Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Inhomogeneous quantum quenches in the sine-Gordon theory

  Dávid X. Horváth, Spyros Sotiriadis, Márton Kormos, Gábor Takács

  SciPost Phys. 12, 144 (2022) · published 3 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study inhomogeneous quantum quenches in the attractive regime of the sine-Gordon model. In our protocol, the system is prepared in an inhomogeneous initial state in finite volume by coupling the topological charge density operator to a Gaussian external field. After switching off the external field, the subsequent time evolution is governed by the homogeneous sine-Gordon Hamiltonian. Varying either the interaction strength of the sine-Gordon model or the amplitude of the external source field, an interesting transition is observed in the expectation value of the soliton density. This affects both the initial profile of the density and its time evolution and can be summarised as a steep transition between behaviours reminiscent of the Klein-Gordon, and the free massive Dirac fermion theory with initial external fields of high enough magnitude. The transition in the initial state is also displayed by the classical sine-Gordon theory and hence can be understood by semi-classical considerations in terms of the presence of small amplitude field configurations and the appearance of soliton excitations, which are naturally associated with bosonic and fermionic excitations on the quantum level, respectively. Features of the quantum dynamics are also consistent with this correspondence and comparing them to the classical evolution of the density profile reveals that quantum effects become markedly pronounced during the time evolution. These results suggest a crossover between the dominance of bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom whose precise identification in terms of the fundamental particle excitations can be rather non-trivial. Nevertheless, their interplay is expected to influence the sine-Gordon dynamics in arbitrary inhomogeneous settings.

  18 citations

• An introduction to the surface code

  Andrew N. Cleland

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 49 (2022) · published 3 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This chapter provides an introduction to the surface code, discussing details about how physical qubits are connected and operated to create logical qubits, how errors are handled, and what performance metrics are needed to generate logical qubits with performance that exceeds their underlying physical qubit performance.

  4 citations

• Exact dynamical correlations of nonlocal operators in quadratic open Fermion systems: a characteristic function approach

  Qing-Wei Wang

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 027 (2022) · published 3 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The dynamical correlations of nonlocal operators in general quadratic open fermion systems is still a challenging problem. Here we tackle this problem by developing a new formulation of open fermion many-body systems, namely, the characteristic function approach. Illustrating the technique, we analyze a finite Kitaev chain with boundary dissipation and consider anyon-type nonlocal excitations. We give explicit formula for the Green's functions, demonstrating an asymmetric light cone induced by the anyon statistical parameter and an increasing relaxation rate with this parameter. We also analyze some other types of nonlocal operator correlations such as the full counting statistics of the charge number and the Loschmidt echo in a quench from the vacuum state. The former shows clear signature of a nonequilibrium quantum phase transition, while the later exhibits cusps at some critical times and hence demonstrates dynamical quantum phase transitions.

  3 citations

• Magnetic properties of a capped kagome molecule with 60 quantum spins

  Roman Rausch, Matthias Peschke, Cassian Plorin, Christoph Karrasch

  SciPost Phys. 12, 143 (2022) · published 2 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute ground-state properties of the isotropic, antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the sodalite cage geometry. This is a 60-spin spherical molecule with 24 vertex-sharing tetrahedra which can be regarded as a molecular analogue of a capped kagome lattice and which has been synthesized with high-spin rare-earth atoms. Here, we focus on the $S=1/2$ case where quantum effects are strongest. We employ the SU(2)-symmetric density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG). We find a threefold degenerate ground state that breaks the spatial symmetry and that splits up the molecule into three large parts which are almost decoupled from each other. This stands in sharp contrast to the behaviour of most known spherical molecules. On a methodological level, the disconnection leads to ``glassy dynamics'' within the DMRG that cannot be targeted via standard techniques. In the presence of finite magnetic fields, we find broad magnetization plateaus at 4/5, 3/5, and 1/5 of the saturation, which one can understand in terms of localized magnons, singlets, and doublets which are again nearly decoupled from each other. At the saturation field, the zero-point entropy is $S=\ln(182)\approx 5.2$ in units of the Boltzmann constant.

  3 citations

• Primordial black holes as dark matter candidates

  Bernard Carr, Florian Kuhnel

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 48 (2022) · published 2 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We review the formation and evaporation of primordial black holes (PBHs) and their possible contribution to dark matter. Various constraints suggest they could only provide most of it in the mass windows $10^{17}$ - $10^{23}\,$g or $10$ - $10^{2}\,M_{\odot}$, with the last possibility perhaps being suggested by the LIGO/Virgo observations. However, PBHs could have important consequences even if they have a low cosmological density. Sufficiently large ones might generate cosmic structures and provide seeds for the supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei. Planck-mass relics of PBH evaporations or stupendously large black holes bigger than $10^{12}\,M_{\odot}$ could also be an interesting dark component.

  62 citations

• From integrability to chaos in quantum Liouvillians

  Álvaro Rubio-García, Rafael A. Molina, Jorge Dukelsky

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 026 (2022) · published 2 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The dynamics of open quantum systems can be described by a Liouvillian, which in the Markovian approximation fulfills the Lindblad master equation. We present a family of integrable many-body Liouvillians based on Richardson-Gaudin models with a complex structure of the jump operators. Making use of this new region of integrability, we study the transition to chaos in terms of a two-parameter Liouvillian. The transition is characterized by the spectral statistics of the complex eigenvalues of the Liouvillian operators using the nearest neighbor spacing distribution and by the ratios between eigenvalue distances.

  10 citations

• Fractons in curved space

  Akash Jain, Kristan Jensen

  SciPost Phys. 12, 142 (2022) · published 29 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consistently couple simple continuum field theories with fracton excitations to curved spacetime backgrounds. We consider homogeneous and isotropic fracton field theories, with a conserved $U(1)$ charge and dipole moment. Coupling to background fields allows us to consistently define a stress-energy tensor for these theories and obtain the respective Ward identities. Along the way, we find evidence for a mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly in the symmetric tensor gauge theory which naturally couples to conserved dipoles. Our results generalise to systems with arbitrarily higher conserved moments, in particular, a conserved quadrupole moment.

  37 citations

• Second Rényi entropy and annulus partition function for one-dimensional quantum critical systems with boundaries

  Benoit Estienne, Yacine Ikhlef, Andrei Rotaru

  SciPost Phys. 12, 141 (2022) · published 29 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the entanglement entropy in critical one-dimensional quantum systems with open boundary conditions. We show that the second Rényi entropy of an interval away from the boundary can be computed exactly, provided the same conformal boundary condition is applied on both sides. The result involves the annulus partition function. We compare our exact result with numerical computations for the critical quantum Ising chain with open boundary conditions. We find excellent agreement, and we analyse in detail the finite-size corrections, which are known to be much larger than for a periodic system.

  4 citations

• Many-body Bell inequalities for bosonic qubits

  Jan Chwedenczuk

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 025 (2022) · published 29 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Since John Bell formulated his paramount inequality for a pair of spin-$1/2$ particles, quantum mechanics has been confronted with the postulates of local realism with various equivalent configurations. Current technology, with its advanced manipulation and detection methods, allows to extend the Bell tests to more complex structures. The aim of this work is to analyze a set of Bell inequalities suitable for a possibly broad family of many-body systems with the focus on bosonic qubits. We develop a method that allows for a step-by-step study of the many-body Bell correlations, for instance among atoms forming a two-mode Bose-Einstein condensate or between photons obtained from the parametric-down conversion. The presented approach is valid both for cases of fixed and non-fixed number of particles, hence it allows for a thorough analysis of quantum correlations in a variety of many-body systems.

  2 citations

• Crystalline Weyl semimetal phase in Quantum Spin Hall systems under magnetic fields

  Fernando Dominguez, Benedikt Scharf, Ewelina M. Hankiewicz

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 024 (2022) · published 28 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate an unconventional topological phase transition that occurs in quantum spin Hall (QSH) systems when applying an external in-plane magnetic field. We show that this transition between QSH and trivial insulator phases is separated by a stable topological gapless phase, which is protected by the combination of particle-hole and reflection symmetries, and thus, we dub it as crystalline Weyl semimetal. We explore the stability of this new phase when particle-hole symmetry breaking terms are present. Especially, we predict a robust unconventional topological phase transition to be visible for materials described by Kane and Mele model even if particle-hole symmetry is significantly broken.

  2 citations