Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Spectral and steady-state properties of fermionic random quadratic Liouvillians

  João Costa, Pedro Ribeiro, Andrea De Luca, Tomaž Prosen, Lucas Sá

  SciPost Phys. 15, 145 (2023) · published 9 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study spectral and steady-state properties of generic Markovian dissipative systems described by quadratic fermionic Liouvillian operators of the Lindblad form. The Hamiltonian dynamics is modeled by a generic random quadratic operator, i.e., as a featureless superconductor of class D, whereas the Markovian dissipation is described by $M$ random linear jump operators. By varying the dissipation strength and the ratio of dissipative channels per fermion, $m=M/(2N_F)$, we find two distinct phases where the support of the single-particle spectrum has one or two connected components. In the strongly dissipative regime, this transition occurs for $m=1/2$ and is concomitant with a qualitative change in both the steady-state and the spectral gap that rules the large-time dynamics. Above this threshold, the spectral gap and the steady-state purity qualitatively agree with the fully generic (i.e., non-quadratic) case studied recently. Below $m=1/2$, the spectral gap closes in the thermodynamic limit and the steady-state decouples into an ergodic and a nonergodic sector yielding a non-monotonic steady-state purity as a function of the dissipation strength. Our results show that some of the universal features previously observed for fully random Liouvillians are generic for a sufficiently large number of jump operators. On the other hand, if the number of dissipation channels is decreased the system can exhibit nonergodic features, rendering it possible to suppress dissipation in protected subspaces even in the presence of strong system-environment coupling.

  13 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.

  13 citations

• Superflow decay in a toroidal Bose gas: The effect of quantum and thermal fluctuations

  Zain Mehdi, Ashton S. Bradley, Joseph J. Hope, Stuart S. Szigeti

  SciPost Phys. 11, 080 (2021) · published 21 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We theoretically investigate the stochastic decay of persistent currents in a toroidal ultracold atomic superfluid caused by a perturbing barrier. Specifically, we perform detailed three-dimensional simulations to model the experiment of Kumar et al. in [Phys. Rev. A 95 021602 (2017)], which observed a strong temperature dependence in the timescale of superflow decay in an ultracold Bose gas. Our ab initio numerical approach exploits a classical-field framework that includes thermal fluctuations due to interactions between the superfluid and a thermal cloud, as well as the intrinsic quantum fluctuations of the Bose gas. In the low-temperature regime our simulations provide a quantitative description of the experimental decay timescales, improving on previous numerical and analytical approaches. At higher temperatures, our simulations give decay timescales that range over the same orders of magnitude observed in the experiment, however, there are some quantitative discrepancies that are not captured by any of the mechanisms we explore. Our results suggest a need for further experimental and theoretical studies into superflow stability.

  13 citations

• Twisted-bilayer FeSe and the Fe-based superlattices

  Paul M. Eugenio, Oskar Vafek

  SciPost Phys. 15, 081 (2023) · published 6 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We derive BM-like continuum models for the bands of superlattice heterostructures formed out of Fe-chalcogenide monolayers: (I) a single monolayer experiencing an external periodic potential, and (II) twisted bilayers with long-range moire tunneling. A symmetry derivation for the inter-layer moire tunnelling is provided for both the $\Gamma$ and $M$ high-symmetry points. In this paper, we focus on moire bands formed from hole-band maxima centered on $\Gamma$, and show the possibility of moire bands with $C=0$ or ±1 topological quantum numbers without breaking time-reversal symmetry. In the $C=0$ region for $\theta→0$ (and similarly in the limit of large superlattice period for I), the system becomes a square lattice of 2D harmonic oscillators. We fit our model to FeSe and argue that it is a viable platform for the simulation of the square Hubbard model with tunable interaction strength.

  13 citations

• Flow equations for disordered Floquet systems

  Steven J. Thomson, Duarte Magano, Marco Schirò

  SciPost Phys. 11, 028 (2021) · published 10 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this work, we present a new approach to disordered, periodically driven (Floquet) quantum many-body systems based on flow equations. Specifically, we introduce a continuous unitary flow of Floquet operators in an extended Hilbert space, whose fixed point is both diagonal and time-independent, allowing us to directly obtain the Floquet modes. We first apply this method to a periodically driven Anderson insulator, for which it is exact, and then extend it to driven many-body localized systems within a truncated flow equation ansatz. In particular we compute the emergent Floquet local integrals of motion that characterise a periodically driven many-body localized phase. We demonstrate that the method remains well-controlled in the weakly-interacting regime, and allows us to access larger system sizes than accessible by numerically exact methods, paving the way for studies of two-dimensional driven many-body systems.

  13 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.

  13 citations

• The role of fluctuations in quantum and classical time crystals

  Toni L. Heugel, Alexander Eichler, Ramasubramanian Chitra, Oded Zilberberg

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 053 (2023) · published 10 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Discrete time crystals (DTCs) are a many-body state of matter whose dynamics are slower than the forces acting on it. The same is true for classical systems with period-doubling bifurcations. Hence, the question naturally arises what differentiates classical from quantum DTCs. Here, we analyze a variant of the Bose-Hubbard model, which describes a plethora of physical phenomena and has both a classical and a quantum time-crystalline limit. Fluctuations enter the system due to the intrinsic quantum uncertainty and/or due to finite coupling to an environment. These fluctuations can activate transitions between the system's various stationary solutions. We study the role of fluctuations on the stability of the system in the long-time limit and find no distinction between quantum and classical DTCs. This allows us to probe the fluctuations in an experiment using two strongly coupled parametric resonators subject to classical noise.

  12 citations

• Probing Chern number by opacity and topological phase transition by a nonlocal Chern marker

  Paolo Molignini, Bastien Lapierre, Ramasubramanian Chitra, Wei Chen

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 059 (2023) · published 29 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In 2D semiconductors and insulators, the Chern number of the valence band Bloch state is an important quantity that has been linked to various material properties, such as the topological order. We elaborate that the opacity of 2D materials to circularly polarized light over a wide range of frequencies, measured in units of the fine structure constant, can be used to extract a spectral function that frequency-integrates to the Chern number, offering a simple optical experiment to measure it. This method is subsequently generalized to finite temperature and locally on every lattice site by a linear response theory, which helps to extract the Chern marker that maps the Chern number to lattice sites. The long range response in our theory corresponds to a Chern correlator that acts like the internal fluctuation of the Chern marker, and is found to be enhanced in the topologically nontrivial phase. Finally, from the Fourier transform of the valence band Berry curvature, a nonlocal Chern marker is further introduced, whose decay length diverges at topological phase transitions and therefore serves as a faithful indicator of the transitions, and moreover can be interpreted as a Wannier state correlation function. The concepts discussed in this work explore multi-faceted aspects of topology and should help address the impact of system inhomogeneities.

  12 citations

• Classicality with(out) decoherence: Concepts, relation to Markovianity, and a random matrix theory approach

  Philipp Strasberg

  SciPost Phys. 15, 024 (2023) · published 24 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Answers to the question how a classical world emerges from underlying quantum physics are revisited, connected and extended as follows. First, three distinct concepts are compared: decoherence in open quantum systems, consistent/decoherent histories and Kolmogorov consistency. Second, the crucial role of quantum Markovianity (defined rigorously) to connect these concepts is established. Third, using a random matrix theory model, quantum effects are shown to be exponentially suppressed in the measurement statistics of slow and coarse observables despite the presence of large amount of coherences. This is also numerically exemplified, and it highlights the potential and importance of non-integrability and chaos for the emergence of classicality.

  12 citations

• Nonequilibrium phases of ultracold bosons with cavity-induced dynamic gauge fields

  Arkadiusz Kosior, Helmut Ritsch, Farokh Mivehvar

  SciPost Phys. 15, 046 (2023) · published 3 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Gauge fields are a central concept in fundamental theories of physics, and responsible for mediating long-range interactions between elementary particles. Recently, it has been proposed that dynamical gauge fields can be naturally engineered by photons in composite, neutral quantum gas-cavity systems using suitable atom-photon interactions. Here we comprehensively investigate nonequilibrium dynamical phases appearing in a two-leg bosonic lattice model with leg-dependent, dynamical complex tunnelings mediated by cavity-assisted two-photon Raman processes. The system constitutes a minimal dynamical flux-lattice model. We study fixed points of the equations of motion and their stability, the resultant dynamical phase diagram, and the corresponding phase transitions and bifurcations. Notably, the phase diagram features a plethora of nonequilibrium dynamical phases including limit-cycle and chaotic phases. In the end, we relate regular periodic dynamics (i.e., limit-cycle phases) of the system to time crystals.

  12 citations