Time reversal of a wave packet with temporal modulation of gauge potential

Abstract

We show that time reversal can be achieved with a spatially uniform temporal modulation of the gauge potential. The method can be applied to the quantum wave function of electrons where there are natural gauge potentials, and to classical waves such as the acoustic and optical waves where effective gauge potentials have been demonstrated recently. This time-reversal process can provide a compensation of higher-order dispersion effects. Moreover, our approach can be used to time reverse the propagation of a wave packet in three dimensions, as well as a topologically protected one-way edge state where the underlying Hamiltonian does not have time-reversal symmetry. Our work shows that modulation of gauge potentials provides a versatile approach for dynamically controlling wave propagation.