Contributor info: Dr Pieter W. Claeys

Long-Hin Tang, David M. Long, Anatoli Polkovnikov, Anushya Chandran, Pieter W. Claeys

SciPost Phys. 15, 030 (2023) · published 26 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

Central spin models provide an idealized description of interactions between a central degree of freedom and a mesoscopic environment of surrounding spins. We show that the family of models with a spin-1 at the center and XX interactions of arbitrary strength with surrounding spins is integrable. Specifically, we derive an extensive set of conserved quantities and obtain the exact eigenstates using the Bethe ansatz. As in the homogenous limit, the states divide into two exponentially large classes: bright states, in which the spin-1 is entangled with its surroundings, and dark states, in which it is not. On resonance, the bright states further break up into two classes depending on their weight on states with central spin polarization zero. These classes are probed in quench dynamics wherein they prevent the central spin from reaching thermal equilibrium. In the single spin-flip sector we explicitly construct the bright states and show that the central spin exhibits oscillatory dynamics as a consequence of the semilocalization of these eigenstates. We relate the integrability to the closely related class of integrable Richardson-Gaudin models, and conjecture that the spin-$s$ central spin XX model is integrable for any $s$.

Pieter W. Claeys, Jonah Herzog-Arbeitman, Austen Lamacraft

SciPost Phys. 12, 007 (2022) · published 6 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We consider a unitary circuit where the underlying gates are chosen to be R-matrices satisfying the Yang-Baxter equation and correlation functions can be expressed through a transfer matrix formalism. These transfer matrices are no longer Hermitian and differ from the ones guaranteeing local conservation laws, but remain mutually commuting at different values of the spectral parameter defining the circuit. Exact eigenstates can still be constructed as a Bethe ansatz, but while these transfer matrices are diagonalizable in the inhomogeneous case, the homogeneous limit corresponds to an exceptional point where multiple eigenstates coalesce and Jordan blocks appear. Remarkably, the complete set of (generalized) eigenstates is only obtained when taking into account a combinatorial number of nontrivial vacuum states. In all cases, the Bethe equations reduce to those of the integrable spin-1 chain and exhibit a global SU(2) symmetry, significantly reducing the total number of eigenstates required in the calculation of correlation functions. A similar construction is shown to hold for the calculation of out-of-time-order correlations.

Pieter W. Claeys, Anatoli Polkovnikov

SciPost Phys. 10, 014 (2021) · published 22 January 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We discuss how the language of wave functions (state vectors) and associated non-commuting Hermitian operators naturally emerges from classical mechanics by applying the inverse Wigner-Weyl transform to the phase space probability distribution and observables. In this language, the Schr\"odinger equation follows from the Liouville equation, with $\hbar$ now a free parameter. Classical stationary distributions can be represented as sums over stationary states with discrete (quantized) energies, where these states directly correspond to quantum eigenstates. Interestingly, it is now classical mechanics which allows for apparent negative probabilities to occupy eigenstates, dual to the negative probabilities in Wigner's quasiprobability distribution. These negative probabilities are shown to disappear when allowing sufficient uncertainty in the classical distributions. We show that this correspondence is particularly pronounced for canonical Gibbs ensembles, where classical eigenstates satisfy an integral eigenvalue equation that reduces to the Schr\"odinger equation in a saddle-point approximation controlled by the inverse temperature. We illustrate this correspondence by showing that some paradigmatic examples such as tunneling, band structures, Berry phases, Landau levels, level statistics and quantum eigenstates in chaotic potentials can be reproduced to a surprising precision from a classical Gibbs ensemble, without any reference to quantum mechanics and with all parameters (including $\hbar$) on the order of unity.

Sergio Enrique Tapias Arze, Pieter W. Claeys, Isaac Pérez Castillo, Jean-Sébastien Caux

SciPost Phys. Core 3, 001 (2020) · published 22 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We consider the dynamics of an XY spin chain subjected to an external transverse field which is periodically quenched between two values. By deriving an exact expression of the Floquet Hamiltonian for this out-of-equilibrium protocol with arbitrary driving frequencies, we show how, after an unfolding of the Floquet spectrum, the parameter space of the system is characterized by alternations between local and non-local regions, corresponding respectively to the absence and presence of Floquet resonances. The boundary lines between regions are obtained analytically from avoided crossings in the Floquet quasi-energies and are observable as phase transitions in the synchronized state. The transient behaviour of dynamical averages of local observables similarly undergoes a transition, showing either a rapid convergence towards the synchronized state in the local regime, or a rather slow one exhibiting persistent oscillations in the non-local regime, where explicit decay coefficients are presented.

Pieter W. Claeys, Dimitri Van Neck, Stijn De Baerdemacker

SciPost Phys. 3, 028 (2017) · published 24 October 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We present the inner products of eigenstates in integrable Richardson-Gaudin models from two different perspectives and derive two classes of Gaudin-like determinant expressions for such inner products. The requirement that one of the states is on-shell arises naturally by demanding that a state has a dual representation. By implicitly combining these different representations, inner products can be recast as domain wall boundary partition functions. The structure of all involved matrices in terms of Cauchy matrices is made explicit and used to show how one of the classes returns the Slavnov determinant formula. This framework provides a further connection between two different approaches for integrable models, one in which everything is expressed in terms of rapidities satisfying Bethe equations, and one in which everything is expressed in terms of the eigenvalues of conserved charges, satisfying quadratic equations.