Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Optimal compression of quantum many-body time evolution operators into brickwall circuits

  Maurits S. J. Tepaske, Dominik Hahn, David J. Luitz

  SciPost Phys. 14, 073 (2023) · published 17 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Near term quantum computers suffer from a degree of decoherence which is prohibitive for high fidelity simulations with deep circuits. An economical use of circuit depth is therefore paramount. For digital quantum simulation of quantum many-body systems, real time evolution is typically achieved by a Trotter decomposition of the time evolution operator into circuits consisting only of two qubit gates. To match the geometry of the physical system and the CNOT connectivity of the quantum processor, additional SWAP gates are needed. We show that optimal fidelity, beyond what is achievable by simple Trotter decompositions for a fixed gate count, can be obtained by compiling the evolution operator into optimal brickwall circuits for the $S=1/2$ quantum Heisenberg model on chains and ladders, when mapped to one dimensional quantum processors without the need of additional SWAP gates.

  9 citations

• Finite-time bounds on the probabilistic violation of the second law of thermodynamics

  Harry J. D. Miller, Martí Perarnau-Llobet

  SciPost Phys. 14, 072 (2023) · published 17 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Jarzynski's equality sets a strong bound on the probability of violating the second law of thermodynamics by extracting work beyond the free energy difference. We derive finite-time refinements to this bound for driven systems in contact with a thermal Markovian environment, which can be expressed in terms of the geometric notion of thermodynamic length. We show that finite-time protocols converge to Jarzynski's bound at a rate slower than $1/\sqrt{\tau}$, where $\tau$ is the total time of the work-extraction protocol. Our result highlights a new application of minimal dissipation processes and demonstrates a connection between thermodynamic geometry and the higher order statistical properties of work.

  1 citation

• Extracting electronic many-body correlations from local measurements with artificial neural networks

  Faluke Aikebaier, Teemu Ojanen, Jose L. Lado

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 030 (2023) · published 17 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The characterization of many-body correlations provides a powerful tool for analyzing correlated quantum materials. However, experimental extraction of quantum entanglement in correlated electronic systems remains an open problem in practice. In particular, the correlation entropy quantifies the strength of quantum correlations in interacting electronic systems, yet it requires measuring all the single-particle correlators of a macroscopic sample. To circumvent this bottleneck, we introduce a strategy to obtain the correlation entropy of electronic systems solely from a set of local measurements. We show that, by combining local particle-particle and density-density correlations with a neural-network algorithm, the correlation entropy can be predicted accurately. Specifically, we show that for a generalized interacting fermionic model, our algorithm yields an accurate prediction of the correlation entropy from a set of noisy local correlators. Our work shows that the correlation entropy in interacting electron systems can be reconstructed from local measurements, providing a starting point to experimentally extract many-body correlations with local probes.

  7 citations

• Density induced vacuum instability

  Reuven Balkin, Javi Serra, Konstantin Springmann, Stefan Stelzl, Andreas Weiler

  SciPost Phys. 14, 071 (2023) · published 14 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider matter density effects in theories with a false ground state. Large and dense systems, such as stars, can destabilize a metastable minimum and allow for the formation of bubbles of the true minimum. We derive the conditions under which these bubbles form, as well as the conditions under which they either remain confined to the dense region or escape to infinity. The latter case leads to a phase transition in the universe at star formation. We explore the phenomenological consequences of such seeded phase transitions.

  5 citations

• Stochastic representation of the quantum quartic oscillator

  Gennaro Tucci, Stefano De Nicola, Sascha Wald, Andrea Gambassi

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 029 (2023) · published 14 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recent experimental advances have inspired the development of theoretical tools to describe the non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum systems. Among them an exact representation of quantum spin systems in terms of classical stochastic processes has been proposed. Here we provide first steps towards the extension of this stochastic approach to bosonic systems by considering the one-dimensional quantum quartic oscillator. We show how to exactly parameterize the time evolution of this prototypical model via the dynamics of a set of classical variables. We interpret these variables as stochastic processes, which allows us to propose a novel way to numerically simulate the time evolution of the system. We benchmark our findings by considering analytically solvable limits and providing alternative derivations of known results.

• Entanglement evolution after a global quench across a conformal defect

  Luca Capizzi, Viktor Eisler

  SciPost Phys. 14, 070 (2023) · published 13 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the evolution of entanglement after a global quench in a one-dimensional quantum system with a localized impurity. For systems described by a conformal field theory, the entanglement entropy between the two regions separated by the defect grows linearly in time. Introducing the notion of boundary twist fields, we show how the slope of this growth can be related to the effective central charge that emerges in the study of ground-state entropy in the presence of the defect. On the other hand, we also consider a particular lattice realization of the quench in a free-fermion chain with a conformal defect. Starting from a gapped initial state, we obtain the slope via a quasiparticle ansatz and observe small discrepancies between the field theory and lattice results, which persist even in the limit of a vanishing gap.

  6 citations

• Four-quark scatterings in QCD I

  Wei-jie Fu, Chuang Huang, Jan M. Pawlowski, Yang-yang Tan

  SciPost Phys. 14, 069 (2023) · published 13 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and the emergence of mesonic bound states from the infrared dynamics of four-quark scatterings. Both phenomena originate from the resonant scalar-pseudoscalar channel of the four-quark scatterings, and we compute the functional renormalisation group (fRG) flows of the Fierz-complete four-quark interaction of up and down quarks with its $t$ channel momentum dependence. This is done in the isospin symmetric case, also including the flow of the quark two-point function. This system can be understood as the fRG analogues of the complete Bethe-Salpeter equations and quark gap equation. The pole mass of the pion is determined from both direct calculations of the four-quark flows in the Minkowski regime of momenta and the analytic continuation based on results in the Euclidean regime, which are consistent with each other.

  1 citation

• Ether cleavage and chemical removal of SU-8

  José M. Ripalda, Raquel Álvaro, María Luisa Dotor

  SciPost Chem. 2, 001 (2023) · published 13 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The high chemical stability of SU-8 makes it irreplaceable for a wide range of applications, most notably as a lithography photoresist for micro and nanotechnology. This advantage becomes a problem when there is a need to remove SU-8 from the fabricated devices. Researchers have been struggling for two decades with this problem, and although a number of partial solutions have been found, this difficulty has limited the applications of SU-8. Here we demonstrate a fast, reproducible, and comparatively gentle method to chemically remove SU-8 photoresist. An ether cleavage mechanism for the observed reaction is proposed, and the hypothesis is tested with ab initio quantum chemical calculations. We also describe a complementary removal method based on atomic hydrogen inductively coupled plasma.

• Bootstrapping traceless symmetric $O(N)$ scalars

  Marten Reehorst, Maria Refinetti, Alessandro Vichi

  SciPost Phys. 14, 068 (2023) · published 12 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We use numerical bootstrap techniques to study correlation functions of traceless symmetric tensors of $O(N)$ with two indices $t_{ij}$. We obtain upper bounds on operator dimensions for all the relevant representations and several values of $N$. We discover several families of kinks, which do not correspond to any known model and we discuss possible candidates. We then specialize to the case $N=4$, which has been conjectured to describe a phase transition in the antiferromagnetic real projective model $ARP^{3}$. Lattice simulations provide strong evidence for the existence of a second order phase transition, while an effective field theory approach does not predict any fixed point. We identify a set of assumptions that constrain operator dimensions to a closed region overlapping with the lattice prediction. The region is still present after pushing the numerics in the single correlator case or when considering a mixed system involving $t$ and the lowest dimension scalar singlet.

  2 citations

• Topological insulators and geometry of vector bundles

  Alexander S. Sergeev

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 67 (2023) · published 12 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  For a long time, band theory of solids has focused on the energy spectrum, or Hamiltonian eigenvalues. Recently, it was realized that the collection of eigenvectors also contains important physical information. The local geometry of eigenspaces determines the electric polarization, while their global twisting gives rise to the metallic surface states in topological insulators. These phenomena are central topics of the present notes. The shape of eigenspaces is also responsible for many intriguing physical analogies, which have their roots in the theory of vector bundles. We give an informal introduction to the geometry and topology of vector bundles and describe various physical models from this mathematical perspective.