Floquet systems with continuous dynamical symmetries: characterization, time-dependent noether charge, and solvability

Abstract

We study quantum Floquet (periodically-driven) systems having continuous dynamical symmetry (CDS) consisting of a time translation and a unitary transformation on the Hilbert space. Unlike the discrete ones, the CDS strongly constrains the possible Hamiltonians H(t) and allows us to obtain all the Floquet states by solving a finite-dimensional eigenvalue problem. Besides, Noether’s theorem leads to a time-dependent conservation charge, whose expectation value is time-independent throughout evolution. We exemplify these consequences of CDS in the seminal Rabi model, an effective model of a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamonds without strain terms, and Heisenberg spin models in rotating fields. Our results provide a systematic way of solving for Floquet states and explain how they avoid hybridization in quasienergy diagrams.