Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Continuously varying critical exponents in long-range quantum spin ladders

  Patrick Adelhardt, Kai Phillip Schmidt

  SciPost Phys. 15, 087 (2023) · published 11 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the quantum-critical behavior between the rung-singlet phase with hidden string order and the Néel phase with broken SU(2)-symmetry in quantum spin ladders with algebraically decaying unfrustrated long-range Heisenberg interactions. To this end, we determine high-order series expansions of energies and observables in the thermodynamic limit about the isolated rung-dimer limit. This is achieved by extending the method of perturbative continuous unitary transformations (pCUT) to long-range Heisenberg interactions and to the calculation of generic observables. The quantum-critical breakdown of the rung-singlet phase then allows us to determine the critical phase transition line and the entire set of critical exponents as a function of the decay exponent of the long-range interaction. We demonstrate long-range mean-field behavior as well as a non-trivial regime of continuously varying critical exponents implying the absence of deconfined criticality contrary to a recent suggestion in the literature.

  4 citations

• Spectral statistics of a minimal quantum glass model

  Richard Barney, Michael Winer, Christopher L. Baldwin, Brian Swingle, Victor Galitski

  SciPost Phys. 15, 084 (2023) · published 7 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Glasses have the interesting feature of being neither integrable nor fully chaotic. They thermalize quickly within a subspace but thermalize much more slowly across the full space due to high free energy barriers which partition the configuration space into sectors. Past works have examined the Rosenzweig-Porter (RP) model as a minimal quantum model which transitions from localized to chaotic behavior. In this work we generalize the RP model in such a way that it becomes a minimal model which transitions from glassy to chaotic behavior, which we term the "Block Rosenzweig-Porter" (BRP) model. We calculate the spectral form factors of both models at all timescales larger than the inverse spectral width. Whereas the RP model exhibits a crossover from localized to ergodic behavior at the Thouless timescale, the new BRP model instead crosses over from glassy to fully chaotic behavior, as seen by a change in the steepness of the ramp of the spectral form factor.

  7 citations

• Twisted-bilayer FeSe and the Fe-based superlattices

  Paul M. Eugenio, Oskar Vafek

  SciPost Phys. 15, 081 (2023) · published 6 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We derive BM-like continuum models for the bands of superlattice heterostructures formed out of Fe-chalcogenide monolayers: (I) a single monolayer experiencing an external periodic potential, and (II) twisted bilayers with long-range moire tunneling. A symmetry derivation for the inter-layer moire tunnelling is provided for both the $\Gamma$ and $M$ high-symmetry points. In this paper, we focus on moire bands formed from hole-band maxima centered on $\Gamma$, and show the possibility of moire bands with $C=0$ or ±1 topological quantum numbers without breaking time-reversal symmetry. In the $C=0$ region for $\theta→0$ (and similarly in the limit of large superlattice period for I), the system becomes a square lattice of 2D harmonic oscillators. We fit our model to FeSe and argue that it is a viable platform for the simulation of the square Hubbard model with tunable interaction strength.

  5 citations

• A universal approach to Krylov state and operator complexities

  Mohsen Alishahiha, Souvik Banerjee

  SciPost Phys. 15, 080 (2023) · published 6 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a general framework in which both Krylov state and operator complexities can be put on the same footing. In our formalism, the Krylov complexity is defined in terms of the density matrix of the associated state which, for the operator complexity, lives on a doubled Hilbert space obtained through the channel-state map. This unified definition of complexity in terms of the density matrices enables us to extend the notion of Krylov complexity, to subregion or mixed state complexities and also naturally to the Krylov mutual complexity. We show that this framework also encompasses nicely the holographic notions of complexity.

  21 citations

• Probing Chern number by opacity and topological phase transition by a nonlocal Chern marker

  Paolo Molignini, Bastien Lapierre, Ramasubramanian Chitra, Wei Chen

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 059 (2023) · published 29 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In 2D semiconductors and insulators, the Chern number of the valence band Bloch state is an important quantity that has been linked to various material properties, such as the topological order. We elaborate that the opacity of 2D materials to circularly polarized light over a wide range of frequencies, measured in units of the fine structure constant, can be used to extract a spectral function that frequency-integrates to the Chern number, offering a simple optical experiment to measure it. This method is subsequently generalized to finite temperature and locally on every lattice site by a linear response theory, which helps to extract the Chern marker that maps the Chern number to lattice sites. The long range response in our theory corresponds to a Chern correlator that acts like the internal fluctuation of the Chern marker, and is found to be enhanced in the topologically nontrivial phase. Finally, from the Fourier transform of the valence band Berry curvature, a nonlocal Chern marker is further introduced, whose decay length diverges at topological phase transitions and therefore serves as a faithful indicator of the transitions, and moreover can be interpreted as a Wannier state correlation function. The concepts discussed in this work explore multi-faceted aspects of topology and should help address the impact of system inhomogeneities.

  6 citations

• On the quantum simulation of complex networks

  Duarte Magano, João Moutinho, Bruno Coutinho

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 058 (2023) · published 24 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum walks provide a natural framework to approach graph problems with quantum computers, exhibiting speedups over their classical counterparts for tasks such as the search for marked nodes or the prediction of missing links. Continuous-time quantum walk algorithms assume that we can simulate the dynamics of quantum systems where the Hamiltonian is given by the adjacency matrix of the graph. It is known that such can be simulated efficiently if the underlying graph is row-sparse and efficiently row-computable. While this is sufficient for many applications, it limits the applicability for this class of algorithms to study real world complex networks, which, among other properties, are characterized by the existence of a few densely connected nodes, called hubs. In other words, complex networks are typically not row-sparse, even though the average connectivity over all nodes can be very small. In this work, we extend the state-of-the-art results on quantum simulation to graphs that contain a small number of hubs, but that are otherwise sparse. Hopefully, our results may lead to new applications of quantum computing to network science.

  2 citations

• Separability and entanglement of resonating valence-bond states

  Gilles Parez, Clément Berthiere, William Witczak-Krempa

  SciPost Phys. 15, 066 (2023) · published 21 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate separability and entanglement of Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) states and resonating valence-bond (RVB) states. These states play a prominent role in condensed matter physics, as they can describe quantum spin liquids and quantum critical states of matter, depending on their underlying lattices. For dimer RK states on arbitrary tileable graphs, we prove the exact separability of the reduced density matrix of $k$ disconnected subsystems, implying the absence of bipartite and multipartite entanglement between the subsystems. For more general RK states with local constraints, we argue separability in the thermodynamic limit, and show that any local RK state has zero logarithmic negativity, even if the density matrix is not exactly separable. In the case of adjacent subsystems, we find an exact expression for the logarithmic negativity in terms of partition functions of the underlying statistical model. For RVB states, we show separability for disconnected subsystems up to exponentially small terms in the distance $d$ between the subsystems, and that the logarithmic negativity is exponentially suppressed with $d$. We argue that separability does hold in the scaling limit, even for arbitrarily small ratio $d/L$, where $L$ is the characteristic size of the subsystems. Our results hold for arbitrary lattices, and encompass a large class of RK and RVB states, which include certain gapped quantum spin liquids and gapless quantum critical systems.

  4 citations

• Ergodic Archimedean dimers

  Henrik Schou Røising, Zhao Zhang

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 054 (2023) · published 11 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study perfect matchings, or close-packed dimer coverings, of finite sections of the eleven Archimedean lattices and give a constructive proof showing that any two perfect matchings can be transformed into each other using small sets of local ring-exchange moves. This result has direct consequences for formulating quantum dimer models with a resonating valence bond ground state, i.e., a superposition of all dimer coverings compatible with the boundary conditions. On five of the composite Archimedean lattices we supplement the sufficiency proof with translationally invariant reference configurations that prove the strict necessity of the sufficient terms with respect to ergodicity. We provide examples of and discuss frustration-free deformations of the quantum dimer models on two tripartite lattices.

• The role of fluctuations in quantum and classical time crystals

  Toni L. Heugel, Alexander Eichler, Ramasubramanian Chitra, Oded Zilberberg

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 053 (2023) · published 10 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Discrete time crystals (DTCs) are a many-body state of matter whose dynamics are slower than the forces acting on it. The same is true for classical systems with period-doubling bifurcations. Hence, the question naturally arises what differentiates classical from quantum DTCs. Here, we analyze a variant of the Bose-Hubbard model, which describes a plethora of physical phenomena and has both a classical and a quantum time-crystalline limit. Fluctuations enter the system due to the intrinsic quantum uncertainty and/or due to finite coupling to an environment. These fluctuations can activate transitions between the system's various stationary solutions. We study the role of fluctuations on the stability of the system in the long-time limit and find no distinction between quantum and classical DTCs. This allows us to probe the fluctuations in an experiment using two strongly coupled parametric resonators subject to classical noise.

  3 citations

• Weak ergodicity breaking in non-Hermitian many-body systems

  Qianqian Chen, Shuai A. Chen, Zheng Zhu

  SciPost Phys. 15, 052 (2023) · published 7 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The recent discovery of persistent revivals in the Rydberg-atom quantum simulator has revealed a weakly ergodicity-breaking mechanism dubbed quantum many-body scars, which are a set of nonthermal states embedded in otherwise thermal spectra. Until now, such a mechanism has been mainly studied in Hermitian systems. Here, we establish the non-Hermitian quantum many-body scars and systematically characterize their nature from dynamic revivals, entanglement entropy, physical observables, and energy level statistics. Notably, we find the non-Hermitian quantum many-body scars exhibit significantly enhanced coherent revival dynamics when approaching the exceptional point. The signatures of non-Hermitian scars switch from the real-energy axis to the imaginary-energy axis after a real-to-complex spectrum transition driven by increasing non-Hermiticity, where an exceptional point and a quantum tricritical point emerge simultaneously. We further examine the stability of non-Hermitian quantum many-body scars against external fields, reveal the non-Hermitian quantum criticality and eventually set up the whole phase diagram. The possible connection to the open quantum many-body systems is also explored. Our findings offer insights for realizing long-lived coherent states in non-Hermitian many-body systems.

  6 citations