Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• A convenient Keldysh contour for thermodynamically consistent perturbative and semiclassical expansions

  Vasco Cavina, Sadeq S. Kadijani, Massimiliano Esposito, Thomas L. Schmidt

  SciPost Phys. 15, 209 (2023) · published 27 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The work fluctuation theorem (FT) is a symmetry connecting the moment generating functions (MGFs) of the work extracted in a given process and in its time-reversed counterpart. We show that, equivalently, the FT for work in isolated quantum systems can be expressed as an invariance property of a modified Keldysh contour. Modified contours can be used as starting points of perturbative and path integral approaches to quantum thermodynamics, as recently pointed out in the literature. After reviewing the derivation of the contour-based perturbation theory, we use the symmetry of the modified contour to show that the theory satisfies the FT at every order. Furthermore, we extend textbook diagrammatic techniques to the computation of work MGFs, showing that the contributions of the different Feynman diagrams can be added to obtain a general expression of the work statistics in terms of a sum of independent rescaled Poisson processes. In this context, the FT takes the form of a detailed balance condition linking every Feynman diagram with its time-reversed variant. In the second part, we study path integral approaches to the calculation of the MGF, and discuss how the arbitrariness in the choice of the contour impacts the final form of the path integral action. In particular, we show how using a symmetrized contour makes it possible to easily generalize the Keldysh rotation in the context of work statistics, a procedure paving the way to a semiclassical expansion of the work MGF. Furthermore, we use our results to discuss a generalization of the detailed balance conditions at the level of the quantum trajectories.

  4 citations

• Generative learning for the problem of critical slowing down in lattice Gross-Neveu model

  Ankur Singha, Dipankar Chakrabarti, Vipul Arora

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 052 (2022) · published 2 December 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In lattice field theory, Monte Carlo simulation algorithms get highly affected by critical slowing down in the critical region, where autocorrelation time increases rapidly. Hence the cost of generation of lattice configurations near the critical region increases sharply. In this paper, we use a Conditional Generative Adversarial Network (C-GAN) for sampling lattice configurations. We train the C-GAN on the dataset consisting of Hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC) samples in regions away from the critical region, i.e., in the regions where the HMC simulation cost is not so high. Then we use the trained C-GAN model to generate independent samples in the critical region. We perform both interpolation and extrapolation to the critical region. Thus, the overall computational cost is reduced. We test our approach for Gross-Neveu model in 1+1 dimension. We find that the observable distributions obtained from the proposed C-GAN model match with those obtained from HMC simulations, while circumventing the problem of critical slowing down.

  4 citations

• Anisotropic scaling of the two-dimensional Ising model II: surfaces and boundary fields

  Hendrik Hobrecht, Alfred Hucht

  SciPost Phys. 8, 032 (2020) · published 2 March 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Based on the results published recently [SciPost Phys. 7, 026 (2019)], the influence of surfaces and boundary fields are calculated for the ferromagnetic anisotropic square lattice Ising model on finite lattices as well as in the finite-size scaling limit. Starting with the open cylinder, we independently apply boundary fields on both sides which can be either homogeneous or staggered, representing different combinations of boundary conditions. We confirm several predictions from scaling theory, conformal field theory and renormalisation group theory: we explicitly show that anisotropic couplings enter the scaling functions through a generalised aspect ratio, and demonstrate that open and staggered boundary conditions are asymptotically equal in the scaling regime. Furthermore, we examine the emergence of the surface tension due to one antiperiodic boundary in the system in the presence of symmetry breaking boundary fields, again for finite systems as well as in the scaling limit. Finally, we extend our results to the antiferromagnetic Ising model.

  4 citations

• Proliferation of non-linear excitations in the piecewise-linear perceptron

  Antonio Sclocchi, Pierfrancesco Urbani

  SciPost Phys. 10, 013 (2021) · published 21 January 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the properties of local minima of the energy landscape of a continuous non-convex optimization problem, the spherical perceptron with piecewise linear cost function and show that they are critical, marginally stable and displaying a set of pseudogaps, singularities and non-linear excitations whose properties appear to be in the same universality class of jammed packings of hard spheres. The piecewise linear perceptron problem appears as an evolution of the purely linear perceptron optimization problem that has been recently investigated in [1]. Its cost function contains two non-analytic points where the derivative has a jump. Correspondingly, in the non-convex/glassy phase, these two points give rise to four pseudogaps in the force distribution and this induces four power laws in the gap distribution as well. In addition one can define an extended notion of isostaticity and show that local minima appear again to be isostatic in this phase. We believe that our results generalize naturally to more complex cases with a proliferation of non-linear excitations as the number of non-analytic points in the cost function is increased.

  4 citations

• Current-induced magnetization hysteresis defines atom trapping in a superconducting atomchip

  Fritz Diorico, Stefan Minniberger, Thomas Weigner, Benedikt Gerstenecker, Naz Shokrani, Zaneta Kurpias, Jorg Schmiedmayer

  SciPost Phys. 4, 036 (2018) · published 22 June 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The physics of superconducting films, and especially the role of remnant magnetization has a defining influence on the magnetic fields used to hold and manipulate atoms on superconducting atomchips. We magnetically trap ultracold ^{87}Rb atoms on a 200{\mu}m wide and 500nm thick cryogenically cooled niobium Z wire structure. By measuring the distance of the atomcloud to the trapping wire for different transport currents and bias fields, we probe the trapping characteristics of the niobium superconducting structure. At distances closer than the trapping wire width, we observe a different behaviour than that of normal conducting wire traps. Furthermore, we measure a stable magnetic trap at zero transport current. These observations point to the presence of a remnant magnetization in our niobium film which is induced by a transport current. This current-induced magnetization defines the trap close to the chip surface. Our measurements agree very well with an analytic prediction based on the critical state model (CSM). Our results provide a new tool to control atom trapping on superconducting atomchips by designing the current distribution through its current history.

  4 citations

• Large deviations in the symmetric simple exclusion process with slow boundaries: A hydrodynamic perspective

  Soumyabrata Saha, Tridib Sadhu

  SciPost Phys. 17, 033 (2024) · published 5 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We revisit the one-dimensional model of the symmetric simple exclusion process slowly coupled with two unequal reservoirs at the boundaries. In its non-equilibrium stationary state, the large deviations functions of density and current have been recently derived using exact microscopic analysis by Derrida, Hirschberg and Sadhu in [J. Stat. Phys. 182, 15 (2021)]. We present an independent derivation using the hydrodynamic approach of the macroscopic fluctuation theory (MFT). The slow coupling introduces additional boundary terms in the MFT-Action, which modifies the spatial boundary conditions for the associated variational problem. For the density large deviations, we explicitly solve the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equations using a simple local transformation of the optimal fields. For the current large deviations, our solution is obtained using the additivity principle. In addition to recovering the expression of the large deviations functions, our solution describes the most probable path for these rare fluctuations.

  4 citations

• Universal Entanglement Dynamics following a Local Quench

  Romain Vasseur, Hubert Saleur

  SciPost Phys. 3, 001 (2017) · published 6 July 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the time dependence of the entanglement between two quantum wires after suddenly connecting them via tunneling through an impurity. The result at large times is given by the well known formula $S(t) \approx {1\over 3}\ln {t}$. We show that the intermediate time regime can be described by a universal cross-over formula $S=F(tT_K)$, where $T_K$ is the crossover (Kondo) temperature: the function $F$ describes the dynamical "healing" of the system at large times. We discuss how to obtain analytic information about $F$ in the case of an integrable quantum impurity problem using the massless Form-Factors formalism for twist and boundary condition changing operators. Our results are confirmed by density matrix renormalization group calculations and exact free fermion numerics.

  4 citations

• Pressure-dependent structural and electronic instabilities in LaSb$_2$

  Theodore I. Weinberger, Christian K. de Podesta, Jiasheng Chen, Stephen A. Hodgson, F. Malte Grosche

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 11, 018 (2023) · published 6 June 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  LaSb$_2$ exhibits a large, non-saturating, linear magnetoresistance at low temperatures, defying the expectations of Fermi liquid theory. This is thought to be caused by charge density wave order emerging below an abrupt, hysteretic anomaly in the resistivity at $\sim$ 355 K. We find that, under hydrostatic pressure, this anomaly becomes much more pronounced, develops strong hysteresis, and shifts rapidly towards lower temperatures. The anomaly is fully suppressed by only 6 kbar. Moreover, we observe a second transition anomaly at lower temperature, which likewise disappears under pressure. These findings are discussed in the context of a structural transition recently discovered in the sister material CeSb$_2$ and of density functional theory calculations, which indicate that the SmSb$_2$-type structure adopted by LaSb$_2$ at ambient conditions is unstable at moderate applied pressures.

  4 citations

• Higher-order topology protected by latent crystalline symmetries

  Lumen Eek, Malte Röntgen, Anouar Moustaj, Cristiane Morais Smith

  SciPost Phys. 18, 061 (2025) · published 20 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate that rotation symmetry is not a necessary requirement for the existence of fractional corner charges in $C_n$-symmetric higher-order topological crystalline insulators. Instead, it is sufficient to have a latent rotation symmetry, which may be revealed upon performing an isospectral reduction on the system. We introduce the concept of a filling anomaly for latent crystalline symmetric systems, and propose modified topological invariants. The notion of higher-order topology in two dimensions protected by $C_n$ symmetry is thus generalized to a protection by latent symmetry. Our claims are corroborated by concrete examples of models that show non-trivial corner charge in the absence of $C_n$-symmetry. This work extends the classification of topological crystalline insulators to include latent symmetries.

  4 citations

• Temporal fluctuations of correlators in integrable and chaotic quantum systems

  Talía L. M. Lezama, Yevgeny Bar Lev, Lea F. Santos

  SciPost Phys. 15, 244 (2023) · published 18 December 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We provide bounds on temporal fluctuations around the infinite-time average of out-of-time-ordered and time-ordered correlators of many-body quantum systems without energy gap degeneracies. For physical initial states, our bounds predict the exponential decay of the temporal fluctuations as a function of the system size. We numerically verify this prediction for chaotic and interacting integrable spin-1/2 chains, which satisfy the assumption of our bounds. On the other hand, we show analytically and numerically that for the XX model, which is a noninteracting system with gap degeneracies, the temporal fluctuations decay polynomially with system size for operators that are local in the fermion representation and decrease exponentially in the system size for non-local operators. Our results demonstrate that the decay of the long-time temporal fluctuations of correlators cannot be used as a reliable metric of chaos or lack thereof.

  4 citations