Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Deconfined quantum criticality in the long-range, anisotropic Heisenberg chain

  Anton Romen, Stefan Birnkammer, Michael Knap

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 008 (2024) · published 22 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Deconfined quantum criticality describes continuous phase transitions that are not captured by the Landau-Ginzburg paradigm. Here, we investigate deconfined quantum critical points in the long-range, anisotropic Heisenberg chain. With matrix product state simulations, we show that the model undergoes a continuous phase transition from a valence bond solid to an antiferromagnet. We extract the critical exponents of the transition and connect them to an effective field theory obtained from bosonization techniques. We show that beyond stabilizing the valance bond order, the long-range interactions are irrelevant and the transition is well described by a double frequency sine-Gordon model. We propose how to realize and probe deconfined quantum criticality in our model with trapped-ion quantum simulators.

• Real-space spectral simulation of quantum spin models: Application to generalized Kitaev models

  Francisco M. O. Brito, Aires Ferreira

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 006 (2024) · published 21 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The proliferation of quantum fluctuations and long-range entanglement presents an outstanding challenge for the numerical simulation of interacting spin systems with exotic ground states. Here, we present a toolset of Chebyshev polynomial-based iterative methods that provides a unified framework to study the thermodynamical properties, critical behavior and dynamics of frustrated quantum spin models with controlled accuracy. Similar to previous applications of the Chebyshev spectral methods to condensed matter systems, the algorithmic complexity scales linearly with the Hilbert space dimension and the Chebyshev truncation order. Using this approach, we study two paradigmatic quantum spin models on the honeycomb lattice: the Kitaev-Heisenberg (K-H) and the Kitaev-Ising (K-I) models. We start by applying the Chebyshev toolset to compute nearest-neighbor spin correlations, specific heat and entropy of the K-H model on a 24-spin cluster. Our results are benchmarked against exact diagonalization and a popular iterative method based on thermal pure quantum states. The transitions between a variety of magnetic phases, namely ferromagnetic, Néel, zigzag and stripy antiferromagnetic and quantum spin liquid phases are obtained accurately and efficiently. We also determine the temperature dependence of the spin correlations, over more than three decades in temperature, by means of a finite temperature Chebyshev polynomial method introduced here. Finally, we report novel dynamical signatures of the quantum phase transitions in the K-I model. Our findings suggest that the efficiency, versatility and low-temperature stability of the Chebyshev framework developed here could pave the way for previously unattainable studies of quantum spin models in two dimensions.

• Dipole symmetries from the topology of the phase space and the constraints on the low-energy spectrum

  Tomáš Brauner, Naoki Yamamoto, Ryo Yokokura

  SciPost Phys. 16, 051 (2024) · published 20 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate the general existence of a local dipole conservation law in bosonic field theory. The scalar charge density arises from the symplectic form of the system, whereas the tensor current descends from its stress tensor. The algebra of spatial translations becomes centrally extended in presence of field configurations with a finite nonzero charge. Furthermore, when the symplectic form is closed but not exact, the system may, surprisingly, lack a well-defined momentum density. This leads to a theorem for the presence of additional light modes in the system whenever the short-distance physics is governed by a translationally invariant local field theory. We also illustrate this mechanism for axion electrodynamics as an example of a system with Nambu-Goldstone modes of higher-form symmetries.

• A symmetry principle for gauge theories with fractons

  Yuji Hirono, Minyoung You, Stephen Angus, Gil Young Cho

  SciPost Phys. 16, 050 (2024) · published 20 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Fractonic phases are new phases of matter that host excitations with restricted mobility. We show that a certain class of gapless fractonic phases are realized as a result of spontaneous breaking of continuous higher-form symmetries whose conserved charges do not commute with spatial translations. We refer to such symmetries as nonuniform higher-form symmetries. These symmetries fall within the standard definition of higher-form symmetries in quantum field theory, and the corresponding symmetry generators are topological. Worldlines of particles are regarded as the charged objects of 1-form symmetries, and mobility restrictions can be implemented by introducing additional 1-form symmetries whose generators do not commute with spatial translations. These features are realized by effective field theories associated with spontaneously broken nonuniform 1-form symmetries. At low energies, the theories reduce to known higher-rank gauge theories such as scalar/vector charge gauge theories, and the gapless excitations in these theories are interpreted as Nambu-Goldstone modes for higher-form symmetries. Due to the nonuniformity of the symmetry, some of the modes acquire a gap, which is the higher-form analogue of the inverse Higgs mechanism of spacetime symmetries. The gauge theories have emergent nonuniform magnetic symmetries, and some of the magnetic monopoles become fractonic. We identify the 't Hooft anomalies of the nonuniform higher-form symmetries and the corresponding bulk symmetry-protected topological phases. By this method, the mobility restrictions are fully determined by the choice of the commutation relations of charges with translations. This approach allows us to view existing (gapless) fracton models such as the scalar/vector charge gauge theories and their variants from a unified perspective and enables us to engineer theories with desired mobility restrictions.

  2 citations

• Dual symplectic classical circuits: An exactly solvable model of many-body chaos

  Alexios Christopoulos, Andrea De Luca, Dmitry L. Kovrizhin, Tomaž Prosen

  SciPost Phys. 16, 049 (2024) · published 20 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a general exact method of calculating dynamical correlation functions in dual symplectic brick-wall circuits in one dimension. These are deterministic classical many-body dynamical systems which can be interpreted in terms of symplectic dynamics in two orthogonal (time and space) directions. In close analogy with quantum dual-unitary circuits, we prove that two-point dynamical correlation functions are non-vanishing only along the edges of the light cones. The dynamical correlations are exactly computable in terms of a one-site Markov transfer operator, which is generally of infinite dimensionality. We test our theory in a specific family of dual-symplectic circuits, describing the dynamics of a classical Floquet spin chain. Remarkably, expressing these models in the form of a composition of rotations leads to a transfer operator with a block diagonal form in the basis of spherical harmonics. This allows us to obtain analytical predictions for simple local observables. We demonstrate the validity of our theory by comparison with Monte Carlo simulations, displaying excellent agreement with the latter for a choice of observables.

• Nonlinear response in diffusive systems

  Luca V. Delacrétaz, Ruchira Mishra

  SciPost Phys. 16, 047 (2024) · published 12 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Nonintegrable systems thermalize, leading to the emergence of fluctuating hydrodynamics. Typically, this hydrodynamics is diffusive. We use the effective field theory (EFT) of diffusion to compute higher-point functions of conserved densities. We uncover a simple scaling behavior of correlators at late times, and, focusing on three and four-point functions, derive the asymptotically exact universal scaling functions that characterize nonlinear response in diffusive systems. This allows for precision tests of thermalization beyond linear response in quantum and classical many-body systems. We confirm our predictions in a classical lattice gas.

• Ab initio electron-lattice downfolding: Potential energy landscapes, anharmonicity, and molecular dynamics in charge density wave materials

  Arne Schobert, Jan Berges, Erik G. C. P. van Loon, Michael A. Sentef, Sergey Brener, Mariana Rossi, Tim O. Wehling

  SciPost Phys. 16, 046 (2024) · published 9 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The interplay of electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom presents an outstanding problem in condensed matter physics and chemistry. Computational challenges arise especially for large systems, long time scales, in nonequilibrium, or in systems with strong correlations. In this work, we show how downfolding approaches facilitate complexity reduction on the electronic side and thereby boost the simulation of electronic properties and nuclear motion-in particular molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Three different downfolding strategies based on constraining, unscreening, and combinations thereof are benchmarked against full density functional calculations for selected charge density wave (CDW) systems, namely 1H-TaS$_2$, 1T-TiSe$_2$, 1H-NbS$_2$, and a one-dimensional carbon chain. We find that the downfolded models can reproduce potential energy surfaces on supercells accurately and facilitate computational speedup in MD simulations by about five orders of magnitude in comparison to purely ab initio calculations. For monolayer 1H-TaS$_2$ we report classical and path integral replica exchange MD simulations, revealing the impact of thermal and quantum fluctuations on the CDW transition.

• Codebase release 0.5 for divERGe

  Jonas B. Profe, Dante M. Kennes, Lennart Klebl

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 26-r0.5 (2024) · published 8 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · src

  We present divERGe, an open source, high-performance C/C++/Python library for functional renormalization group (FRG) calculations on lattice fermions. The versatile model interface is tailored to real materials applications and seamlessly integrates with existing, standard tools from the ab-initio community. The code fully supports multi-site, multi-orbital, and non-SU(2) models in all of the three included FRG variants: TU$^2$FRG, N-patch FRG, and grid FRG. With this, the divERGe library paves the way for widespread application of FRG as a tool in the study of competing orders in quantum materials.

  1 citation

• divERGe implements various Exact Renormalization Group examples

  Jonas B. Profe, Dante M. Kennes, Lennart Klebl

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 26 (2024) · published 8 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present divERGe, an open source, high-performance C/C++/Python library for functional renormalization group (FRG) calculations on lattice fermions. The versatile model interface is tailored to real materials applications and seamlessly integrates with existing, standard tools from the ab-initio community. The code fully supports multi-site, multi-orbital, and non-SU(2) models in all of the three included FRG variants: TU$^2$FRG, N-patch FRG, and grid FRG. With this, the divERGe library paves the way for widespread application of FRG as a tool in the study of competing orders in quantum materials.

  1 citation

• DFT2kp: Effective kp models from ab-initio data

  João Victor V. Cassiano, Augusto de Lelis Araújo, Paulo E. Faria Junior, Gerson J. Ferreira

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 25 (2024) · published 5 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The $k\cdot p$ method, combined with group theory, is an efficient approach to obtain the low energy effective Hamiltonians of crystalline materials. Although the Hamiltonian coefficients are written as matrix elements of the generalized momentum operator $\pi= p+ p_{SOC}$ (including spin-orbit coupling corrections), their numerical values must be determined from outside sources, such as experiments or ab initio methods. Here, we develop a code to explicitly calculate the Kane (linear in crystal momentum) and Luttinger (quadratic in crystal momentum) parameters of $k\cdot p$ effective Hamiltonians directly from ab initio wavefunctions provided by Quantum ESPRESSO. Additionally, the code analyzes the symmetry transformations of the wavefunctions to optimize the final Hamiltonian. This is an optional step in the code, where it numerically finds the unitary transformation $U$ that rotates the basis towards an optimal symmetry-adapted representation informed by the user. Throughout the paper, we present the methodology in detail and illustrate the capabilities of the code applying it to a selection of relevant materials. Particularly, we show a "hands-on" example of how to run the code for graphene (with and without spin-orbit coupling). The code is open source and available at https://gitlab.com/dft2kp/dft2kp.

  1 citation