Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• A time-dependent momentum-resolved scattering approach to core-level spectroscopies

  Krissia Zawadzki, Alberto Nocera, Adrian E. Feiguin

  SciPost Phys. 15, 166 (2023) · published 17 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  While new light sources allow for unprecedented resolution in experiments with X-rays, a theoretical understanding of the scattering cross-section is lacking. In the particular case of strongly correlated electron systems, numerical techniques are quite limited, since conventional approaches rely on calculating a response function (Kramers-Heisenberg formula) that is obtained from a perturbative analysis of scattering processes in the frequency domain. This requires a knowledge of a full set of eigenstates in order to account for all intermediate processes away from equilibrium, limiting the applicability to small tractable systems. In this work, we present an alternative paradigm, recasting the problem in the time domain and explicitly solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation without the limitations of perturbation theory: a faithful simulation of the scattering processes taking place in actual experiments, including photons and core electrons. We show how this approach can yield the full time and momentum resolved Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering (RIXS) spectrum of strongly interacting many-body systems. We demonstrate the formalism with an application to Mott insulating Hubbard chains using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method, which does not require a priory knowledge of the eigenstates and can solve very large systems with dozens of orbitals. This approach can readily be applied to systems out of equilibrium without modification and generalized to other spectroscopies.

  4 citations

• Interfacially adsorbed bubbles determine the shape of droplets

  Alessio Squarcini, Antonio Tinti

  SciPost Phys. 15, 164 (2023) · published 16 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The characterization of density correlations in the presence of strongly fluctuating interfaces has always been considered a difficult problem in statistical mechanics. Here we study - by using recently developed exact field-theoretical techniques - density correlations for an interface with endpoints on a wall forming a droplet in 2D. Our framework applies to interfaces entropically repelled by a hard wall as well as to wetting transitions. In the former case bubbles adsorbed on the interface are taken into account by the theory which yields a systematic treatment of finite-size corrections to one- and two-point functions and show how these are related to Brownian excursions. Our analytical predictions are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations without free parameters. We also determine one- and two-point functions at wetting by using integrable boundary field theory. We show that correlations are long ranged for entropic repulsion and at wetting. For both regimes we investigate correlations in momentum space by generalizing the notion of interface structure factor to semi-confined systems. Distinctive signatures of the two regimes manifest in the structure factor through a term that we identify on top of the capillary-wave one.

  2 citations

• Topological holography: Towards a unification of Landau and beyond-Landau physics

  Heidar Moradi, Seyed Faroogh Moosavian, Apoorv Tiwari

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 066 (2023) · published 16 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We outline a holographic framework that attempts to unify Landau and beyond-Landau paradigms of quantum phases and phase transitions. Leveraging a modern understanding of symmetries as topological defects/operators, the framework uses a topological order to organize the space of quantum systems with a global symmetry in one lower dimension. The global symmetry naturally serves as an input for the topological order. In particular, we holographically construct a String Operator Algebra (SOA) which is the building block of symmetric quantum systems with a given symmetry G in one lower dimension. This exposes a vast web of dualities which act on the space of G-symmetric quantum systems. The SOA facilitates the classification of gapped phases as well as their corresponding order parameters and fundamental excitations, while dualities help to navigate and predict various corners of phase diagrams and analytically compute universality classes of phase transitions. A novelty of the approach is that it treats conventional Landau and unconventional topological phase transitions on an equal footing, thereby providing a holographic unification of these seemingly-disparate domains of understanding. We uncover a new feature of gapped phases and their multi-critical points, which we dub fusion structure, that encodes information about which phases and transitions can be dual to each other. Furthermore, we discover that self-dual systems typically posses emergent non-invertible, i.e., beyond group-like symmetries. We apply these ideas to $1+1d$ quantum spin chains with finite Abelian group symmetry, using topologically-ordered systems in $2+1d$. We predict the phase diagrams of various concrete spin models, and analytically compute the full conformal spectra of non-trivial quantum phase transitions, which we then verify numerically.

  47 citations

• Skyrmion crystals in the triangular Kondo lattice model

  Zhentao Wang, Cristian D. Batista

  SciPost Phys. 15, 161 (2023) · published 13 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a systematic study of the formation of skyrmion crystals in a triangular Kondo Lattice model for generic electron filling fractions. Our results indicate that the four-sublattice chiral antiferromagnetic ordering that was reported more than one decade ago can be understood as the dense limit of a sequence of skyrmion crystals whose lattice parameter is dictated by the Fermi wave-vector. This observation has important implications for the ongoing search of skyrmion crystals in metallic materials with localized magnetic moments.

  12 citations

• Adiabatic deformations of quantum Hall droplets

  Blagoje Oblak, Benoit Estienne

  SciPost Phys. 15, 159 (2023) · published 13 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider area-preserving deformations of the plane, acting on electronic wave functions through "quantomorphisms" that change both the underlying metric and the confining potential. We show that adiabatic sequences of such transformations produce Berry phases that can be written in closed form in terms of the many-body current and density, even in the presence of interactions. For a large class of deformations that generalize squeezing and shearing, the leading piece of the phase is a super-extensive Aharonov-Bohm term ($\propto N^2$ for $N$ electrons) in the thermodynamic limit. Its gauge-invariant subleading partner only measures the current, whose dominant contribution to the phase stems from a jump at the edge in the limit of strong magnetic fields. This results in a finite Berry curvature per unit area, reminiscent of the Hall viscosity. We show that the latter is in fact included in our formalism, bypassing its standard derivation on a torus and suggesting realistic experimental setups for its observation in quantum simulators.

  2 citations

• Tensor network variational optimizations for real-time dynamics: Application to the time-evolution of spin liquids

  Ravi Teja Ponnaganti, Matthieu Mambrini, Didier Poilblanc

  SciPost Phys. 15, 158 (2023) · published 12 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Within the Projected Entangled Pair State (PEPS) tensor network formalism, a simple update (SU) method has been used to investigate the time evolution of a two-dimensional U(1) critical spin-1/2 spin liquid under Hamiltonian quench [Phys. Rev. B 106, 195132 (2022)]. Here we introduce two different variational frameworks to describe the time dynamics of SU(2)-symmetric translationally-invariant PEPS, aiming to improve the accuracy. In one approach, after using a Trotter-Suzuki decomposition of the time evolution operator in term of two-site elementary gates, one considers a single bond embedded in an environment approximated by a Corner Transfer Matrix Renormalization Group (CTMRG). A variational update of the two tensors on the bond is performed under the application of the elementary gate and then, after symmetrization of the site tensors, the environment is updated. In the second approach, a cluster optimization is performed on a finite (periodic) cluster, maximizing the overlap of the exact time-evolved state with a symmetric finite-size PEPS ansatz. Observables are then computed on the infinite lattice contracting the infinite-PEPS (iPEPS) by CTMRG. We show that the variational schemes outperform the SU method and remain accurate over a significant time interval before hitting the entanglement barrier. Studying the spectrum of the transfer matrix, we find that the asymptotic correlations are very well preserved under time evolution, including the critical nature of the singlet correlations, as expected from the Lieb-Robinson (LR) bound theorem. Consistently, the system (asymptotic) boundary is found to be described by the same Conformal Field Theory of central charge $c = 1$ during time evolution. We also compute the time-evolution of the short distance spin-spin correlations and estimate the LR velocity.

  4 citations

• Subsystem non-invertible symmetry operators and defects

  Weiguang Cao, Linhao Li, Masahito Yamazaki, Yunqin Zheng

  SciPost Phys. 15, 155 (2023) · published 12 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We explore non-invertible symmetries in two-dimensional lattice models with subsystem $\mathbb Z_2$ symmetry. We introduce a subsystem $\mathbb Z_2$-gauging procedure, called the subsystem Kramers-Wannier transformation, which generalizes the ordinary Kramers-Wannier transformation. The corresponding duality operators and defects are constructed by gaugings on the whole or half of the Hilbert space. By gauging twice, we derive fusion rules of duality operators and defects, which enriches ordinary Ising fusion rules with subsystem features. Subsystem Kramers-Wannier duality defects are mobile in both spatial directions, unlike the defects of invertible subsystem symmetries. We finally comment on the anomaly of the subsystem Kramers-Wannier duality symmetry, and discuss its subtleties.

  43 citations

• A Chern-Simons theory for dipole symmetry

  Xiaoyang Huang

  SciPost Phys. 15, 153 (2023) · published 11 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present effective field theories for dipole symmetric topological matters that can be described by the Chern-Simons theory. Unlike most studies using higher-rank gauge theory, we develop a framework with both $U(1)$ and dipole gauge fields. As a result, only the highest multipole symmetry can support the 't Hooft anomaly. We show that with appropriate point group symmetries, the dipolar Chern-Simons theory can exist in any dimension and, moreover, the bulk-edge correspondence can depend on the boundary. As two applications, we draw an analogy between the dipole anomaly and the torsional anomaly and generalize particle-vortex duality to dipole phase transitions. All of the above are in the flat spacetime limit, but our framework is able to systematically couple dipole symmetry to curved spacetime. Based on that, we give a proposal about anomalous dipole hydrodynamics. Moreover, we show that the fracton-elasticity duality arises naturally from a non-abelian Chern-Simons theory in 3D.

  19 citations

• Towards non-invertible anomalies from generalized Ising models

  Shang Liu, Wenjie Ji

  SciPost Phys. 15, 150 (2023) · published 10 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a general approach to the bulk-boundary correspondence of noninvertible topological phases, including both topological and fracton orders. This is achieved by a novel bulk construction protocol where solvable $(d+1)$-dimensional bulk models with noninvertible topology are constructed from the so-called generalized Ising (GI) models in $d$ dimensions. The GI models can then terminate on the boundaries of the bulk models. The construction generates abundant examples, including not only prototype ones such as $\mathbb{Z}_2$ toric code models in any dimensions no less than two, and the X-cube fracton model, but also more diverse ones such as the $\mathbb{Z}_2× \mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order, the 4d $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order with pure-loop excitations, etc. The boundary of the solvable model is potentially anomalous and corresponds to precisely only sectors of the GI model that host certain total symmetry charges and/or satisfy certain boundary conditions. We derive a concrete condition for such bulk-boundary correspondence. The condition is violated only when the bulk model is either trivial or fracton ordered. A generalized notion of Kramers-Wannier duality plays an important role in the construction. Also, utilizing the duality, we find an example where a single anomalous theory can be realized on the boundaries of two distinct bulk fracton models, a phenomenon not expected in the case of topological orders. More generally, topological orders may also be generated starting with lattice models beyond the GI models, such as those with symmetry protected topological orders, through a variant bulk construction, which we provide in an appendix.

  9 citations

• Floquet fractional Chern insulators and competing phases in twisted bilayer graphene

  Peng-Sheng Hu, Yi-Han Zhou, Zhao Liu

  SciPost Phys. 15, 148 (2023) · published 10 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the many-body physics in twisted bilayer graphene coupled to periodic driving of a circularly polarized light when electron-electron interactions are taken into account. In the limit of high driving frequency $\Omega$, we use Floquet theory to formulate the system by an effective static Hamiltonian truncated to the order of $\Omega^{-2}$, which consists of a single-electron part and the screened Coulomb interaction. We numerically simulate this effective Hamiltonian by extensive exact diagonalization in the parameter space spanned by the twist angle and the driving strength. Remarkably, in a wide region of the parameter space, we identify Floquet fractional Chern insulator states in the partially filled Floquet valence bands. We characterize these topologically ordered states by ground-state degeneracy, spectral flow, and entanglement spectrum. In regions of the parameter space where fractional Chern insulator states are absent, we find topologically trivial charge density waves and band-dispersion-induced Fermi liquids which strongly compete with fractional Chern insulator states.

  1 citation