Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Floquet fractional Chern insulators and competing phases in twisted bilayer graphene

  Peng-Sheng Hu, Yi-Han Zhou, Zhao Liu

  SciPost Phys. 15, 148 (2023) · published 10 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the many-body physics in twisted bilayer graphene coupled to periodic driving of a circularly polarized light when electron-electron interactions are taken into account. In the limit of high driving frequency $\Omega$, we use Floquet theory to formulate the system by an effective static Hamiltonian truncated to the order of $\Omega^{-2}$, which consists of a single-electron part and the screened Coulomb interaction. We numerically simulate this effective Hamiltonian by extensive exact diagonalization in the parameter space spanned by the twist angle and the driving strength. Remarkably, in a wide region of the parameter space, we identify Floquet fractional Chern insulator states in the partially filled Floquet valence bands. We characterize these topologically ordered states by ground-state degeneracy, spectral flow, and entanglement spectrum. In regions of the parameter space where fractional Chern insulator states are absent, we find topologically trivial charge density waves and band-dispersion-induced Fermi liquids which strongly compete with fractional Chern insulator states.

  1 citation

• Tensor network variational optimizations for real-time dynamics: Application to the time-evolution of spin liquids

  Ravi Teja Ponnaganti, Matthieu Mambrini, Didier Poilblanc

  SciPost Phys. 15, 158 (2023) · published 12 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Within the Projected Entangled Pair State (PEPS) tensor network formalism, a simple update (SU) method has been used to investigate the time evolution of a two-dimensional U(1) critical spin-1/2 spin liquid under Hamiltonian quench [Phys. Rev. B 106, 195132 (2022)]. Here we introduce two different variational frameworks to describe the time dynamics of SU(2)-symmetric translationally-invariant PEPS, aiming to improve the accuracy. In one approach, after using a Trotter-Suzuki decomposition of the time evolution operator in term of two-site elementary gates, one considers a single bond embedded in an environment approximated by a Corner Transfer Matrix Renormalization Group (CTMRG). A variational update of the two tensors on the bond is performed under the application of the elementary gate and then, after symmetrization of the site tensors, the environment is updated. In the second approach, a cluster optimization is performed on a finite (periodic) cluster, maximizing the overlap of the exact time-evolved state with a symmetric finite-size PEPS ansatz. Observables are then computed on the infinite lattice contracting the infinite-PEPS (iPEPS) by CTMRG. We show that the variational schemes outperform the SU method and remain accurate over a significant time interval before hitting the entanglement barrier. Studying the spectrum of the transfer matrix, we find that the asymptotic correlations are very well preserved under time evolution, including the critical nature of the singlet correlations, as expected from the Lieb-Robinson (LR) bound theorem. Consistently, the system (asymptotic) boundary is found to be described by the same Conformal Field Theory of central charge $c = 1$ during time evolution. We also compute the time-evolution of the short distance spin-spin correlations and estimate the LR velocity.

  1 citation

• Interfacially adsorbed bubbles determine the shape of droplets

  Alessio Squarcini, Antonio Tinti

  SciPost Phys. 15, 164 (2023) · published 16 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The characterization of density correlations in the presence of strongly fluctuating interfaces has always been considered a difficult problem in statistical mechanics. Here we study - by using recently developed exact field-theoretical techniques - density correlations for an interface with endpoints on a wall forming a droplet in 2D. Our framework applies to interfaces entropically repelled by a hard wall as well as to wetting transitions. In the former case bubbles adsorbed on the interface are taken into account by the theory which yields a systematic treatment of finite-size corrections to one- and two-point functions and show how these are related to Brownian excursions. Our analytical predictions are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations without free parameters. We also determine one- and two-point functions at wetting by using integrable boundary field theory. We show that correlations are long ranged for entropic repulsion and at wetting. For both regimes we investigate correlations in momentum space by generalizing the notion of interface structure factor to semi-confined systems. Distinctive signatures of the two regimes manifest in the structure factor through a term that we identify on top of the capillary-wave one.

  1 citation

• A time-dependent momentum-resolved scattering approach to core-level spectroscopies

  Krissia Zawadzki, Alberto Nocera, Adrian E. Feiguin

  SciPost Phys. 15, 166 (2023) · published 17 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  While new light sources allow for unprecedented resolution in experiments with X-rays, a theoretical understanding of the scattering cross-section is lacking. In the particular case of strongly correlated electron systems, numerical techniques are quite limited, since conventional approaches rely on calculating a response function (Kramers-Heisenberg formula) that is obtained from a perturbative analysis of scattering processes in the frequency domain. This requires a knowledge of a full set of eigenstates in order to account for all intermediate processes away from equilibrium, limiting the applicability to small tractable systems. In this work, we present an alternative paradigm, recasting the problem in the time domain and explicitly solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation without the limitations of perturbation theory: a faithful simulation of the scattering processes taking place in actual experiments, including photons and core electrons. We show how this approach can yield the full time and momentum resolved Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering (RIXS) spectrum of strongly interacting many-body systems. We demonstrate the formalism with an application to Mott insulating Hubbard chains using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method, which does not require a priory knowledge of the eigenstates and can solve very large systems with dozens of orbitals. This approach can readily be applied to systems out of equilibrium without modification and generalized to other spectroscopies.

  1 citation

• Exploring the vortex phase diagram of Bogoliubov-de Gennes disordered superconductors

  Bo Fan (范波), Antonio Miguel Garcia Garcia

  SciPost Phys. 15, 196 (2023) · published 15 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the interplay of vortices and disorder in a two-dimensional disordered superconductor at zero temperature described by the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) self-consistent formalism for lattices of sizes up to 100×100 where the magnetic flux is introduced by the Peierls substitution. We model substantially larger lattice size than in previous approaches (≤36×36) which has allowed us to identify a rich phase diagram as a function of the magnetic flux and the disorder strength. For sufficiently weak disorder, and not too strong magnetic flux, we observe a slightly distorted Abrikosov triangular vortex lattice. An increase in the magnetic flux leads to an unexpected rectangular vortex lattice. A further increase in disorder, or flux, gradually destroys the lattice symmetry though strong vortex repulsion persists. An even stronger disorder leads to deformed single vortices with an inhomogeneous core. As the number of vortices increases, vortex overlap becomes more frequent. Finally, we show that global phase coherence is a feature of all these phases and that disorder enhances substantially the critical magnetic flux with respect to the clean limit with a maximum on the metallic side of the insulating transition.

  1 citation

• Codebase release 1.3 for GrassmannTN

  Atis Yosprakob

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 20-r1.3 (2023) · published 16 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · src

  We present GrassmannTN, a Python package for the computation of the Grassmann tensor network. The package is built to assist in the numerical computation without the need to input the fermionic sign factor manually. It prioritizes coding readability by designing every tensor manipulating function around the tensor subscripts. The computation of the Grassmann tensor renormalization group and Grassmann isometries using GrassmannTN are given as the use case examples.

  1 citation

• Thermal pure matrix product state in two dimensions: Tracking thermal equilibrium from paramagnet down to the Kitaev honeycomb spin liquid state

  Matthias Gohlke, Atsushi Iwaki, Chisa Hotta

  SciPost Phys. 15, 206 (2023) · published 24 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the first successful application of the matrix product state (MPS) representing a thermal quantum pure state (TPQ) in equilibrium in two spatial dimensions over almost the entire temperature range. We use the Kitaev honeycomb model as a prominent example hosting a quantum spin liquid (QSL) ground state to target the two specific-heat peaks previously solved nearly exactly using the free Majorana fermionic description. Starting from the high-temperature random state, our TPQ-MPS framework on a cylinder precisely reproduces these peaks, showing that the quantum many-body description based on spins can still capture the emergent itinerant Majorana fermions in a ${\mathbb Z}_2$ gauge field. The truncation process efficiently discards the high-energy states, eventually reaching the long-range entangled topological state approaching the exact ground state for a given finite size cluster. An advantage of TPQ-MPS over exact diagonalization or purification-based methods is its lowered numerical cost coming from a reduced effective Hilbert space even at finite temperature.

  1 citation

• Traveling/non-traveling phase transition and non-ergodic properties in the random transverse-field Ising model on the Cayley tree

  Ankita Chakrabarti, Cyril Martins, Nicolas Laflorencie, Bertrand Georgeot, Éric Brunet, Gabriel Lemarié

  SciPost Phys. 15, 211 (2023) · published 28 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the random transverse field Ising model on a finite Cayley tree. This enables us to probe key questions arising in other important disordered quantum systems, in particular the Anderson transition and the problem of dirty bosons on the Cayley tree, or the emergence of non-ergodic properties in such systems. We numerically investigate this problem building on the cavity mean-field method complemented by state-of-the art finite-size scaling analysis. Our numerics agree very well with analytical results based on an analogy with the traveling wave problem of a branching random walk in the presence of an absorbing wall. Critical properties and finite-size corrections for the zero-temperature paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition are studied both for constant (independent of the system volume) and algebraically vanishing (scaling as an inverse power law with the system volume) boundary conditions. In the later case, we reveal a regime which is reminiscent of the non-ergodic delocalized phase observed in other systems, thus shedding some light on critical issues in the context of disordered quantum systems, such as Anderson transitions, the many-body localization or disordered bosons in infinite dimensions.

  1 citation

• Phenomenological XXZ model for the competition between superconductivity and charge order in cuprates

  Giulia Venditti, Ilaria Maccari, Jose Lorenzana, Sergio Caprara

  SciPost Phys. 15, 230 (2023) · published 7 December 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We argue that there is a special doping point in the phase diagram of cuprates, such that the condensation of holes into a charge-ordered and a superconducting phase are degenerate in energy but with an energy barrier in between. We present Monte Carlo simulations of a phenomenological XXZ model for this problem without and with quenched disorder in two dimensions. While in the clean case charge order and superconductivity are separated by a first-order line which is nearly independent of temperature, in the presence of quenched disorder charge order is fragmented into domains separated by superconducting filaments reminiscent of the supersolid behaviour in $^4$He. Assuming weak interlayer couplings, the resulting phase diagram of the three-dimensional system is in good agreement with the experiments.

  1 citation

• Reconstructing the potential configuration in a high-mobility semiconductor heterostructure with scanning gate microscopy

  Gaëtan J. Percebois, Antonio Lacerda-Santos, Boris Brun, Benoit Hackens, Xavier Waintal, Dietmar Weinmann

  SciPost Phys. 15, 242 (2023) · published 15 December 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The weak disorder potential seen by the electrons of a two-dimensional electron gas in high-mobility semiconductor heterostructures leads to fluctuations in the physical properties and can be an issue for nanodevices. In this paper, we show that a scanning gate microscopy (SGM) image contains information about the disorder potential, and that a machine learning approach based on SGM data can be used to determine the disorder. We reconstruct the electric potential of a sample from its experimental SGM data and validate the result through an estimate of its accuracy.

  1 citation