with Native Chiral Interactions, by Noah Goss and 13 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Periodically driven quantum many-body systems can spontaneously break discrete time-translation symmetry, realizing discrete time crystals. To date, both experimental and theoretical efforts have largely focused on the simplest case of spontaneous period-doubling in $\mathbb{Z}_2$ discrete time crystals realized with qubits. This owes, in part, to the challenge of stabilizing eigenstate order in higher discrete symmetry ($\mathbb{Z}_n$) time crystals, due to the presence of richer domain wall physics. Here, we demonstrate the realization of a $\mathbb{Z}_3$ discrete time crystal by implementing a Floquet chiral clock model in a chain of 15 superconducting qutrits. Unlike the conventional Ising setting, our system features a tunable chiral angle that governs domain-wall dynamics, spectral degeneracies, and crucially, the stability of time-crystalline order. Using disordered nearest-neighbor chiral interactions, we observe robust subharmonic period tripling that persists across a wide range of drive strengths and is independent of initial state. Finally, we highlight the special role that chirality plays in our $\mathbb{Z}_3$ discrete time crystal -- in its absence, the system's Floquet dynamics exhibit a marked initial state dependence governed by domain wall degeneracies. Our results establish native qudit hardware as a powerful platform to access a broader landscape of non-equilibrium phases. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2605.14293 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2605.14293v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.14293 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Noah Goss [view email] [v1] Thu, 14 May 2026 02:51:54 UTC (14,096 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled A Qutrit Time Crystal Stabilized with Native Chiral Interactions, by Noah Goss and 13 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-05 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)