Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• MEG: Muon to Electron and Gamma

  A.M. Baldini, T. Mori

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 019 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The possible existence of the muon to electron and gamma decay predicted by many new physics scenarios is investigated by stopping positive muons in a very thin target and measuring emitted photons and positrons with the best possible resolutions. Photons are measured by a 2.7 ton ultra pure liquid xenon detector while positron trajectories are measured in a specially designed gradient magnetic field by low-mass drift chambers and precisely timed by scintillation counters. A first phase of the experiment (MEG) ended in 2016, and excluded the existence of the decay with branching ratios larger than 4.2x10**(-13) (90% C.L.). This provides approximately 30 times stronger constraints on a variety of new physics models than previous experiments. In the second phase (MEG II), most of the detectors have been upgraded by adopting up-to-date technologies to improve the search sensitivity by another order of magnitude down to O(10**(-19) ). MEG II will pursue new physics beyond the Standard Model complementary to high energy collider experiments with a compatible or even higher sensitivity.

  3 citations

• Hamiltonian reconstruction as metric for variational studies

  Kevin Zhang, Samuel Lederer, Kenny Choo, Titus Neupert, Giuseppe Carleo, Eun-Ah Kim

  SciPost Phys. 13, 063 (2022) · published 23 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Variational approaches are among the most powerful techniques to approximately solve quantum many-body problems. These encompass both variational states based on tensor or neural networks, and parameterized quantum circuits in variational quantum eigensolvers. However, self-consistent evaluation of the quality of variational wavefunctions is a notoriously hard task. Using a recently developed Hamiltonian reconstruction method, we propose a multi-faceted approach to evaluating the quality of neural-network based wavefunctions. Specifically, we consider convolutional neural network (CNN) and restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) states trained on a square lattice spin-1/2 J1-J2 Heisenberg model. We find that the reconstructed Hamiltonians are typically less frustrated, and have easy-axis anisotropy near the high frustration point. In addition, the reconstructed Hamiltonians suppress quantum fluctuations in the large J2 limit. Our results highlight the critical importance of the wavefunction's symmetry. Moreover, the multi-faceted insight from the Hamiltonian reconstruction reveals that a variational wave function can fail to capture the true ground state through suppression of quantum fluctuations.

  3 citations

• Quasi-localized vibrational modes, boson peak and sound attenuation in model mass-spring networks

  Shivam Mahajan, Massimo Pica Ciamarra

  SciPost Phys. 15, 069 (2023) · published 23 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We introduce an algorithm that constructs disordered mass-spring networks whose elastic properties mimic that of glasses by tuning the fluctuations of the local elastic properties, keeping fixed connectivity and controlling the prestress. In two dimensions, the algorithm reproduces the dependence of glasses' vibrational properties, such as quasi-localised vibrational modes and Boson peak, on the degree of stability. The sound attenuation displays Rayleigh scattering and disorder-broadening regimes at different frequencies, and the attenuation rate decreases with increased stability. Our results establish a strong connection between the vibrational features of disordered solids and the fluctuations of the local elastic properties and provide a new approach to investigating glasses' vibrational anomalies.

  3 citations

• Clustering in $^{18}$O - absolute determination of branching ratios via high-resolution particle spectroscopy

  S. Pirrie, C. Wheldon, Tz. Kokalova, J. Bishop, R. Hertenberger, H.-F. Wirth, S.~Bailey, N. Curtis, D. Dell'Aquila, Th. Faestermann, D. Mengoni, R. Smith, D.Torresi, A. Turner

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 3, 009 (2020) · published 24 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The determination of absolute branching ratios for high-energy states in light nuclei is an important and useful tool for probing the underlying nuclear structure of individual resonances: for example, in establishing the tendency of an excited state towards $\alpha$-cluster structure. Difficulty arises in measuring these branching ratios due to similarities in available decay channels, such as ($^{18}$O,$n$) and ($^{18}$O,$2n$), as well as differences in geometric efficiencies due to population of bound excited levels in daughter nuclei. Methods are presented using Monte Carlo techniques to overcome these issues.

  3 citations

• Boron-doping of cubic SiC for intermediate band solar cells: a scanning transmission electron microscopy study

  Patricia Almeida Carvalho, Annett Thørgesen, Quanbao Ma, Daniel Nielsen Wright, Spyros Diplas, Augustinas Galeckas, Alexander Azarov, Valdas Jokubavicius, Jianwu Sun, Mikael Syväjärvi, Bengt Gunnar Svensson, Ole Martin Løvvik

  SciPost Phys. 5, 021 (2018) · published 6 September 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Boron (B) has the potential for generating an intermediate band in cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC), turning this material into a highly efficient absorber for single-junction solar cells. The formation of a delocalized band demands high concentration of the foreign element, but the precipitation behavior of B in the 3C polymorph of SiC is not well known. Here, probe-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and secondary-ion mass spectrometry are used to investigate precipitation mechanisms in B-implanted 3C-SiC as a function of temperature. Point-defect clustering was detected after annealing at 1273 K, while stacking faults, B-rich precipitates and dislocation networks developed in the 1573 - 1773 K range. The precipitates adopted the rhombohedral B13C2 structure and trapped B up to 1773 K. Above this temperature, higher solubility reduced precipitation and free B diffused out of the implantation layer. Dopant concentrations E19 at.cm-3 were achieved at 1873 K.

  3 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.

  3 citations

• Thermodynamic limit and boundary energy of the spin-1 Heisenberg chain with non-diagonal boundary fields

  Zhihan Zheng, Pei Sun, Xiaotian Xu, Tao Yang, Junpeng Cao, Wen-Li Yang

  SciPost Phys. 12, 071 (2022) · published 22 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The thermodynamic limit and boundary energy of the isotropic spin-1 Heisenberg chain with non-diagonal boundary fields are studied. The finite size scaling properties of the inhomogeneous term in the $T-Q$ relation at the ground state are calculated by the density matrix renormalization group. Based on our findings, the boundary energy of the system in the thermodynamic limit can be obtained from Bethe ansatz equations of a related model with parallel boundary fields. These results can be generalized to the $SU(2)$ symmetric high spin Heisenberg model directly.

  3 citations

• A ship-in-a-bottle quantum gas microscope setup for magnetic mixtures

  Maximilian Sohmen, Manfred J. Mark, Markus Greiner, Francesca Ferlaino

  SciPost Phys. 15, 182 (2023) · published 1 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum gas microscopes are versatile and powerful tools for fundamental science as well as promising candidates for enticing applications such as in quantum simulation or quantum computation. Here we present a quantum gas microscopy setup for experiments with highly magnetic atoms of the lanthanoid elements erbium and dysprosium. Our setup features a non-magnetic, non-conducting, large-working-distance, high-numerical-aperture, in-vacuum microscope objective, mounted inside a glue-free quartz glass cell. The quartz glass cell is enclosed by a compact multi-shell ferromagnetic shield that passively suppresses external magnetic field noise by a factor of more than a thousand. Our setup will enable direct manipulation and probing of the rich quantum many-body physics of dipolar atoms in optical lattices, and bears the potential to put exciting theory proposals - including exotic magnetic phases and quantum phase transitions - to an experimental test.

  3 citations

• A simple theory for quantum quenches in the ANNNI model

  Jacob H. Robertson, Riccardo Senese, Fabian H. L. Essler

  SciPost Phys. 15, 032 (2023) · published 27 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In a recent numerical study by Haldar et al. [Phys. Rev. X 11, 031062] it was shown that signatures of proximate quantum critical points can be observed at early and intermediate times after certain quantum quenches. Said work focused mainly on the case of the axial next-nearest neighbour Ising (ANNNI) model. Here we construct a simple time-dependent mean-field theory that allows us to obtain a quantitatively accurate description of these quenches at short times, which for reasons we explain remains a fair approximation at late times (with some caveats). Our approach provides a simple framework for understanding the reported numerical results as well as fundamental limitations on detecting quantum critical points through quench dynamics. We moreover explain the origin of the peculiar oscillatory behaviour seen in various observables as arising from the formation of a long-lived bound state.

  3 citations

• Codebase release 1.0 for BlockGen

  Enrico Bothmann, Walter Giele, Stefan Hoeche, Joshua Isaacson, Max Knobbe

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 3-r1.0 (2022) · published 23 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · src

  The compute efficiency of Monte-Carlo event generators for the Large Hadron Collider is expected to become a major bottleneck for simulations in the high-luminosity phase. Aiming at the development of a full-fledged generator for modern GPUs, we study the performance of various recursive strategies to compute multi-gluon tree-level amplitudes. We investigate the scaling of the algorithms on both CPU and GPU hardware. Finally, we provide practical recommendations as well as baseline implementations for the development of future simulation programs. The GPU implementations can be found at: https://www.gitlab.com/ebothmann/blockgen-archive.

  3 citations