Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Electronic excitations of the charged nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond obtained using time-independent variational density functional calculations

  Aleksei V. Ivanov, Yorick L. A. Schmerwitz, Gianluca Levi, Hannes Jónsson

  SciPost Phys. 15, 009 (2023) · published 13 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Elucidation of the mechanism for optical spin initialization of point defects in solids in the context of quantum applications requires an accurate description of the excited electronic states involved. While variational density functional calculations have been successful in describing the ground state of a great variety of systems, doubts have been expressed in the literature regarding the ability of such calculations to describe electronic excitations of point defects. A direct orbital optimization method is used here to perform time-independent, variational density functional calculations of a prototypical defect, the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. The calculations include up to 511 atoms subject to periodic boundary conditions and the excited state calculations require similar computational effort as ground state calculations. Contrary to some previous reports, the use of local and semilocal density functionals gives the correct ordering of the low-lying triplet and singlet states, namely ${}^{3}A_2 < {}^{1}E < {}^{1}A_1 < {}^{3}E$. Furthermore, the more advanced meta generalized gradient approximation functionals give results that are in remarkably good agreement with high-level, many-body calculations as well as available experimental estimates, even for the excited singlet state which is often referred to as having multireference character. The lowering of the energy in the triplet excited state as the atom coordinates are optimized in accordance with analytical forces is also close to the experimental estimate and the resulting zero-phonon line triplet excitation energy is underestimated by only 0.15 eV. The approach used here is found to be a promising tool for studying electronic excitations of point defects in, for example, systems relevant for quantum technologies.

  6 citations

• Particle fluctuations and the failure of simple effective models for many-body localized phases

  Maximilian Kiefer-Emmanouilidis, Razmik Unanyan, Michael Fleischhauer, Jesko Sirker

  SciPost Phys. 12, 034 (2022) · published 21 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate and compare the particle number fluctuations in the putative many-body localized (MBL) phase of a spinless fermion model with potential disorder and nearest-neighbor interactions with those in the non-interacting case (Anderson localization) and in effective models where only interaction terms diagonal in the Anderson basis are kept. We demonstrate that these types of simple effective models cannot account for the particle number fluctuations observed in the MBL phase of the microscopic model. This implies that assisted and pair hopping terms---generated when transforming the microscopic Hamiltonian into the Anderson basis---cannot be neglected even at strong disorder and weak interactions. As a consequence, it appears questionable if the microscopic model possesses an exponential number of exactly conserved {\it local} charges. If such a set of conserved local charges does not exist, then particles are expected to ultimately delocalize for any finite disorder strength.

  6 citations

• Variational truncated Wigner approximation for weakly interacting Bose fields: Dynamics of coupled condensates

  Christopher D. Mink, Axel Pelster, Jens Benary, Herwig Ott, Michael Fleischhauer

  SciPost Phys. 12, 051 (2022) · published 2 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The truncated Wigner approximation is an established approach that describes the dynamics of weakly interacting Bose gases beyond the mean-field level. Although it allows a quantum field to be expressed by a stochastic c-number field, the simulation of the time evolution is still very demanding for most applications. Here, we develop a numerically inexpensive scheme by approximating the c-number field with a variational ansatz. The dynamics of the ansatz function is described by a tractable set of coupled ordinary stochastic differential equations for the respective variational parameters. We investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of a three-dimensional Bose gas in a one-dimensional optical lattice with a transverse isotropic harmonic confinement. The accuracy and computational inexpensiveness of our method are demonstrated by comparing its predictions to experimental data.

  6 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 $z\simeq 2.023$.

  6 citations

• Loops in 4+1d topological phases

  Xie Chen, Arpit Dua, Po-Shen Hsin, Chao-Ming Jian, Wilbur Shirley, Cenke Xu

  SciPost Phys. 15, 001 (2023) · published 6 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  2+1d topological phases are well characterized by the fusion rules and braiding/exchange statistics of fractional point excitations. In 4+1d, some topological phases contain only fractional loop excitations. What kind of loop statistics exist? We study the 4+1d gauge theory with 2-form $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge field (the loop-only toric code) and find that while braiding statistics between two different types of loops can be nontrivial, the self "exchange" statistics are all trivial. In particular, we show that the electric, magnetic, and dyonic loop excitations in the 4+1d toric code are not distinguished by their self-statistics. They tunnel into each other across 3+1d invertible domain walls which in turn give explicit unitary circuits that map the loop excitations into each other. The SL(2,$\mathbb{Z}_2$) symmetry that permutes the loops, however, cannot be consistently gauged and we discuss the associated obstruction in the process. Moreover, we discuss a gapless boundary condition dubbed the "fractional Maxwell theory" and show how it can be Higgsed into gapped boundary conditions. We also discuss the generalization of these results from the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge group to $\mathbb{Z}_N$.

  6 citations

• Proving superintegrability in $\beta$-deformed eigenvalue models

  Aditya Bawane, Pedram Karimi, Piotr Sułkowski

  SciPost Phys. 13, 069 (2022) · published 27 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this note we provide proofs of various expressions for expectation values of symmetric polynomials in $\beta$-deformed eigenvalue models with quadratic, linear, and logarithmic potentials. The relations we derive are also referred to as superintegrability. Our work completes proofs of superintegrability statements conjectured earlier in literature.

  6 citations

• Adaptive variational quantum minimally entangled typical thermal states for finite temperature simulations

  João C. Getelina, Niladri Gomes, Thomas Iadecola, Peter P. Orth, Yong-Xin Yao

  SciPost Phys. 15, 102 (2023) · published 19 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Scalable quantum algorithms for the simulation of quantum many-body systems in thermal equilibrium are important for predicting properties of quantum matter at finite temperatures. Here we describe and benchmark a quantum computing version of the minimally entangled typical thermal states (METTS) algorithm for which we adopt an adaptive variational approach to perform the required quantum imaginary time evolution. The algorithm, which we name AVQMETTS, dynamically generates compact and problem-specific quantum circuits, which are suitable for noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) hardware. We benchmark AVQMETTS on statevector simulators and perform thermal energy calculations of integrable and nonintegrable quantum spin models in one and two dimensions and demonstrate an approximately linear system-size scaling of the circuit complexity. We further map out the finite-temperature phase transition line of the two-dimensional transverse field Ising model. Finally, we study the impact of noise on AVQMETTS calculations using a phenomenological noise model.

  6 citations

• Whac-a-constraint with anomaly-free dark matter models

  Sonia El Hedri, Karl Nordström

  SciPost Phys. 6, 020 (2019) · published 7 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Theories where a fermionic dark matter candidate interacts with the Standard Model through a vector mediator are often studied using minimal models, which are not necessarily anomaly-free. In fact, minimal anomaly-free simplified models are usually strongly constrained by either direct detection experiments or collider searches for dilepton resonances. In this paper, we study the phenomenology of models with a fermionic dark matter candidate that couples axially to a leptophobic vector mediator. Canceling anomalies in these models requires considerably enlarging their field content. For an example minimal scenario we show that the additional fields lead to a potentially much richer phenomenology than the one predicted by the original simplified model. In particular collider searches for pair-produced neutralinos and charginos can be more sensitive than traditional monojet searches in thermally motivated parts of the parameter space where the mediator is outside the reach of current searches.

  6 citations

• Covariant entanglement wedge cross-section, balanced partial entanglement and gravitational anomalies

  Qiang Wen, Haocheng Zhong

  SciPost Phys. 13, 056 (2022) · published 9 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The balanced partial entanglement (BPE) was observed to give the reflected entropy and the entanglement wedge cross-section (EWCS) for various mixed states in different theories \cite{Wen:2021qgx,Camargo:2022mme}. It can be calculated in different purifications, and is conjectured to be independent from purifications. In this paper we calculate the BPE and the EWCS in generic covariant scenarios in two-dimensional CFTs with and without gravitational anomalies, and find that they coincide with the reflected entropy. In covariant configurations we determine the partition for the purifying system with the help of the gravitational anomalies, and we extend our discussion to topological massive gravity (TMG). We give the first prescription to evaluate the entropy quantity associated to the EWCS beyond Einstein gravity, i.e. the correction to the EWCS from the Chern-Simons term in TMG. Apart from the gravity theory and geometry, further input from the mixed state should be taken into account.

  6 citations

• Asymptotically matched quasi-circular inspiral and transition-to-plunge in the small mass ratio expansion

  Geoffrey Compère, Lorenzo Küchler

  SciPost Phys. 13, 043 (2022) · published 31 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the small mass ratio expansion and on the equatorial plane, the two-body problem for point particles in general relativity admits a quasi-circular inspiral motion followed by a transition-to-plunge motion. We first derive the equations governing the quasi-circular inspiral in the Kerr background at adiabatic, post-adiabatic and post-post-adiabatic orders in the slow-timescale expansion in terms of the self-force and we highlight the structure of the equations of motion at higher subleading orders. We derive in parallel the equations governing the transition-to-plunge motion to any subleading order, and demonstrate that they are governed by sourced linearized Painlev\'e transcendental equations of the first kind. The first ten perturbative orders do not require any further developments in self-force theory, as they are determined by the second-order self-force. We propose a scheme that matches the slow-timescale expansion of the inspiral with the transition-to-plunge motion to all perturbative orders in the overlapping region exterior to the last stable orbit where both expansions are valid. We explicitly verify the validity of the matching conditions for a large set of coefficients involved, on the one hand, in the adiabatic or post-adiabatic inspiral and, on the other hand, in the leading, subleading or higher subleading transition-to-plunge motion. This result is instrumental for deriving gravitational waveforms within the self-force formalism beyond the innermost stable circular orbit.

  6 citations