Weakly Driven and Finite Detuning Boundary Time Crystals Enabled by Low-Dissipation Dynamical Channels

Abstract

Spontaneous breaking of continuous time-translation symmetry in driven-dissipative systems gives rise to boundary time crystals (BTCs), characterized by persistent oscillations sustained by coherent driving and collective dissipation. Conventional BTCs, however, typically require strong driving and exact atom-drive resonance, imposing stringent constraints on their realization. Here we consider two atomic ensembles coupled to a common Markovian reservoir and show that shared dissipation organizes dissipation-free and low-dissipation modes into dynamically accessible low-dissipation channels, enabling BTCs under weak driving and finite detuning. Finite detuning further selects a unique stable limit cycle from an initial-state-dependent family of oscillatory trajectories. Our results establish low-dissipation dynamical channels as a route to robust BTCs under relaxed driving and resonance conditions.