Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Generalizations of Kitaev’s honeycomb model from braided fusion categories

  Luisa Eck, Paul Fendley

  SciPost Phys. 18, 170 (2025) · published 2 June 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Fusion surface models, as introduced by Inamura and Ohmori, extend the concept of anyon chains to 2+1 dimensions, taking fusion 2-categories as their input. In this work, we construct and analyze fusion surface models on the honeycomb lattice built from braided fusion 1-categories. These models preserve mutually commuting plaquette operators and anomalous 1-form symmetries. Their Hamiltonian is chosen to mimic the structure of Kitaev's honeycomb model, which is unitarily equivalent to the Ising fusion surface model. In the anisotropic limit, where one coupling constant is dominant, the fusion surface models reduce to Levin-Wen string-nets. In the isotropic limit, they are described by weakly coupled anyon chains and are likely to realize chiral topological order. We focus on three specific examples: (i) Kitaev's honeycomb model with a perturbation breaking time-reversal symmetry that realizes chiral Ising topological order, (ii) a $\mathbb{Z}_N$ generalization proposed by Barkeshli et al., which potentially realizes chiral parafermion topological order, and (iii) a novel Fibonacci honeycomb model featuring a non-invertible 1-form symmetry.

  2 citations

• Building 1D lattice models with $G$-graded fusion category

  Shang-Qiang Ning, Bin-Bin Mao, Chenjie Wang

  SciPost Phys. 17, 125 (2024) · published 5 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We construct a family of one-dimensional (1D) quantum lattice models based on $G$-graded unitary fusion category $\mathcal{C}_G$. This family realize an interpolation between the anyon-chain models and edge models of 2D symmetry-protected topological states, and can be thought of as edge models of 2D symmetry-enriched topological states. The models display a set of unconventional global symmetries that are characterized by the input category $\mathcal{C}_G$. While spontaneous symmetry breaking is also possible, our numerical evidence shows that the category symmetry constrains the models to the extent that the low-energy physics has a large likelihood to be gapless.

  2 citations

• The status of the galactic center gamma-ray excess

  Dan Hooper

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 006 (2023) · published 3 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess has a spectrum, angular distribution, and overall intensity that agree remarkably well with that expected from annihilating dark matter particles in the form of a $m_X \sim$ 50 GeV thermal relic. Previous claims that these photons are clustered on small angular scales or trace the distribution of known stellar populations once appeared to favor interpretations in which this signal originates from a large population of unresolved millisecond pulsars. More recent work, however, has overturned these conclusions, finding that the observed gamma-ray excess does not contain discernible small scale power, and is distributed with approximate spherical symmetry, not tracing any known stellar populations. In light of these results, it now appears significantly more likely that the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess is produced by annihilating dark matter.

  2 citations

• Entropy driven inductive response of topological insulators

  A. Mert Bozkurt, Sofie Kölling, Alexander Brinkman, İnanç Adagideli

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 023 (2025) · published 18 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  3D topological insulators are characterized by an insulating bulk and extended surface states exhibiting a helical spin texture. In this work, we investigate the hyperfine interaction between the spin-charge coupled transport of electrons and the nuclear spins in these surface states. Previous work has predicted that in the quantum spin Hall insulator phase, work can be extracted from a bath of polarized nuclear spins as a resource. We employ nonequilibrium Green's function analysis to show that a similar effect exists on the surface of a 3D topological insulator, albeit rescaled by the ratio between electronic mean free path and device length. The induced current due to thermal relaxation of polarized nuclear spins has an inductive nature. We emphasize the inductive response by rewriting the current-voltage relation in harmonic response as a lumped element model containing two parallel resistors and an inductor. In a low-frequency analysis, a universal inductance value emerges that is only dependent on the device's aspect ratio. This scaling offers a means of miniaturizing inductive circuit elements. An efficiency estimate follows from comparing the spin-flip induced current to the Ohmic contribution. The inductive effect is most prominent in topological insulators which have a large number of spinful nuclei per coherent segment, of which the volume is given by the mean free path length, Fermi wavelength and penetration depth of the surface state.

  2 citations

• Population dynamics of Schrödinger cats

  Foster Thompson, Alex Kamenev

  SciPost Phys. 18, 046 (2025) · published 6 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate an exact equivalence between classical population dynamics and Lindbladian evolution admitting a dark state and obeying a set of certain local symmetries. We then introduce quantum population dynamics as models in which this local symmetry condition is relaxed. This allows for non-classical processes in which animals behave like Schrödinger's cat and enter superpositions of live and dead states, thus resulting in coherent superpositions of different population numbers. We develop a field theory treatment of quantum population models as a synthesis of Keldysh and third quantization techniques and draw comparisons to the stochastic Doi-Peliti field theory description of classical population models. We apply this formalism to study a prototypical "Schrödinger cat" population model on a $d$-dimensional lattice, which exhibits a phase transition between a dark extinct phase and an active phase that supports a stable quantum population. Using a perturbative renormalization group approach, we find a critical scaling of the Schrödinger cat population distinct from that observed in both classical population dynamics and usual quantum phase transitions.

  2 citations

• Improved Hilbert space exploration algorithms for finite temperature calculations

  Albertus J. J. M. de Klerk, Jean-Sébastien Caux

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 039 (2023) · published 23 May 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Computing correlation functions in strongly-interacting quantum systems is one of the most important challenges of modern condensed matter theory, due to their importance in the description of many physical observables. Simultaneously, this challenge is one of the most difficult to address, due to the inapplicability of traditional perturbative methods or the few-body limitations of numerical approaches. For special cases, where the model is integrable, methods based on the Bethe Ansatz have succeeded in computing the spectrum and given us analytical expressions for the matrix elements of physically important operators. However, leveraging these results to compute correlation functions generally requires the numerical evaluation of summations over eigenstates. To perform these summations efficiently, Hilbert space exploration algorithms have been developed which has resulted most notably in the ABACUS library. While this performs quite well for correlations on ground states or low-entropy states, the case of high entropy states (most importantly at finite temperatures or after a quantum quench) is more difficult, and leaves room for improvement. In this work, we develop a new Hilbert space exploration algorithm for the Lieb-Liniger model, specially tailored to optimize the computational order on finite-entropy states for correlations of density-related operators.

  2 citations

• Geometric constructions of generalized dual-unitary circuits from biunitarity

  Michael A. Rampp, Suhail A. Rather, Pieter W. Claeys

  SciPost Phys. 18, 182 (2025) · published 10 June 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a general framework for constructing solvable lattice models of chaotic many-body quantum dynamics with multiple unitary directions using biunitary connections. We show that a network of biunitary connections on the kagome lattice naturally defines a multi-unitary circuit, where three 'arrows of time' directly reflect the lattice symmetry. These models unify various constructions of hierarchical dual-unitary and triunitary gates and present new families of models with solvable correlations and entanglement dynamics. Using multilayer constructions of biunitary connections, we additionally introduce multilayer circuits with monoclinic symmetry and higher level hierarchical dual-unitary solvability and discuss their (non-)ergodicity. Our work demonstrates how different classes of solvable models can be understood as arising from different geometric structures in spacetime.

  2 citations

• Equilibration of quantum cat states

  Tony Jin

  SciPost Phys. 9, 004 (2020) · published 8 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the equilibration properties of isolated ergodic quantum systems initially prepared in a cat state, i.e a macroscopic quantum superposition of states. Our main result consists in showing that, even though decoherence is at work in the mean, there exists a remnant of the initial quantum coherences visible in the strength of the fluctuations of the steady state. We back-up our analysis with numerical results obtained on the XXX spin chain with a random field along the z-axis in the ergodic regime and find good qualitative and quantitative agreement with the theory. We also present and discuss a framework where equilibrium quantities can be computed from general statistical ensembles without relying on microscopic details about the initial state, akin to the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis.

  2 citations

• Codebase release 1.0 for Worm Algorithm for Bose-Hubbard and XXZ Models

  Nicolas Sadoune, Lode Pollet

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 9-r1.0 (2022) · published 29 November 2022 | Toggle abstract · src

  We present a novel and open-source implementation of the worm algorithm, which is an algorithm to simulate Bose-Hubbard and sign-positive spin models using a path-integral representation of the partition function. The code can deal with arbitrary lattice structures and assumes spin-exchange terms, or bosonic hopping amplitudes, between nearest-neighbor sites, and local or nearest-neighbor interactions of the density-density type. We explicitly demonstrate the near-linear scaling of the algorithm with respect to the system volume and the inverse temperature and analyze the autocorrelation times in the vicinity of a $U(1)$ second order phase transition. The code is written in such a way that extensions to other lattice models as well as closely-related sign-positive models can be done straightforwardly on top of the provided framework.

  2 citations

• U(1) gauging, continuous TQFTs, and higher symmetry structures

  Adrien Arbalestrier, Riccardo Argurio, Luigi Tizzano

  SciPost Phys. 19, 032 (2025) · published 12 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum field theories can exhibit various generalized symmetry structures, among which higher-group symmetries and non-invertible symmetry defects are particularly prominent. In this work, we explore a new general scenario in which these two structures are intertwined. This phenomenon arises in four dimensions when gauging one of multiple $U(1)$ 0-form symmetries in the presence of mixed 't Hooft anomalies. We illustrate this with two distinct models that flow to an IR gapless phase and a gapped phase, respectively, and examine how this symmetry structure manifests in each case. Additionally, we investigate a five-dimensional model where a similar structure exists intrinsically. Our main tool is a symmetry TQFT in one higher dimension, formulated using non-compact gauge fields and having infinitely many topological operators. We carefully determine its boundary conditions and provide a detailed discussion on various dressing choices for its bulk topological operators.

  2 citations