Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Screw dislocations in the X-cube fracton model

  Nandagopal Manoj, Kevin Slagle, Wilbur Shirley, Xie Chen

  SciPost Phys. 10, 094 (2021) · published 29 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The X-cube model, a prototypical gapped fracton model, has been shown to have a foliation structure. That is, inside the 3+1D model, there are hidden layers of 2+1D gapped topological states. A screw dislocation in a 3+1D lattice can often reveal nontrivial features associated with a layered structure. In this paper, we study the X-cube model on lattices with screw dislocations. In particular, we find that a screw dislocation results in a finite change in the logarithm of the ground state degeneracy of the model. Part of the change can be traced back to the effect of screw dislocations in a simple stack of 2+1D topological states, hence corroborating the foliation structure in the model. The other part of the change comes from the induced motion of fractons or sub-dimensional excitations along the dislocation, a feature absent in the stack of 2+1D layers.

  6 citations

• Charge quantization and detector resolution

  Roman-Pascal Riwar

  SciPost Phys. 10, 093 (2021) · published 29 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Charge quantization, or the absence thereof, is a central theme in quantum circuit theory, with dramatic consequences for the predicted circuit dynamics. Very recently, the question of whether or not charge should actually be described as quantized has enjoyed renewed widespread interest, with however seemingly contradictory propositions. Here, we intend to reconcile these different approaches, by arguing that ultimately, charge quantization is not an intrinsic system property, but instead depends on the spatial resolution of the charge detector. We show that the latter can be directly probed by unique geometric signatures in the correlations of the supercurrent. We illustrate these findings at the example of Josephson junction arrays in the superinductor regime, where the transported charge appears to be continuous. Finally, we comment on potential consequences of charge quantization beyond superconducting circuits.

  3 citations

• Bulk-boundary-defect correspondence at disclinations in rotation-symmetric topological insulators and superconductors

  Max Geier, Ion Cosma Fulga, Alexander Lau

  SciPost Phys. 10, 092 (2021) · published 26 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study a link between the ground-state topology and the topology of the lattice via the presence of anomalous states at disclinations -- topological lattice defects that violate a rotation symmetry only locally. We first show the existence of anomalous disclination states, such as Majorana zero-modes or helical electronic states, in second-order topological phases by means of Volterra processes. Using the framework of topological crystals to construct $d$-dimensional crystalline topological phases with rotation and translation symmetry, we then identify all contributions to $(d-2)$-dimensional anomalous disclination states from weak and first-order topological phases. We perform this procedure for all Cartan symmetry classes of topological insulators and superconductors in two and three dimensions and determine whether the correspondence between bulk topology, boundary signatures, and disclination anomaly is unique.

  18 citations

• Josephson oscillations in split one-dimensional Bose gases

  Yuri D. van Nieuwkerk, Jörg Schmiedmayer, Fabian H.L. Essler

  SciPost Phys. 10, 090 (2021) · published 26 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the non-equilibrium dynamics of a weakly interacting Bose gas tightly confined to a highly elongated double well potential. We use a self-consistent time-dependent Hartree–Fock approximation in combination with a projection of the full three-dimensional theory to several coupled one-dimensional channels. This allows us to model the time-dependent splitting and phase imprinting of a gas initially confined to a single quasi one-dimensional potential well and obtain a microscopic description of the ensuing damped Josephson oscillations.

  15 citations

• How many particles make up a chaotic many-body quantum system?

  Guy Zisling, Lea F. Santos, Yevgeny Bar Lev

  SciPost Phys. 10, 088 (2021) · published 23 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We numerically investigate the minimum number of interacting particles, which is required for the onset of strong chaos in quantum systems on a one-dimensional lattice with short-range and long-range interactions. We consider multiple system sizes which are at least three times larger than the number of particles and find that robust signatures of quantum chaos emerge for as few as 4 particles in the case of short-range interactions and as few as 3 particles for long-range interactions, and without any apparent dependence on the size of the system.

  13 citations

• The antiferromagnetic $S=1/2$ Heisenberg model on the C$_{60}$ fullerene geometry

  Roman Rausch, Cassian Plorin, Matthias Peschke

  SciPost Phys. 10, 087 (2021) · published 23 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We solve the quantum-mechanical antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with spins positioned on vertices of the truncated icosahedron using the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG). This describes magnetic properties of the undoped C$_{60}$ fullerene at half filling in the limit of strong on-site interaction $U$. We calculate the ground state and correlation functions for all possible distances, the lowest singlet and triplet excited states, as well as thermodynamic properties, namely the specific heat and spin susceptibility. We find that unlike smaller C$_{20}$ or C$_{32}$ that are solvable by exact diagonalization, the lowest excited state is a triplet rather than a singlet, indicating a reduced frustration due to the presence of many hexagon faces and the separation of the pentagonal faces, similar to what is found for the truncated tetrahedron. This implies that frustration may be tuneable within the fullerenes by changing their size. The spin-spin correlations are much stronger along the hexagon bonds and exponentially decrease with distance, so that the molecule is large enough not to be correlated across its whole extent. The specific heat shows a high-temperature peak and a low-temperature shoulder reminiscent of the kagomé lattice, while the spin susceptibility shows a single broad peak and is very close to the one of C$_{20}$.

  9 citations

• Semi-classical quantisation of magnetic solitons in the anisotropic Heisenberg quantum chain

  Yuan Miao, Enej Ilievski, Oleksandr Gamayun

  SciPost Phys. 10, 086 (2021) · published 22 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Using the algebro-geometric approach, we study the structure of semi-classical eigenstates in a weakly-anisotropic quantum Heisenberg spin chain. We outline how classical nonlinear spin waves governed by the anisotropic Landau-Lifshitz equation arise as coherent macroscopic low-energy fluctuations of the ferromagnetic ground state. Special emphasis is devoted to the simplest types of solutions, describing precessional motion and elliptic magnetisation waves. The internal magnon structure of classical spin waves is resolved by performing the semi-classical quantisation using the Riemann-Hilbert problem approach. We present an expression for the overlap of two semi-classical eigenstates and discuss how correlation functions at the semi-classical level arise from classical phase-space averaging.

  4 citations

• A non-Abelian parton state for the $ν=2+3/8$ fractional quantum Hall effect

  Ajit Coimbatore Balram

  SciPost Phys. 10, 083 (2021) · published 15 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Fascinating structures have arisen from the study of the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) at the even denominator fraction of $5/2$. We consider the FQHE at another even denominator fraction, namely $\nu=2+3/8$, where a well-developed and quantized Hall plateau has been observed in experiments. We examine the non-Abelian state described by the "$\bar{3}\bar{2}^{2}1^{4}$" parton wave function and numerically demonstrate it to be a feasible candidate for the ground state at $\nu=2+3/8$. We make predictions for experimentally measurable properties of the $\bar{3}\bar{2}^{2}1^{4}$ state that can reveal its underlying topological structure.

  16 citations