Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Quasi-characters in $\widehat{su(2)}$ current algebra at fractional levels

  Sachin Grover

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 068 (2023) · published 18 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the even characters of $\widehat{su(2)}$ conformal field theories (CFTs) at admissible fractional levels obtained from the difference of the highest weight characters in the unflavoured limit. We show that admissible even character vectors arise only in three special classes of admissible fractional levels which include the threshold levels, the positive half-odd integer levels, and the isolated level at -$5/4$. Among them, we show that the even characters of the half-odd integer levels map to the difference of characters of $\widehat{su(2)}_{4N+4}$, with $N\in\mathbb{Z}_{>0}$, although we prove that they do not correspond to rational CFTs. The isolated level characters maps to characters of two subsectors with $\widehat{so(5)}_1$ and $\widehat{su(2)}_1$ current algebras. Furthermore, for the $\widehat{su(2)}_1$ subsector of the isolated level, we introduce discrete flavour fugacities. The threshold levels saturate the admissibility bound and their even characters have previously been shown to be proportional to the unflavoured characters of integrable representations in $\widehat{su(2)}_{4N}$ CFTs, where $N\in\mathbb{Z}_{> 0}$ and we reaffirm this result. Except at the three classes of fractional levels, we find special inadmissible characters called quasi-characters which are nice vector valued modular functions but with $q$-series coefficients violating positivity but not integrality.

  2 citations

• Development of the detectors for the DeeMe experiment

  Natsuki Teshima on behalf of the DeeMe Collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 051 (2019) · published 22 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the DeeMe experiment, approximately $70\ \mathrm{GHz/mm^{2}}$ prompt-charged particles will hit the multi-wire proportional chambers (MWPCs) before signal electrons come. To avoid the space charge effect, we developed fast HV-switching MWPCs in order to control the gas gain dynamically. All four of the MWPCs were manufactured. Last year, the circuit of readout amplifiers is slightly modified to further improve the efficiency of the detector, and we also started to investigate other possible choices of the gas mixture. In this article, the development of the detectors and results of performance tests will be presented.

  2 citations

• Free energy and metastable states in the square-lattice $J_1$-$J_2$ Ising model

  Veniamin A. Abalmasov

  SciPost Phys. 16, 151 (2024) · published 6 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Free energy as a function of polarization is calculated for the square-lattice $J_1$-$J_2$ Ising model for $J_2 < |J_1|/2$ using the random local field approximation (RLFA) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Within RLFA, it reveals a metastable state with zero polarization in the ordered phase. In addition, the Landau free energy calculated within RLFA indicates a geometric slab-droplet phase transition at low temperature, which cannot be predicted by the mean field approximation. In turn, restricted free energy calculations for finite-size samples, exact and using MC simulations, reveal metastable states with a wide range of polarization values, but with only two domains. Taking into account the dependence of the restricted free energy on the nearest-neighbor correlations allows us to identify several more metastable states. The calculations also reveal additional slab-droplet transitions at $J_2 > |J_1|/4$. These findings enrich our knowledge of the $J_1$-$J_2$ Ising model and the RLFA as a useful theoretical tool to study phase transitions in spin systems.

  2 citations

• Attenuating dynamics of strongly interacting fermionic superfluids in SYK solvable models

  Tian-Gang Zhou, Pengfei Zhang

  SciPost Phys. 15, 108 (2023) · published 21 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quench dynamics of fermionic superfluids are an active topic both experimentally and theoretically. Using the BCS theory, such non-equilibrium problems can be reduced to nearly independent spin dynamics, only with a time-dependent mean-field pairing term. This results in persisting oscillations of the pairing strength in certain parameter regimes. However, experiments have observed that the oscillations decay rapidly when the interaction becomes strong, such as in the unitary Fermi gas [Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 023205 (2021)]. Theoretical analysis on this matter is still absent. In this work, we construct an SYK-like model to analyze the effect of strong interactions in a one-dimensional BCS system. We employ the large-$N$ approximation and a Green's function-based technique to solve the equilibrium problem and quench dynamics. Our findings reveal that a strong SYK interaction suppresses the pairing order. Additionally, we verify that the system quickly thermalizes with SYK interactions, whether it involves intrinsic pairing order or proximity effect, resulting in a rapid decay of the oscillation strength. The decay rates exhibit different scaling laws against SYK interaction, which can be understood in terms of the Boltzmann equation. This work represents a first step towards understanding the attenuating dynamics of strongly interacting fermionic superfluids.

  2 citations

• Fractional domain wall statistics in spin chains with anomalous symmetries

  Jose Garre Rubio, Norbert Schuch

  SciPost Phys. 18, 043 (2025) · published 4 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the statistics of domain wall excitations in quantum spin chains. We focus on systems with finite symmetry groups represented by matrix product unitaries (MPUs), i.e. finite depth quantum circuits. Such symmetries can be anomalous, in which case gapped phases which they support must break the symmetry. The lowest lying excitations of those systems are thus domain wall excitations. We investigate the behavior of these domain walls under exchange, and find that they can exhibit non-trivial exchange statistics. This statistics is completely determined by the anomaly of the symmetry, and we provide a direct relation between the known classification of MPU symmetry actions on ground states and the domain wall statistics. Already for the simplest case of a $\mathbb Z_2$ symmetry, we obtain that the presence of an anomalous MPU symmetry gives rise to domain wall excitations which behave neither as bosons nor as fermions, but rather exhibit fractional statistics. Finally, we show that the exchange statistics of domain walls is a physically accessible quantity, by devising explicit measurement operators through which it can be determined.

  2 citations

• Wegner's Ising gauge spins versus Kitaev's Majorana partons: Mapping and application to anisotropic confinement in spin-orbital liquids

  Urban F. P. Seifert, Sergej Moroz

  SciPost Phys. 16, 147 (2024) · published 5 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Emergent gauge theories take a prominent role in the description of quantum matter, supporting deconfined phases with topological order and fractionalized excitations. A common construction of $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theories, first introduced by Wegner, involves Ising gauge spins placed on links and subject to a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2$ Gauss law constraint. As shown by Kitaev, $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theories also emerge in the exact solution of certain spin systems with bond-dependent interactions. In this context, the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge field is constructed from Majorana fermions, with gauge constraints given by the parity of Majorana fermions on each site. In this work, we provide an explicit Jordan-Wigner transformation that maps between these two formulations on the square lattice, where the Kitaev-type gauge theory emerges as the exact solution of a spin-orbital (Kugel-Khomskii) Hamiltonian. We then apply our mapping to study local perturbations to the spin-orbital Hamiltonian, which correspond to anisotropic interactions between electric-field variables in the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory. These are shown to induce anisotropic confinement that is characterized by emergence of weakly-coupled one-dimensional spin chains. We study the nature of these phases and corresponding confinement transitions in both absence and presence of itinerant fermionic matter degrees of freedom. Finally, we discuss how our mapping can be applied to the Kitaev spin-1/2 model on the honeycomb lattice.

  2 citations

• Scalar products and norm of Bethe vectors in $\mathfrak{o}_{2n+1}$ invariant integrable models

  A. Liashyk, S. Pakuliak, E. Ragoucy

  SciPost Phys. 19, 023 (2025) · published 18 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute scalar products of off-shell Bethe vectors in models with $o_{2n+1}$ symmetry. The scalar products are expressed as a sum over partitions of the Bethe parameter sets, the building blocks being the so-called highest coefficients. We prove some recurrence relations and a residue theorem for these highest coefficients, and prove that they are consistent with the reduction to $gl_n$ invariant models. We also express the norm of on-shell Bethe vectors as a Gaudin determinant.

  2 citations

• Fidelity decay and error accumulation in random quantum circuits

  Nadir Samos Sáenz de Buruaga, Rafał Bistroń, Marcin Rudziński, Rodrigo M. C. Pereira, Karol Życzkowski, Pedro Ribeiro

  SciPost Phys. 19, 013 (2025) · published 8 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Fidelity decay captures the inevitable state degradation in any practical implementation of a quantum process. We devise bounds for the decay of fidelity for a generic evolution given by a random quantum circuit model that encompasses errors arising from the implementation of two-qubit gates and qubit permutations. We show that fidelity decays exponentially with both circuit depth and the number of qubits raised to an architecture-dependent power and we determine the decay rates as a function of the amplitude of the aforementioned errors. Furthermore, we demonstrate the utility of our results in benchmarking quantum processors using the quantum volume figure of merit and provide insights into strategies for improving processor performance. These findings pave the way for understanding how states evolving under generic quantum dynamics degrade due to the accumulation of different kinds of perturbations.

  2 citations

• Single-boson exchange formulation of the Schwinger-Dyson equation and its application to the functional renormalization group

  Miriam Patricolo, Marcel Gievers, Kilian Fraboulet, Aiman Al-Eryani, Sarah Heinzelmann, Pietro M. Bonetti, Alessandro Toschi, Demetrio Vilardi, Sabine Andergassen

  SciPost Phys. 18, 078 (2025) · published 4 March 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We extend the recently introduced single-boson exchange formulation to the computation of the self-energy from the Schwinger–Dyson equation (SDE). In particular, we derive its expression both in diagrammatic and in physical channels. The simple form of the single-boson exchange SDE, involving only the bosonic propagator and the fermion-boson vertex, but not the rest function, allows for an efficient numerical implementation. We furthermore discuss its implications in a truncated unity solver, where a restricted number of form factors introduces an information loss in the projection of the momentum dependence that in general affects the equivalence between the different channel representations. In the application to the functional renormalization group, we find that the convergence in the number of form factors depends on the channel representation of the SDE. For the two-dimensional Hubbard model at weak coupling, the pseudogap opening driven by antiferromagnetic fluctuations is captured already by a single ($s$-wave) form factor in the magnetic channel representation, differently to the density and superconducting channels.

  2 citations

• Proposal for realizing anomalous Floquet insulators via Chern band annihilation

  Carolyn Zhang, Tobias Holder, Netanel H. Lindner, Mark Rudner, Erez Berg

  SciPost Phys. 12, 124 (2022) · published 11 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Two-dimensional periodically driven systems can host an unconventional topological phase unattainable for equilibrium systems, termed the Anomalous Floquet-Anderson insulator (AFAI). The AFAI features a quasi-energy spectrum with chiral edge modes and a fully localized bulk, leading to non-adiabatic but quantized charge pumping. Here, we show how such a Floquet phase can be realized in a driven, disordered Quantum Anomalous Hall insulator, which is assumed to have two critical energies where the localization length diverges, carrying states with opposite Chern numbers. Driving the system at a frequency close to resonance between these two energies localizes the critical states and annihilates the Chern bands, giving rise to an AFAI phase. We exemplify this principle by studying a model for a driven, magnetically doped topological insulator film, where the annihilation of the Chern bands and the formation of the AFAI phase is demonstrated using the rotating wave approximation. This is complemented by a scaling analysis of the localization length for two copies of a quantum Hall network model with a tunable coupling between them. We find that by tuning the frequency of the driving close to resonance, the driving strength required to stabilize the AFAI phase can be made arbitrarily small.

  2 citations