Light-induced nonconservative static forces in many-body systems
Abstract
In a quantum many-body system, a periodic drive can often generate effective static forces on the slow collective degrees of freedom. We study the static forces generated by light on electronic order parameters in solid-state systems. We show that the forces can have nonconservative components that originate from dissipation, i.e., optical absorption. This effect is demonstrated in two nontrivial examples. In excitonic insulators, via interband excitations, the light field generates a nonconservative force on the phase of the excitonic order parameter. This force leads to an acceleration of the phase, which manifests as a shift of the photon emission peak from an exciton condensate. In materials with an incommensurate charge density wave, a propagating light field generates a nonconservative force on the phase of its order parameter. It drives the charge density wave into sliding motion, leading to a DC electric current via topological Thouless pumping.
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BibTeX
@misc{li2026lightinduced,
title = {{Light-induced nonconservative static forces in many-body systems}},
author = {Jinze Li and Xuemei Yang and Zhiyuan Sun},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.29122},
eprint = {2608.29122},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.29122},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Light-induced nonconservative static forces in many-body systems
AU - Jinze Li
AU - Xuemei Yang
AU - Zhiyuan Sun
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.29122
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.29122
AB - In a quantum many-body system, a periodic drive can often generate effective static forces on the slow collective degrees of freedom. We study the static forces generated by light on electronic order parameters in solid-state systems. We show that the forces can have nonconservative components that originate from dissipation, i.e., optical absorption. This effect is demonstrated in two nontrivial examples. In excitonic insulators, via interband excitations, the light field generates a nonconservative force on the phase of the excitonic order parameter. This force leads to an acceleration of the phase, which manifests as a shift of the photon emission peak from an exciton condensate. In materials with an incommensurate charge density wave, a propagating light field generates a nonconservative force on the phase of its order parameter. It drives the charge density wave into sliding motion, leading to a DC electric current via topological Thouless pumping.
ER -