Abstract
The transport of a particle in the presence of a potential that changes periodically in space and in time can be characterized by the amount of work needed to shift a particle by a single spatial period of the potential. In general, this amount of work, when averaged over a single temporal period of the potential, can take any value in a continuous fashion. Here, we present a topological effect inducing the quantization of the average work. We find that this work is equal to the first Chern number calculated in a unit cell of a space-time lattice. Hence, this quantization of the average work is topologically protected. We illustrate this phenomenon with the example of an atom whose center of mass motion is coupled to its internal degrees of freedom by electromagnetic waves.
- Received 22 February 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.020601
© 2019 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Synopsis
Dividing Work into Quantum Chunks
Published 9 July 2019
Using ideas from topological materials, researchers propose a way to quantize work.
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