Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Thermodynamic Casimir forces in strongly anisotropic systems within the $N\to \infty$ class

  Maciej Łebek, Paweł Jakubczyk

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 016 (2021) · published 7 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We analyze the thermodynamic Casimir effect in strongly anizotropic systems from the vectorial $N\to\infty$ class in a slab geometry. Employing the imperfect (mean-field) Bose gas as a representative example, we demonstrate the key role of spatial dimensionality $d$ in determining the character of the effective fluctuation-mediated interaction between the confining walls. For a particular, physically conceivable choice of anisotropic dispersion and periodic boundary conditions, we show that the Casimir force at criticality as well as within the low-temperature phase is repulsive for dimensionality $d\in (\frac{5}{2},4)\cup (6,8)\cup (10,12)\cup\dots$ and attractive for $d\in (4,6)\cup (8,10)\cup \dots$. We argue, that for $d\in\{4,6,8\dots\}$ the Casimir interaction entirely vanishes in the scaling limit. We discuss implications of our results for systems characterized by $1/N>0$ and possible realizations in the context of quantum phase transitions.

  5 citations

• Microcanonical and canonical fluctuations in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates – Fock state sampling approach

  Maciej Bartłomiej Kruk, Dawid Hryniuk, Mick Kristensen, Toke Vibel, Krzysztof Pawłowski, Jan Arlt, Kazimierz Rzążewski

  SciPost Phys. 14, 036 (2023) · published 16 March 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The fluctuations of the atom number between a Bose-Einstein condensate and the surrounding thermal gas have been the subject of a long standing theoretical debate. This discussion is centered around the appropriate thermodynamic ensemble to be used for theoretical predictions and the effect of interactions on the observed fluctuations. Here we introduce the so-called Fock state sampling method to solve this classic problem of current experimental interest for weakly interacting gases. A suppression of the predicted peak fluctuations is observed when using a microcanonical with respect to a canonical ensemble. Moreover, interactions lead to a shift of the temperature of peak fluctuations for harmonically trapped gases. The absolute size of the fluctuations furthermore depends on the total number of atoms and the aspect ratio of the trapping potential. Due to the interplay of these effect, there is no universal suppression or enhancement of fluctuations.

  5 citations

• Multimode-polariton superradiance via Floquet engineering

  Christian Høj Johansen, Johannes Lang, Andrea Morales, Alexander Baumgärtner, Tobias Donner, Francesco Piazza

  SciPost Phys. 12, 094 (2022) · published 16 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider an ensemble of ultracold bosonic atoms within a near-planar cavity, driven by a far detuned laser whose phase is modulated at a frequency comparable to the transverse cavity mode spacing. We show that a strong, dispersive atom-photon coupling can be reached for many transverse cavity modes at once. The resulting Floquet polaritons involve a superposition of a set of cavity modes with a density excitation of the atomic cloud. The mutual interactions between these modes lead to distinct avoided crossings between the polaritons. Increasing the laser drive intensity, a low-lying multimode Floquet polariton softens and eventually becomes undamped, corresponding to the transition to a superradiant, self-organized phase. We demonstrate the stability of the stationary state for a broad range of parameters.

  5 citations

• Excitonic Bloch equations from first principles

  Gianluca Stefanucci, Enrico Perfetto

  SciPost Phys. 18, 009 (2025) · published 9 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The ultrafast conversion of coherent excitons into incoherent excitons, as well as the subsequent exciton diffusion and thermalization, are central topics in current scientific research due to their relevance in optoelectronics, photovoltaics and photocatalysis. Current approaches to the exciton dynamics rely on model Hamiltonians that depend on already screened electron-electron and electron-phonon couplings. In this work, we subject the state-of-the-art methods to scrutiny using the ab initio Hamiltonian for electrons and phonons. We offer a rigorous and intuitive proof demonstrating that the exciton dynamics governed by model Hamiltonians is affected by an overscreening of the electron-phonon interaction. The introduction of an auxiliary exciton species, termed the irreducible exciton, enables us to formulate a theory free from overscreening and derive the excitonic Bloch equations. These equations describe the time-evolution of coherent, irreducible, and incoherent excitons during and after the optical excitation. They are applicable beyond the linear regime, and predict that the total number of excitons is preserved when the external fields are switched off.

  5 citations

• Polariton condensation into vortex states in the synthetic magnetic field of a strained honeycomb lattice

  Cristóbal Lledó, Iacopo Carusotto, Marzena H. Szymańska

  SciPost Phys. 12, 068 (2022) · published 18 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Photonic materials are a rapidly growing platform for studying condensed matter physics with light, where the exquisite control capability is allowing us to learn about the relation between microscopic dynamics and macroscopic properties. One of the most interesting aspects of condensed matter is the interplay between interactions and the effect of an external magnetic field or rotation, responsible for a plethora of rich phenomena---Hall physics and quantized vortex arrays. At first sight, however, these effects for photons seem vetoed: they do not interact with each other and they are immune to magnetic fields and rotations. Yet in specially devised structures these effects can be engineered. Here, we propose the use of a synthetic magnetic field induced by strain in a honeycomb lattice of resonators to create a non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensate of light-matter particles (polaritons) in a rotating state, without the actual need for external rotation nor reciprocity-breaking elements. We show that thanks to the competition between interactions, dissipation and a suitably designed incoherent pump, the condensate spontaneously becomes chiral by selecting a single Dirac valley of the honeycomb lattice, occupying the lowest Landau level and forming a vortex array. Our results offer a new platform where to study the exciting physics of arrays of quantized vortices with light and pave the way to explore the transition from a vortex-dominated phase to the photonic analogue of the fractional quantum Hall regime.

  5 citations

• Higher-order corrections to exclusive heavy vector meson production

  Tuomas Lappi, Heikki Mäntysaari, Jani Penttala

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 133 (2022) · published 14 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present results for higher-order corrections to exclusive $\mathrm{J}/\psi$ production. This includes the first relativistic correction of order $v^2$ in quark velocity, and next-to-leading order corrections in $\alpha_s$ for longitudinally polarized production. The relativistic corrections are found to be important for a good description of the HERA data, especially at small values of the photon virtuality. The next-to-leading order results for longitudinal production are evaluated numerically. We also demonstrate how the vector meson production provides complementary information to the structure functions for extracting the initial condition for the small-$x$ evolution of the dipole-proton scattering amplitude.

  5 citations

• Quenching Factor estimation of Na recoils in NaI(Tl) crystals using a low-energy pulsed neutron beam measurement

  Mukund Raghunath Bharadwaj, G. Angloher, P. S. Barbeau, I. Dafinei, N. Di Marco, L. Einfalt, F. Ferroni, S. Fichtinger, A. Filipponi , T. Frank , M. Friedl , A. Fuss, Z. Ge , S. Hedges, M. Heikinheimo, K. Huitu, M. Kellermann, R. Maji, M. Mancuso, L. Pagnanini, F. Petricca, S. Pirro, F. Pröbst , G. Profeta, A. Puiu, F. Reindl , K. Schäffner, J. Schieck, D. Schmiedmayer , C. Schwertner , M. Stahlberg , A. Stendahl, M. Stukel , F. Wagner, S. Yue, V. Zema, Y. Zhu

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 028 (2023) · published 4 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  NaI(Tl) based scintillation detectors have become a staple in the field of direct dark matter searches, with the DAMA-LIBRA experiment being the standout for its reported observation of an annually modulating WIMP-like signal which is in direct contrast with other results. In order to accurately calibrate the energies of WIMP-induced nuclear recoil signals, precise measurements of the quenching factor of the NaI crystals are essential for each of these experiments, as it is well established that electron recoils and nuclear recoils have dissimilar scintillation light yields. In this contribution, we present first preliminary results of an ongoing systematic study that has been carried out by the COSINUS collaboration and Duke University to measure the quenching factor of Na recoils. Five ultra-pure NaI crystals, manufactured by the Shanghai Institute for Ceramics, each of which have varying Tl dopant concentrations, were irradiated with a mono-energetic neutron beam at the Triangle Universities National Laboratory, North Carolina, USA to extract the quenching factor values in the low recoil energies of 1-30keV$_{nr}$.

  5 citations

• Accelerating equilibrium spin-glass simulations using quantum annealers via generative deep learning

  Giuseppe Scriva, Emanuele Costa, Benjamin McNaughton, Sebastiano Pilati

  SciPost Phys. 15, 018 (2023) · published 20 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Adiabatic quantum computers, such as the quantum annealers commercialized by D-Wave Systems Inc., are routinely used to tackle combinatorial optimization problems. In this article, we show how to exploit them to accelerate equilibrium Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations of computationally challenging spin-glass models at low but finite temperatures. This is achieved by training generative neural networks on data produced by a D-Wave quantum annealer, and then using them to generate smart proposals for the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. In particular, we explore hybrid schemes by combining single spin-flip and neural proposals, as well as D-Wave and classical Monte Carlo training data. The hybrid algorithm outperforms the single spin-flip Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. It is competitive with parallel tempering in terms of correlation times, with the significant benefit of a much shorter equilibration time.

  5 citations

• Magnetic properties of the putative higher-order topological insulator EuIn$_2$As$_2$

  Tomasz Toliński, Dariusz Kaczorowski

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 11, 005 (2023) · published 5 June 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In higher-order topological insulator (HOTI), a gap is preserved both for the bulk and the surface states, and only hinges or corners become gapless. Recently, it has been predicted that the antiferromagnetic compound EuIn$_2$As$_2$ can host both the HOTI and axion insulator features. Preliminary experimental confirmation of this finding was obtained using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The main objective of this work was to characterize the anisotropic magnetic properties of single-crystalline EuIn$_2$As$_2$. In addition, complementary studies on the transport properties, heat capacity, and magnetocaloric effect in this compound were performed.

  5 citations

• A splash in a one-dimensional cold gas

  Subhadip Chakraborti, Abhishek Dhar, P. L. Krapivsky

  SciPost Phys. 13, 074 (2022) · published 29 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a set of hard point particles distributed uniformly with a specified density on the positive half-line and all initially at rest. The particle masses alternate between two values, $m$ and $M$. The particles interact via collisions that conserve energy and momentum. We study the cascade of activity that results when the left-most particle is given a positive velocity. At long times we find that this leads to two fascinating features in the observed dynamics. First, in the bulk of the gas, a shock front develops separating the cold gas from a thermalized region. The shock-front travels sub-ballistically, with the bulk described by self-similar solutions of Euler hydrodynamics. Second, there is a splash region formed by the recoiled particles which move ballistically with negative velocities. The splash region is completely non-hydrodynamic and we propose two conjectures for the long time particle dynamics in this region. We provide a detailed analytic understanding of these coexisting regimes. These are supported by the results of molecular dynamics simulations.

  5 citations