Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Quantum chaos in 2D gravity

  Alexander Altland, Boris Post, Julian Sonner, Jeremy van der Heijden, Erik Verlinde

  SciPost Phys. 15, 064 (2023) · published 16 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a quantitative and fully non-perturbative description of the ergodic phase of quantum chaos in the setting of two-dimensional gravity. To this end we describe the doubly non-perturbative completion of semiclassical 2D gravity in terms of its associated universe field theory. The guiding principle of our analysis is a flavor-matrix theory (fMT) description of the ergodic phase of holographic gravity, which exhibits $\mathrm{U}(n|n)$ causal symmetry breaking and restoration. JT gravity and its 2D-gravity cousins alone do not realize an action principle with causal symmetry, however we demonstrate that their universe field theory, the Kodaira-Spencer (KS) theory of gravity, does. After directly deriving the fMT from brane-antibrane correlators in KS theory, we show that causal symmetry breaking and restoration can be understood geometrically in terms of different (topological) D-brane vacua. We interpret our results in terms of an open-closed string duality between holomorphic Chern-Simons theory and its closed-string equivalent, the KS theory of gravity. Emphasis will be put on relating these geometric principles to the characteristic spectral correlations of the quantum ergodic phase.

  8 citations

• Closed hierarchy of Heisenberg equations in integrable models with Onsager algebra

  Oleg Lychkovskiy

  SciPost Phys. 10, 124 (2021) · published 1 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Dynamics of a quantum system can be described by coupled Heisenberg equations. In a generic many-body system these equations form an exponentially large hierarchy that is intractable without approximations. In contrast, in an integrable system a small subset of operators can be closed with respect to commutation with the Hamiltonian. As a result, the Heisenberg equations for these operators can form a smaller closed system amenable to an analytical treatment. We demonstrate that this indeed happens in a class of integrable models where the Hamiltonian is an element of the Onsager algebra. We explicitly solve the system of Heisenberg equations for operators from this algebra. Two specific models are considered as examples: the transverse field Ising model and the superintegrable chiral 3-state Potts model.

  8 citations

• From deconfined spinons to coherent magnons in an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with long range interactions

  Luhang Yang, Adrian E. Feiguin

  SciPost Phys. 10, 110 (2021) · published 19 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the nature of the excitations of an antiferromagnetic (AFM) Heisenberg chain with staggered long range interactions using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method and by means of a multi-spinon approximation. The chain undergoes true symmetry breaking and develops long range order, transitioning from a gapless spin liquid to a gapless ordered AFM phase. The spin dynamical structure factor shows that the emergence of N\'eel order can be associated to the formation of bound states of spinons that become coherent magnons. The quasiparticle band leaks out from the two-spinon continuum that is pushed up to higher energies. Our physical picture is also supported by an analysis of the behavior of the excitations in real-time.

  8 citations

• Flow equations for disordered Floquet systems

  Steven J. Thomson, Duarte Magano, Marco Schirò

  SciPost Phys. 11, 028 (2021) · published 10 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this work, we present a new approach to disordered, periodically driven (Floquet) quantum many-body systems based on flow equations. Specifically, we introduce a continuous unitary flow of Floquet operators in an extended Hilbert space, whose fixed point is both diagonal and time-independent, allowing us to directly obtain the Floquet modes. We first apply this method to a periodically driven Anderson insulator, for which it is exact, and then extend it to driven many-body localized systems within a truncated flow equation ansatz. In particular we compute the emergent Floquet local integrals of motion that characterise a periodically driven many-body localized phase. We demonstrate that the method remains well-controlled in the weakly-interacting regime, and allows us to access larger system sizes than accessible by numerically exact methods, paving the way for studies of two-dimensional driven many-body systems.

  8 citations

• Archimedean screw in driven chiral magnets

  Nina del Ser, Lukas Heinen, Achim Rosch

  SciPost Phys. 11, 009 (2021) · published 13 July 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In chiral magnets a magnetic helix forms where the magnetization winds around a propagation vector $\boldsymbol{q}$. We show theoretically that a magnetic field $\boldsymbol{B}_\perp(t) \perp \boldsymbol{q}$, which is spatially homogeneous but oscillating in time, induces a net rotation of the texture around $\boldsymbol{q}$. This rotation is reminiscent of the motion of an Archimedean screw and is equivalent to a translation with velocity $v_{screw}$ parallel to $\boldsymbol{q}$. Due to the coupling to a Goldstone mode, this non-linear effect arises for arbitrarily weak $\boldsymbol{B}_\perp(t) $ with $v_{screw} \propto |{\boldsymbol{B}_\perp}|^2$ as long as pinning by disorder is absent. The effect is resonantly enhanced when internal modes of the helix are excited and the sign of $v_{screw}$ can be controlled either by changing the frequency or the polarization of $\boldsymbol{B}_\perp(t)$. The Archimedean screw can be used to transport spin and charge and thus the screwing motion is predicted to induce a voltage parallel to $\boldsymbol{q}$. Using a combination of numerics and Floquet spin wave theory, we show that the helix becomes unstable upon increasing $\boldsymbol{B}_\perp$ forming a `time quasicrystal' which oscillates in space and time for moderately strong drive.

  8 citations

• Nonadiabatic nonlinear optics and quantum geometry — Application to the twisted Schwinger effect

  Shintaro Takayoshi, Jianda Wu, Takashi Oka

  SciPost Phys. 11, 075 (2021) · published 12 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the tunneling mechanism of nonlinear optical processes in solids induced by strong coherent laser fields. The theory is based on an extension of the Landau-Zener model with nonadiabatic geometric effects. In addition to the rectification effect known previously, we find two effects, namely perfect tunneling and counterdiabaticity at fast sweep speed. We apply this theory to the twisted Schwinger effect, i.e., nonadiabatic pair production of particles by rotating electric fields, and find a nonperturbative generation mechanism of the opto-valley polarization and photo-current in Dirac and Weyl fermions.

  8 citations

• Periodically, Quasi-periodically, and Randomly Driven Conformal Field Theories (II): Furstenberg's Theorem and Exceptions to Heating Phases

  Xueda Wen, Yingfei Gu, Ashvin Vishwanath, Ruihua Fan

  SciPost Phys. 13, 082 (2022) · published 5 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this sequel (to [Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 023044(2021)], arXiv:2006.10072), we study randomly driven $(1+1)$ dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs), a family of quantum many-body systems with soluble non-equilibrium quantum dynamics. The sequence of driving Hamiltonians is drawn from an independent and identically distributed random ensemble. At each driving step, the deformed Hamiltonian only involves the energy-momentum density spatially modulated at a single wavelength and therefore induces a M\"obius transformation on the complex coordinates. The non-equilibrium dynamics is then determined by the corresponding sequence of M\"obius transformations, from which the Lyapunov exponent $\lambda_L$ is defined. We use Furstenberg's theorem to classify the dynamical phases and show that except for a few \emph{exceptional points} that do not satisfy Furstenberg's criteria, the random drivings always lead to a heating phase with the total energy growing exponentially in the number of driving steps $n$ and the subsystem entanglement entropy growing linearly in $n$ with a slope proportional to central charge $c$ and the Lyapunov exponent $\lambda_L$. On the contrary, the subsystem entanglement entropy at an exceptional point could grow as $\sqrt{n}$ while the total energy remains to grow exponentially. In addition, we show that the distributions of the operator evolution and the energy density peaks are also useful characterizations to distinguish the heating phase from the exceptional points: the heating phase has both distributions to be continuous, while the exceptional points could support finite convex combinations of Dirac measures depending on their specific type. In the end, we compare the field theory results with the lattice model calculations for both the entanglement and energy evolution and find remarkably good agreement.

  8 citations

• A roadmap for bootstrapping critical gauge theories: decoupling operators of conformal field theories in $d>2$ dimensions

  Yin-Chen He, Junchen Rong, Ning Su

  SciPost Phys. 11, 111 (2021) · published 22 December 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a roadmap for bootstrapping conformal field theories (CFTs) described by gauge theories in dimensions $d>2$. In particular, we provide a simple and workable answer to the question of how to detect the gauge group in the bootstrap calculation. Our recipe is based on the notion of \emph{decoupling operator}, which has a simple (gauge) group theoretical origin, and is reminiscent of the null operator of $2d$ Wess-Zumino-Witten CFTs in higher dimensions. Using the decoupling operator we can efficiently detect the rank (i.e. color number) of gauge groups, e.g., by imposing gap conditions in the CFT spectrum. We also discuss the physics of the equation of motion, which has interesting consequences in the CFT spectrum as well. As an application of our recipes, we study a prototypical critical gauge theory, namely the scalar QED which has a $U(1)$ gauge field interacting with critical bosons. We show that the scalar QED can be solved by conformal bootstrap, namely we have obtained its kinks and islands in both $d=3$ and $d=2+\epsilon$ dimensions.

  8 citations

• Multi-band D-TRILEX approach to materials with strong electronic correlations

  Matteo Vandelli, Josef Kaufmann, Mohammed El-Nabulsi, Viktor Harkov, Alexander I. Lichtenstein, Evgeny A. Stepanov

  SciPost Phys. 13, 036 (2022) · published 26 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the multi-band dual triply irreducible local expansion (D-TRILEX) approach to interacting electronic systems and discuss its numerical implementation. This method is designed for a self-consistent description of multi-orbital systems that can also have several atoms in the unit cell. The current implementation of the D-TRILEX approach is able to account for the frequency- and channel-dependent long-ranged electronic interactions. We show that our method is accurate when applied to small multi-band systems such as the Hubbard-Kanamori dimer. Calculations for the extended Hubbard, the two-orbital Hubbard-Kanamori, and the bilayer Hubbard models are also discussed.

  8 citations

• Asymmetric butterfly velocities in 2-local Hamiltonians

  Yong-Liang Zhang, Vedika Khemani

  SciPost Phys. 9, 024 (2020) · published 25 August 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The speed of information propagation is finite in quantum systems with local interactions. In many such systems, local operators spread ballistically in time and can be characterized by a ``butterfly velocity", which can be measured via out-of-time-ordered correlation functions. In general, the butterfly velocity can depend asymmetrically on the direction of information propagation. In this work, we construct a family of simple 2-local Hamiltonians for understanding the asymmetric hydrodynamics of operator spreading. Our models live on a one dimensional lattice and exhibit asymmetric butterfly velocities between the left and right spatial directions. This asymmetry is transparently understood in a free (non-interacting) limit of our model Hamiltonians, where the butterfly speed can be understood in terms of quasiparticle velocities.

  8 citations