Topological phase dynamics described by overtone-synthesized classical and quantum Adler equations

Abstract

The Adler equation is a well-known one-dimensional model describing phase locking and synchronization. Motivated by recent experiments using optomechanical oscillators, we extend the model to include overtone-synthesized sinusoidal coupling with adiabatic temporal modulation. This extension gives rise to unique topological features such as winding-number quantization, discontinuous phase-slip transitions, and hysteretic and non-reciprocal phase dynamics. We further extend the analysis to the quantum regime, where we find a counterintuitive result: the breakdown of winding-number quantization. This arises from the superposition of different winding-number states in a closed-space Thouless pump. Moreover, hysteretic dynamics, once eliminated in quantum adiabatic approximation, is recovered in non-adiabatic calculations, as the superposition of two Floquet states with different PT eigenvalues becomes the quantum counterpart of phase trajectory.