Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Systematic strong coupling expansion for out-of-equilibrium dynamics in the Lieb-Liniger model

  Etienne Granet, Fabian H. L. Essler

  SciPost Phys. 11, 068 (2021) · published 27 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the time evolution of local observables after an interaction quench in the repulsive Lieb-Liniger model. The system is initialized in the ground state for vanishing interaction and then time-evolved with the Lieb-Liniger Hamiltonian for large, finite interacting strength $c$. We employ the Quench Action approach to express the full time evolution of local observables in terms of sums over energy eigenstates and then derive the leading terms of a $1/c$ expansion for several one and two-point functions as a function of time $t>0$ after the quantum quench. We observe delicate cancellations of contributions to the spectral sums that depend on the details of the choice of representative state in the Quench Action approach and our final results are independent of this choice. Our results provide a highly non-trivial confirmation of the typicality assumptions underlying the Quench Action approach.

  11 citations

• Information Scrambling with Conservation Laws

  Jonah Kudler-Flam, Ramanjit Sohal, Laimei Nie

  SciPost Phys. 12, 117 (2022) · published 4 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The delocalization or scrambling of quantum information has emerged as a central ingredient in the understanding of thermalization in isolated quantum many-body systems. Recently, significant progress has been made analytically by modeling non-integrable systems as stochastic systems, lacking a Hamiltonian picture, while honest Hamiltonian dynamics are frequently limited to small system sizes due to computational constraints. In this paper, we address this by investigating the role of conservation laws (including energy conservation) in the thermalization process from an information-theoretic perspective. For general non-integrable models, we use the equilibrium approximation to show that the maximal amount of information is scrambled (as measured by the tripartite mutual information of the time-evolution operator) at late times even when a system conserves energy. In contrast, we explicate how when a system has additional symmetries that lead to degeneracies in the spectrum, the amount of information scrambled must decrease. This general theory is exemplified in case studies of holographic conformal field theories (CFTs) and the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. Due to the large Virasoro symmetry in 1+1D CFTs, we argue that, in a sense, these holographic theories are not maximally chaotic, which is explicitly seen by the non-saturation of the second R\'enyi tripartite mutual information. The roles of particle-hole and U(1) symmetries in the SYK model are milder due to the degeneracies being only two-fold, which we confirm explicitly at both large- and small-$N$. We reinterpret the operator entanglement in terms the growth of local operators, connecting our results with the information scrambling described by out-of-time-ordered correlators, identifying the mechanism for suppressed scrambling from the Heisenberg perspective.

  11 citations

• Quenches in initially coupled Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquids: a conformal field theory approach

  Paola Ruggiero, Pasquale Calabrese, Laura Foini, Thierry Giamarchi

  SciPost Phys. 11, 055 (2021) · published 13 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the quantum quench in two coupled Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquids (TLLs), from the off-critical to the critical regime, relying on the conformal field theory approach and the known solutions for single TLLs. We consider a squeezed form of the initial state, whose low energy limit is fixed in a way to describe a massive and a massless mode, and we encode the non-equilibrium dynamics in a proper rescaling of the time. In this way, we compute several correlation functions, which at leading order factorize into multipoint functions evaluated at different times for the two modes. Depending on the observable, the contribution from the massive or from the massless mode can be the dominant one, giving rise to exponential or power-law decay in time, respectively. Our results find a direct application in all the quench problems where, in the scaling limit, there are two independent massless fields: these include the Hubbard model, the Gaudin-Yang gas, and tunnel-coupled tubes in cold atoms experiments.

  11 citations

• Codimension-2 defects and higher symmetries in (3+1)D topological phases

  Maissam Barkeshli, Yu-An Chen, Sheng-Jie Huang, Ryohei Kobayashi, Nathanan Tantivasadakarn, Guanyu Zhu

  SciPost Phys. 14, 065 (2023) · published 11 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  (3+1)D topological phases of matter can host a broad class of non-trivial topological defects of codimension-1, 2, and 3, of which the well-known point charges and flux loops are special cases. The complete algebraic structure of these defects defines a higher category, and can be viewed as an emergent higher symmetry. This plays a crucial role both in the classification of phases of matter and the possible fault-tolerant logical operations in topological quantum error-correcting codes. In this paper, we study several examples of such higher codimension defects from distinct perspectives. We mainly study a class of invertible codimension-2 topological defects, which we refer to as twist strings. We provide a number of general constructions for twist strings, in terms of gauging lower dimensional invertible phases, layer constructions, and condensation defects. We study some special examples in the context of $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory with fermionic charges, in $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory with bosonic charges, and also in non-Abelian discrete gauge theories based on dihedral ($D_n$) and alternating ($A_6$) groups. The intersection between twist strings and Abelian flux loops sources Abelian point charges, which defines an $H^4$ cohomology class that characterizes part of an underlying 3-group symmetry of the topological order. The equations involving background gauge fields for the 3-group symmetry have been explicitly written down for various cases. We also study examples of twist strings interacting with non-Abelian flux loops (defining part of a non-invertible higher symmetry), examples of non-invertible codimension-2 defects, and examples of the interplay of codimension-2 defects with codimension-1 defects. We also find an example of geometric, not fully topological, twist strings in (3+1)D $A_6$ gauge theory.

  11 citations

• Measurement phase transitions in the no-click limit as quantum phase transitions of a non-hermitean vacuum

  Caterina Zerba, Alessandro Silva

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 051 (2023) · published 18 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study dynamical phase transitions occurring in the stationary state of the dynamics of integrable many-body non-hermitian Hamiltonians, which can be either realized as a no-click limit of a stochastic Schrödinger equation or using spacetime duality of quantum circuits. In two specific models, the Transverse Field Ising Chain and the Long Range Kitaev Chain, we observe that the entanglement phase transitions occurring in the stationary state have the same nature as that occurring in the vacuum of the non-hermitian Hamiltonian: bounded entanglement entropy when the imaginary part of the quasi-particle spectrum is gapped and a logarithmic growth for gapless imaginary spectrum. This observation suggests the possibility to generalize the area-law theorem to non-Hermitian Hamiltonians.

  11 citations

• Automated construction of $U(1)$-invariant matrix-product operators from graph representations

  Sebastian Paeckel, Thomas Köhler, Salvatore R. Manmana

  SciPost Phys. 3, 035 (2017) · published 17 November 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present an algorithmic construction scheme for matrix-product-operator (MPO) representations of arbitrary $U(1)$-invariant operators whenever there is an expression of the local structure in terms of a finite-states machine (FSM). Given a set of local operators as building blocks, the method automatizes two major steps when constructing a $U(1)$-invariant MPO representation: (i) the bookkeeping of auxiliary bond-index shifts arising from the application of operators changing the local quantum numbers and (ii) the appearance of phase factors due to particular commutation rules. The automatization is achieved by post-processing the operator strings generated by the FSM. Consequently, MPO representations of various types of $U(1)$-invariant operators can be constructed generically in MPS algorithms reducing the necessity of expensive MPO arithmetics. This is demonstrated by generating arbitrary products of operators in terms of FSM, from which we obtain exact MPO representations for the variance of the Hamiltonian of a $S=1$ Heisenberg chain.

  11 citations

• Critical colored-RVB states in the frustrated quantum Heisenberg model on the square lattice

  Didier Poilblanc, Matthieu Mambrini, Sylvain Capponi

  SciPost Phys. 7, 041 (2019) · published 2 October 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a family of SU(2)-symmetric Projected Entangled Paired States (PEPS) on the square lattice, defining colored-Resonating Valence Bond (RVB) states, to describe the quantum disordered phase of the $J_1-J_2$ frustrated Heisenberg model.For $J_2/J_1\sim 0.55$ we show the emergence of critical (algebraic) dimer-dimer correlations -- typical of Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) points of quantum dimer models on bipartite lattices -- while, simultaneously, the spin-spin correlation length remains short. Our findings are consistent with a spin liquid or a weak Valence Bond Crystal in the neighborhood of an RK point.

  11 citations

• Fluctuations of observables for free fermions in a harmonic trap at finite temperature

  Aurélien Grabsch, Satya N. Majumdar, Grégory Schehr, Christophe Texier

  SciPost Phys. 4, 014 (2018) · published 24 March 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study a system of 1D noninteracting spinless fermions in a confining trap at finite temperature. We first derive a useful and general relation for the fluctuations of the occupation numbers valid for arbitrary confining trap, as well as for both canonical and grand canonical ensembles. Using this relation, we obtain compact expressions, in the case of the harmonic trap, for the variance of certain observables of the form of sums of a function of the fermions' positions, $\mathcal{L}=\sum_n h(x_n)$. Such observables are also called linear statistics of the positions. As anticipated, we demonstrate explicitly that these fluctuations do depend on the ensemble in the thermodynamic limit, as opposed to averaged quantities, which are ensemble independent. We have applied our general formalism to compute the fluctuations of the number of fermions $\mathcal{N}_+$ on the positive axis at finite temperature. Our analytical results are compared to numerical simulations. We discuss the universality of the results with respect to the nature of the confinement.

  11 citations

• Many-body localization in the Fock space of natural orbitals

  Wouter Buijsman, Vladimir Gritsev, Vadim Cheianov

  SciPost Phys. 4, 038 (2018) · published 25 June 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the eigenstates of a paradigmatic model of many-body localization in the Fock basis constructed out of the natural orbitals. By numerically studying the participation ratio, we identify a sharp crossover between different phases at a disorder strength close to the disorder strength at which subdiffusive behaviour sets in, significantly below the many-body localization transition. We repeat the analysis in the conventionally used computational basis, and show that many-body localized eigenstates are much stronger localized in the Fock basis constructed out of the natural orbitals than in the computational basis.

  11 citations

• Dynamics of fluctuations in quantum simple exclusion processes

  Denis Bernard, Fabian H. L. Essler, Ludwig Hruza, Marko Medenjak

  SciPost Phys. 12, 042 (2022) · published 28 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the dynamics of fluctuations in the quantum asymmetric simple exclusion process (Q-ASEP) with periodic boundary conditions. The Q-ASEP describes a chain of spinless fermions with random hoppings that are induced by a Markovian environment. We show that fluctuations of the fermionic degrees of freedom obey evolution equations of Lindblad type, and derive the corresponding Lindbladians. We identify the underlying algebraic structure by mapping them to non-Hermitian spin chains and demonstrate that the operator space fragments into exponentially many (in system size) sectors that are invariant under time evolution. At the level of quadratic fluctuations we consider the Lindbladian on the sectors that determine the late time dynamics for the particular case of the quantum symmetric simple exclusion process (Q-SSEP). We show that the corresponding blocks in some cases correspond to known Yang-Baxter integrable models and investigate the level-spacing statistics in others. We carry out a detailed analysis of the steady states and slow modes that govern the late time behaviour and show that the dynamics of fluctuations of observables is described in terms of closed sets of coupled linear differential-difference equations. The behaviour of the solutions to these equations is essentially diffusive but with relevant deviations, that at sufficiently late times and large distances can be described in terms of a continuum scaling limit which we construct. We numerically check the validity of this scaling limit over a significant range of time and space scales. These results are then applied to the study of operator spreading at large scales, focusing on out-of-time ordered correlators and operator entanglement.

  11 citations