Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Role of stochastic noise and generalization error in the time propagation of neural-network quantum states

  Damian Hofmann, Giammarco Fabiani, Johan H. Mentink, Giuseppe Carleo, Michael A. Sentef

  SciPost Phys. 12, 165 (2022) · published 18 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Neural-network quantum states (NQS) have been shown to be a suitable variational ansatz to simulate out-of-equilibrium dynamics in two-dimensional systems using time-dependent variational Monte Carlo (t-VMC). In particular, stable and accurate time propagation over long time scales has been observed in the square-lattice Heisenberg model using the Restricted Boltzmann machine architecture. However, achieving similar performance in other systems has proven to be more challenging. In this article, we focus on the two-leg Heisenberg ladder driven out of equilibrium by a pulsed excitation as a benchmark system. We demonstrate that unmitigated noise is strongly amplified by the nonlinear equations of motion for the network parameters, which causes numerical instabilities in the time evolution. As a consequence, the achievable accuracy of the simulated dynamics is a result of the interplay between network expressiveness and measures required to remedy these instabilities. We show that stability can be greatly improved by appropriate choice of regularization. This is particularly useful as tuning of the regularization typically imposes no additional computational cost. Inspired by machine learning practice, we propose a validation-set based diagnostic tool to help determining optimal regularization hyperparameters for t-VMC based propagation schemes. For our benchmark, we show that stable and accurate time propagation can be achieved in regimes of sufficiently regularized variational dynamics.

  10 citations

• Fermionic Gaussian states: an introduction to numerical approaches

  Jacopo Surace, Luca Tagliacozzo

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 54 (2022) · published 16 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This document is meant to be a practical introduction to the analytical and numerical manipulation of Fermionic Gaussian systems. Starting from the basics, we move to relevant modern results and techniques, presenting numerical examples and studying relevant Hamiltonians, such as the transverse field Ising Hamiltonian, in detail. We finish introducing novel algorithms connecting Fermionic Guassian states with matrix product states techniques. All the numerical examples make use of the free Julia package F_utilities.

  16 citations

• Quantitative functional renormalization for three-dimensional quantum Heisenberg models

  Nils Niggemann, Johannes Reuther, Björn Sbierski

  SciPost Phys. 12, 156 (2022) · published 11 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We employ a recently developed variant of the functional renormalization group method for spin systems, the so-called pseudo Majorana functional renormalization group, to investigate three-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg models at finite temperatures. We study unfrustrated and frustrated Heisenberg systems on the simple cubic and pyrochlore lattices. Comparing our results with other quantum many-body techniques, we demonstrate a high quantitative accuracy of our method. Particularly, for the unfrustrated simple cubic lattice antiferromagnet ordering temperatures obtained from finite-size scaling of one-loop data deviate from error controlled quantum Monte Carlo results by $\sim5\%$ and we further confirm the established values for the critical exponent $\nu$ and the anomalous dimension $\eta$. As the PMFRG yields results in good agreement with QMC, but remains applicable when the system is frustrated, we next treat the pyrochlore Heisenberg antiferromagnet as a paradigmatic magnetically disordered system and find nearly perfect agreement of our two-loop static homogeneous susceptibility with other methods. We further investigate the broadening of pinch points in the spin structure factor as a result of quantum and thermal fluctuations and confirm a finite width in the extrapolated limit $T\rightarrow0$. While extensions towards higher loop orders $\ell$ seem to systematically improve our approach for magnetically disordered systems we also discuss subtleties when increasing $\ell$ in the presence of magnetic order. Overall, the pseudo Majorana functional renormalization group is established as a powerful many-body technique in quantum magnetism with a wealth of possible future applications.

  17 citations

• Scars from protected zero modes and beyond in $U(1)$ quantum link and quantum dimer models

  Saptarshi Biswas, Debasish Banerjee, Arnab Sen

  SciPost Phys. 12, 148 (2022) · published 6 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate the presence of anomalous high-energy eigenstates, or many-body scars, in $U(1)$ quantum link and quantum dimer models on square and rectangular lattices. In particular, we consider the paradigmatic Rokhsar-Kivelson Hamiltonian $H=\mathcal{O}_{\mathrm{kin}} + \lambda \mathcal{O}_{\mathrm{pot}}$ where $\mathcal{O}_{\mathrm{pot}}$ ($\mathcal{O}_{\mathrm{kin}}$) is defined as a sum of terms on elementary plaquettes that are diagonal (off-diagonal) in the computational basis. Both these interacting models possess an exponentially large number of mid-spectrum zero modes in system size at $\lambda=0$ that are protected by an index theorem preventing any mixing with the nonzero modes at this coupling. We classify different types of scars for $|\lambda| \lesssim \mathcal{O}(1)$ both at zero and finite winding number sectors complementing and significantly generalizing our previous work [Banerjee and Sen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 220601 (2021)]. The scars at finite $\lambda$ show a rich variety with those that are composed solely from the zero modes of $\mathcal{O}_{\mathrm{kin}}$, those that contain an admixture of both the zero and the nonzero modes of $\mathcal{O}_{\mathrm{kin}}$, and finally those composed solely from the nonzero modes of $\mathcal{O}_{\mathrm{kin}}$. We give analytic expressions for certain "lego scars" for the quantum dimer model on rectangular lattices where one of the linear dimensions can be made arbitrarily large, with the building blocks (legos) being composed of emergent singlets and other more complicated entangled structures.

  22 citations

• Excitons under strain: light absorption and emission in strained hexagonal boron nitride

  Pierre Lechifflart, Fulvio Paleari, Claudio Attaccalite

  SciPost Phys. 12, 145 (2022) · published 4 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Hexagonal boron nitride is an indirect band gap material with a strong luminescence in the ultraviolet. This luminescence originates from bound excitons recombination assisted by different phonon modes. The coupling between excitons and phonons is so strong that the resulting light emission is as efficient as the one of direct band gap materials. In this manuscript we investigate how uniaxial strain modifies the electronic and optical properties of this material, and in particular how it affects the exciton-phonon coupling. Using a formulation of this coupling based on finite-difference displacements, recently developed by some of us, we investigate how phonon-assisted transitions change under strain. Our results open the way to the study of phonon-assisted luminescence in strained materials from first principles. Our findings are important both for experiments that directly probe \hbn under strain or for those in which it is used as substrate for other 2D material with a lattice mismatch.

  4 citations

• Magnetic properties of a capped kagome molecule with 60 quantum spins

  Roman Rausch, Matthias Peschke, Cassian Plorin, Christoph Karrasch

  SciPost Phys. 12, 143 (2022) · published 2 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute ground-state properties of the isotropic, antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the sodalite cage geometry. This is a 60-spin spherical molecule with 24 vertex-sharing tetrahedra which can be regarded as a molecular analogue of a capped kagome lattice and which has been synthesized with high-spin rare-earth atoms. Here, we focus on the $S=1/2$ case where quantum effects are strongest. We employ the SU(2)-symmetric density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG). We find a threefold degenerate ground state that breaks the spatial symmetry and that splits up the molecule into three large parts which are almost decoupled from each other. This stands in sharp contrast to the behaviour of most known spherical molecules. On a methodological level, the disconnection leads to ``glassy dynamics'' within the DMRG that cannot be targeted via standard techniques. In the presence of finite magnetic fields, we find broad magnetization plateaus at 4/5, 3/5, and 1/5 of the saturation, which one can understand in terms of localized magnons, singlets, and doublets which are again nearly decoupled from each other. At the saturation field, the zero-point entropy is $S=\ln(182)\approx 5.2$ in units of the Boltzmann constant.

  3 citations

• Asymmetric transport in long-range interacting chiral spin chains

  Javad Vahedi

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 021 (2022) · published 13 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Harnessing power-law interactions ($1/r^\alpha$) in a large variety of physical systems are increasing. We study the dynamics of chiral spin chains as a possible multi-directional quantum channel. This arises from the nonlinear character of the dispersion with complex quantum interference effects. Using complementary numerical and analytical techniques, we propose a model to guide quantum states to a desired direction. We illustrate our approach using the long-range XXZ model modulated by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. By exploring non-equilibrium dynamics after a local quantum quench, we identify the interplay of interaction range $\alpha$ and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya coupling giving rise to an appreciable asymmetric spin excitations transport. This could be interesting for quantum information protocols to transfer quantum states, and it may be testable with current trapped-ion experiments. We further explore the growth of block entanglement entropy in these systems, and an order of magnitude reduction is distinguished.

  1 citation

• Dynamics of the order parameter statistics in the long range Ising model

  Nishan Ranabhat, Mario Collura

  SciPost Phys. 12, 126 (2022) · published 11 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the relaxation of the local ferromagnetic order in the transverse field quantum Ising chain with power-law decaying interactions $1/r^{\alpha}$. We prepare the system in the GHZ state and study the time evolution of the probability distribution function (PDF) of the order parameter within a block of $l$ when quenching the transverse field. The model is known to support long range order at finite temperature for $\alpha \leq 2.0$ . In this regime, quasi-localized topological magnetic defects are expected to strongly affect the equilibration of the full probability distribution. We highlight different dynamical regimes where gaussification mechanism may be slowed down by confinement and eventually breaks. We further study the PDF dynamics induced by changing the effective dimensionality of the system; we mimic this by quenching the range of the interactions. As a matter of fact, the behavior of the system crucially depends on the value of $\alpha$ governing the unitary evolution.

  3 citations

• Quantifying uncertainties in crystal electric field Hamiltonian fits to neutron data

  Allen Scheie

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 018 (2022) · published 31 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We systematically examine uncertainties from fitting rare earth single-ion crystal electric field (CEF) Hamiltonians to inelastic neutron scattering data. Using pyrochlore and delafossite structures as test cases, we find that uncertainty in CEF parameters can be large despite visually excellent fits. These results show Yb$^{3+}$ compounds have particularly large $g$-tensor uncertainty because of the few available peaks. In such cases, additional constraints are necessary for meaningful fits.

  2 citations

• Ground-state and thermodynamic properties of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg model on the anisotropic triangular lattice

  Matías G. Gonzalez, Bernard Bernu, Laurent Pierre, Laura Messio

  SciPost Phys. 12, 112 (2022) · published 30 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The spin-$\frac12$ triangular lattice antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model has been for a long time the prototypical model of magnetic frustration. However, only very recently this model has been proposed to be realized in the Ba$_8$CoNb$_6$O$_{24}$ compound. The ground-state and thermodynamic properties are evaluated from a high-temperature series expansions interpolation method, called "entropy method", and compared to experiments. We find a ground-state energy $e_0 = -0.5445(2)$ in perfect agreement with exact diagonalization results. We also calculate the specific heat and entropy at all temperatures, finding a good agreement with the latest experiments, and evaluate which further interactions could improve the comparison. We explore the spatially anisotropic triangular lattice and provide evidence that supports the existence of a gapped spin liquid between the square and triangular lattices.

  5 citations