Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Event generation with Sherpa 2.2

  Enrico Bothmann, Gurpreet Singh Chahal, Stefan Höche, Johannes Krause, Frank Krauss, Silvan Kuttimalai, Sebastian Liebschner, Davide Napoletano, Marek Schönherr, Holger Schulz, Steffen Schumann, Frank Siegert

  SciPost Phys. 7, 034 (2019) · published 18 September 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Sherpa is a general-purpose Monte Carlo event generator for the simulation of particle collisions in high-energy collider experiments. We summarize essential features and improvements of the Sherpa 2.2 release series, which is heavily used for event generation in the analysis and interpretation of LHC Run 1 and Run 2 data. We highlight a decade of developments towards ever higher precision in the simulation of particle-collision events.

  457 citations

• Emergent Gravity and the Dark Universe

  Erik P. Verlinde

  SciPost Phys. 2, 016 (2017) · published 16 May 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recent theoretical progress indicates that spacetime and gravity emerge together from the entanglement structure of an underlying microscopic theory. These ideas are best understood in Anti-de Sitter space, where they rely on the area law for entanglement entropy. The extension to de Sitter space requires taking into account the entropy and temperature associated with the cosmological horizon. Using insights from string theory, black hole physics and quantum information theory we argue that the positive dark energy leads to a thermal volume law contribution to the entropy that overtakes the area law precisely at the cosmological horizon. Due to the competition between area and volume law entanglement the microscopic de Sitter states do not thermalise at sub-Hubble scales: they exhibit memory effects in the form of an entropy displacement caused by matter. The emergent laws of gravity contain an additional 'dark' gravitational force describing the 'elastic' response due to the entropy displacement. We derive an estimate of the strength of this extra force in terms of the baryonic mass, Newton's constant and the Hubble acceleration scale $a_0$ =$cH_0$, and provide evidence for the fact that this additional 'dark gravity force' explains the observed phenomena in galaxies and clusters currently attributed to dark matter.

  291 citations

• QuSpin: a Python package for dynamics and exact diagonalisation of quantum many body systems part I: spin chains

  Phillip Weinberg, Marin Bukov

  SciPost Phys. 2, 003 (2017) · published 13 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a new open-source Python package for exact diagonalization and quantum dynamics of spin(-photon) chains, called QuSpin, supporting the use of various symmetries in 1-dimension and (imaginary) time evolution for chains up to 32 sites in length. The package is well-suited to study, among others, quantum quenches at finite and infinite times, the Eigenstate Thermalisation hypothesis, many-body localisation and other dynamical phase transitions, periodically-driven (Floquet) systems, adiabatic and counter-diabatic ramps, and spin-photon interactions. Moreover, QuSpin's user-friendly interface can easily be used in combination with other Python packages which makes it amenable to a high-level customisation. We explain how to use QuSpin using four detailed examples: (i) Standard exact diagonalisation of XXZ chain (ii) adiabatic ramping of parameters in the many-body localised XXZ model, (iii) heating in the periodically-driven transverse-field Ising model in a parallel field, and (iv) quantised light-atom interactions: recovering the periodically-driven atom in the semi-classical limit of a static Hamiltonian.

  270 citations

• Entanglement in a fermion chain under continuous monitoring

  Xiangyu Cao, Antoine Tilloy, Andrea De Luca

  SciPost Phys. 7, 024 (2019) · published 23 August 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the entanglement entropy of the quantum trajectories of a free fermion chain under continuous monitoring of local occupation numbers. We propose a simple theory for entanglement entropy evolution from disentangled and highly excited initial states. It is based on generalized hydrodynamics and the quasi-particle pair approach to entanglement in integrable systems. We test several quantitative predictions of the theory against extensive numerics and find good agreement. In particular, the volume law entanglement is destroyed by the presence of arbitrarily weak measurement.

  203 citations

• QuSpin: a Python package for dynamics and exact diagonalisation of quantum many body systems. Part II: bosons, fermions and higher spins

  Phillip Weinberg, Marin Bukov

  SciPost Phys. 7, 020 (2019) · published 9 August 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a major update to QuSpin, SciPostPhys.2.1.003 -- an open-source Python package for exact diagonalization and quantum dynamics of arbitrary boson, fermion and spin many-body systems, supporting the use of various (user-defined) symmetries in one and higher dimension and (imaginary) time evolution following a user-specified driving protocol. We explain how to use the new features of QuSpin using seven detailed examples of various complexity: (i) the transverse-field Ising chain and the Jordan-Wigner transformation, (ii) free particle systems: the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model, (iii) the many-body localized 1D Fermi-Hubbard model, (iv) the Bose-Hubbard model in a ladder geometry, (v) nonlinear (imaginary) time evolution and the Gross-Pitaevskii equation on a 1D lattice, (vi) integrability breaking and thermalizing dynamics in the translationally-invariant 2D transverse-field Ising model, and (vii) out-of-equilibrium Bose-Fermi mixtures. This easily accessible and user-friendly package can serve various purposes, including educational and cutting-edge experimental and theoretical research. The complete package documentation is available under http://weinbe58.github.io/QuSpin/index.html.

  190 citations

• Entanglement islands in higher dimensions

  Ahmed Almheiri, Raghu Mahajan, Jorge E. Santos

  SciPost Phys. 9, 001 (2020) · published 1 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  It has been suggested in recent work that the Page curve of Hawking radiation can be recovered using computations in semi-classical gravity provided one allows for "islands" in the gravity region of quantum systems coupled to gravity. The explicit computations so far have been restricted to black holes in two-dimensional Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity. In this note, we numerically construct a five-dimensional asymptotically AdS geometry whose boundary realizes a four-dimensional Hartle-Hawking state on an eternal AdS black hole in equilibrium with a bath. We also numerically find two types of extremal surfaces: ones that correspond to having or not having an island. The version of the information paradox involving the eternal black hole exists in this setup, and it is avoided by the presence of islands. Thus, recent computations exhibiting islands in two-dimensional gravity generalize to higher dimensions as well.

  183 citations

• Reproducing topological properties with quasi-Majorana states

  Adriaan Vuik, Bas Nijholt, Anton R. Akhmerov, Michael Wimmer

  SciPost Phys. 7, 061 (2019) · published 12 November 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Andreev bound states in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor devices can have near-zero energy in the topologically trivial regime as long as the confinement potential is sufficiently smooth. These quasi-Majorana states show zero-bias conductance features in a topologically trivial phase, mimicking spatially separated topological Majorana states. We show that in addition to the suppressed coupling between the quasi-Majorana states, also the coupling of these states across a tunnel barrier to the outside is exponentially different for increasing magnetic field. As a consequence, quasi-Majorana states mimic most of the proposed Majorana signatures: quantized zero-bias peaks, the $4\pi$ Josephson effect, and the tunneling spectrum in presence of a normal quantum dot. We identify a quantized conductance dip instead of a peak in the open regime as a distinguishing feature of true Majorana states in addition to having a bulk topological transition. Because braiding schemes rely only on the ability to couple to individual Majorana states, the exponential control over coupling strengths allows to also use quasi-Majorana states for braiding. Therefore, while the appearance of quasi-Majorana states complicates the observation of topological Majorana states, it opens an alternative route towards braiding of non-Abelian anyons and protected quantum computation.

  179 citations

• Entanglement dynamics after quantum quenches in generic integrable systems

  Vincenzo Alba, Pasquale Calabrese

  SciPost Phys. 4, 017 (2018) · published 27 March 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The time evolution of the entanglement entropy in non-equilibrium quantum systems provides crucial information about the structure of the time-dependent state. For quantum quench protocols, by combining a quasiparticle picture for the entanglement spreading with the exact knowledge of the stationary state provided by Bethe ansatz, it is possible to obtain an exact and analytic description of the evolution of the entanglement entropy. Here we discuss the application of these ideas to several integrable models. First we show that for non-interacting systems, both bosonic and fermionic, the exact time-dependence of the entanglement entropy can be derived by elementary techniques and without solving the dynamics. We then provide exact results for interacting spin chains that are carefully tested against numerical simulations. Finally, we apply this method to integrable one-dimensional Bose gases (Lieb-Liniger model) both in the attractive and repulsive regimes. We highlight a peculiar behaviour of the entanglement entropy due to the absence of a maximum velocity of excitations.

  175 citations

• Robust Independent Validation of Experiment and Theory: Rivet version 3

  Christian Bierlich, Andy Buckley, Jonathan Butterworth, Christian Holm Christensen, Louie Corpe, David Grellscheid, Jan Fiete Grosse-Oetringhaus, Christian Gutschow, Przemyslaw Karczmarczyk, Jochen Klein, Leif Lonnblad, Christopher Samuel Pollard, Peter Richardson, Holger Schulz, Frank Siegert

  SciPost Phys. 8, 026 (2020) · published 11 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  First released in 2010, the Rivet library forms an important repository for analysis code, facilitating comparisons between measurements of the final state in particle collisions and theoretical calculations of those final states. We give an overview of Rivet's current design and implementation, its uptake for analysis preservation and physics results, and summarise recent developments including propagation of MC systematic-uncertainty weights, heavy-ion and $ep$ physics, and systems for detector emulation. In addition, we provide a short user guide that supplements and updates the Rivet user manual.

  161 citations

• A Short Introduction to Topological Quantum Computation

  Ville Lahtinen, Jiannis K. Pachos

  SciPost Phys. 3, 021 (2017) · published 9 September 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This review presents an entry-level introduction to topological quantum computation -- quantum computing with anyons. We introduce anyons at the system-independent level of anyon models and discuss the key concepts of protected fusion spaces and statistical quantum evolutions for encoding and processing quantum information. Both the encoding and the processing are inherently resilient against errors due to their topological nature, thus promising to overcome one of the main obstacles for the realisation of quantum computers. We outline the general steps of topological quantum computation, as well as discuss various challenges faced it. We also review the literature on condensed matter systems where anyons can emerge. Finally, the appearance of anyons and employing them for quantum computation is demonstrated in the context of a simple microscopic model -- the topological superconducting nanowire -- that describes the low-energy physics of several experimentally relevant settings. This model supports localised Majorana zero modes that are the simplest and the experimentally most tractable types of anyons that are needed to perform topological quantum computation.

  159 citations