Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Phase diagram of the $\mathbb{Z}_3$-Fock parafermion chain with pair hopping

  Iman Mahyaeh, Jurriaan Wouters, Dirk Schuricht

  SciPost Phys. Core 3, 011 (2020) · published 12 November 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study a tight binding model of $\mathbb{Z}_3$-Fock parafermions with single-particle and pair-hopping terms. The phase diagram has four different phases: a gapped phase, a gapless phase with central charge $c=2$, and two gapless phases with central charge $c=1$. We characterise each phase by analysing the energy gap, entanglement entropy and different correlation functions. The numerical simulations are complemented by analytical arguments.

  5 citations

• Effective field theory for quasicrystals and phasons dynamics

  Matteo Baggioli, Michael Landry

  SciPost Phys. 9, 062 (2020) · published 4 November 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We build an effective field theory (EFT) for quasicrystals -- aperiodic incommensurate lattice structures -- at finite temperature, entirely based on symmetry arguments and a well-define action principle. By means of Schwinger-Keldysh techniques, we derive the full dissipative dynamics of the system and we recover the experimentally observed diffusion-to-propagation crossover of the phason mode. From a symmetry point of view, the diffusive nature of the phason at long wavelengths is due to the fact that the internal translations, or phason shifts, are symmetries of the system with no associated Noether currents. The latter feature is compatible with the EFT description only because of the presence of dissipation (finite temperature) and the lack of periodic order. Finally, we comment on the similarities with certain homogeneous holographic models and we formally derive the universal relation between the pinning frequency of the phonons and the damping and diffusion constant of the phason.

  36 citations

• Light-induced topological magnons in two-dimensional van der Waals magnets

  Emil Viñas Boström, Martin Claassen, James W. McIver, Gregor Jotzu, Angel Rubio, Michael A. Sentef

  SciPost Phys. 9, 061 (2020) · published 30 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Driving a two-dimensional Mott insulator with circularly polarized light breaks time-reversal and inversion symmetry, which induces an optically-tunable synthetic scalar spin chirality interaction in the effective low-energy spin Hamiltonian. Here, we show that this mechanism can stabilize topological magnon excitations in honeycomb ferromagnets and in optical lattices. We find that the irradiated quantum magnet is described by a Haldane model for magnons that hosts topologically-protected edge modes. We study the evolution of the magnon spectrum in the Floquet regime and via time propagation of the magnon Hamiltonian for a slowly varying pulse envelope. Compared to similar but conceptually distinct driving schemes based on the Aharanov-Casher effect, the dimensionless light-matter coupling parameter $\lambda = eEa/\hbar\omega$ at fixed electric field strength is enhanced by a factor $\sim 10^5$. This increase of the coupling parameter allows to induce a topological gap of the order of $\Delta \approx 2$ meV with realistic laser pulses, bringing an experimental realization of light-induced topological magnon edge states within reach.

  21 citations

• Bistabilities and domain walls in weakly open quantum systems

  Florian Lange, Achim Rosch

  SciPost Phys. 9, 057 (2020) · published 21 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Weakly pumped systems with approximate conservation laws can be efficiently described by a generalized Gibbs ensemble if the steady state of the system is unique. However, such a description can fail if there are multiple steady state solutions, for example, a bistability. In this case domains and domain walls may form. In one-dimensional (1D) systems any type of noise (thermal or non-thermal) will in general lead to a proliferation of such domains. We study this physics in a 1D spin chain with two approximate conservation laws, energy and the $z$-component of the total magnetization. A bistability in the magnetization is induced by the coupling to suitably chosen Lindblad operators. We analyze the theory for a weak coupling strength $\epsilon$ to the non-equilibrium bath. In this limit, we argue that one can use hydrodynamic approximations which describe the system locally in terms of space- and time-dependent Lagrange parameters. Here noise terms enforce the creation of domains, where the typical width of a domain wall goes as $\sim 1/\sqrt{\epsilon}$ while the density of domain walls is exponentially small in $1/\sqrt{\epsilon}$. This is shown by numerical simulations of a simplified hydrodynamic equation in the presence of noise.

• Charge order from structured coupling in VSe$_2$

  Jans Henke, Felix Flicker, Jude Laverock, Jasper van Wezel

  SciPost Phys. 9, 056 (2020) · published 21 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Charge order -- ubiquitous among correlated materials -- is customarily described purely as an instability of the electronic structure. However, the resulting theoretical predictions often do not match high-resolution experimental data. A pertinent case is $1T$-VSe$_2$, whose single-band Fermi surface and weak-coupling nature make it qualitatively similar to the Peierls model underlying the traditional approach. Despite this, its Fermi surface is poorly nested, the thermal evolution of its charge density wave (CDW) ordering vectors displays an unexpected jump, and the CDW gap itself evades detection in direct probes of the electronic structure. We demonstrate that the thermal variation of the CDW vectors is naturally reproduced by the electronic susceptibility when incorporating a structured, momentum-dependent electron-phonon coupling, while the evasive CDW gap presents itself as a localized suppression of spectral weight centered above the Fermi level. Our results showcase the general utility of incorporating a structured coupling in the description of charge ordered materials, including those that appear unconventional.

  15 citations

• Duality and hidden equilibrium in transport models

  Rouven Frassek, Cristian Giardina, Jorge Kurchan

  SciPost Phys. 9, 054 (2020) · published 20 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A large family of diffusive models of transport that has been considered in the past years admits a transformation into the same model in contact with an equilibrium bath. This mapping holds at the full dynamical level, and is independent of dimension or topology. It provides a good opportunity to discuss questions of time reversal in out of equilibrium contexts. In particular, thanks to the mapping one may define the free-energy in the non-equilibrium states very naturally as the (usual) free energy of the mapped system.

  19 citations

• Modulation induced transport signatures in correlated electron waveguides

  Gal Shavit, Yuval Oreg

  SciPost Phys. 9, 051 (2020) · published 14 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recent transport experiments in spatially modulated quasi-1D structures created on top of LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interfaces have revealed some interesting features, including phenomena conspicuously absent without the modulation. In this work, we focus on two of these remarkable features and provide theoretical analysis allowing their interpretation. The first one is the appearance of two-terminal conductance plateaus at rational fractions of $e^2/h$. We explain how this phenomenon, previously believed to be possible only in systems with strong repulsive interactions, can be stabilized in a system with attraction in the presence of the modulation. Using our theoretical framework we find the plateau amplitude and shape, and characterize the correlated phase which develops in the system due to the partial gap, namely a Luttinger liquid of electronic trions. The second observation is a sharp conductance dip below a conductance of $1\times e^2/h$, which changes its value over a wide range when tuning the system. We theorize that it is due to resonant backscattering caused by a periodic spin-orbit field. The behavior of this dip can be reliably accounted for by considering the finite length of the electronic waveguides, as well as the interactions therein. The phenomena discussed in this work exemplify the intricate interplay of strong interactions and spatial modulations, and reveal the potential for novel strongly correlated phases of matter in systems which prominently feature both.

  3 citations

• Mixing times and cutoffs in open quadratic fermionic systems

  Eric Vernier

  SciPost Phys. 9, 049 (2020) · published 12 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In classical probability theory, the term "cutoff" describes the property of some Markov chains to jump from (close to) their initial configuration to (close to) completely mixed in a very narrow window of time. We investigate how coherent quantum evolution affects the mixing properties in two fermionic quantum models (the "gain/loss" and "topological" models), whose time evolution is governed by a Lindblad equation quadratic in fermionic operators, allowing for a straightforward exact solution. We check that the phenomenon of cutoff extends to the quantum case and examine with some care how the mixing properties depend on the initial state, drawing different regimes of our models with qualitatively different behaviour. In the topological case, we further show how the mixing properties are affected by the presence of a long-lived edge zero mode when taking open boundary conditions.

  27 citations

• Geometry of variational methods: dynamics of closed quantum systems

  Lucas Hackl, Tommaso Guaita, Tao Shi, Jutho Haegeman, Eugene Demler, J. Ignacio Cirac

  SciPost Phys. 9, 048 (2020) · published 8 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a systematic geometric framework to study closed quantum systems based on suitably chosen variational families. For the purpose of (A) real time evolution, (B) excitation spectra, (C) spectral functions and (D) imaginary time evolution, we show how the geometric approach highlights the necessity to distinguish between two classes of manifolds: K\"ahler and non-K\"ahler. Traditional variational methods typically require the variational family to be a K\"ahler manifold, where multiplication by the imaginary unit preserves the tangent spaces. This covers the vast majority of cases studied in the literature. However, recently proposed classes of generalized Gaussian states make it necessary to also include the non-K\"ahler case, which has already been encountered occasionally. We illustrate our approach in detail with a range of concrete examples where the geometric structures of the considered manifolds are particularly relevant. These go from Gaussian states and group theoretic coherent states to generalized Gaussian states.

  73 citations

• Exotic $U(1)$ symmetries, duality, and fractons in 3+1-dimensional quantum field theory

  Nathan Seiberg, Shu-Heng Shao

  SciPost Phys. 9, 046 (2020) · published 5 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We extend our exploration of nonstandard continuum quantum field theories in 2+1 dimensions to 3+1 dimensions. These theories exhibit exotic global symmetries, a peculiar spectrum of charged states, unusual gauge symmetries, and surprising dualities. Many of the systems we study have a known lattice construction. In particular, one of them is a known gapless fracton model. The novelty here is in their continuum field theory description. In this paper, we focus on models with a global $U(1)$ symmetry and in a followup paper we will study models with a global $\mathbb{Z}_N$ symmetry.

  130 citations