Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• A real-time approach to frequency-mixing spectroscopies: Application to sum and difference frequency generation in two-dimensional crystals

  Mike N. Pionteck, Myrta Grüning, Simone Sanna, Claudio Attaccalite

  SciPost Phys. 19, 129 (2025) · published 18 November 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a computational framework to extract nonlinear response functions from real-time simulations in the presence of more than one external field. We apply this approach to the calculation of sum frequency generation (SFG) and difference frequency generation (DFG). SFG and DFG are second-order nonlinear processes where two lasers with frequencies $\omega_1$ and $\omega_2$ combine to produce a response at frequency $\omega = \omega_1 ± \omega_2$. Compared with other nonlinear responses such as second-harmonic generation, SFG and DFG allow for tunability over a larger range. Moreover, the optical response can be enhanced by selecting the two laser frequencies in order to match specific electron-hole transitions. To assess the approach, we calculate the SFG and DFG of two-dimensional crystals, h-BN and MoS$_2$ monolayers, from real-time solution of an effective Schrödinger equation. Within the effective Schrödinger equation, one can select from various levels of theory for the effective one-particle Hamiltonian to account for local-field effects and electron-hole interactions. We compare results obtained within the independent particle picture and including many-body effects. Such comparison allows us to identify and characterize excitonic features in the obtained spectra. Additionally, we demonstrate that our approach can also extract higher-order response functions, such as field-induced second-harmonic generation. We provide an example using the h-BN bilayer.

• Single-particle spectra and magnetic susceptibility in the Emery model: A dynamical mean-field perspective

  Yi-Ting Tseng, Mário O. Malcolms, Henri Menke, Marcel Klett, Thomas Schäfer, Philipp Hansmann

  SciPost Phys. 18, 145 (2025) · published 1 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate dynamical mean-field calculations of the three-band Emery model at the one- and two-particle level for material-realistic parameters of high-$T_c$ superconductors. Our study shows that even within dynamical mean-field theory, which accounts solely for temporal fluctuations, the intrinsic multi-orbital nature of the Emery model introduces effective non-local correlations. These correlations lead to a non-Curie-like temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility, consistent with nuclear magnetic resonance experiments in the pseudogap regime. By analyzing the temperature dependence of the uniform static spin susceptibility obtained by single-site and cluster dynamical mean-field theory, we find indications of emerging oxygen-copper singlet fluctuations, explicitly captured by the model. Despite correctly describing the hallmark of the pseudogap at the two-particle level, such as the drop in the Knight shift of nuclear magnetic resonance, dynamical mean-field theory fails to capture the spectral properties of the pseudogap.

• Quantum chaos in a harmonic waveguide with scatterers

  Vladimir Alexander Yurovsky

  SciPost Phys. 15, 221 (2023) · published 1 December 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A set of zero-range scatterers along its axis lifts the integrability of a harmonic waveguide. Effective solution of the Schrödinger equation for this model is possible due to the separable nature of the scatterers and millions of eigenstates can be calculated using modest computational resources. Integrability-chaos transition can be explored as the model chaoticity increases with the number of scatterers and their strengths. The regime of complete quantum chaos and eigenstate thermalization can be approached with 32 scatterers. This is confirmed by properties of energy spectra, the inverse participation ratio, and fluctuations of observable expectation values.

• Universality of closed nested paths in two-dimensional percolation

  Yu-Feng Song, Jesper Lykke Jacobsen, Bernard Nienhuis, Andrea Sportiello, Youjin Deng

  SciPost Phys. 18, 057 (2025) · published 18 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recent work on percolation in $d=2$ [J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 55, 204002 (2015)] introduced an operator that gives a weight $k^{\ell}$ to configurations with $\ell$ 'nested paths' (NP), i.e.\ disjoint cycles surrounding the origin, if there exists a cluster that percolates to the boundary of a disc of radius $L$, and weight zero otherwise. It was found that $\mathbb{E}(k^{\ell}) \sim L^{-X_{NP}(k)}$, and a formula for $X_{NP}(k)$ was conjectured. Here we derive an exact result for $X_{NP}(k)$, valid for $k ≥ -1$, replacing the previous conjecture. We find that the probability distribution $\mathbb{P}_\ell (L)$ scales as $ L^{-1/4} (\ln L)^\ell [(1/\ell!) \Lambda^\ell]$ when $\ell ≥ 0$ and $L \gg 1$, with $\Lambda = 1/\sqrt{3} \pi$. Extensive simulations for various critical percolation models confirm our theoretical predictions and support the universality of the NP observables.

• Characteristic features of an active polar filament pushing a load

  Prabhakar Maurya, Shalabh Kumar Anand, Sunil Pratap Singh

  SciPost Phys. 18, 189 (2025) · published 16 June 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the structural and dynamical behavior of an active polar filament that is pushing a load using overdamped Langevin dynamics simulations. By varying the bending rigidity and the connectivity between the filament and the load, we smoothly transition the boundary condition of the filament from pivoted to clamped. In the clamped state, the load remains strongly aligned with the filament, whereas in the pivoted state, the load is free to rotate at its attachment point. Under the pivoted boundary condition, the active polar filament buckles and exhibits various fascinating dynamical phases, including snake-like motion, rotational motion, and helical conformations. However, under the clamped boundary condition, the helical phase disappears, and the filament attains either an extended or a bent conformation. The transition from the extended state to the helical phase is characterized using a global helical order parameter in the parameter space of active force and a physical quantity associated with the boundary condition. We have obtained various power laws relating the curvature radius of the helical phase, effective diffusivity, and rotational motion of the monomers to the active force. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the filament’s effective diffusivity in the helical phase exhibits a non-monotonic dependence on the active force: it initially increases linearly but decreases sharply at high active force strengths.

• Dynamically restoring conformal invariance in (integrable) $\sigma$-models

  Rigers Aliaj, Konstantinos Sfetsos, Konstantinos Siampos

  SciPost Phys. 14, 043 (2023) · published 21 March 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Integrable $\lambda$-deformed $\sigma$-models are characterized by an underlying current algebra/coset model CFT deformed, at the infinitesimal level, by current/parafermion bilinears. We promote the deformation parameters to dynamical functions of time introduced as an extra coordinate. It is conceivable that by appropriately constraining them, the beta-functions vanish and consequently the $\sigma$-model stays conformal. Remarkably, we explicitly materialize this scenario in several cases having a single and even multiple deformation parameters. These generically obey a system of non-linear second-order ordinary differential equations. They are solved by the fixed points of the RG flow of the original $\sigma$-model. Moreover, by appropriately choosing initial conditions we may even interpolate between the RG fixed points as the time varies from the far past to the far future. Finally, we present an extension of our analysis to the Yang--Baxter deformed PCMs.

• Automated evaluation of imaginary time strong coupling diagrams by sum-of-exponentials hybridization fitting

  Zhen Huang, Denis Golež, Hugo U. R. Strand, Jason Kaye

  SciPost Phys. 19, 121 (2025) · published 7 November 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present an efficient separation of variables algorithm for the evaluation of imaginary time Feynman diagrams appearing in the bold pseudo-particle strong coupling expansion of the Anderson impurity model. The algorithm uses a fitting method based on AAA rational approximation and numerical optimization to obtain a sum-of-exponentials expansion of the hybridization function, which is then used to decompose the diagrams. A diagrammatic formulation of the algorithm leads to an automated procedure for diagrams of arbitrary order and topology. We also present methods of stabilizing the self-consistent solution of the pseudo-particle Dyson equation. The result is a low-cost and high-order accurate impurity solver for quantum embedding methods using general multi-orbital hybridization functions at low temperatures, appropriate for low-to-intermediate expansion orders. In addition to other benchmark examples, we use our solver to perform a dynamical mean-field theory study of a minimal model of the strongly correlated compound Ca$_2$RuO$_4$, describing the anti-ferromagnetic transition and the in- and out-of-plane anisotropy induced by spin-orbit coupling.

• Cryptographic tests of the python’s lunch conjecture

  Alex May, Sabrina Pasterski, Chris Waddell, Michelle Xu

  SciPost Phys. 19, 084 (2025) · published 2 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the AdS/CFT correspondence, a subregion of the CFT allows for the recovery of a corresponding subregion of the bulk known as its entanglement wedge. In some cases, an entanglement wedge contains a locally but not globally minimal surface homologous to the CFT subregion, in which case it is said to contain a python's lunch. It has been proposed that python's lunch geometries should be modelled by tensor networks that feature projective operations where the wedge narrows. This model leads to the python's lunch (PL) conjecture, which asserts that reconstructing information from past the locally minimal surface is computationally difficult. In this work, we use cryptographic tools related to a primitive known as the Conditional Disclosure of Secrets (CDS) to develop consequences of the projective tensor network model that can be checked directly in AdS/CFT. We argue from the tensor network picture that the mutual information between appropriate CFT subregions is lower bounded linearly by an area difference associated with the geometry of the lunch. Recalling that the mutual information is also computed by bulk extremal surfaces, this gives a checkable geometrical consequence of the tensor network model. We prove weakened versions of this geometrical statement in asymptotically AdS$_{2+1}$ spacetimes satisfying the null energy condition, and confirm it in some example geometries, supporting the tensor network model and by proxy the PL conjecture.

• Quantum scars and caustics in Majorana billiards

  R. Johanna Zijderveld, A. Mert Bozkurt, Michael Wimmer, İnanç Adagideli

  SciPost Phys. 17, 147 (2024) · published 28 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate that the classical dynamics influence the localization behaviour of Majorana wavefunctions in Majorana billiards. By using a connection between Majorana wavefunctions and eigenfunctions of a normal state Hamiltonian, we show that Majorana wavefunctions in both p-wave and s-wave topological superconductors inherit the properties of the underlying normal state eigenfunctions. As an example, we demonstrate that Majorana wavefunctions in topological superconductors with chaotic shapes feature quantum scarring. Furthermore, we show a way to manipulate a localized Majorana wavefunction by altering the underlying classical dynamics using a local potential away from the localization region. Finally, in the presence of chiral symmetry breaking, we find that the Majorana wavefunction in convex-shaped Majorana billiards exhibits caustics formation, reminiscent of a normal state system with magnetic field.

• Triplet character of 2D-fermion dimers arising from $s$-wave attraction via spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting

  Ulrich Ebling, Ulrich Zülicke, Joachim Brand

  SciPost Phys. 12, 167 (2022) · published 19 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We theoretically study spin-$1/2$ fermions confined to two spatial dimensions and experiencing isotropic short-range attraction in the presence of both spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman spin splitting - a prototypical system for developing topological superfluidity in the many-body sector. Exact solutions for two-particle bound states are found to have a triplet contribution that dominates over the singlet part in an extended region of parameter space where the combined Zeeman- and center-of-mass-motion-induced spin-splitting energy is large. The triplet character of dimers is purest in the regime of weak $s$-wave interaction strength. Center-of-mass momentum is one of the parameters determining the existence of bound states, which we map out for both two- and one-dimensional types of spin-orbit coupling. Distinctive features emerging in the orbital part of the bound-state wave function, including but not limited to its $p$-wave character, provide observable signatures of unconventional pairing.