Autonomous Thouless pump

The Thouless pump is a paradigmatic example for a dynamical topological process in non-interacting 1+1-dimensional lattice systems [1]. Cyclic variation of lattice parameters can lead to quantized transport of particles in that lattice protected by a topological invariant. By now theoretical as well as experimental approaches for these pumps rely on direct modulation of the lattice parameters in time. Recent experiments [2] have shown, however, that replacing the lattice parameter by dynamical quantum degrees of freedom subject to cw drive (and losses) can lead to self-sustained, i.e. autonomous topological pumps.

We here present a theoretical model, were a single or many spins controlling the hopping and onsite potentials of the lattice particles and are subject to a constant magnetic field "drive" the system into a pumping phase without explicit time-dependencies.

This pumping phase represents a non-equilibrium topological phase in excited eigenstates of the interacting system.

[1] D. J. Thouless, Phys. Rev. B 27, 6083 (1983)

[2] D. Dreon, et al., Nature 608, 494–498 (2022)