Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Quantum robustness and phase transitions of the 3D Toric Code in a field

  David A. Reiss, Kai Phillip Schmidt

  SciPost Phys. 6, 078 (2019) · published 27 June 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the robustness of 3D intrinsic topogical order under external perturbations by investigating the paradigmatic microscopic model, the 3D toric code in an external magnetic field. Exact dualities as well as variational calculations reveal a ground-state phase diagram with first and second-order quantum phase transitions. The variational approach can be applied without further approximations only for certain field directions. In the general field case, an approximative scheme based on an expansion of the variational energy in orders of the variational parameters is developed. For the breakdown of the 3D intrinsic topological order, it is found that the (im-)mobility of the quasiparticle excitations is crucial in contrast to their fractional statistics.

  13 citations

• Probing many-body localization in a disordered quantum dimer model on the honeycomb lattice

  Francesca Pietracaprina, Fabien Alet

  SciPost Phys. 10, 044 (2021) · published 22 February 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We numerically study the possibility of many-body localization transition in a disordered quantum dimer model on the honeycomb lattice. By using the peculiar constraints of this model and state-of-the-art exact diagonalization and time evolution methods, we probe both eigenstates and dynamical properties and conclude on the existence of a localization transition, on the available time and length scales (system sizes of up to N=108 sites). We critically discuss these results and their implications.

  13 citations

• Quantum Monte Carlo simulations in the trimer basis: first-order transitions and thermal critical points in frustrated trilayer magnets

  Lukas Weber, Andreas Honecker, Bruce Normand, Philippe Corboz, Frédéric Mila, Stefan Wessel

  SciPost Phys. 12, 054 (2022) · published 8 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The phase diagrams of highly frustrated quantum spin systems can exhibit first-order quantum phase transitions and thermal critical points even in the absence of any long-ranged magnetic order. However, all unbiased numerical techniques for investigating frustrated quantum magnets face significant challenges, and for generic quantum Monte Carlo methods the challenge is the sign problem. Here we report on a general quantum Monte Carlo approach with a loop-update scheme that operates in any basis, and we show that, with an appropriate choice of basis, it allows us to study a frustrated model of coupled spin-1/2 trimers: simulations of the trilayer Heisenberg antiferromagnet in the spin-trimer basis are sign-problem-free when the intertrimer couplings are fully frustrated. This model features a first-order quantum phase transition, from which a line of first-order transitions emerges at finite temperatures and terminates in a thermal critical point. The trimer unit cell hosts an internal degree of freedom that can be controlled to induce an extensive entropy jump at the quantum transition, which alters the shape of the first-order line. We explore the consequences for the thermal properties in the vicinity of the critical point, which include profound changes in the lines of maxima defined by the specific heat. Our findings reveal trimer quantum magnets as fundamental systems capturing in full the complex thermal physics of the strongly frustrated regime.

  13 citations

• Chiral magnetism: a geometric perspective

  Daniel Hill, Valeriy Slastikov, Oleg Tchernyshyov

  SciPost Phys. 10, 078 (2021) · published 29 March 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss a geometric perspective on chiral ferromagnetism. Much like gravity becomes the effect of spacetime curvature in theory of relativity, the Dzyaloshinski-Moriya interaction arises in a Heisenberg model with nontrivial spin parallel transport. The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya vectors serve as a background SO(3) gauge field. In 2 spatial dimensions, the model is partly solvable when an applied magnetic field matches the gauge curvature. At this special point, solutions to the Bogomolny equation are exact excited states of the model. We construct a variational ground state in the form of a skyrmion crystal and confirm its viability by Monte Carlo simulations. The geometric perspective offers insights into important problems in magnetism, e.g., conservation of spin current in the presence of chiral interactions.

  13 citations

• Thermalization and hydrodynamics of two-dimensional quantum field theories

  Luca V. Delacretaz, A. Liam Fitzpatrick, Emanuel Katz, Matthew T. Walters

  SciPost Phys. 12, 119 (2022) · published 7 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider 2d QFTs as relevant deformations of CFTs in the thermodynamic limit. Using causality and KPZ universality, we place a lower bound on the timescale characterizing the onset of hydrodynamics. The bound is determined parametrically in terms of the temperature and the scale associated with the relevant deformation. This bound is typically much stronger than $\frac{1}{T}$, the expected quantum equilibration time. Subluminality of sound further allows us to define a thermodynamic $C$-function, and constrain the sign of the $\mathcal T\bar{\mathcal T}$ term in EFTs.

  13 citations

• Exact hydrodynamic solution of a double domain wall melting in the spin-1/2 XXZ model

  Stefano Scopa , Pasquale Calabrese, Jérôme Dubail

  SciPost Phys. 12, 207 (2022) · published 28 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of a one-dimensional spin-1/2 XXZ model at zero-temperature in the regime $|\Delta|< 1$, initially prepared in a product state with two domain walls i.e, $|\downarrow\dots\downarrow\uparrow\dots\uparrow\downarrow\dots\downarrow\rangle$. At early times, the two domain walls evolve independently and only after a calculable time a non-trivial interplay between the two emerges and results in the occurrence of a split Fermi sea. For $\Delta=0$, we derive exact asymptotic results for the magnetization and the spin current by using a semi-classical Wigner function approach, and we exactly determine the spreading of entanglement entropy exploiting the recently developed tools of quantum fluctuating hydrodynamics. In the interacting case, we analytically solve the Generalized Hydrodynamics equation providing exact expressions for the conserved quantities. We display some numerical results for the entanglement entropy also in the interacting case and we propose a conjecture for its asymptotic value.

  13 citations

• Exotic invertible phases with higher-group symmetries

  Po-Shen Hsin, Wenjie Ji, Chao-Ming Jian

  SciPost Phys. 12, 052 (2022) · published 3 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate a family of invertible phases of matter with higher-dimensional exotic excitations in even spacetime dimensions, which includes and generalizes the Kitaev's chain in 1+1d. The excitation has $\mathbb{Z}_2$ higher-form symmetry that mixes with the spacetime Lorentz symmetry to form a higher group spacetime symmetry. We focus on the invertible exotic loop topological phase in 3+1d. This invertible phase is protected by the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ one-form symmetry and the time-reversal symmetry, and has surface thermal Hall conductance not realized in conventional time-reversal symmetric ordinary bosonic systems without local fermion particles and the exotic loops. We describe a UV realization of the invertible exotic loop topological order using the $SO(3)_-$ gauge theory with unit discrete theta parameter, which enjoys the same spacetime two-group symmetry. We discuss several applications including the analogue of ``fermionization'' for ordinary bosonic theories with $\mathbb{Z}_2$ non-anomalous internal higher-form symmetry and time-reversal symmetry.

  12 citations

• Circular Rosenzweig-Porter random matrix ensemble

  Wouter Buijsman, Yevgeny Bar Lev

  SciPost Phys. 12, 082 (2022) · published 3 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Rosenzweig-Porter random matrix ensemble serves as a qualitative phenomenological model for the level statistics and fractality of eigenstates across the many-body localization transition in static systems. We propose a unitary (circular) analogue of this ensemble, which similarly captures the phenomenology of many-body localization in periodically driven (Floquet) systems. We define this ensemble as the outcome of a Dyson Brownian motion process. We show numerical evidence that this ensemble shares some key statistical properties with the Rosenzweig-Porter ensemble for both the eigenvalues and the eigenstates.

  12 citations

• Subsystem non-invertible symmetry operators and defects

  Weiguang Cao, Linhao Li, Masahito Yamazaki, Yunqin Zheng

  SciPost Phys. 15, 155 (2023) · published 12 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We explore non-invertible symmetries in two-dimensional lattice models with subsystem $\mathbb Z_2$ symmetry. We introduce a subsystem $\mathbb Z_2$-gauging procedure, called the subsystem Kramers-Wannier transformation, which generalizes the ordinary Kramers-Wannier transformation. The corresponding duality operators and defects are constructed by gaugings on the whole or half of the Hilbert space. By gauging twice, we derive fusion rules of duality operators and defects, which enriches ordinary Ising fusion rules with subsystem features. Subsystem Kramers-Wannier duality defects are mobile in both spatial directions, unlike the defects of invertible subsystem symmetries. We finally comment on the anomaly of the subsystem Kramers-Wannier duality symmetry, and discuss its subtleties.

  12 citations

• String correlators on $\text{AdS}_3$: Analytic structure and dual CFT

  Andrea Dei, Lorenz Eberhardt

  SciPost Phys. 13, 053 (2022) · published 6 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We continue our study of string correlators on Euclidean $\text{AdS}_3$ with pure NS-NS flux. The worldsheet and spacetime correlators have a rich analytic structure, which we analyse completely for genus 0 four-point functions. We show that correlators exhibit a simple behaviour near their singularities. The spacetime correlators are meromorphic functions in the $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$-spins, whose pole structure is shown to agree with the prediction of a recent proposal for the dual $\text{CFT}_2$. Moreover, we also compute the residues of the spacetime correlators for some of the poles exactly and find again a perfect match with the proposal for the dual $\text{CFT}_2$, thereby checking the duality for some non-trivial four-point functions exactly. Our computations simplify drastically in the tensionless limit of $\mathrm{AdS}_3 \times \mathrm{S}^3 \times \mathbb{T}^4$ where the behaviour near the poles gives in fact the exact answer. This paper is the third in a series with several installments.

  12 citations