Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Deconfined criticalities and dualities between chiral spin liquid, topological superconductor and charge density wave Chern insulator

  Xue-Yang Song, Ya-Hui Zhang

  SciPost Phys. 15, 215 (2023) · published 29 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose bi-critical and tri-critical theories between chiral spin liquid (CSL), topological superconductor (SC) and charge density wave (CDW) ordered Chern insulator with Chern number $C=2$ on square, triangular and Kagome lattices. The three CDW order parameters form a manifold of $S^2$ or $S^1$ depending on whether there is easy-plane anisotropy. The skyrmion defect of the CDW order carries physical charge $2e$ and its condensation leads to a topological superconductor. The CDW-SC transitions are in the same universality classes as the celebrated deconfined quantum critical points (DQCP) between Neel order and valence bond solid order on square lattice. Both SC and CDW order can be accessed from the CSL phase through a continuous phase transition. At the CSL-SC transition, there is still CDW order fluctuations although CDW is absent in both sides. We propose three different theories for the CSL-SC transition (and CSL to easy-plane CDW transition): a $U(1)$ theory with two bosons, a $U(1)$ theory with two Dirac fermions, and an $SU(2)$ theory with two bosons. Our construction offers a derivation of the duality between these three theories as well as a promising physical realization. The $SU(2)$ theory offers a unified framework for a series of fixed points with explicit $SO(5), O(4)$ or $SO(3)× O(2)$ symmetry. There is also a transparent duality transformation mapping SC order to easy-plane CDW order. The CSL-SC-CDW tri-critical points are invariant under this duality mapping and have an enlarged $SO(5)$ or $O(4)$ symmetry. The DQCPs between CDW and SC inherit the enlarged symmetry, emergent anomaly, and self-duality from the tri-critical point. Our analysis unifies the well-studied DQCP between symmetry breaking phases into a larger framework where they are proximate to a topologically ordered phase. Experimentally the theory demonstrates the possibility of a rich phase diagram and criticality through closing the Mott gap of a quantum spin liquid with projective symmetry group.

  8 citations

• An ideal rapid-cycle Thouless pump

  Savvas Malikis, Vadim Cheianov

  SciPost Phys. 12, 203 (2022) · published 27 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Thouless pumping is a fundamental instance of quantized transport, which is topologically protected. Although its theoretical importance, the adiabaticity condition is an obstacle for further practical applications. Here, focusing on the Rice-Mele model, we provide a family of finite-frequency examples that ensure both the absence of excitations and the perfect quantization of the pumped charge at the end of each cycle. This family, which contains an adiabatic protocol as a limiting case, is obtained through a mapping onto the zero curvature representation of the Euclidean sinh-Gordon equation.

  8 citations

• Out of equilibrium many-body expansion dynamics of strongly interacting bosons

  Rhombik Roy, Barnali Chakrabarti, Arnaldo Gammal

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 073 (2023) · published 3 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We solve the Schrödinger equation from first principles to investigate the many-body effects in the expansion dynamics of one-dimensional repulsively interacting bosons released from a harmonic trap. We utilize the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB) to solve the many-body Schrödinger equation at high level of accuracy. The MCTDHB basis sets are explicitly time-dependent and optimised by variational principle. We probe the expansion dynamics by three key measures; time evolution of one-, two- and three-body densities. We observe when the mean-field theory results to unimodal expansion, the many-body calculation exhibits trimodal expansion dynamics. The many-body features how the initially fragmented bosons independently spreads out with time whereas the mean-field pictures the expansion of the whole cloud. We also present the three different time scale of dynamics of the inner core, outer core and the cloud as a whole. We analyze the key role played by the dynamical fragmentation during expansion. A Strong evidence of the many-body effects is presented in the dynamics of two- and three-body densities which exhibit correlation hole and pronounced delocalization effect.

  8 citations

• Entanglement entropy with Lifshitz fermions

  Dion Hartmann, Kevin Kavanagh, Stefan Vandoren

  SciPost Phys. 11, 031 (2021) · published 17 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate fermions with Lifshitz scaling symmetry and study their entanglement entropy in 1+1 dimensions as a function of the scaling exponent $z$. Remarkably, in the ground state the entanglement entropy vanishes for even values of $z$, whereas for odd values it is independent of $z$ and equal to the relativistic case with $z=1$. We show this using the correlation method on the lattice, and also using a holographic cMERA approach. The entanglement entropy in a thermal state is a more detailed function of $z$ and $T$ which we plot using the lattice correlation method. The dependence on the even- or oddness of $z$ still shows for small temperatures, but is washed out for large temperatures or large values of $z$.

  8 citations

• Geodesic geometry of 2+1-D Dirac materials subject to artificial, quenched gravitational singularities

  Seth M. Davis, Matthew S. Foster

  SciPost Phys. 12, 204 (2022) · published 27 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The spatial modulation of the Fermi velocity for gapless Dirac electrons in quantum materials is mathematically equivalent to the problem of massless fermions on a certain class of curved spacetime manifolds. We study null geodesic lensing through these manifolds, which are dominated by curvature singularities, such as nematic singularity walls (where the Dirac cone flattens along one direction). Null geodesics lens across these walls, but do so by perfectly collimating to a local transit angle. Nevertheless, nematic walls can trap null geodesics into stable or metastable orbits characterized by repeated transits. We speculate about the role of induced one-dimensionality for such bound orbits in 2D dirty d-wave superconductivity.

  8 citations

• Multipole groups and fracton phenomena on arbitrary crystalline lattices

  Daniel Bulmash, Oliver Hart, Rahul Nandkishore

  SciPost Phys. 15, 235 (2023) · published 12 December 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Multipole symmetries are of interest in multiple contexts, from the study of fracton phases, to nonergodic quantum dynamics, to the exploration of new hydrodynamic universality classes. However, prior explorations have focused on continuum systems or hypercubic lattices. In this work, we systematically explore multipole symmetries on arbitrary crystal lattices. We explain how, given a crystal structure (specified by a space group and the occupied Wyckoff positions), one may systematically construct all consistent multipole groups. We focus on two-dimensional crystal structures for simplicity, although our methods are general and extend straightforwardly to three dimensions. We classify the possible multipole groups on all two-dimensional Bravais lattices, and on the Kagome and breathing Kagome crystal structures to illustrate the procedure on general crystal lattices. Using Wyckoff positions, we provide an in-principle classification of all possible multipole groups in any space group. We explain how, given a valid multipole group, one may construct a consistent lattice Hamiltonian and a low-energy field theory. We then explore the physical consequences, beginning by generalizing certain results originally obtained on hypercubic lattices to arbitrary crystal structures. Next, we identify two apparently novel phenomena: an emergent, robust subsystem symmetry on the triangular lattice, and an exact multipolar symmetry on the breathing Kagome lattice that does not include conservation of charge (monopole), but instead conserves a vector charge. This makes clear that there is new physics to be found by exploring the consequences of multipolar symmetries on arbitrary lattices, and this work provides the map for the exploration thereof, as well as guiding the search for emergent multipolar symmetries and the attendant exotic phenomena in real materials based on nonhypercubic lattices.

  8 citations

• Do Drinfeld twists of $AdS_5 \times S^5$ survive light-cone quantization?

  Stijn J. van Tongeren, Yannik Zimmermann

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 028 (2022) · published 19 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study how a wide class of Abelian Yang-Baxter deformations of the AdS$_\mathsf{5} \times $S$^\mathsf{5}$ string behave at the quantum level. These deformations are equivalent to TsT transformations and conjectured to be dual to beta, dipole, and noncommutative deformations of SYM. Classically they correspond to Drinfeld twists of the original theory. To verify this expectation at the quantum level we compute and match (1) the bosonic two-body tree-level worldsheet scattering matrix of these deformations in the uniform light-cone gauge, and (2) the Bethe equations of the equivalent model with twisted boundary conditions. We find that for a generalization of gamma deformations of the BMN string the we are able to express the S matrix either through a Drinfeld twist or a shift of momenta. For deformations of the GKP string around the null-cusp solution we encounter calculational obstacles that prevent us from calculating the scattering matrix.

  8 citations

• Ambiguous Ages, Ambivalent Youths: How Asylum Seekers in Germany Navigate Age Categorization

  Ulrike Bialas

  Mig. Pol. 2, 003 (2023) · published 5 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Many of the unaccompanied young migrants who have sought asylum in Germany since 2015 do not own documentation of their birth dates or even know their exact ages. Yet asylum and youth welfare laws distinguish precisely between minors and adults, down to the day, thus making it necessary for the German state to estimate the birth dates of young migrants and compelling some of the migrants to claim to be minors. In this article, drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork in Berlin, I examine four features of the German state’s age categorization regime that make it so powerful: the discretion of street-level bureaucrats; the weight of written records; a prioritization of precision over accuracy; and—most important—the ability of bureaucrats to switch between the previous three features at will. I analyze the strategies young migrants employ against this regime to influence the outcomes of their own age categorization as well as the challenges inherent in living as a minor or within liminal, uncertain age categories. The latter include widespread distrust and fear of being found out as well as feelings of infantilization and emasculation. I use age categorization as a context in which to reflect on the agency of migrants vis-à-vis state bureaucracies and conclude that young migrants can try to affect only the determination of their own birth dates but have little impact on the prevailing definitions of age and youth. This article thus contributes to the study of categorization processes in international migration, the possibilities for migrants’ resistance, and the politics of time.

  8 citations

• Exact thermal properties of free-fermionic spin chains

  Michał Białończyk, Fernando Javier Gómez-Ruiz, Adolfo del Campo

  SciPost Phys. 11, 013 (2021) · published 15 July 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  An exact description of integrable spin chains at finite temperature is provided using an elementary algebraic approach in the complete Hilbert space of the system. We focus on spin chain models that admit a description in terms of free fermions, including paradigmatic examples such as the one-dimensional transverse-field quantum Ising and XY models. The exact partition function is derived and compared with the ubiquitous approximation in which only the positive parity sector of the energy spectrum is considered. Errors stemming from this approximation are identified in the neighborhood of the critical point at low temperatures. We further provide the full counting statistics of a wide class of observables at thermal equilibrium and characterize in detail the thermal distribution of the kink number and transverse magnetization in the transverse-field quantum Ising chain.

  8 citations

• Introduction to Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity and homogeneous cosmologies

  Rishabh Jha

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 73 (2023) · published 11 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We give a pedagogical introduction to the Hamiltonian formalism of general relativity at an advanced undergraduate and graduate levels. After covering the mathematical pre-requisites as well as the 3+1-decomposition of spacetime, we proceed to discuss the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) formalism (a Hamiltonian approach) of general relativity. Then we proceed to give a brief but self-contained introduction to homogeneous (but not necessarily isotropic) universes and discuss the associated Bianchi classification. We first study their dynamics in the Lagrangian formulation, followed by the Hamiltonian formulation to show the equivalence of both approaches. We present a variety of examples to illustrate the ADM formalism: (i) free & massless scalar field coupled to homogeneous (in particular, Bianchi IX) universe, (ii) scalar field with a potential term coupled to Bianchi IX universe, (iii) electromagnetic field coupled to gravity in general, and (iv) electromagnetic field coupled to Bianchi IX universe.

  8 citations