Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Interacting edge states of fermionic symmetry-protected topological phases in two dimensions

  Joseph Sullivan, Meng Cheng

  SciPost Phys. 9, 016 (2020) · published 5 August 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recently, it has been found that there exist symmetry-protected topological phases of fermions, which have no realizations in non-interacting fermionic systems or bosonic models. We study the edge states of such an intrinsically interacting fermionic SPT phase in two spatial dimensions, protected by $\mathbb{Z}_4\times\mathbb{Z}_2^T$ symmetry. We model the edge Hilbert space by replacing the internal $\mathbb{Z}_4$ symmetry with a spatial translation symmetry, and design an exactly solvable Hamiltonian for the edge model. We show that at low-energy the edge can be described by a two-component Luttinger liquid, with nontrivial symmetry transformations that can only be realized in strongly interacting systems. We further demonstrate the symmetry-protected gaplessness under various perturbations, and the bulk-edge correspondence in the theory.

  6 citations

• Search for non-Abelian Majorana braiding statistics in superconductors

  C. W. J. Beenakker

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 15 (2020) · published 4 August 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This is a tutorial review of methods to braid the world lines of non-Abelian anyons (Majorana zero-modes) in topological superconductors. That "Holy Grail" of topological quantum information processing has not yet been reached in the laboratory, but there now exists a variety of platforms in which one can search for the Majorana braiding statistics. After an introduction to the basic concepts of braiding we discuss how one might be able to braid immobile Majorana zero-modes, bound to the end points of a nanowire, by performing the exchange in parameter space, rather than in real space. We explain how Coulomb interaction can be used to both control and read out the braiding operation, even though Majorana zero-modes are charge neutral. We ask whether the fusion rule might provide for an easier pathway towards the demonstration of non-Abelian statistics. In the final part we discuss an approach to braiding in real space, rather than parameter space, using vortices injected into a chiral Majorana edge mode as "flying qubits".

  77 citations

• The non-rational limit of D-series minimal models

  Sylvain Ribault

  SciPost Phys. Core 3, 002 (2020) · published 31 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the limit of D-series minimal models when the central charge tends to a generic irrational value $c\in (-\infty, 1)$. We find that the limit theory's diagonal three-point structure constant differs from that of Liouville theory by a distribution factor, which is given by a divergent Verlinde formula. Nevertheless, correlation functions that involve both non-diagonal and diagonal fields are smooth functions of the diagonal fields' conformal dimensions. The limit theory is a non-trivial example of a non-diagonal, non-rational, solved two-dimensional conformal field theory.

  1 citation

• Exponentially long lifetime of universal quasi-steady states in topological Floquet pumps

  Tobias Gulden, Erez Berg, Mark S. Rudner, Netanel H. Lindner

  SciPost Phys. 9, 015 (2020) · published 29 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate a mechanism to transiently stabilize topological phenomena in long-lived quasi-steady states of isolated quantum many-body systems driven at low frequencies. We obtain an analytical bound for the lifetime of the quasi-steady states which is exponentially large in the inverse driving frequency. Within this lifetime, the quasi-steady state is characterized by maximum entropy subject to the constraint of fixed number of particles in the system's Floquet-Bloch bands. In such a state, all the non-universal properties of these bands are washed out, hence only the topological properties persist.

  9 citations

• Pairing patterns in one-dimensional spin- and mass-imbalanced Fermi gases

  Lukas Rammelmüller, Joaquín E. Drut, Jens Braun

  SciPost Phys. 9, 014 (2020) · published 28 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study spin- and mass-imbalanced mixtures of spin-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ fermions interacting via an attractive contact potential in one spatial dimension. Specifically, we address the influence of unequal particle masses on the pair formation by means of the complex Langevin method. By computing the pair-correlation function and the associated pair-momentum distribution we find that inhomogeneous pairing is present for all studied spin polarizations and mass imbalances. To further characterize the pairing behavior, we analyze the density-density correlations in momentum space, the so-called shot noise, which is experimentally accessible through time-of-flight imaging. At finite spin polarization, the latter is known to show distinct maxima at momentum configurations associated with the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) instability. Besides those maxima, we find that additional features emerge in the noise correlations when mass imbalance is increased, revealing the stability of FFLO-type correlations against mass imbalance and furnishing an experimentally accessible signature to probe this type of pairing.

  14 citations

• Critical properties of a comb lattice

  Natalia Chepiga, Steven R. White

  SciPost Phys. 9, 013 (2020) · published 27 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper we study the critical properties of the Heisenberg spin-1/2 model on a comb lattice -- a 1D backbone decorated with finite 1D chains -- the teeth. We address the problem numerically by a comb tensor network that duplicates the geometry of a lattice. We observe a fundamental difference between the states on a comb with even and odd number of sites per tooth, which resembles an even-odd effect in spin-1/2 ladders. The comb with odd teeth is always critical, not only along the teeth, but also along the backbone, which leads to a competition between two critical regimes in orthogonal directions. In addition, we show that in a weak-backbone limit the excitation energy scales as $1/(NL)$, and not as $1/N$ or $1/L$ typical for 1D systems. For even teeth in the weak backbone limit the system corresponds to a collection of decoupled critical chains of length $L$, while in the strong backbone limit, one spin from each tooth forms the backbone, so the effective length of a critical tooth is one site shorter, $L-1$. Surprisingly, these two regimes are connected via a state where a critical chain spans over two nearest neighbor teeth, with an effective length $2L$.

  2 citations

• Critical energy landscape of linear soft spheres

  Silvio Franz, Antonio Sclocchi, Pierfrancesco Urbani

  SciPost Phys. 9, 012 (2020) · published 23 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that soft spheres interacting with a linear ramp potential when overcompressed beyond the jamming point fall in an amorphous solid phase which is critical, mechanically marginally stable and share many features with the jamming point itself. In the whole phase, the relevant local minima of the potential energy landscape display an isostatic contact network of perfectly touching spheres whose statistics is controlled by an infinite lengthscale. Excitations around such energy minima are non-linear, system spanning, and characterized by a set of non-trivial critical exponents. We perform numerical simulations to measure their values and show that, while they coincide, within numerical precision, with the critical exponents appearing at jamming, the nature of the corresponding excitations is richer. Therefore, linear soft spheres appear as a novel class of finite dimensional systems that self-organize into new, critical, marginally stable, states.

  9 citations

• Relaxation and entropy generation after quenching quantum spin chains

  Máté Lencses, Octavio Pomponio, Gabor Takacs

  SciPost Phys. 9, 011 (2020) · published 22 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This work considers entropy generation and relaxation in quantum quenches in the Ising and $3$-state Potts spin chains. In the absence of explicit symmetry breaking we find universal ratios involving R\'enyi entropy growth rates and magnetisation relaxation for small quenches. We also demonstrate that the magnetisation relaxation rate provides an observable signature for the "dynamical Gibbs effect" which is a recently discovered characteristic non-monotonous behaviour of entropy growth linked to changes in the quasi-particle spectrum.

  6 citations

• Out-of-equilibrium phase transitions induced by Floquet resonances in a periodically quench-driven XY spin chain

  Sergio Enrique Tapias Arze, Pieter W. Claeys, Isaac Pérez Castillo, Jean-Sébastien Caux

  SciPost Phys. Core 3, 001 (2020) · published 22 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the dynamics of an XY spin chain subjected to an external transverse field which is periodically quenched between two values. By deriving an exact expression of the Floquet Hamiltonian for this out-of-equilibrium protocol with arbitrary driving frequencies, we show how, after an unfolding of the Floquet spectrum, the parameter space of the system is characterized by alternations between local and non-local regions, corresponding respectively to the absence and presence of Floquet resonances. The boundary lines between regions are obtained analytically from avoided crossings in the Floquet quasi-energies and are observable as phase transitions in the synchronized state. The transient behaviour of dynamical averages of local observables similarly undergoes a transition, showing either a rapid convergence towards the synchronized state in the local regime, or a rather slow one exhibiting persistent oscillations in the non-local regime, where explicit decay coefficients are presented.

  10 citations

• Topological superconductors on superstring worldsheets

  Justin Kaidi, Julio Parra-Martinez, Yuji Tachikawa, with a mathematical appendix by Arun Debray

  SciPost Phys. 9, 010 (2020) · published 21 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We point out that different choices of Gliozzi-Scherk-Olive (GSO) projections in superstring theory can be conveniently understood by the inclusion of fermionic invertible phases, or equivalently topological superconductors, on the worldsheet. This allows us to find that the unoriented Type $\rm 0$ string theory with $\Omega^2=(-1)^{\sf f}$ admits different GSO projections parameterized by $n$ mod 8, depending on the number of Kitaev chains on the worldsheet. The presence of $n$ boundary Majorana fermions then leads to the classification of D-branes by $KO^n(X)\oplus KO^{-n}(X)$ in these theories, which we also confirm by the study of the D-brane boundary states. Finally, we show that there is no essentially new GSO projection for the Type $\rm I$ worldsheet theory by studying the relevant bordism group, which classifies corresponding invertible phases. This paper provides the details for the results announced in the letter \cite{Kaidi:2019pzj}.

  24 citations