Publications

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• Many-body perturbation theory for strongly correlated effective Hamiltonians using effective field theory methods

  Raphaël Photopoulos, Antoine Boulet

  SciPost Phys. 18, 003 (2025) · published 6 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Introducing low-energy effective Hamiltonians is usual to grasp most correlations in quantum many-body problems. For instance, such effective Hamiltonians can be treated at the mean-field level to reproduce some physical properties of interest. Employing effective Hamiltonians that contain many-body correlations renders the use of perturbative many-body techniques difficult because of the overcounting of correlations. In this work, we develop a strategy to apply an extension of the many-body perturbation theory starting from an effective interaction that contains correlations beyond the mean-field level. The goal is to re-organize the many-body calculation to avoid the overcounting of correlations originating from the introduction of correlated effective Hamiltonians in the description. For this purpose, we generalize the formulation of the Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory by including free parameters adjusted to reproduce the appropriate limits. In particular, the expansion in the bare weak-coupling regime and the strong-coupling limit serves as a valuable input to fix the value of the free parameters appearing in the resulting expression. This method avoids double counting of correlations using beyond-mean-field strategies for the description of many-body systems. The ground state energy of various systems relevant for ultracold atomic, nuclear, and condensed matter physics is reproduced qualitatively beyond the domain of validity of the standard many-body perturbation theory. Finally, our method suggests interpreting the formal results obtained as an effective field theory using the proposed reorganization of the many-body calculation. The results, like ground state energies, are improved systematically by considering higher orders in the extended many-body perturbation theory while maintaining a straightforward polynomial expansion.

• When does a Fermi puddle become a Fermi sea? Emergence of pairing in two-dimensional trapped mesoscopic Fermi gases

  Emma K. Laird, Brendan C. Mulkerin, Jia Wang, Matthew J. Davis

  SciPost Phys. 17, 163 (2024) · published 11 December 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Pairing lies at the heart of superfluidity in fermionic systems. Motivated by recent experiments in mesoscopic Fermi gases, we study up to six fermionic atoms with equal masses and equal populations in two different spin states, confined in a quasi-two-dimensional harmonic trap. We couple a stochastic variational approach with the use of an explicitly correlated Gaussian basis set, which enables us to obtain highly accurate energies and structural properties. Utilising two-dimensional two-body scattering theory with a finite-range Gaussian interaction potential, we tune the effective range to model realistic quasi-two-dimensional scattering. We calculate the excitation spectrum, pair correlation function, and number of pairs as a function of increasing attractive interaction strength. For up to six fermions in the ground state, we find that opposite spin and momentum pairing is maximised well below the Fermi surface in momentum space. By contrast, corresponding experiments on twelve fermions have found that pairing is maximal at the Fermi surface and strongly suppressed beneath [M. Holten et al., Nature 606, 287-291 (2022)]. This suggests that the Fermi sea — which acts to suppress pairing at low momenta via Pauli blocking — emerges in the transition from six to twelve particles.

• Superdiffusive transport in quasi-particle dephasing models

  Yu-Peng Wang, Chen Fang, Jie Ren

  SciPost Phys. 17, 150 (2024) · published 3 December 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Investigating the behavior of noninteracting fermions subjected to local dephasing, we reveal that quasi-particle dephasing can induce superdiffusive transport. This superdiffusion arises from nodal points within the momentum distribution of local dephasing quasi-particles, leading to asymptotic long-lived modes. By studying the dynamics of the Wigner function, we rigorously elucidate how the dynamics of these enduring modes give rise to Lévy walk processes, a renowned mechanism underlying superdiffusion phenomena. Our research demonstrates the controllability of dynamical scaling exponents by selecting quasi-particles and extends its applicability to higher dimensions, underlining the pervasive nature of superdiffusion in dephasing models.

  7 citations

• A Python GPU-accelerated solver for the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and applications to many-body cavity QED

  Lorenzo Fioroni, Luca Gravina, Justyna Stefaniak, Alexander Baumgärtner, Fabian Finger, Davide Dreon, Tobias Donner

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 38 (2024) · published 6 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  TorchGPE is a general-purpose Python package developed for solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE). This solver is designed to integrate wave functions across a spectrum of linear and non-linear potentials. A distinctive aspect of TorchGPE is its modular approach, which allows the incorporation of arbitrary self-consistent and time-dependent potentials, e.g., those relevant in many-body cavity QED models. The package employs a symmetric split-step Fourier propagation method, effective in both real and imaginary time. In our work, we demonstrate a significant improvement in computational efficiency by leveraging GPU computing capabilities. With the integration of the latter technology, TorchGPE achieves a substantial speed-up with respect to conventional CPU-based methods, greatly expanding the scope and potential of research in this field.

  3 citations

• Codebase release 1.0 for TorchGPE

  Lorenzo Fioroni, Luca Gravina, Justyna Stefaniak, Alexander Baumgärtner, Fabian Finger, Davide Dreon, Tobias Donner

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 38-r1.0 (2024) · published 6 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · src

  TorchGPE is a general-purpose Python package developed for solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE). This solver is designed to integrate wave functions across a spectrum of linear and non-linear potentials. A distinctive aspect of TorchGPE is its modular approach, which allows the incorporation of arbitrary self-consistent and time-dependent potentials, e.g., those relevant in many-body cavity QED models. The package employs a symmetric split-step Fourier propagation method, effective in both real and imaginary time. In our work, we demonstrate a significant improvement in computational efficiency by leveraging GPU computing capabilities. With the integration of the latter technology, TorchGPE achieves a substantial speed-up with respect to conventional CPU-based methods, greatly expanding the scope and potential of research in this field.

  1 citation

• Quantum phases of hardcore bosons with repulsive dipolar density-density interactions on two-dimensional lattices

  J. A. Koziol, G. Morigi, K. P. Schmidt

  SciPost Phys. 17, 111 (2024) · published 10 October 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We analyse the ground-state quantum phase diagram of hardcore Bosons interacting with repulsive dipolar potentials. The bosons dynamics is described by the extended-Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian on a two-dimensional lattice. The ground state results from the interplay between the lattice geometry and the long-range interactions, which we account for by means of a classical spin mean-field approach limited by the size of the considered unit cells. This extended classical spin mean-field theory accounts for the long-range density-density interaction without truncation. We consider three different lattice geometries: square, honeycomb, and triangular. In the limit of zero hopping the ground state is always a devil's staircase of solid (gapped) phases. Such crystalline phases with broken translational symmetry are robust with respect to finite hopping amplitudes. At intermediate hopping amplitudes, these gapped phases melt, giving rise to various lattice supersolid phases, which can have exotic features with multiple sublattice densities. At sufficiently large hoppings the ground state is a superfluid. The stability of phases predicted by our approach is gauged by comparison to the known quantum phase diagrams of the Bose-Hubbard model with nearest-neighbour interactions as well as quantum Monte Carlo simulations for the dipolar case on the square and triangular lattice. Our results are of immediate relevance for experimental realisations of self-organised crystalline ordering patterns in analogue quantum simulators, e.g., with ultracold dipolar atoms in an optical lattice.

  5 citations

• General features and contact modeling of $N$-body isolated resonances near threshold

  Ludovic Pricoupenko

  SciPost Phys. 17, 108 (2024) · published 8 October 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  $N$-body non efimovian bound or quasi-bound states for particles with short range interactions are considered in arbitrary dimensions. The different resonance regimes near the threshold are depicted by using a generalization of the effective range approximation. This two-parameter description can be used in various contexts from ultracold to hadronic physics. The universal character of these states makes it possible a formulation in terms of a contact model. The singularity at the contact imposes the introduction of a modified scalar product to solve the normalization catastrophe and to restore the self-adjoint character of the model. An equivalence with the standard scalar product used for realistic finite range models is derived.

  2 citations

• The role of atomic interactions in cavity-induced continuous time crystals

  Christian Høj Johansen, Johannes Lang, Francesco Piazza

  SciPost Phys. 17, 089 (2024) · published 24 September 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider continuous time-crystalline phases in dissipative many-body systems of atoms in cavities, focusing on the role of short-range interatomic interactions. First, we show that the latter can alter the nature of the time crystal by changing the type of the underlying critical bifurcation. Second, we characterize the heating mechanism and dynamics resulting from the short-range interactions and demonstrate that they make the time crystal inherently metastable. We argue this is generic for the broader class of dissipative time crystals in atom-cavity systems whenever the cavity loss rate is comparable to the atomic recoil energy. We observe that such a scenario for heating has several similarities to the one proposed for preheating in the early universe, where the oscillating coherent inflation field decays into a cascade of exponentially growing fluctuations. By extending approaches for dissipative dynamical systems to our many-body problem, we obtain analytical predictions for the parameters describing the phase transition and the heating rate inside the time-crystalline phase. We underpin and extend the analytical predictions of the heating rates with numerical simulations, which also show that the metastable regime exists when the inherent stochastic nature is taken into account.

• Suppression of the superfluid Kelvin-Helmholtz instability due to massive vortex cores, friction and confinement

  Matteo Caldara, Andrea Richaud, Massimo Capone, Pietro Massignan

  SciPost Phys. 17, 076 (2024) · published 10 September 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We characterize the dynamical instability responsible for the breakdown of regular rows and necklaces of quantized vortices that appear at the interface between two superfluids in relative motion. Making use of a generalized point-vortex model, we identify several mechanisms leading to the suppression of this instability. They include a non-zero mass of the vortex cores, dissipative processes resulting from the interaction between the vortices and the excitations of the superfluid, and the proximity of the vortex array to the sample boundaries. We show that massive vortex cores not only have a mitigating effect on the dynamical instability, but also change the associated scaling law and affect the direction along which it develops. The predictions of our massive and dissipative point-vortex model are eventually compared against recent experimental measurements of the maximum instability growth rate relevant to vortex necklaces in a cold-atom platform.

  7 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