Publications

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• Lieb-Schultz-Mattis anomalies and web of dualities induced by gauging in quantum spin chains

  Ömer Mert Aksoy, Christopher Mudry, Akira Furusaki, Apoorv Tiwari

  SciPost Phys. 16, 022 (2024) · published 22 January 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) theorems impose non-perturbative constraints on the zero-temperature phase diagrams of quantum lattice Hamiltonians (always assumed to be local in this paper). LSM theorems have recently been interpreted as the lattice counterparts to mixed 't Hooft anomalies in quantum field theories that arise from a combination of crystalline and global internal symmetry groups. Accordingly, LSM theorems have been reinterpreted as LSM anomalies. In this work, we provide a systematic diagnostic for LSM anomalies in one spatial dimension. We show that gauging subgroups of the global internal symmetry group of a quantum lattice model obeying an LSM anomaly delivers a dual quantum lattice Hamiltonian such that its internal and crystalline symmetries mix non-trivially through a group extension. This mixing of crystalline and internal symmetries after gauging is a direct consequence of the LSM anomaly, i.e., it can be used as a diagnostic of an LSM anomaly. We exemplify this procedure for a quantum spin-1/2 chain obeying an LSM anomaly resulting from combining a global internal $\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2}×\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2}$ symmetry with translation or reflection symmetry. We establish a triality of models by gauging a $\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2}\subset\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2}×\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2}$ symmetry in two ways, one of which amounts to performing a Kramers-Wannier duality, while the other implements a Jordan-Wigner duality. We discuss the mapping of the phase diagram of the quantum spin-1/2 $XYZ$ chains under such a triality. We show that the deconfined quantum critical transitions between Neel and dimer orders are mapped to either topological or conventional Landau-Ginzburg transitions. Finally, we extend our results to $\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{n}$ clock models with $\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{n}×\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{n}$ global internal symmetry, and provide a reinterpretation of the dual internal symmetries in terms of $\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{n}$ charge and dipole symmetries.

  16 citations

• Real-time dynamics of the $O(4)$ scalar theory within the fRG approach

  Yang-yang Tan, Yong-rui Chen, Wei-jie Fu

  SciPost Phys. 12, 026 (2022) · published 18 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper, the real-time dynamics of the $O(4)$ scalar theory is studied within the functional renormalization group formulated on the Schwinger-Keldysh closed time path. The flow equations for the effective action and its $n$-point correlation functions are derived in terms of the "classical" and "quantum" fields, and a concise diagrammatic representation is presented. An analytic expression for the flow of the four-point vertex is obtained. Spectral functions with different values of temperature and momentum are obtained. Moreover, we calculate the dynamical critical exponent for the phase transition near the critical temperature in the $O(4)$ scalar theory in $3+1$ dimensions, and the value is found to be $z\simeq 2.023$.

  16 citations

• Scaling at quantum phase transitions above the upper critical dimension

  A. Langheld, J. A. Koziol, P. Adelhardt, S. C. Kapfer, K. P. Schmidt

  SciPost Phys. 13, 088 (2022) · published 10 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The hyperscaling relation and standard finite-size scaling (FSS) are known to break down above the upper critical dimension due to dangerous irrelevant variables. We establish a coherent formalism for FSS at quantum phase transitions above the upper critical dimension following the recently introduced Q-FSS formalism for thermal phase transitions. Contrary to long-standing belief, the correlation sector is affected by dangerous irrelevant variables. The presented formalism recovers a generalized hyperscaling relation and FSS form. Using this new FSS formalism, we determine the full set of critical exponents for the long-range transverse-field Ising chain in all criticality regimes ranging from the nearest-neighbor to the long-range mean field regime. For the same model, we also explicitly confirm the effect of dangerous irrelevant variables on the characteristic length scale.

  16 citations

• Massive Corrections to Entanglement in Minimal E8 Toda Field Theory

  Olalla A. Castro-Alvaredo

  SciPost Phys. 2, 008 (2017) · published 28 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this letter we study the exponentially decaying corrections to saturation of the second R\'enyi entropy of one interval of length L in minimal E8 Toda field theory. It has been known for some time that the entanglement entropy of a massive quantum field theory in 1+1 dimensions saturates to a constant value for m1 L <<1 where m1 is the mass of the lightest particle in the spectrum. Subsequently, results by Cardy, Castro-Alvaredo and Doyon have shown that there are exponentially decaying corrections to this behaviour which are characterised by Bessel functions with arguments proportional to m1 L. For the von Neumann entropy the leading correction to saturation takes the precise universal form -K0(2m1 L)/8 whereas for the R\'enyi entropies leading corrections which are proportional to K0(m1 L) are expected. Recent numerical work by P\'almai for the second R\'enyi entropy of minimal E8 Toda has found next-to-leading order corrections decaying as exp(-2m1 L) rather than the expected exp(-m1 L). In this paper we investigate the origin of this result and show that it is incorrect. An exact form factor computation of correlators of branch point twist fields reveals that the leading corrections are proportional to K0(m1 L) as expected.

  16 citations

• The classical two-dimensional Heisenberg model revisited: An $SU(2)$-symmetric tensor network study

  Philipp Schmoll, Augustine Kshetrimayum, Jens Eisert, Román Orús, Matteo Rizzi

  SciPost Phys. 11, 098 (2021) · published 29 November 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The classical Heisenberg model in two spatial dimensions constitutes one of the most paradigmatic spin models, taking an important role in statistical and condensed matter physics to understand magnetism. Still, despite its paradigmatic character and the widely accepted ban of a (continuous) spontaneous symmetry breaking, controversies remain whether the model exhibits a phase transition at finite temperature. Importantly, the model can be interpreted as a lattice discretization of the $O(3)$ non-linear sigma model in $1+1$ dimensions, one of the simplest quantum field theories encompassing crucial features of celebrated higher-dimensional ones (like quantum chromodynamics in $3+1$ dimensions), namely the phenomenon of asymptotic freedom. This should also exclude finite-temperature transitions, but lattice effects might play a significant role in correcting the mainstream picture. In this work, we make use of state-of-the-art tensor network approaches, representing the classical partition function in the thermodynamic limit over a large range of temperatures, to comprehensively explore the correlation structure for Gibbs states. By implementing an $SU(2)$ symmetry in our two-dimensional tensor network contraction scheme, we are able to handle very large effective bond dimensions of the environment up to $\chi_E^\text{eff} \sim 1500$, a feature that is crucial in detecting phase transitions. With decreasing temperatures, we find a rapidly diverging correlation length, whose behaviour is apparently compatible with the two main contradictory hypotheses known in the literature, namely a finite-$T$ transition and asymptotic freedom, though with a slight preference for the second.

  16 citations

• Open XXZ chain and boundary modes at zero temperature

  Sebastian Grijalva, Jacopo De Nardis, Veronique Terras

  SciPost Phys. 7, 023 (2019) · published 20 August 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the open XXZ spin chain in the anti-ferromagnetic regime and for generic longitudinal magnetic fields at the two boundaries. We discuss the ground state via the Bethe ansatz and we show that, for a chain of even length L and in a regime where both boundary magnetic fields are equal and bounded by a critical field, the spectrum is gapped and the ground state is doubly degenerate up to exponentially small corrections in L. We connect this degeneracy to the presence of a boundary root, namely an excitation localized at one of the two boundaries. We compute the local magnetization at the left edge of the chain and we show that, due to the existence of a boundary root, this depends also on the value of the field at the opposite edge, even in the half-infinite chain limit. Moreover we give an exact expression for the large time limit of the spin autocorrelation at the boundary, which we explicitly compute in terms of the form factor between the two quasi-degenerate ground states. This, as we show, turns out to be equal to the contribution of the boundary root to the local magnetization. We finally discuss the case of chains of odd length.

  16 citations

• Toward a 3d Ising model with a weakly-coupled string theory dual

  Nabil Iqbal, John McGreevy

  SciPost Phys. 9, 019 (2020) · published 13 August 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  It has long been expected that the 3d Ising model can be thought of as a string theory, where one interprets the domain walls that separate up spins from down spins as two-dimensional string worldsheets. The usual Ising Hamiltonian measures the area of these domain walls. This theory has string coupling of unit magnitude. We add new local terms to the Ising Hamiltonian that further weight each spin configuration by a factor depending on the genus of the corresponding domain wall, resulting in a new 3d Ising model that has a tunable bare string coupling $g_s$. We use a combination of analytical and numerical methods to analyze the phase structure of this model as $g_s$ is varied. We study statistical properties of the topology of worldsheets and discuss the prospects of using this new deformation at weak string coupling to find a worldsheet description of the 3d Ising transition.

  16 citations

• Spin-liquid behaviour and the interplay between Pokrovsky-Talapov and Ising criticality in the distorted, triangular-lattice, dipolar Ising antiferromagnet

  Andrew Smerald, Frederic Mila

  SciPost Phys. 5, 030 (2018) · published 28 September 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the triangular-lattice Ising model with dipolar interactions, inspired by its realisation in artificial arrays of nanomagnets. We show that a classical spin-liquid forms at intermediate temperatures, and that its behaviour can be tuned by temperature and/or a small lattice distortion between a string Luttinger liquid and a domain-wall-network state. At low temperature there is a transition into a magnetically ordered phase, which can be first-order or continous with a crossover in the critical behaviour between Pokrovsky-Talapov and 2D-Ising universality. When the Pokrovsky-Talapov criticality dominates, the transition is essentially of the Kasteleyn type.

  16 citations

• Density induced vacuum instability

  Reuven Balkin, Javi Serra, Konstantin Springmann, Stefan Stelzl, Andreas Weiler

  SciPost Phys. 14, 071 (2023) · published 14 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider matter density effects in theories with a false ground state. Large and dense systems, such as stars, can destabilize a metastable minimum and allow for the formation of bubbles of the true minimum. We derive the conditions under which these bubbles form, as well as the conditions under which they either remain confined to the dense region or escape to infinity. The latter case leads to a phase transition in the universe at star formation. We explore the phenomenological consequences of such seeded phase transitions.

  16 citations

• Local optimization on pure Gaussian state manifolds

  Bennet Windt, Alexander Jahn, Jens Eisert, Lucas Hackl

  SciPost Phys. 10, 066 (2021) · published 11 March 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We exploit insights into the geometry of bosonic and fermionic Gaussian states to develop an efficient local optimization algorithm to extremize arbitrary functions on these families of states. The method is based on notions of gradient descent attuned to the local geometry which also allows for the implementation of local constraints. The natural group action of the symplectic and orthogonal group enables us to compute the geometric gradient efficiently. While our parametrization of states is based on covariance matrices and linear complex structures, we provide compact formulas to easily convert from and to other parametrization of Gaussian states, such as wave functions for pure Gaussian states, quasiprobability distributions and Bogoliubov transformations. We review applications ranging from approximating ground states to computing circuit complexity and the entanglement of purification that have both been employed in the context of holography. Finally, we use the presented methods to collect numerical and analytical evidence for the conjecture that Gaussian purifications are sufficient to compute the entanglement of purification of arbitrary mixed Gaussian states.

  16 citations