Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Automatic contraction of unstructured tensor networks

  Adam S. Jermyn

  SciPost Phys. 8, 005 (2020) · published 15 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The evaluation of partition functions is a central problem in statistical physics. For lattice systems and other discrete models the partition function may be expressed as the contraction of a tensor network. Unfortunately computing such contractions is difficult, and many methods to make this tractable require periodic or otherwise structured networks. Here I present a new algorithm for contracting unstructured tensor networks. This method makes no assumptions about the structure of the network and performs well in both structured and unstructured cases so long as the correlation structure is local.

  7 citations

• Generalized hydrodynamics regime from the thermodynamic bootstrap program

  Axel Cortés Cubero, Miłosz Panfil

  SciPost Phys. 8, 004 (2020) · published 13 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Within the generalized hydrodynamics (GHD) formalism for quantum integrable models, it is possible to compute simple expressions for a number of correlation functions at the Eulerian scale. Specializing to integrable relativistic field theories, we show the same correlators can be computed as a sum over form factors, the GHD regime corresponding to the leading contribution with one particle-hole pair on a finite energy-density background. The thermodynamic bootstrap program (TBP) formalism was recently introduced as an axiomatic approach to computing such finite-energy-density form factors for integrable field theories. We derive a new axiom within the TBP formalism from which we easily recover the predicted GHD Eulerian correlators. We also compute higher form factor contributions, with more particle-hole pairs, within the TBP, allowing for the computation of correlation functions in the diffusive, and beyond, GHD regimes. The two particle-hole form factors agree with expressions recently conjectured within the~GHD.

  29 citations

• Doping-dependent competition between superconductivity and polycrystalline charge density waves

  Sergio Caprara, Marco Grilli, José Lorenzana, Brigitte Leridon

  SciPost Phys. 8, 003 (2020) · published 8 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  From systematic analysis of the high pulsed magnetic field resistance data of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_{4}$ thin films, we extract an experimental phase diagram for several doping values ranging from the very underdoped to the very overdoped regimes. Our analysis highlights a competition between charge density waves and superconductivity which is ubiquitous between $x=0.08$ and $x=0.19$ and produces the previously observed double step transition. When suppressed by a strong magnetic field, superconductivity is resilient for two specific doping ranges centered around respectively $x\approx 0.09$ and $x\approx 0.19$ and the characteristic temperature for the onset of the competing charge density wave phase is found to vanish above $x = 0.19$. At $x=1/8$ the two phases are found to coexist exactly at zero magnetic field.

  12 citations

• Anomalies in the space of coupling constants and their dynamical applications II

  Clay Córdova, Daniel S. Freed, Ho Tat Lam, Nathan Seiberg

  SciPost Phys. 8, 002 (2020) · published 7 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We extend our earlier work on anomalies in the space of coupling constants to four-dimensional gauge theories. Pure Yang-Mills theory (without matter) with a simple and simply connected gauge group has a mixed anomaly between its one-form global symmetry (associated with the center) and the periodicity of the $\theta$-parameter. This anomaly is at the root of many recently discovered properties of these theories, including their phase transitions and interfaces. These new anomalies can be used to extend this understanding to systems without discrete symmetries (such as time-reversal). We also study $SU(N)$ and $Sp(N)$ gauge theories with matter in the fundamental representation. Here we find a mixed anomaly between the flavor symmetry group and the $\theta$-periodicity. Again, this anomaly unifies distinct recently-discovered phenomena in these theories and controls phase transitions and the dynamics on interfaces.

  92 citations

• Anomalies in the space of coupling constants and their dynamical applications I

  Clay Córdova, Daniel S. Freed, Ho Tat Lam, Nathan Seiberg

  SciPost Phys. 8, 001 (2020) · published 6 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  It is customary to couple a quantum system to external classical fields. One application is to couple the global symmetries of the system (including the Poincar\'{e} symmetry) to background gauge fields (and a metric for the Poincar\'{e} symmetry). Failure of gauge invariance of the partition function under gauge transformations of these fields reflects 't Hooft anomalies. It is also common to view the ordinary (scalar) coupling constants as background fields, i.e. to study the theory when they are spacetime dependent. We will show that the notion of 't Hooft anomalies can be extended naturally to include these scalar background fields. Just as ordinary 't Hooft anomalies allow us to deduce dynamical consequences about the phases of the theory and its defects, the same is true for these generalized 't Hooft anomalies. Specifically, since the coupling constants vary, we can learn that certain phase transitions must be present. We will demonstrate these anomalies and their applications in simple pedagogical examples in one dimension (quantum mechanics) and in some two, three, and four-dimensional quantum field theories. An anomaly is an example of an invertible field theory, which can be described as an object in (generalized) differential cohomology. We give an introduction to this perspective. Also, we use Quillen's superconnections to derive the anomaly for a free spinor field with variable mass. In a companion paper we will study four-dimensional gauge theories showing how our view unifies and extends many recently obtained results.

  101 citations

• Topological order in matrix Ising models

  Sean A. Hartnoll, Edward A. Mazenc, Zhengyan D. Shi

  SciPost Phys. 7, 081 (2019) · published 19 December 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study a family of models for an $N_1 \times N_2$ matrix worth of Ising spins $S_{aB}$. In the large $N_i$ limit we show that the spins soften, so that the partition function is described by a bosonic matrix integral with a single `spherical' constraint. In this way we generalize the results of [1] to a wide class of Ising Hamiltonians with $O(N_1,\mathbb{Z})\times O(N_2,\mathbb{Z})$ symmetry. The models can undergo topological large $N$ phase transitions in which the thermal expectation value of the distribution of singular values of the matrix $S_{aB}$ becomes disconnected. This topological transition competes with low temperature glassy and magnetically ordered phases.

  2 citations

• Krotov: A Python implementation of Krotov's method for quantum optimal control

  Michael H. Goerz, Daniel Basilewitsch, Fernando Gago-Encinas, Matthias G. Krauss, Karl P. Horn, Daniel M. Reich, Christiane P. Koch

  SciPost Phys. 7, 080 (2019) · published 12 December 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a new open-source Python package, krotov, implementing the quantum optimal control method of that name. It allows to determine time-dependent external fields for a wide range of quantum control problems, including state-to-state transfer, quantum gate implementation and optimization towards an arbitrary perfect entangler. Krotov's method compares to other gradient-based optimization methods such as gradient-ascent and guarantees monotonic convergence for approximately time-continuous control fields. The user-friendly interface allows for combination with other Python packages, and thus high-level customization.

  61 citations

• Gravitational thermodynamics of causal diamonds in (A)dS

  Ted Jacobson, Manus R. Visser

  SciPost Phys. 7, 079 (2019) · published 10 December 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The static patch of de Sitter spacetime and the Rindler wedge of Minkowski spacetime are causal diamonds admitting a true Killing field, and they behave as thermodynamic equilibrium states under gravitational perturbations. We explore the extension of this gravitational thermodynamics to all causal diamonds in maximally symmetric spacetimes. Although such diamonds generally admit only a conformal Killing vector, that seems in all respects to be sufficient. We establish a Smarr formula for such diamonds and a ``first law" for variations to nearby solutions. The latter relates the variations of the bounding area, spatial volume of the maximal slice, cosmological constant, and matter Hamiltonian. The total Hamiltonian is the generator of evolution along the conformal Killing vector that preserves the diamond. To interpret the first law as a thermodynamic relation, it appears necessary to attribute a negative temperature to the diamond, as has been previously suggested for the special case of the static patch of de Sitter spacetime. With quantum corrections included, for small diamonds we recover the ``entanglement equilibrium'' result that the generalized entropy is stationary at the maximally symmetric vacuum at fixed volume, and we reformulate this as the stationarity of free conformal energy with the volume not fixed.

  49 citations

• Novel attractive pairing interaction in strongly correlated superconductors

  Priyo Adhikary, Tanmoy Das

  SciPost Phys. 7, 078 (2019) · published 9 December 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Conventional and unconventional superconductivity, respectively, arise from attractive (electron-phonon) and repulsive (many-body Coulomb) interactions with fixed-sign and sign-reversal pairing symmetries. Although heavy-fermions, cuprates, and pnictides are widely believed to be unconventional superconductors, recent evidence in one of the heavy fermion superconductor (CeCu$_2$Si$_2$) indicate the presence of a novel conventional type pairing symmetry beyond the electron-phonon coupling. We present a new mechanism of attractive potential between electrons, mediated by emergent boson fields (vacuum or holon) in the strongly correlated mixed valence compounds. In the strong coupling limit, localized electron sites are protected from double occupancy, which results in an emergent holon gauge fields. The holon states can, however, attract conduction electrons through valence fluctuation channel, and the resulting doubly occupied states with local and conduction electrons condense as Cooper pairs with onsite, fixed-sign, $s$ -wave pairing symmetry. We develop the corresponding self-consistent theory of superconductivity, and compare the results with experiments. Our theory provides a new mechanism of superconductivity whose applicability extends to the wider class of intermetallic/mixed-valence materials and other flat-band metals.

  2 citations

• A localization transition underlies the mode-coupling crossover of glasses

  Daniele Coslovich, Andrea Ninarello, Ludovic Berthier

  SciPost Phys. 7, 077 (2019) · published 6 December 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the equilibrium statistical properties of the potential energy landscape of several glass models in a temperature regime so far inaccessible to computer simulations. We show that unstable modes of the stationary points undergo a localization transition in real space close to the mode-coupling crossover temperature determined from the dynamics. The concentration of localized unstable modes found at low temperature is a non-universal, finite dimensional feature not captured by mean-field glass theory. Our analysis reconciles, and considerably expands, previous conflicting numerical results and provides a characteristic temperature for glassy dynamics that unambiguously locates the mode-coupling crossover.

  29 citations