Floquet Supersymmetry

Abstract

We show that time-reflection symmetry in periodically driven (Floquet) quantum systems enables an inherently nonequilibrium phenomenon structurally similar to quantum-mechanical sypersymmetry. In particular, we find Floquet analogues of the Witten index that place lower bounds on the degeneracies of states with quasienergies $0$ and $\pi$. Moreover, we show that in some cases time reflection symmetry can also interchange fermions and bosons, leading to fermion/boson pairs with opposite quasienergy. We provide a simple class of disordered, interacting, and ergodic Floquet models with an exponentially large number of states at quasienergies $0$ and $\pi$, which are robust as long as the time-reflection symmetry is preserved. Floquet supersymmetry manifests itself in the evolution of certain local observables as a period-doubling effect with dramatic finite-size scaling, providing a clear signature for experiments.