Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Theory of Andreev blockade in a double quantum dot with a superconducting lead

  David Pekker, Po Zhang, Sergey M. Frolov

  SciPost Phys. 11, 081 (2021) · published 22 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A normal metal source reservoir can load two electrons onto a double quantum dot in the spin-triplet configuration. We show that if the drain lead of the dot is a spin-singlet superconductor, these electrons cannot form a Cooper pair and are blockaded on the double dot. We call this phenomenon Andreev blockade because it arises due to suppressed Andreev reflections. We identify transport characteristics unique to Andreev blockade. Most significantly, it occurs for any occupation of the dot adjacent to the superconductor, in contrast with the well-studied Pauli blockade which requires odd occupations. Andreev blockade is lifted if quasiparticles are allowed to enter the superconducting lead, but it should be observable in the hard gap superconductor-semiconductor devices. A recent experiment tests this model and finds support for several predictions made here [P. Zhang, H. Wu, J. Chen, S. A. Khan, P. Krogstrup, D. Pekker, and S. M. Frolov, arXiv:2102.03283 (2021)]. Andreev blockade should be considered in the design of topological quantum circuits, hybrid quantum bits and quantum emulators.

  4 citations

• Superflow decay in a toroidal Bose gas: The effect of quantum and thermal fluctuations

  Zain Mehdi, Ashton S. Bradley, Joseph J. Hope, Stuart S. Szigeti

  SciPost Phys. 11, 080 (2021) · published 21 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We theoretically investigate the stochastic decay of persistent currents in a toroidal ultracold atomic superfluid caused by a perturbing barrier. Specifically, we perform detailed three-dimensional simulations to model the experiment of Kumar et al. in [Phys. Rev. A 95 021602 (2017)], which observed a strong temperature dependence in the timescale of superflow decay in an ultracold Bose gas. Our ab initio numerical approach exploits a classical-field framework that includes thermal fluctuations due to interactions between the superfluid and a thermal cloud, as well as the intrinsic quantum fluctuations of the Bose gas. In the low-temperature regime our simulations provide a quantitative description of the experimental decay timescales, improving on previous numerical and analytical approaches. At higher temperatures, our simulations give decay timescales that range over the same orders of magnitude observed in the experiment, however, there are some quantitative discrepancies that are not captured by any of the mechanisms we explore. Our results suggest a need for further experimental and theoretical studies into superflow stability.

  13 citations

• Downfolding the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model

  Arne Schobert, Jan Berges, Tim Wehling, Erik van Loon

  SciPost Phys. 11, 079 (2021) · published 20 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Charge-density waves are responsible for symmetry-breaking displacements of atoms and concomitant changes in the electronic structure. Linear response theories, in particular density-functional perturbation theory, provide a way to study the effect of displacements on both the total energy and the electronic structure based on a single ab initio calculation. In downfolding approaches, the electronic system is reduced to a smaller number of bands, allowing for the incorporation of additional correlation and environmental effects on these bands. However, the physical contents of this downfolded model and its potential limitations are not always obvious. Here, we study the potential-energy landscape and electronic structure of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model, where all relevant quantities can be evaluated analytically. We compare the exact results at arbitrary displacement with diagrammatic perturbation theory both in the full model and in a downfolded effective single-band model, which gives an instructive insight into the properties of downfolding. An exact reconstruction of the potential-energy landscape is possible in a downfolded model, which requires a dynamical electron-biphonon interaction. The dispersion of the bands upon atomic displacement is also found correctly, where the downfolded model by construction only captures spectral weight in the target space. In the SSH model, the electron-phonon coupling mechanism involves exclusively hybridization between the low- and high-energy bands and this limits the computational efficiency gain of downfolded models.

  2 citations

• Infinite pseudo-conformal symmetries of classical $T \bar T$, $J \bar T $ and $J T_a$ - deformed CFTs

  Monica Guica, Ruben Monten

  SciPost Phys. 11, 078 (2021) · published 18 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that $T \bar T, J \bar T$ and $J T_a$ - deformed classical CFTs possess an infinite set of symmetries that take the form of a field-dependent generalization of two-dimensional conformal transformations. If, in addition, the seed CFTs possess an affine $U(1)$ symmetry, we show that it also survives in the deformed theories, again in a field-dependent form. These symmetries can be understood as the infinitely-extended conformal and $U(1)$ symmetries of the underlying two-dimensional CFT, seen through the prism of the "dynamical coordinates" that characterise each of these deformations. We also compute the Poisson bracket algebra of the associated conserved charges, using the Hamiltonian formalism. In the case of the $J \bar T$ and $J T_a$ deformations, we find two copies of a functional Witt - Kac-Moody algebra. In the case of the $T \bar T$ deformation, we show that it is also possible to obtain two commuting copies of the Witt algebra.

  22 citations

• A domain wall in twisted M-theory

  Jihwan Oh, Yehao Zhou

  SciPost Phys. 11, 077 (2021) · published 14 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study a four-dimensional domain wall in twisted M-theory. The domain wall is engineered by intersecting D6 branes in the type IIA frame. We identify the classical algebra of operators on the domain wall in terms of a higher vertex operator algebra, which describes the holomorphic subsector of a 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric field theory, and compute the associated mode algebra. We conjecture that the quantum deformation of the classical algebra is isomorphic to the bulk algebra of operators from which we establish twisted holography of the domain wall.

  6 citations

• Finite-temperature critical behavior of long-range quantum Ising models

  Eduardo Gonzalez Lazo, Markus Heyl, Marcello Dalmonte, Adriano Angelone

  SciPost Phys. 11, 076 (2021) · published 13 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the phase diagram and critical properties of quantum Ising chains with long-range ferromagnetic interactions decaying in a power-law fashion with exponent $\alpha$, in regimes of direct interest for current trapped ion experiments. Using large-scale path integral Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate both the ground-state and the nonzero-temperature regimes. We identify the phase boundary of the ferromagnetic phase and obtain accurate estimates for the ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition temperatures. We further determine the critical exponents of the respective transitions. Our results are in agreement with existing predictions for interaction exponents $\alpha > 1$ up to small deviations in some critical exponents. We also address the elusive regime $\alpha < 1$, where we find that the universality class of both the ground-state and nonzero-temperature transition is consistent with the mean-field limit at $\alpha = 0$. Our work not only contributes to the understanding of the equilibrium properties of long-range interacting quantum Ising models, but can also be important for addressing fundamental dynamical aspects, such as issues concerning the open question of thermalization in such models.

  21 citations

• Nonadiabatic nonlinear optics and quantum geometry — Application to the twisted Schwinger effect

  Shintaro Takayoshi, Jianda Wu, Takashi Oka

  SciPost Phys. 11, 075 (2021) · published 12 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the tunneling mechanism of nonlinear optical processes in solids induced by strong coherent laser fields. The theory is based on an extension of the Landau-Zener model with nonadiabatic geometric effects. In addition to the rectification effect known previously, we find two effects, namely perfect tunneling and counterdiabaticity at fast sweep speed. We apply this theory to the twisted Schwinger effect, i.e., nonadiabatic pair production of particles by rotating electric fields, and find a nonperturbative generation mechanism of the opto-valley polarization and photo-current in Dirac and Weyl fermions.

  20 citations

• Information dynamics in a model with Hilbert space fragmentation

  Dominik Hahn, Paul A. McClarty, David J. Luitz

  SciPost Phys. 11, 074 (2021) · published 6 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The fully frustrated ladder - a quasi-1D geometrically frustrated spin one half Heisenberg model - is non-integrable with local conserved quantities on rungs of the ladder, inducing the fragmentation of the Hilbert space into sectors composed of singlets and triplets on rungs. We explore the far-from-equilibrium dynamics of this model through the entanglement entropy and out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOC). The post-quench dynamics of the entanglement entropy is highly anomalous as it shows clear non-damped revivals that emerge from short connected chunks of triplets and whose persistence is therefore a consequence of fragmentation. We find that the maximum value of the entropy follows from a picture where coherences between different fragments co-exist with perfect thermalization within each fragment. This means that the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis holds within all sufficiently large Hilbert space fragments. The OTOC shows short distance oscillations arising from short coupled fragments, which become decoherent at longer distances, and a sub-ballistic spreading and long distance exponential decay stemming from an emergent length scale tied to fragmentation.

  35 citations

• A supervised learning algorithm for interacting topological insulators based on local curvature

  Paolo Molignini, Antonio Zegarra, Evert van Nieuwenburg, R. Chitra, Wei Chen

  SciPost Phys. 11, 073 (2021) · published 28 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Topological order in solid state systems is often calculated from the integration of an appropriate curvature function over the entire Brillouin zone. At topological phase transitions where the single particle spectral gap closes, the curvature function diverges and changes sign at certain high symmetry points in the Brillouin zone. These generic properties suggest the introduction of a supervised machine learning scheme that uses only the curvature function at the high symmetry points as input data. We apply this scheme to a variety of interacting topological insulators in different dimensions and symmetry classes. We demonstrate that an artificial neural network trained with the noninteracting data can accurately predict all topological phases in the interacting cases with very little numerical effort. Intriguingly, the method uncovers a ubiquitous interaction-induced topological quantum multicriticality in the examples studied.

  14 citations

• Navigator function for the conformal bootstrap

  Marten Reehorst, Slava Rychkov, David Simmons-Duffin, Benoit Sirois, Ning Su, Balt van Rees

  SciPost Phys. 11, 072 (2021) · published 28 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Current numerical conformal bootstrap techniques carve out islands in theory space by repeatedly checking whether points are allowed or excluded. We propose a new method for searching theory space that replaces the binary information “allowed”/“excluded” with a continuous “navigator” function that is negative in the allowed region and positive in the excluded region. Such a navigator function allows one to efficiently explore high-dimensional parameter spaces and smoothly sail towards any islands they may contain. The specific functions we introduce have several attractive features: they are well-defined in large regions of parameter space, can be computed with standard methods, and evaluation of their gradient is immediate due to an SDP gradient formula that we provide. The latter property allows for the use of efficient quasi-Newton optimization methods, which we illustrate by navigating towards the 3d Ising island.

  37 citations