Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Perfect fluids

  Jan de Boer, Jelle Hartong, Niels A. Obers, Watse Sybesma, Stefan Vandoren

  SciPost Phys. 5, 003 (2018) · published 17 July 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a systematic treatment of perfect fluids with translation and rotation symmetry, which is also applicable in the absence of any type of boost symmetry. It involves introducing a fluid variable, the {\em kinetic mass density}, which is needed to define the most general energy-momentum tensor for perfect fluids. Our analysis leads to corrections to the Euler equations for perfect fluids that might be observable in hydrodynamic fluid experiments. We also derive new expressions for the speed of sound in perfect fluids that reduce to the known perfect fluid models when boost symmetry is present. Our framework can also be adapted to (non-relativistic) scale invariant fluids with critical exponent $z$. We show that perfect fluids cannot have Schr\"odinger symmetry unless $z=2$. For generic values of $z$ there can be fluids with Lifshitz symmetry, and as a concrete example, we work out in detail the thermodynamics and fluid description of an ideal gas of Lifshitz particles and compute the speed of sound for the classical and quantum Lifshitz gases.

  55 citations

• Twisted and untwisted negativity spectrum of free fermions

  Hassan Shapourian, Paola Ruggiero, Shinsei Ryu, Pasquale Calabrese

  SciPost Phys. 7, 037 (2019) · published 25 September 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A basic diagnostic of entanglement in mixed quantum states is known as the positive partial transpose (PT) criterion. Such criterion is based on the observation that the spectrum of the partially transposed density matrix of an entangled state contains negative eigenvalues, in turn, used to define an entanglement measure called the logarithmic negativity. Despite the great success of logarithmic negativity in characterizing bosonic many-body systems, generalizing the operation of PT to fermionic systems remained a technical challenge until recently when a more natural definition of PT for fermions that accounts for the Fermi statistics has been put forward. In this paper, we study the many-body spectrum of the reduced density matrix of two adjacent intervals for one-dimensional free fermions after applying the fermionic PT. We show that in general there is a freedom in the definition of such operation which leads to two different definitions of PT: the resulting density matrix is Hermitian in one case, while it becomes pseudo-Hermitian in the other case. Using the path-integral formalism, we analytically compute the leading order term of the moments in both cases and derive the distribution of the corresponding eigenvalues over the complex plane. We further verify our analytical findings by checking them against numerical lattice calculations.

  54 citations

• Non-Standard neutrino interactions and neutral gauge bosons

  Julian Heeck, Manfred Lindner, Werner Rodejohann, Stefan Vogl

  SciPost Phys. 6, 038 (2019) · published 27 March 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions (NSI) arising from a flavor-sensitive $Z'$ boson of a new $U(1)'$ symmetry. We compare the limits from neutrino oscillations, coherent elastic neutrino--nucleus scattering, and $Z'$ searches at different beam and collider experiments for a variety of straightforward anomaly-free $U(1)'$ models generated by linear combinations of $B-L$ and lepton-family-number differences $L_\alpha-L_\beta$. Depending on the flavor structure of those models it is easily possible to avoid NSI signals in long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments or change the relative importance of the various experimental searches. We also point out that kinetic $Z$-$Z'$ mixing gives vanishing NSI in long-baseline experiments if a direct coupling between the $U(1)'$ gauge boson and matter is absent. In contrast, $Z$-$Z'$ mass mixing generates such NSI, which in turn means that there is a Higgs multiplet charged under both the Standard Model and the new $U(1)'$ symmetry.

  54 citations

• Detecting a many-body mobility edge with quantum quenches

  Piero Naldesi, Elisa Ercolessi, Tommaso Roscilde

  SciPost Phys. 1, 010 (2016) · published 27 October 2016 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The many-body localization (MBL) transition is a quantum phase transition involving highly excited eigenstates of a disordered quantum many-body Hamiltonian, which evolve from "extended/ergodic" (exhibiting extensive entanglement entropies and fluctuations) to "localized" (exhibiting area-law scaling of entanglement and fluctuations). The MBL transition can be driven by the strength of disorder in a given spectral range, or by the energy density at fixed disorder - if the system possesses a many-body mobility edge. Here we propose to explore the latter mechanism by using "quantum-quench spectroscopy", namely via quantum quenches of variable width which prepare the state of the system in a superposition of eigenstates of the Hamiltonian within a controllable spectral region. Studying numerically a chain of interacting spinless fermions in a quasi-periodic potential, we argue that this system has a many-body mobility edge; and we show that its existence translates into a clear dynamical transition in the time evolution immediately following a quench in the strength of the quasi-periodic potential, as well as a transition in the scaling properties of the quasi-stationary state at long times. Our results suggest a practical scheme for the experimental observation of many-body mobility edges using cold-atom setups.

  53 citations

• Survival probability in Generalized Rosenzweig-Porter random matrix ensemble

  Giuseppe De Tomasi, Mohsen Amini, Soumya Bera, Ivan M. Khaymovich, Vladimir E. Kravtsov

  SciPost Phys. 6, 014 (2019) · published 30 January 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study analytically and numerically the dynamics of the generalized Rosenzweig-Porter model, which is known to possess three distinct phases: ergodic, multifractal and localized phases. Our focus is on the survival probability $R(t)$, the probability of finding the initial state after time $t$. In particular, if the system is initially prepared in a highly-excited non-stationary state (wave packet) confined in space and containing a fixed fraction of all eigenstates, we show that $R(t)$ can be used as a dynamical indicator to distinguish these three phases. Three main aspects are identified in different phases. The ergodic phase is characterized by the standard power-law decay of $R(t)$ with periodic oscillations in time, surviving in the thermodynamic limit, with frequency equals to the energy bandwidth of the wave packet. In multifractal extended phase the survival probability shows an exponential decay but the decay rate vanishes in the thermodynamic limit in a non-trivial manner determined by the fractal dimension of wave functions. Localized phase is characterized by the saturation value of $R(t\to\infty)=k$, finite in the thermodynamic limit $N\rightarrow\infty$, which approaches $k=R(t\to 0)$ in this limit.

  53 citations

• Geometry of variational methods: dynamics of closed quantum systems

  Lucas Hackl, Tommaso Guaita, Tao Shi, Jutho Haegeman, Eugene Demler, J. Ignacio Cirac

  SciPost Phys. 9, 048 (2020) · published 8 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a systematic geometric framework to study closed quantum systems based on suitably chosen variational families. For the purpose of (A) real time evolution, (B) excitation spectra, (C) spectral functions and (D) imaginary time evolution, we show how the geometric approach highlights the necessity to distinguish between two classes of manifolds: K\"ahler and non-K\"ahler. Traditional variational methods typically require the variational family to be a K\"ahler manifold, where multiplication by the imaginary unit preserves the tangent spaces. This covers the vast majority of cases studied in the literature. However, recently proposed classes of generalized Gaussian states make it necessary to also include the non-K\"ahler case, which has already been encountered occasionally. We illustrate our approach in detail with a range of concrete examples where the geometric structures of the considered manifolds are particularly relevant. These go from Gaussian states and group theoretic coherent states to generalized Gaussian states.

  53 citations

• Generalized global symmetries and holography

  Diego M. Hofman, Nabil Iqbal

  SciPost Phys. 4, 005 (2018) · published 29 January 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the holographic duals of four-dimensional field theories with 1-form global symmetries, both discrete and continuous. Such higher-form global symmetries are associated with antisymmetric tensor gauge fields in the bulk. Various different realizations are possible: we demonstrate that a Maxwell action for the bulk antisymmetric gauge field results in a non-conformal field theory with a marginally running double-trace coupling. We explore its hydrodynamic behavior at finite temperature and make contact with recent symmetry-based formulations of magnetohydrodynamics. We also argue that discrete global symmetries on the boundary are dual to discrete gauge theories in the bulk. Such gauge theories have a bulk Chern-Simons description: we clarify the conventional 0-form case and work out the 1-form case. Depending on boundary conditions, such discrete symmetries may be embedded in continuous higher-form symmetries that are spontaneously broken. We study the resulting boundary Goldstone mode, which in the 1-form case may be thought of as a boundary photon. Our results clarify how the global form of the field theory gauge group is encoded in holography. Finally, we study the interplay of Maxwell and Chern-Simons terms put together. We work out the operator content and demonstrate the existence of new backreacted anisotropic scaling solutions that carry higher-form charge.

  53 citations

• The multi-faceted inverted harmonic oscillator: Chaos and complexity

  Arpan Bhattacharyya, Wissam Chemissany, S. Shajidul Haque, Jeff Murugan, Bin Yan

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 002 (2021) · published 8 February 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The harmonic oscillator is the paragon of physical models; conceptually and computationally simple, yet rich enough to teach us about physics on scales that span classical mechanics to quantum field theory. This multifaceted nature extends also to its inverted counterpart, in which the oscillator frequency is analytically continued to pure imaginary values. In this article we probe the inverted harmonic oscillator (IHO) with recently developed quantum chaos diagnostics such as the out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC) and the circuit complexity. In particular, we study the OTOC for the displacement operator of the IHO with and without a non-Gaussian cubic perturbation to explore genuine and quasi scrambling respectively. In addition, we compute the full quantum Lyapunov spectrum for the inverted oscillator, finding a paired structure among the Lyapunov exponents. We also use the Heisenberg group to compute the complexity for the time evolved displacement operator, which displays chaotic behaviour. Finally, we extended our analysis to N-inverted harmonic oscillators to study the behaviour of complexity at the different timescales encoded in dissipation, scrambling and asymptotic regimes.

  52 citations

• Measurement-induced criticality in extended and long-range unitary circuits

  Shraddha Sharma, Xhek Turkeshi, Rosario Fazio, Marcello Dalmonte

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 023 (2022) · published 21 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We explore the dynamical phases of unitary Clifford circuits with variable-range interactions, coupled to a monitoring environment. We investigate two classes of models, distinguished by the action of the unitary gates, which either are organized in clusters of finite-range two-body gates, or are pair-wise interactions randomly distributed throughout the system with a power-law distribution. We find the range of the interactions plays a key role in characterizing both phases and their measurement-induced transitions. For the cluster unitary gates we find a transition between a phase with volume-law scaling of the entanglement entropy and a phase with area-law entanglement entropy. Our results indicate that the universality class of the phase transition is compatible to that of short range hybrid Clifford circuits. Oppositely, in the case of power-law distributed gates, we find the universality class of the phase transition changes continuously with the parameter controlling the range of interactions. In particular, for intermediate values of the control parameter, we find a non-conformal critical line which separates a phase with volume-law scaling of the entanglement entropy from one with sub-extensive scaling. Within this region, we find the entanglement entropy and the logarithmic negativity present a cross-over from a phase with algebraic growth of entanglement with system size, and an area-law phase.

  52 citations

• Multifractality and its role in anomalous transport in the disordered XXZ spin-chain

  David J. Luitz, Ivan M. Khaymovich, Yevgeny Bar Lev

  SciPost Phys. Core 2, 006 (2020) · published 30 April 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The disordered XXZ model is a prototype model of the many-body localization transition (MBL). Despite numerous studies of this model, the available numerical evidence of multifractality of its eigenstates is not very conclusive due severe finite size effects. Moreover it is not clear if similarly to the case of single-particle physics, multifractal properties of the many-body eigenstates are related to anomalous transport, which is observed in this model. In this work, using a state-of-the-art, massively parallel, numerically exact method, we study systems of up to 24 spins and show that a large fraction of the delocalized phase flows towards ergodicity in the thermodynamic limit, while a region immediately preceding the MBL transition appears to be multifractal in this limit. We discuss the implication of our finding on the mechanism of subdiffusive transport.

  52 citations