Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Entanglement and interaction in a topological quantum walk

  Alberto D. Verga, Ricardo Gabriel Elias

  SciPost Phys. 5, 019 (2018) · published 31 August 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the quantum walk of two interacting particles on a line with an interface separating two topologically distinct regions. The interaction induces a localization-delocalization transition of the edge state at the interface. We characterize the transition through the entanglement between the two particles.

  6 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

• Transfer matrix spectrum for cyclic representations of the 6-vertex reflection algebra II

  J. M. Maillet, G. Niccoli, B. Pezelier

  SciPost Phys. 5, 026 (2018) · published 24 September 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This article is a direct continuation of [1] where we begun the study of the transfer matrix spectral problem for the cyclic representations of the trigonometric 6-vertex reflection algebra associated to the Bazhanov-Stroganov Lax operator. There we addressed this problem for the case where one of the K-matrices describing the boundary conditions is triangular. In the present article we consider the most general integrable boundary conditions, namely the most general boundary K-matrices satisfying the reflection equation. The spectral analysis is developed by implementing the method of Separation of Variables (SoV). We first design a suitable gauge transformation that enable us to put into correspondence the spectral problem for the most general boundary conditions with another one having one boundary K-matrix in a triangular form. In these settings the SoV resolution can be obtained along an extension of the method described in [1]. The transfer matrix spectrum is then completely characterized in terms of the set of solutions to a discrete system of polynomial equations in a given class of functions and equivalently as the set of solutions to an analogue of Baxter's T-Q functional equation. We further describe scalar product properties of the separate states including eigenstates of the transfer matrix.

  6 citations

• Pairing instabilities of the Yukawa-SYK models with controlled fermion incoherence

  Wonjune Choi, Omid Tavakol, Yong Baek Kim

  SciPost Phys. 12, 151 (2022) · published 9 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The interplay of non-Fermi liquid and superconductivity born out of strong dynamical interactions is at the heart of the physics of unconventional superconductivity. As a solvable platform of the strongly correlated superconductors, we study the pairing instabilities of the Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (Yukawa-SYK) model, which describes spin-1/2 fermions coupled to bosons by the random, all-to-all, spin-independent and dependent Yukawa interactions. In contrast to the previously studied models, the random Yukawa couplings are sampled from a collection of Gaussian ensembles whose variances follow a continuous distribution rather than being fixed to a constant. By tuning the analytic behaviour of the distribution, we could control the fermion incoherence to systematically examine various normal states ranging from the Fermi liquid to non-Fermi liquids that are different from the conformal solution of the SYK model with a constant variance. Using the linearised Eliashberg theory, we show that the onset of the unconventional spin-triplet pairing is preferred with the spin-dependent interactions while all pairing channels show instabilities with the spin-independent interactions. Although the interactions shorten the lifetime of the fermions in the non-Fermi liquid, the same interactions also dress the bosons to strengthen the tendency to pair the incoherent fermions. As a consequence, the onset temperature $T_c$ of the pairing is enhanced in the non-Fermi liquid compared to the case of the Fermi liquid.

  6 citations

• Low temperature quantum bounds on simple models

  Silvia Pappalardi, Jorge Kurchan

  SciPost Phys. 13, 006 (2022) · published 22 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the past few years, there has been considerable activity around a set of quantum bounds on transport coefficients (viscosity) and chaos (Lyapunov exponent), relevant at low temperatures. The interest comes from the fact that Black-Hole models seem to saturate all of them. The goal of this work is to gain physical intuition about the quantum mechanisms that enforce these bounds on simple models. To this aim, we consider classical and quantum free dynamics on curved manifolds. These systems exhibit chaos up to the lowest temperatures and - as we discuss - they violate the bounds in the classical limit. First of all, we show that the quantum dimensionless viscosity and the Lyapunov exponent only depend on the de Broglie length and a geometric length-scale, thus establishing the scale at which quantum effects become relevant. Then, we focus on the bound on the Lyapunov exponent and identify three different ways in which quantum effects arise in practice. We illustrate our findings on a toy model given by the surface of constant negative curvature - a paradigmatic model of quantum chaos - glued to a cylinder. By exact solution and numerical investigations, we show how the chaotic behaviour is limited by the quantum effects of the curvature itself. Interestingly, we find that at the lowest energies the bound to chaos is dominated by the longest length scales, and it is therefore a collective effect.

  6 citations

• Non-coplanar magnetism, topological density wave order and emergent symmetry at half-integer filling of moiré Chern bands

  Patrick H. Wilhelm, Thomas C. Lang, Mathias S. Scheurer, Andreas M. Läuchli

  SciPost Phys. 14, 040 (2023) · published 20 March 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Twisted double- and mono-bilayer graphene are graphene-based moiré materials hosting strongly correlated fermions in a gate-tunable conduction band with a topologically non-trivial character. Using unbiased exact diagonalization complemented by unrestricted Hartree-Fock calculations, we find that the strong electron-electron interactions lead to a non-coplanar magnetic state, which has the same symmetries as the tetrahedral antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice and can be thought of as a skyrmion lattice commensurate with the moiré scale, competing with a set of ferromagnetic, topological charge density waves featuring an approximate emergent O(3) symmetry, "rotating" the different charge density wave states into each other. Direct comparison with exact diagonalization reveals that the ordered phases are accurately described within the unrestricted Hartree-Fock approximation. Exhibiting a finite charge gap and Chern number $|C|=1$, the formation of charge density wave order which is intimately connected to a skyrmion lattice phase is consistent with recent experiments on these systems.

  6 citations

• Effective fractonic behavior in a two-dimensional exactly solvable spin liquid

  Guilherme Delfino, Weslei Bernardino Fontana, Pedro R. S. Gomes, Claudio Chamon

  SciPost Phys. 14, 002 (2023) · published 12 January 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this work we propose a $\mathbb{Z}_N$ clock model which is exactly solvable on the lattice. We find exotic properties for the low-energy physics, such as UV/IR mixing and excitations with restricted mobility, that resemble fractonic physics from higher dimensional models. We then study the continuum descriptions for the lattice system in two distinct regimes and find two qualitative distinct field theories for each one of them. A characteristic time scale that grows exponentially fast with $N^2$ (and diverges rapidly as function of system parameters) separates these two regimes. For times below this scale, the system is described by an effective fractonic Chern-Simons-like action, where higher-form symmetries prevent quasiparticles from hopping. In this regime, the system behaves effectively as a fracton as isolated particles, in practice, never leave their original position. Beyond the large characteristic time scale, the excitations are mobile and the effective field theory is given by a pure mutual Chern-Simons action. In this regime, the UV/IR properties of the system is captured by a peculiar realization of the translation group.

  6 citations

• Notes on 8 Majorana Fermions

  David Tong, Carl Turner

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 14 (2020) · published 30 March 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Eight Majorana fermions in $d=1+1$ dimensions enjoy a triality that permutes the representation of the $SO(8)$ global symmetry in which the fermions transform. This triality plays an important role in the quantization of the superstring, and in the analysis of interacting topological insulators and the associated phenomenon of symmetric mass generation. The purpose of these notes is to provide an introduction to the triality and its applications, with careful attention paid to various ${\bf Z}_2$ global and gauge symmetries and their coupling to background spin structures.

  6 citations

• Spin conductivity of the XXZ chain in the antiferromagnetic massive regime

  Frank Göhmann, Karol K. Kozlowski, Jesko Sirker, Junji Suzuki

  SciPost Phys. 12, 158 (2022) · published 12 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a series representation for the dynamical two-point function of the local spin current for the XXZ chain in the antiferromagnetic massive regime at zero temperature. From this series we can compute the correlation function with very high accuracy up to very long times and large distances. Each term in the series corresponds to the contribution of all scattering states of an even number of excitations. These excitations can be interpreted in terms of an equal number of particles and holes. The lowest term in the series comprises all scattering states of one hole and one particle. This term determines the long-time large-distance asymptotic behaviour which can be obtained explicitly from a saddle-point analysis. The space-time Fourier transform of the two-point function of currents at zero momentum gives the optical spin conductivity of the model. We obtain highly accurate numerical estimates for this quantity by numerically Fourier transforming our data. For the one-particle, one-hole contribution, equivalently interpreted as a two-spinon contribution, we obtain an exact and explicit expression in terms of known special functions. For large enough anisotropy, the two-spinon contribution carries most of the spectral weight, as can be seen by calculating the f-sum rule.

  6 citations

• Magnetic impurity in a one-dimensional few-fermion system

  Lukas Rammelmüller, David Huber, Matija Čufar, Joachim Brand, Hans-Werner Hammer, Artem G. Volosniev

  SciPost Phys. 14, 006 (2023) · published 24 January 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a numerical analysis of spin-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ fermions in a one-dimensional harmonic potential in the presence of a magnetic point-like impurity at the center of the trap. The model represents a few-body analogue of a magnetic impurity in the vicinity of an $s$-wave superconductor. Already for a few particles we find a ground-state level crossing between sectors with different fermion parities. We interpret this crossing as a few-body precursor of a quantum phase transition, which occurs when the impurity "breaks" a Cooper pair. This picture is further corroborated by analyzing density-density correlations in momentum space. Finally, we discuss how the system may be realized with existing cold-atoms platforms.

  6 citations