Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Design constraints for Unruh-DeWitt quantum computers

  Eric W. Aspling, John A. Marohn, Michael J. Lawler

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 019 (2024) · published 10 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Unruh-DeWitt particle detector model has found success in demonstrating quantum information channels with non-zero channel capacity between qubits and quantum fields. These detector models provide the necessary framework for experimentally realizable Unruh-DeWitt quantum computers with near-perfect channel capacity. We propose spin-qubits with gate-controlled coupling to Luttinger liquids as a laboratory setting for Unruh-DeWitt detectors and explore general design constraints that underpin their feasibility in this and other settings. We present several experimental scenarios including graphene ribbons, edges states in the quantum spin Hall phase of HgTe quantum wells, and the recently discovered quantum anomalous Hall phase in transition metal dichalcogenides. Theoretically, through bosonization, we show that Unruh-DeWitt detectors can carry out quantum computations and identify when they can make perfect quantum communication channels between qubits via the Luttinger liquid. Our results point the way toward an all-to-all connected solid state quantum computer and the experimental study of quantum information in quantum fields via condensed matter physics.

  2 citations

• Can we make sense out of "Tensor Field Theory"?

  Vincent Rivasseau, Fabien Vignes-Tourneret

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 029 (2021) · published 11 November 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We continue the constructive program about tensor field theory through the next natural model, namely the rank five tensor theory with quartic melonic interactions and propagator inverse of the Laplacian on $U(1)^5$. We make a first step towards its construction by establishing its power counting, identifying the divergent graphs and performing a careful study of (a slight modification of) its RG flow. Thus we give strong evidence that this just renormalizable tensor field theory is non perturbatively asymptotically free.

  2 citations

• Analysis of radiation damage in silicon charge-coupled devices used for dark matter searches

  Steven J. Lee

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 030 (2023) · published 4 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Nuclear recoils in crystal detectors generate radiation damage in the form of crystal defects that can be measured in scientific-grade CCDs as local hot spots of leakage current stimulated by temperature increases in the devices. In this proceeding, we use a neutron source to generate defects in DAMIC-M CCDs, and using increases in leakage current at different temperatures, we demonstrate a procedure for identifying crystal defects in the CCDs of the DAMIC-M experiment. This is the first time that individual defects generated from nuclear recoils have been studied. This technique could be used to distinguish nuclear recoils from electron recoils in some energy ranges, which would improve the ability of CCD detectors to search for weakly interacting dark matter.

  2 citations

• First-order transition in a model of prestige bias

  Brian Skinner

  SciPost Phys. 8, 030 (2020) · published 19 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  One of the major benefits of belonging to a prestigious group is that it affects the way you are viewed by others. Here I use a simple mathematical model to explore the implications of this "prestige bias" when candidates undergo repeated rounds of evaluation. In the model, candidates who are evaluated most highly are admitted to a "prestige class", and their membership biases future rounds of evaluation in their favor. I use the language of Bayesian inference to describe this bias, and show that it can lead to a runaway effect in which the weight given to the prior expectation associated with a candidate's class becomes stronger with each round. Most dramatically, the strength of the prestige bias after many rounds undergoes a first-order transition as a function of the precision of the examination on which the evaluation is based.

  2 citations

• Coherent photoproduction of $J/\psi$ in nucleus-nucleus collisions \\in the color dipole approach- an update

  Agnieszka Łuszczak, Wolfgang Schäfer

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 109 (2022) · published 13 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss the role of $c \bar c g$-Fock states in the diffractive photoproduction of $J/\psi$-mesons. We build on our earlier description of the process in the color-dipole approach, where we took into account the rescattering of $c \bar c$ pairs using a Glauber-Gribov form of the dipole-nucleus amplitude. We compare the results of our calculations to recent data on the photoproduction of $J/\psi$ by the ALICE and LHCb collaborations.

  2 citations

• Fermi-liquid corrections to the intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity of topological metals

  Ivan Pasqua, Michele Fabrizio

  SciPost Phys. 19, 014 (2025) · published 16 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that topological metals lacking time-reversal symmetry have an intrinsic non-quantised component of the anomalous Hall conductivity which is contributed not only by the Berry phase of quasiparticles on the Fermi surface, but also by Fermi-liquid corrections due to the residual interactions among quasiparticles, the Landau $f$-parameters. These corrections pair up with those that modify the optical mass with respect to the quasiparticle effective one, or the charge compressibility with respect to the quasiparticle density of states. Our result supports recent claims that the correct expressions for topological observables include vertex corrections besides the topological invariants built just upon the Green's functions. Furthermore, it demonstrates that such corrections are naturally accounted for by Landau's Fermi liquid theory, here extended to the case in which coherence effects between bands crossing the chemical potential and those that are instead away from it may play a crucial role, as in the anomalous Hall conductivity, and have important implications when those metals are on the verge of a doping-driven Mott transition, as we discuss.

  2 citations

• Solvable lattice models for metals with Z2 topological order

  Brin Verheijden, Yuhao Zhao, Matthias Punk

  SciPost Phys. 7, 074 (2019) · published 3 December 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present quantum dimer models in two dimensions which realize metallic ground states with Z2 topological order. Our models are generalizations of a dimer model introduced in [PNAS 112,9552-9557 (2015)] to provide an effective description of unconventional metallic states in hole-doped Mott insulators. We construct exact ground state wave functions in a specific parameter regime and show that the ground state realizes a fractionalized Fermi liquid. Due to the presence of Z2 topological order the Luttinger count is modified and the volume enclosed by the Fermi surface is proportional to the density of doped holes away from half filling. We also comment on possible applications to magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene.

  2 citations

• Two $T$-linear scattering-rate regimes in the triangular lattice Hubbard model

  Jérôme Fournier, Pierre-Olivier Downey, Charles-David Hébert, Maxime Charlebois, André-Marie Tremblay

  SciPost Phys. 17, 072 (2024) · published 4 September 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In recent years, the $T$-linear scattering rate found at low temperatures, defining the strange metal phase of cuprates, has been a subject of interest. Since a wide range of materials have a scattering rate that obeys the equation $ \hbar / \tau ≈ k_B T$, the idea of a universal Planckian limit on the scattering rate has been proposed. However, there is no consensus on proposed theories yet. In this work, we present our results for the $T$-linear scattering rate in the triangular lattice Hubbard model obtained using the dynamical cluster approximation. We find two regions with $T$-linear scattering rate in the $T$-$p$ phase diagram: one emerges from the pseudogap to correlated Fermi liquid phase transition at low doping, whereas the other is solely caused by large interaction strength at large doping.

  2 citations

• Cyclotron trap

  D. Gotta, L. M. Simons

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 013 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The cyclotron trap was developed at SIN/PSI to increase the stopping density of nega- tively charged particle beams for the formation of exotic atoms in low pressure gases. A weak focusing magnetic field, produced by superconducting solenoids, is used. Particles are injected radially through the fringe field to a moderator, which decelerates them into orbits bound by the field. Further deceleration by moderators and/or low-pressure gases leads the particles to the center of the device, where they can be stopped or eventually extracted. Experiments became feasible with this technique, such as those dealing with pionic hydrogen/deuteriumat SIN/PSI.Muonic hydrogen laser experiments also became possible with the extraction of muons from the cyclotron trap. The formation of antipro- tonic hydrogen in low pressure targets led to successful experiments at LEAR/CERN.

  2 citations

• $\mathbb{Z}_4$ transitions in quantum loop models on a zig-zag ladder

  Bowy M. La Rivière, Natalia Chepiga

  SciPost Phys. 17, 144 (2024) · published 26 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the nature of quantum phase transitions out of $\mathbb{Z}_4$ ordered phases in quantum loop models on a zig-zag ladder. We report very rich critical behavior that includes a pair of Ising transitions, a multi-critical Ashkin-Teller point and a remarkably extended interval of a chiral transition. Although plaquette states turn out to be essential to realize chiral transitions, we demonstrate that critical regimes can be manipulated by deforming the model as to increase the presence of leg-dimerized states. This can be done to the point where the chiral transition turns into first order, we argue that this is associated with the emergence of a critical end point.

  2 citations