Geometry of system-bath coupling and gauge fields in bosonic ladders: manipulating currents and driving phase transitions

Quantum systems in contact with an environment display a rich physics emerging from the interplay between dissipative and Hamiltonian terms. Here we focus on the role of the geometry of the coupling between the system and the baths. In the specific we consider a dissipative boundary driven ladder in presence of a gauge field which can be implemented with ion microtraps arrays. We show that, depending on the geometry, the currents imposed by the baths can be strongly affected by the gauge field resulting in non-equilibrium phase transitions. In different phases both the magnitude of the current and its spatial distribution are significantly different. These findings allow for novel strategies to manipulate and control transport properties in quantum systems.