Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Pymablock: An algorithm and a package for quasi-degenerate perturbation theory

  Isidora Araya Day, Sebastian Miles, Hugo K. Kerstens, Daniel Varjas, Anton R. Akhmerov

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 50 (2025) · published 12 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A common technique in the study of complex quantum-mechanical systems is to reduce the number of degrees of freedom in the Hamiltonian by using quasi-degenerate perturbation theory. While the Schrieffer-Wolff transformation achieves this and constructs an effective Hamiltonian, its scaling is suboptimal, it is limited to two subspaces, and implementing it efficiently is both challenging and error-prone. We introduce an algorithm for constructing an equivalent effective Hamiltonian as well as a Python package, Pymablock, that implements it. Our algorithm combines an optimal asymptotic scaling and the ability to handle any number of subspaces with a range of other improvements. The package supports numerical and analytical calculations of any order and it is designed to be interoperable with any other packages for specifying the Hamiltonian. We demonstrate how the package handles constructing a k.p model, analyses a superconducting qubit, and computes the low-energy spectrum of a large tight-binding model. We also compare its performance with reference calculations and demonstrate its efficiency.

  4 citations

• Dissipative preparation of a Floquet topological insulator in an optical lattice via bath engineering

  Alexander Schnell, Christof Weitenberg, André Eckardt

  SciPost Phys. 17, 052 (2024) · published 14 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Floquet engineering is an important tool for realizing topologically nontrivial band structures for charge-neutral atoms in optical lattices. However, the preparation of a topological-band-insulator-type state of fermions, with one nontrivial quasi-energy band filled completely and the others empty, is challenging as a result of both driving induced heating as well as imperfect adiabatic state preparation (with the latter induced by the unavoidable gap closing when passing the topological transition). An alternative procedure that has been proposed is to prepare such states dissipatively, i.e. as a steady state that emerges when coupling the system to reservoirs. Here we discuss a concrete scheme that couples the system to a weakly interacting Bose condensate given by second atomic species acting as a heat bath. Our strategy relies on the engineering of the potential for the bath particles, so that they occupy weakly coupled tubes perpendicular to the two-dimensional system. Using Floquet-Born-Markov theory, we show that the resulting nonequilibrium steady state of the driven-dissipative system approximates a topological insulator. We even find indications for the approximate stabilization of an anomalous Floquet topological insulator, a state that is impossible to realize in equilibrium.

  4 citations

• Quantum engineering of a synthetic thermal bath for bosonic atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice via Markovian feedback control

  Ling-Na Wu, André Eckardt

  SciPost Phys. 13, 059 (2022) · published 21 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose and investigate a scheme for engineering a synthetic thermal bath for a bosonic quantum gas in a one-dimensional optical lattice based on Markovian feedback control. The performance of our scheme is quantified by the fidelity between the steady state of the system and the effective thermal state. For double-well and triple-well systems with non-interacting particles, the steady state is found to be an exact thermal state, which is attributed to the fact that the transfer rates between all pairs of coupled eigenstates satisfy detailed balance condition. The scenario changes when there are more lattice sites, where the detailed balance condition does not hold any more, but remains an accurate approximation. Remarkably, our scheme performs very well at low and high temperature regimes, with the fidelity close to one. The performance at the intermediate temperature regime (where a crossover into a Bose condensed regime occurs) is slightly worse, and the fidelity shows a gentle decrease with increasing system size. We also discuss the interacting cases. In contrast to the non-interacting cases, the scheme is found to perform better at a higher temperature. Another difference is that the minimal temperature that can be engineered is nonzero and increases with the interaction strength.

  4 citations

• Thermodynamic limit of the two-spinon form factors for the zero field XXX chain

  Nikolai Kitanine, Giridhar Kulkarni

  SciPost Phys. 6, 076 (2019) · published 25 June 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper we propose a method based on the algebraic Bethe ansatz leading to explicit results for the form factors of quantum spin chains in the thermodynamic limit. Starting from the determinant representations we retrieve in particular the formula for the two-spinon form factors for the isotropic XXX Heisenberg chain obtained initially in the framework of the $q$-vertex operator approach.

  4 citations

• A numerical approach for calculating exact non-adiabatic terms in quantum dynamics

  Ewen D. C. Lawrence, Sebastian F. J. Schmid, Ieva Čepaitė, Peter Kirton, Callum W. Duncan

  SciPost Phys. 18, 014 (2025) · published 14 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Understanding how non-adiabatic terms affect quantum dynamics is fundamental to improving various protocols for quantum technologies. We present a novel approach to computing the Adiabatic Gauge Potential (AGP), which gives information on the non-adiabatic terms that arise from time dependence in the Hamiltonian. Our approach uses commutators of the Hamiltonian to build up an appropriate basis of the AGP, which can be easily truncated to give an approximate form when the exact result is intractable. We use this approach to study the AGP obtained for the transverse field Ising model on a variety of graphs, showing how the different underlying graph structures can give rise to very different scaling for the number of terms required in the AGP.

  4 citations

• Matrix product operator representations for the local conserved quantities of the Heisenberg chain

  Kyoichi Yamada, Kohei Fukai

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 069 (2023) · published 19 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the explicit expressions for the matrix product operator (MPO) representation for the local conserved quantities of the Heisenberg chain. The bond dimension of the MPO grows linearly with the locality of the charges. The MPO has more simple form than the local charges themselves, and their Catalan tree patterns naturally emerge from the matrix products. The MPO representation of local conserved quantities is generalized to the integrable SU(N) invariant spin chain.

  4 citations

• Sub-Doppler laser cooling of $^{39}$K via the 4S$\to$5P transition

  Govind Unnikrishnan, Michael Gröbner, Hanns-Christoph Nägerl

  SciPost Phys. 6, 047 (2019) · published 18 April 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate sub-Doppler laser cooling of $ ^{39} $K using degenerate Raman sideband cooling via the 4S$_{1/2} \rightarrow $5P$ _{1/2} $ transition at 404.8 nm. By using an optical lattice in combination with a magnetic field and optical pumping beams, we obtain a spin-polarized sample of up to $5.6 \times 10^{7}$ atoms cooled down to a sub-Doppler temperature of 4 $\mu $K, reaching a peak density of $3.9 \times 10^{9}$ atoms/cm$ ^{3} $, a phase-space density greater than $ 10^{-5} $, and an average vibrational level of $ \langle \nu \rangle=0.6 $ in the lattice. This work opens up the possibility of implementing a single-site imaging scheme in a far-detuned optical lattice utilizing shorter wavelength transitions in alkali atoms, thus allowing improved spatial resolution.

  4 citations

• Entanglement Hamiltonian and effective temperature of non-Hermitian quantum spin ladders

  Pei-Yun Yang, Yu-Chin Tzeng

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 074 (2024) · published 20 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum entanglement plays a crucial role not only in understanding Hermitian many-body systems but also in offering valuable insights into non-Hermitian quantum systems. In this paper, we analytically investigate the entanglement Hamiltonian and entanglement energy spectrum of a non-Hermitian spin ladder using perturbation theory in the biorthogonal basis. Specifically, we examine the entanglement properties between coupled non-Hermitian quantum spin chains. In the strong coupling limit ($J_\mathrm{rung}\gg1$), first-order perturbation theory reveals that the entanglement Hamiltonian closely resembles the single-chain Hamiltonian with renormalized coupling strengths, allowing for the definition of an ad hoc temperature. Our findings provide new insights into quantum entanglement in non-Hermitian systems and offer a foundation for developing novel approaches for studying finite temperature properties in non-Hermitian quantum many-body systems.

  4 citations

• A ship-in-a-bottle quantum gas microscope setup for magnetic mixtures

  Maximilian Sohmen, Manfred J. Mark, Markus Greiner, Francesca Ferlaino

  SciPost Phys. 15, 182 (2023) · published 1 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum gas microscopes are versatile and powerful tools for fundamental science as well as promising candidates for enticing applications such as in quantum simulation or quantum computation. Here we present a quantum gas microscopy setup for experiments with highly magnetic atoms of the lanthanoid elements erbium and dysprosium. Our setup features a non-magnetic, non-conducting, large-working-distance, high-numerical-aperture, in-vacuum microscope objective, mounted inside a glue-free quartz glass cell. The quartz glass cell is enclosed by a compact multi-shell ferromagnetic shield that passively suppresses external magnetic field noise by a factor of more than a thousand. Our setup will enable direct manipulation and probing of the rich quantum many-body physics of dipolar atoms in optical lattices, and bears the potential to put exciting theory proposals - including exotic magnetic phases and quantum phase transitions - to an experimental test.

  4 citations

• MatsubaraFunctions.jl: An equilibrium Green's function library in the Julia programming language

  Dominik Kiese, Anxiang Ge, Nepomuk Ritz, Jan von Delft, Nils Wentzell

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 24 (2024) · published 11 January 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Matsubara Green's function formalism stands as a powerful technique for computing the thermodynamic characteristics of interacting quantum many-particle systems at finite temperatures. In this manuscript, our focus centers on introducing MatsubaraFunctions.jl, a Julia library that implements data structures for generalized n-point Green's functions on Matsubara frequency grids. The package's architecture prioritizes user-friendliness without compromising the development of efficient solvers for quantum field theories in equilibrium. Following a comprehensive introduction of the fundamental types, we delve into a thorough examination of key facets of the interface. This encompasses avenues for accessing Green's functions, techniques for extrapolation and interpolation, as well as the incorporation of symmetries and a variety of parallelization strategies. Examples of increasing complexity serve to demonstrate the practical utility of the library, supplemented by discussions on strategies for sidestepping impediments to optimal performance.

  4 citations