Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Nonequilibrium phases of ultracold bosons with cavity-induced dynamic gauge fields

  Arkadiusz Kosior, Helmut Ritsch, Farokh Mivehvar

  SciPost Phys. 15, 046 (2023) · published 3 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Gauge fields are a central concept in fundamental theories of physics, and responsible for mediating long-range interactions between elementary particles. Recently, it has been proposed that dynamical gauge fields can be naturally engineered by photons in composite, neutral quantum gas-cavity systems using suitable atom-photon interactions. Here we comprehensively investigate nonequilibrium dynamical phases appearing in a two-leg bosonic lattice model with leg-dependent, dynamical complex tunnelings mediated by cavity-assisted two-photon Raman processes. The system constitutes a minimal dynamical flux-lattice model. We study fixed points of the equations of motion and their stability, the resultant dynamical phase diagram, and the corresponding phase transitions and bifurcations. Notably, the phase diagram features a plethora of nonequilibrium dynamical phases including limit-cycle and chaotic phases. In the end, we relate regular periodic dynamics (i.e., limit-cycle phases) of the system to time crystals.

  12 citations

• Higher-order topological superconductors from Weyl semimetals

  Ammar Jahin , Apoorv Tiwari , Yuxuan Wang

  SciPost Phys. 12, 053 (2022) · published 4 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose that doped Weyl semimetals with {time-reversal and certain crystalline symmetries} are natural candidates to realize higher-order topological superconductors, which exhibit a fully gapped bulk while the surface hosts robust gapless chiral hinge states. We show that in such a doped Weyl semimetal, a featureless finite-range attractive interaction favors a $p+ip$ pairing symmetry. By analyzing its topological properties, we identify such a chiral pairing state as a higher-order topological superconductor, which depending on the existence of a four-fold rotoinversion symmetry, is either intrinsic, {meaning that the corresponding hinge states can only be removed by closing the bulk gap, rather than modifying the surface states}, or extrinsic. We achieve this understanding via various methods recently developed for higher-order topology, including Wannier representability, Wannier spectrum, and defect classification approaches. For the four-fold rotoinversion symmetric case, we provide a complete classification of the higher-order topological superconductors. We show that such second-order topological superconductors exhibit chiral hinge modes that are robust in the absence of interaction effects but can be eliminated at the cost of introducing surface topological order.

  12 citations

• Stripes in the extended $t-t^\prime$ Hubbard model: A Variational Monte Carlo analysis

  Vito Marino, Federico Becca, Luca F. Tocchio

  SciPost Phys. 12, 180 (2022) · published 1 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  By using variational quantum Monte Carlo techniques, we investigate the instauration of stripes (i.e., charge and spin inhomogeneities) in the Hubbard model on the square lattice at hole doping $\delta=1/8$, with both nearest- ($t$) and next-nearest-neighbor hopping ($t^\prime$). Stripes with different wavelengths $\lambda$ (denoting the periodicity of the charge inhomogeneity) and character (bond- or site-centered) are stabilized for sufficiently large values of the electron-electron interaction $U/t$. The general trend is that $\lambda$ increases going from negative to positive values of $t^\prime/t$ and decreases by increasing $U/t$. In particular, the $\lambda=8$ stripe obtained for $t^\prime=0$ and $U/t=8$ [L.F. Tocchio, A. Montorsi, and F. Becca, SciPost Phys. 7, 21 (2019)] shrinks to $\lambda=6$ for $U/t\gtrsim 10$. For $t^\prime/t<0$, the stripe with $\lambda=5$ is found to be remarkably stable, while for $t^\prime/t>0$, stripes with wavelength $\lambda=12$ and $\lambda=16$ are also obtained. In all these cases, pair-pair correlations are highly suppressed with respect to the uniform state (obtained for large values of $|t^\prime/t|$), suggesting that striped states are not superconducting at $\delta=1/8$.

  12 citations

• A general definition of $JT_a$ -- deformed QFTs

  Tarek Anous, Monica Guica

  SciPost Phys. 10, 096 (2021) · published 30 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a general path-integral definition of two-dimensional quantum field theories deformed by an integrable, irrelevant vector operator constructed from the components of the stress tensor and those of a $U(1)$ current. The deformed theory is obtained by coupling the original QFT to a flat dynamical gauge field and "half" a flat dynamical vielbein. The resulting partition function is shown to satisfy a geometric flow equation, which perfectly reproduces the flow equations for the deformed energy levels that were previously derived in the literature. The S-matrix of the deformed QFT differs from the original S-matrix only by an overall phase factor that depends on the charges and momenta of the external particles, thus supporting the conjecture that such QFTs are UV complete, although intrinsically non-local. For the special case of an integrable QFT, we check that this phase factor precisely reproduces the change in the finite-size spectrum via the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz equations.

  12 citations

• Skyrmion crystals in the triangular Kondo lattice model

  Zhentao Wang, Cristian D. Batista

  SciPost Phys. 15, 161 (2023) · published 13 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a systematic study of the formation of skyrmion crystals in a triangular Kondo Lattice model for generic electron filling fractions. Our results indicate that the four-sublattice chiral antiferromagnetic ordering that was reported more than one decade ago can be understood as the dense limit of a sequence of skyrmion crystals whose lattice parameter is dictated by the Fermi wave-vector. This observation has important implications for the ongoing search of skyrmion crystals in metallic materials with localized magnetic moments.

  12 citations

• Numerical evaluation of two-time correlation functions in open quantum systems with matrix product state methods: a comparison

  Stefan Wolff, Ameneh Sheikhan, Corinna Kollath

  SciPost Phys. Core 3, 010 (2020) · published 6 November 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compare the efficiency of different matrix product state (MPS) based methods for the calculation of two-time correlation functions in open quantum systems. The methods are the purification approach [1] and two approaches [2,3] based on the Monte-Carlo wave function (MCWF) sampling of stochastic quantum trajectories using MPS techniques. We consider a XXZ spin chain either exposed to dephasing noise or to a dissipative local spin flip. We find that the preference for one of the approaches in terms of numerical efficiency depends strongly on the specific form of dissipation.

  12 citations

• Analyticity of critical exponents of the $O(N)$ models from nonperturbative renormalization

  Andrzej Chlebicki, Pawel Jakubczyk

  SciPost Phys. 10, 134 (2021) · published 7 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We employ the functional renormalization group framework at the second order in the derivative expansion to study the $O(N)$ models continuously varying the number of field components $N$ and the spatial dimensionality $d$. We in particular address the Cardy-Hamber prediction concerning nonanalytical behavior of the critical exponents $\nu$ and $\eta$ across a line in the $(d,N)$ plane, which passes through the point $(2,2)$. By direct numerical evaluation of $\eta(d,N)$ and $\nu^{-1}(d,N)$ as well as analysis of the functional fixed-point profiles, we find clear indications of this line in the form of a crossover between two regimes in the $(d,N)$ plane, however no evidence of discontinuous or singular first and second derivatives of these functions for $d>2$. The computed derivatives of $\eta(d,N)$ and $\nu^{-1}(d,N)$ become increasingly large for $d\to 2$ and $N\to 2$ and it is only in this limit that $\eta(d,N)$ and $\nu^{-1}(d,N)$ as obtained by us are evidently nonanalytical. By scanning the dependence of the subleading eigenvalue of the RG transformation on $N$ for $d>2$ we find no indication of its vanishing as anticipated by the Cardy-Hamber scenario. For dimensionality $d$ approaching 3 there are no signatures of the Cardy-Hamber line even as a crossover and its existence in the form of a nonanalyticity of the anticipated form is excluded.

  12 citations

• Symplectic reduction of Yang-Mills theory with boundaries: from superselection sectors to edge modes, and back

  Aldo Riello

  SciPost Phys. 10, 125 (2021) · published 1 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  I develop a theory of symplectic reduction that applies to bounded regions in electromagnetism and Yang-Mills theory. In this theory gauge-covariant superselection sectors for the electric flux through the boundary of the region play a central role: within such sectors, there exists a natural, canonically defined, symplectic structure for the reduced Yang-Mills theory. This symplectic structure does not require the inclusion of any new degrees of freedom. In the non-Abelian case, it also supports a family of Hamiltonian vector fields, which I call ``flux rotations,'' generated by smeared, Poisson-non-commutative, electric fluxes. Since the action of flux rotations affects the total energy of the system, I argue that flux rotations fail to be dynamical symmetries of Yang-Mills theory restricted to a region. I also consider the possibility of defining a symplectic structure on the union of all superselection sectors. This in turn requires including additional boundary degrees of freedom aka ``edge modes.'' However, I argue that a commonly used phase space extension by edge modes is inherently ambiguous and gauge-breaking.

  12 citations

• Computing associators of endomorphism fusion categories

  Daniel Barter, Jacob C. Bridgeman, Ramona Wolf

  SciPost Phys. 13, 029 (2022) · published 19 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Many applications of fusion categories, particularly in physics, require the associators or $F$-symbols to be known explicitly. Finding these matrices typically involves solving vast systems of coupled polynomial equations in large numbers of variables. In this work, we present an algorithm that allows associator data for some category with unknown associator to be computed from a Morita equivalent category with known data. Given a module category over the latter, we utilize the representation theory of a module tube category, built from the known data, to compute this unknown associator data. When the input category is unitary, we discuss how to ensure the obtained data is also unitary. We provide several worked examples to illustrate this algorithm. In addition, we include several Mathematica files showing how the algorithm can be used to compute the data for the Haagerup category $\mathcal{H}_1$, whose data was previously unknown.

  12 citations

• Optimizing Clifford gate generation for measurement-only topological quantum computation with Majorana zero modes

  Alan Tran, Alex Bocharov, Bela Bauer, Parsa Bonderson

  SciPost Phys. 8, 091 (2020) · published 24 June 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  One of the main challenges for quantum computation is that while the number of gates required to perform a non-trivial quantum computation may be very large, decoherence and errors in realistic quantum architectures limit the number of physical gate operations that can be performed coherently. Therefore, an optimal mapping of the quantum algorithm into the physically available set of operations is of crucial importance. We examine this problem for a measurement-only topological quantum computer based on Majorana zero modes, where gates are performed through sequences of measurements. Such a scheme has been proposed as a practical, scalable approach to process quantum information in an array of topological qubits built using Majorana zero modes. Building on previous work that has shown that multi-qubit Clifford gates can be enacted in a topologically protected fashion in such qubit networks, we discuss methods to obtain the optimal measurement sequence for a given Clifford gate under the constraints imposed by the physical architecture, such as layout and the relative difficulty of implementing different types of measurements. Our methods also provide tools for comparative analysis of different architectures and strategies, given experimental characterizations of particular aspects of the systems under consideration. As a further non-trivial demonstration, we discuss an implementation of the surface code in Majorana-based topological qubits. We use the techniques developed here to obtain an optimized measurement sequence that implements the stabilizer measurements using only fermionic parity measurements on nearest-neighbor topological qubit islands.

  12 citations