Dissipative time crystal in an asymmetric nonlinear photonic dimer

Abstract

We investigate the behavior of two coupled non-linear photonic cavities, in presence of inhomogeneous coherent driving and local dissipations. By solving numerically the quantum master equation, either by diagonalizing the Liouvillian superoperator or by using the approximated truncated Wigner approach, we extrapolate the properties of the system in a thermodynamic limit of large photon occupation. When the mean field Gross-Pitaevskii equation predicts a unique parametrically unstable steady-state solution, the open quantum many-body system presents highly non-classical properties and its dynamics exhibits the long lived Josephson-like oscillations typical of dissipative time crystals, as indicated by the presence of purely imaginary eigenvalues in the spectrum of the Liouvillian superoperator in the thermodynamic limit.