Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Dissipative cooling induced by pulse perturbations

  Andrea Nava, Michele Fabrizio

  SciPost Phys. 12, 014 (2022) · published 11 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the dynamics brought on by an impulse perturbation in two infinite-range quantum Ising models coupled to each other and to a dissipative bath. We show that, if dissipation is faster the higher the excitation energy, the pulse perturbation cools down the low-energy sector of the system, at the expense of the high-energy one, eventually stabilising a transient symmetry-broken state at temperatures higher than the equilibrium critical one. Such non-thermal quasi-steady state may survive for quite a long time after the pulse, if the latter is properly tailored.

  5 citations

• Plasmons in holographic graphene

  Ulf Gran, Marcus Tornsö, Tobias Zingg

  SciPost Phys. 8, 093 (2020) · published 25 June 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate how self-sourced collective modes - of which the plasmon is a prominent example due to its relevance in modern technological applications - are identified in strongly correlated systems described by holographic Maxwell theories. The characteristic $\omega \propto \sqrt{k}$ plasmon dispersion for 2D materials, such as graphene, naturally emerges from this formalism. We also demonstrate this by constructing the first holographic model containing this feature. This provides new insight into modeling such systems from a holographic point of view, bottom-up and top-down alike. Beyond that, this method provides a general framework to compute the dynamical charge response of strange metals, which has recently become experimentally accessible due to the novel technique of momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (M-EELS). This framework therefore opens up the exciting possibility of testing holographic models for strange metals against actual experimental data.

  5 citations

• Strictly local one-dimensional topological quantum error correction with symmetry-constrained cellular automata

  Nicolai Lang, Hans Peter Büchler

  SciPost Phys. 4, 007 (2018) · published 31 January 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Active quantum error correction on topological codes is one of the most promising routes to long-term qubit storage. In view of future applications, the scalability of the used decoding algorithms in physical implementations is crucial. In this work, we focus on the one-dimensional Majorana chain and construct a strictly local decoder based on a self-dual cellular automaton. We study numerically and analytically its performance and exploit these results to contrive a scalable decoder with exponentially growing decoherence times in the presence of noise. Our results pave the way for scalable and modular designs of actively corrected one-dimensional topological quantum memories.

  5 citations

• Functional renormalization group for non-Hermitian and $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric systems

  Lukas Grunwald, Volker Meden, Dante M. Kennes

  SciPost Phys. 12, 179 (2022) · published 30 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We generalize the vertex expansion approach of the functional renormalization group to non-Hermitian systems. As certain anomalous expectation values might not vanish, additional terms as compared to the Hermitian case can appear in the flow equations. We investigate the merits and shortcomings of the vertex expansion for non-Hermitian systems by considering an exactly solvable $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric non-linear toy-model and reveal, that in this model, the fidelity of the vertex expansion in a perturbatively motivated truncation schema is comparable with that of the Hermitian case. The vertex expansion appears to be a viable method for studying correlation effects in non-Hermitian systems.

  5 citations

• Duality and form factors in the thermally deformed two-dimensional tricritical Ising model

  Axel Cortés Cubero, Robert M. Konik, Máté Lencsés, Giuseppe Mussardo, Gabor Takács

  SciPost Phys. 12, 162 (2022) · published 16 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The thermal deformation of the critical point action of the 2D tricritical Ising model gives rise to an exact scattering theory with seven massive excitations based on the exceptional $E_7$ Lie algebra. The high and low temperature phases of this model are related by duality. This duality guarantees that the leading and sub-leading magnetisation operators, $\sigma(x)$ and $\sigma'(x)$, in either phase are accompanied by associated disorder operators, $\mu(x)$ and $\mu'(x)$. Working specifically in the high temperature phase, we write down the sets of bootstrap equations for these four operators. For $\sigma(x)$ and $\sigma'(x)$, the equations are identical in form and are parameterised by the values of the one-particle form factors of the two lightest $\mathbb{Z}_2$ odd particles. Similarly, the equations for $\mu(x)$ and $\mu'(x)$ have identical form and are parameterised by two elementary form factors. Using the clustering property, we show that these four sets of solutions are eventually not independent; instead, the parameters of the solutions for $\sigma(x)/\sigma'(x)$ are fixed in terms of those for $\mu(x)/\mu'(x)$. We use the truncated conformal space approach to confirm numerically the derived expressions of the matrix elements as well as the validity of the $\Delta$-sum rule as applied to the off-critical correlators. We employ the derived form factors of the order and disorder operators to compute the exact dynamical structure factors of the theory, a set of quantities with a rich spectroscopy which may be directly tested in future inelastic neutron or Raman scattering experiments.

  5 citations

• Phase diagram of an extended parafermion chain

  Jurriaan Wouters, Fabian Hassler, Hosho Katsura, Dirk Schuricht

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 008 (2022) · published 8 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the phase diagram of an extended parafermion chain, which, in addition to terms coupling parafermions on neighbouring sites, also possesses terms involving four sites. Via a Fradkin--Kadanoff transformation the parafermion chain is shown to be equivalent to the non-chiral $\mathbb{Z}_3$ axial next-nearest neighbour Potts model. We discuss a possible experimental realisation using hetero-nanostructures. The phase diagram contains several gapped phases, including a topological phase where the system possesses three (nearly) degenerate ground states, and a gapless Luttinger-liquid phase.

  5 citations

• M$_k$ models: the field theory connection

  T. Fokkema, K. Schoutens

  SciPost Phys. 3, 004 (2017) · published 13 July 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The M$_k$ models for 1D lattice fermions are characterised by ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetry and by an order-$k$ clustering property. This paper highlights connections with quantum field theories (QFTs) in various regimes. At criticality the QFTs are minimal models of ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric conformal field theory (CFT) - we analyse finite size spectra on open chains with a variety of supersymmetry preserving boundary conditions. Specific staggering perturbations lead to a gapped regime corresponding to massive ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric QFT with Chebyshev superpotentials. At `extreme staggering' we uncover a simple physical picture with degenerate supersymmetric vacua and mobile kinks. We connect this kink-picture to the Chebyshev QFTs and use it to derive novel CFT character formulas. For clarity the focus in this paper is on the simplest models, M$_1$, M$_2$ and M$_3$.

  5 citations

• Magnetic flux response of non-Hermitian topological phases

  Marco Michael Denner, Frank Schindler

  SciPost Phys. 14, 107 (2023) · published 11 May 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We derive the response of non-Hermitian topological phases with intrinsic point gap topology to localized magnetic flux insertions. In two spatial dimensions, we identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for a flux skin effect that localizes an extensive number of in-gap modes at a flux core. In three dimensions, we furthermore establish the existence of: a flux spectral jump, where flux tube insertion fills up the entire point gap only at a single parallel crystal momentum; a higher-order flux skin effect, which occurs at the ends of flux tubes in presence of pseudo-inversion symmetry; and a flux Majorana mode that represents a spectrally isolated mid-gap state in the complex energy plane. We uniquely associate each non-Hermitian symmetry class with intrinsic point gap topology with one of these cases or a trivial flux response, and discuss possible experimental realizations.

  5 citations

• A gauge theory for shallow water

  David Tong

  SciPost Phys. 14, 102 (2023) · published 9 May 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The shallow water equations describe the horizontal flow of a thin layer of fluid with varying height. We show that the equations can be rewritten as a $d=2+1$ dimensional Abelian gauge theory. The magnetic field corresponds to the conserved height of the fluid, while the electric charge corresponds to the conserved vorticity. In a certain linearised approximation, the shallow water equations reduce to relativistic Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory. This describes Poincaré waves. The chiral edge modes of the theory are identified as coastal Kelvin waves.

  5 citations

• Restoration of the non-Hermitian bulk-boundary correspondence via topological amplification

  Matteo Brunelli, Clara C. Wanjura, Andreas Nunnenkamp

  SciPost Phys. 15, 173 (2023) · published 19 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Non-Hermitian (NH) lattice Hamiltonians display a unique kind of energy gap and extreme sensitivity to boundary conditions. Due to the NH skin effect, the separation between edge and bulk states is blurred and the (conventional) bulk-boundary correspondence is lost. Here, we restore the bulk-boundary correspondence for the most paradigmatic class of NH Hamiltonians, namely those with one complex band and without symmetries. We obtain the desired NH Hamiltonian from the mean-field evolution of driven-dissipative cavity arrays, in which NH terms-in the form of non-reciprocal hopping amplitudes, gain and loss-are explicitly modeled via coupling to (engineered and non-engineered) reservoirs. This approach removes the arbitrariness in the definition of the topological invariant, as point-gapped spectra differing by a complex-energy shift are not treated as equivalent; the origin of the complex plane provides a common reference (base point) for the evaluation of the topological invariant. This implies that topologically non-trivial Hamiltonians are only a strict subset of those with a point gap and that the NH skin effect does not have a topological origin. We analyze the NH Hamiltonians so obtained via the singular value decomposition, which allows to express the NH bulk-boundary correspondence in the following simple form: an integer value $\nu$ of the topological invariant defined in the bulk corresponds to $\vert \nu\vert$ singular vectors exponentially localized at the system edge under open boundary conditions, in which the sign of $\nu$ determines which edge. Non-trivial topology manifests as directional amplification of a coherent input with gain exponential in system size. Our work solves an outstanding problem in the theory of NH topological phases and opens up new avenues in topological photonics.

  5 citations