Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Fractional domain wall statistics in spin chains with anomalous symmetries

  Jose Garre Rubio, Norbert Schuch

  SciPost Phys. 18, 043 (2025) · published 4 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the statistics of domain wall excitations in quantum spin chains. We focus on systems with finite symmetry groups represented by matrix product unitaries (MPUs), i.e. finite depth quantum circuits. Such symmetries can be anomalous, in which case gapped phases which they support must break the symmetry. The lowest lying excitations of those systems are thus domain wall excitations. We investigate the behavior of these domain walls under exchange, and find that they can exhibit non-trivial exchange statistics. This statistics is completely determined by the anomaly of the symmetry, and we provide a direct relation between the known classification of MPU symmetry actions on ground states and the domain wall statistics. Already for the simplest case of a $\mathbb Z_2$ symmetry, we obtain that the presence of an anomalous MPU symmetry gives rise to domain wall excitations which behave neither as bosons nor as fermions, but rather exhibit fractional statistics. Finally, we show that the exchange statistics of domain walls is a physically accessible quantity, by devising explicit measurement operators through which it can be determined.

• Closed-channel parameters of Feshbach resonances

  Pascal Naidon

  SciPost Phys. 18, 036 (2025) · published 29 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This work investigates how the closed channel of a Feshbach resonance is characterised by experimental observables. Surprisingly, it is found that the two-body observables associated with the Feshbach resonance can be insensitive to the properties of the closed channel. In particular, it is impossible in this situation to determine the energy of the bound state causing the resonance from the usual experimental data. This is the case for all magnetic Feshbach resonances in ultracold atoms, due to their deep two-body interaction potentials. This insensitivity highlights a major difference with Feshbach resonances that involve shallow interaction potentials, such as hadron resonances. It appears however that short-range two-body correlations and three-body observables are affected by a parameter of the closed channel called the "closed-channel scattering length". A photoassociation experiment is proposed to measure this parameter in ultracold atom systems.

• Integrability of open boundary driven quantum circuits

  Chiara Paletta, Tomaž Prosen

  SciPost Phys. 18, 027 (2025) · published 22 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper, we address the problem of Yang-Baxter integrability of doubled quantum circuit of qubits (spins 1/2) with open boundary conditions where the two circuit replicas are only coupled at the left or right boundary. We investigate the cases where the bulk is given by elementary six vertex unitary gates of either the free fermionic XX type or interacting XXZ type. By using the Sklyanin's construction of reflection algebra, we obtain the most general solutions of the boundary Yang-Baxter equation for such a setup. We use this solution to build, from the transfer matrix formalism, integrable circuits with two step discrete time Floquet (aka brickwork) dynamics. We prove that, only if the bulk is a free-model, the boundary matrices are in general non-factorizable, and for particular choice of free parameters yield non-trivial unitary dynamics with boundary interaction between the two chains. Then, we consider the limit of continuous time evolution and we give the interpretation of a restricted set of the boundary terms in the Lindbladian setting. Specifically, for a particular choice of free parameters, the solutions correspond to an open quantum system dynamics with the source terms representing injecting or removing particles from the boundary of the spin chain.

  3 citations

• Understanding and utilizing the inner bonds of process tensors

  Moritz Cygorek, Erik M. Gauger

  SciPost Phys. 18, 024 (2025) · published 20 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Process tensor matrix product operators (PT-MPOs) enable numerically exact simulations for an unprecedentedly broad range of open quantum systems. By representing environment influences in MPO form, they can be efficiently compressed using established algorithms. The dimensions of inner bonds of the compressed PT-MPO may be viewed as an indicator of the complexity of the environment. Here, we show that the inner bonds themselves, not only their dimensions, have a concrete physical meaning: They represent the subspace of the full environment Liouville space which hosts environment excitations that may influence the subsequent open quantum systems dynamics the most. This connection can be expressed in terms of lossy linear transformations, whose pseudoinverses facilitate the extraction of environment observables. We demonstrate this by extracting the environment spin of a central spin problem, the current through a quantum system coupled to two leads, the number of photons emitted from quantum emitters into a structured environment, and the distribution of the total absorbed energy in a driven non-Markovian quantum system into system, environment, and interaction energy terms. Numerical tests further indicate that different PT-MPO algorithms compress environments to similar subspaces. Thus, the physical interpretation of inner bonds of PT-MPOs both provides a conceptional understanding and it enables new practical applications.

• Gauging modulated symmetries: Kramers-Wannier dualities and non-invertible reflections

  Salvatore D. Pace, Guilherme Delfino, Ho Tat Lam, Ömer M. Aksoy

  SciPost Phys. 18, 021 (2025) · published 17 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Modulated symmetries are internal symmetries that act in a non-uniform, spatially modulated way and are generalizations of, for example, dipole symmetries. In this paper, we systematically study the gauging of finite Abelian modulated symmetries in ${1+1}$ dimensions. Working with local Hamiltonians of spin chains, we explore the dual symmetries after gauging and their potential new spatial modulations. We establish sufficient conditions for the existence of an isomorphism between the modulated symmetries and their dual, naturally implemented by lattice reflections. For instance, in systems of prime qudits, translation invariance guarantees this isomorphism. For non-prime qudits, we show using techniques from ring theory that this isomorphism can also exist, although it is not guaranteed by lattice translation symmetry alone. From this isomorphism, we identify new Kramers-Wannier dualities and construct related non-invertible reflection symmetry operators using sequential quantum circuits. Notably, this non-invertible reflection symmetry exists even when the system lacks ordinary reflection symmetry. Throughout the paper, we illustrate these results using various simple toy models.

  5 citations

• Ballistic conductance with and without disorder in a boundary-driven XXZ spin chain

  Adam J. McRoberts, Roderich Moessner

  SciPost Phys. 18, 015 (2025) · published 14 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Motivated by recent experiments on Google's sycamore NISQ platform on the spin transport resulting from a non-unitary periodic boundary drive of an XXZ chain, we study a classical variant thereof by a combination of analytical and numerical means. We find the classical model reproduces the quantum results in remarkable detail, and provides an analytical handle on the nature and shape of the spin transport's three distinct regimes: ballistic (easy-plane), subdiffusive (isotropic) and insulating (easy-axis). Further, we show that this phenomenology is remarkably robust to the inclusion of bond disorder – albeit that the transient dynamics approaching the steady states differs qualitatively between the clean and disordered cases – providing an accessible instance of ballistic transport in a disordered setting.

• A numerical approach for calculating exact non-adiabatic terms in quantum dynamics

  Ewen D. C. Lawrence, Sebastian F. J. Schmid, Ieva Čepaitė, Peter Kirton, Callum W. Duncan

  SciPost Phys. 18, 014 (2025) · published 14 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Understanding how non-adiabatic terms affect quantum dynamics is fundamental to improving various protocols for quantum technologies. We present a novel approach to computing the Adiabatic Gauge Potential (AGP), which gives information on the non-adiabatic terms that arise from time dependence in the Hamiltonian. Our approach uses commutators of the Hamiltonian to build up an appropriate basis of the AGP, which can be easily truncated to give an approximate form when the exact result is intractable. We use this approach to study the AGP obtained for the transverse field Ising model on a variety of graphs, showing how the different underlying graph structures can give rise to very different scaling for the number of terms required in the AGP.

  1 citation

• Fermionic tensor network methods

  Quinten Mortier, Lukas Devos, Lander Burgelman, Bram Vanhecke, Nick Bultinck, Frank Verstraete, Jutho Haegeman, Laurens Vanderstraeten

  SciPost Phys. 18, 012 (2025) · published 10 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show how fermionic statistics can be naturally incorporated in tensor networks on arbitrary graphs through the use of graded Hilbert spaces. This formalism allows the use of tensor network methods for fermionic lattice systems in a local way, avoiding the need of a Jordan-Wigner transformation or the explicit tracking of leg crossings by swap gates in 2D tensor networks. The graded Hilbert spaces can be readily integrated with other internal and lattice symmetries, and only require minor extensions to an existing tensor network software package. We review and benchmark the fermionic versions of common algorithms for matrix product states and projected entangled-pair states.

  1 citation

• Universal performance gap of neural quantum states applied to the Hofstadter-Bose-Hubbard model

  Eimantas Ledinauskas, Egidijus Anisimovas

  SciPost Phys. 18, 011 (2025) · published 10 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Neural Quantum States (NQS) have demonstrated significant potential in approximating ground states of many-body quantum systems, though their performance can be inconsistent across different models. This study investigates the performance of NQS in approximating the ground state of the Hofstadter-Bose-Hubbard (HBH) model, an interacting boson system on a two-dimensional square lattice with a perpendicular magnetic field. Our results indicate that increasing magnetic flux leads to a substantial increase in energy error, up to three orders of magnitude. Importantly, this decline in NQS performance is consistent across different optimization methods, neural network architectures, and physical model parameters, suggesting a significant challenge intrinsic to the model. Despite investigating potential causes such as wave function phase structure, quantum entanglement, fractional quantum Hall effect, and the variational loss landscape, the precise reasons for this degradation remain elusive. The HBH model thus proves to be an effective testing ground for exploring the capabilities and limitations of NQS. Our study highlights the need for advanced theoretical frameworks to better understand the expressive power of NQS which would allow a systematic development of methods that could potentially overcome these challenges.

• Codebase release 1.0 for QDarts

  Jan A. Krzywda, Weikun Liu, Evert van Nieuwenburg, Oswin Krause

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 43-r1.0 (2025) · published 9 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · src

  We present QDarts, an efficient simulator for realistic charge stability diagrams of quantum dot array (QDA) devices in equilibrium states. It allows for pinpointing the location of concrete charge states and their transitions in a high-dimensional voltage space (via arbitrary two-dimensional cuts through it), and includes effects of finite tunnel coupling, non-constant charging energy and a simulation of noisy sensor dots. These features enable close matching of various experimental results in the literature, and the package hence provides a flexible tool for testing QDA experiments, as well as opening the avenue for developing new methods of device tuning.

  1 citation