Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Statistical Floquet prethermalization of the Bose-Hubbard model

  Emanuele G. Dalla Torre, David Dentelski

  SciPost Phys. 11, 040 (2021) · published 24 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The manipulation of many-body systems often involves time-dependent forces that cause unwanted heating. One strategy to suppress heating is to use time-periodic (Floquet) forces at large driving frequencies. For quantum spin systems with bounded spectra, it was shown rigorously that the heating rate is exponentially small in the driving frequency. Recently, the exponential suppression of heating has also been observed in an experiment with ultracold atoms, realizing a periodically driven Bose-Hubbard model. This model has an unbounded spectrum and, hence, is beyond the reach of previous theoretical approaches. Here, we study this model with two semiclassical approaches valid, respectively, at large and weak interaction strengths. In both limits, we compute the heating rates by studying the statistical probability to encounter a many-body resonance, and obtain a quantitative agreement with the exact diagonalization of the quantum model. Our approach demonstrates the relevance of statistical arguments to Floquet perthermalization of interacting many-body quantum systems.

  7 citations

• Displaced Drude peak and bad metal from the interaction with slow fluctuations.

  Simone Fratini, Sergio Ciuchi

  SciPost Phys. 11, 039 (2021) · published 24 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Scattering by slowly fluctuating degrees of freedom can cause a transient localization of the current-carrying electrons in metals, driving the system away from normal metallic behavior. We illustrate and characterize this general phenomenon by studying how signatures of localization emerge in the optical conductivity of electrons interacting with slow bosonic fluctuations. The buildup of quantum localization corrections manifests itself in the emergence of a displaced Drude peak (DDP), whose existence strongly alters the low frequency optical response and suppresses the d.c. conductivity. We find that for sufficiently strong interactions, many-body renormalization of the fluctuating field induced at metallic densities enhances electron localization and the ensuing DDP phenomenon in comparison with the well-studied low concentration limit. Our results are compatible with the frequent observation of DDPs in electronic systems where slowly fluctuating degrees of freedom couple significantly to the charge carriers.

  13 citations

• Weak integrability breaking and level spacing distribution

  D. Szász-Schagrin, B. Pozsgay, G. Takács

  SciPost Phys. 11, 037 (2021) · published 23 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recently it was suggested that certain perturbations of integrable spin chains lead to a weak breaking of integrability in the sense that integrability is preserved at the first order in the coupling. Here we examine this claim using level spacing distribution. We find that the volume dependent crossover between integrable and chaotic level spacing statistics which marks the onset of quantum chaotic behaviour, is markedly different for weak vs. strong breaking of integrability. In particular, for the gapless case we find that the crossover coupling as a function of the volume $L$ scales with a $1/L^2$ law for weak breaking as opposed to the $1/L^3$ law previously found for the strong case.

  16 citations

• Spontaneous symmetry breaking in free theories with boundary potentials

  Vladimir Procházka, Alexander Söderberg

  SciPost Phys. 11, 035 (2021) · published 19 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Patterns of symmetry breaking induced by potentials at the boundary of free $O(N)$-models in $d=3- \epsilon$ dimensions are studied. We show that the spontaneous symmetry breaking in these theories leads to a boundary RG flow ending with $N - 1$ Neumann modes in the IR. The possibility of fluctuation-induced symmetry breaking is examined and we derive a general formula for computing one-loop effective potentials at the boundary. Using the $\epsilon$-expansion we test these ideas in an $O(N)\oplus O(N)$-model with boundary interactions. We determine the RG flow diagram of this theory and find that it has an IR-stable critical point satisfying conformal boundary conditions. The leading correction to the effective potential is computed and we argue the existence of a phase boundary separating the region flowing to the symmetric fixed point from the region flowing to a symmetry-broken phase with a combination of Neumann and Dirchlet boundary conditions.

  2 citations

• Universal features of higher-form symmetries at phase transitions

  Xiao-Chuan Wu, Chao-Ming Jian, Cenke Xu

  SciPost Phys. 11, 033 (2021) · published 18 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the behavior of higher-form symmetries at various quantum phase transitions. We consider discrete 1-form symmetries, which can be either part of the generalized concept ``categorical symmetry" (labelled as $\tilde{Z}_N^{(1)}$) introduced recently, or an explicit $Z_N^{(1)}$ 1-form symmetry. We demonstrate that for many quantum phase transitions involving a $Z_N^{(1)}$ or $\tilde{Z}_N^{(1)}$ symmetry, the following expectation value $ \langle \left( \log O_\mathcal{C} \right)^2 \rangle$ takes the form $\langle \left( \log O_\mathcal{C} \right)^2 \rangle \sim - \frac{A}{\epsilon} P+ b \log P $, where $O_\mathcal{C} $ is an operator defined associated with loop $\mathcal{C} $ (or its interior $\mathcal{A} $), which reduces to the Wilson loop operator for cases with an explicit $Z_N^{(1)}$ 1-form symmetry. $P$ is the perimeter of $\mathcal{C} $, and the $b \log P$ term arises from the sharp corners of the loop $\mathcal{C} $, which is consistent with recent numerics on a particular example. $b$ is a universal microscopic-independent number, which in $(2+1)d$ is related to the universal conductivity at the quantum phase transition. $b$ can be computed exactly for certain transitions using the dualities between $(2+1)d$ conformal field theories developed in recent years. We also compute the ``strange correlator" of $O_\mathcal{C} $: $S_{\mathcal{C} } = \langle 0 | O_\mathcal{C} | 1 \rangle / \langle 0 | 1 \rangle$ where $|0\rangle$ and $|1\rangle$ are many-body states with different topological nature.

  17 citations

• Comments on foliated gauge theories and dualities in 3+1d

  Po-Shen Hsin, Kevin Slagle

  SciPost Phys. 11, 032 (2021) · published 17 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the properties of foliated gauge fields and construct several foliated field theories in 3+1d that describe foliated fracton orders both with and without matter, including the recent hybrid fracton models. These field theories describe Abelian or non-Abelian gauge theories coupled to foliated gauge fields, and they fall into two classes of models that we call the electric models and the magnetic models. We show that these two classes of foliated field theories enjoy a duality. We also construct a model (using foliated gauge fields and an exactly solvable lattice Hamiltonian model) for a subsystem-symmetry protected topological (SSPT) phase, which is analogous to a one-form symmetry protected topological phase, with the subsystem symmetry acting on codimension-two subregions. We construct the corresponding gauged SSPT phase as a foliated two-form gauge theory. Some instances of the gauged SSPT phase are a variant of the X-cube model with the same ground state degeneracy and the same fusion, but different particle statistics.

  23 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

• Generalized Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem on bosonic symmetry protected topological phases

  Shenghan Jiang, Meng Cheng, Yang Qi, Yuan-Ming Lu

  SciPost Phys. 11, 024 (2021) · published 6 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose and prove a family of generalized Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) theorems for symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases on boson/spin models in any dimensions. The "conventional" LSM theorem, applicable to e.g. any translation invariant system with an odd number of spin-1/2 particles per unit cell, forbids a symmetric short-range-entangled ground state in such a system. Here we focus on systems with no LSM anomaly, where global/crystalline symmetries and fractional spins within the unit cell ensure that any symmetric SRE ground state must be a nontrivial SPT phase with anomalous boundary excitations. Depending on models, they can be either strong or "higher-order" crystalline SPT phases, characterized by nontrivial surface/hinge/corner states. Furthermore, given the symmetry group and the spatial assignment of fractional spins, we are able to determine all possible SPT phases for a symmetric ground state, using the real space construction for SPT phases based on the spectral sequence of cohomology theory. We provide examples in one, two and three spatial dimensions, and discuss possible physical realization of these SPT phases based on condensation of topological excitations in fractionalized phases.

  6 citations

• Amorphous topological phases protected by continuous rotation symmetry

  Helene Spring, Anton R. Akhmerov, Daniel Varjas

  SciPost Phys. 11, 022 (2021) · published 5 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Protection of topological surface states by reflection symmetry breaks down when the boundary of the sample is misaligned with one of the high symmetry planes of the crystal. We demonstrate that this limitation is removed in amorphous topological materials, where the Hamiltonian is invariant on average under reflection over any axis due to continuous rotation symmetry. While the local disorder caused by the amorphous structure weakens the topological protection, we demonstrate that the edge remains protected from localization. In order to classify such phases we perform a systematic search over all the possible symmetry classes in two dimensions and construct the example models realizing each of the proposed topological phases. Finally, we compute the topological invariant of these phases as an integral along a meridian of the spherical Brillouin zone of an amorphous Hamiltonian.

  21 citations

• Ergodic edge modes in the 4D quantum Hall effect

  Benoit Estienne, Blagoje Oblak, Jean-Marie Stéphan

  SciPost Phys. 11, 016 (2021) · published 20 July 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The gapless modes on the edge of four-dimensional (4D) quantum Hall droplets are known to be anisotropic: they only propagate in one direction, foliating the 3D boundary into independent 1D conduction channels. This foliation is extremely sensitive to the confining potential and generically yields chaotic flows. Here we study the quantum correlations and entanglement of such edge modes in 4D droplets confined by harmonic traps, whose boundary is a squashed three-sphere. Commensurable trapping frequencies lead to periodic trajectories of electronic guiding centers; the corresponding edge modes propagate independently along $S^1$ fibers, forming a bundle of 1D conformal field theories over a 2D base space. By contrast, incommensurable frequencies produce quasi-periodic, ergodic trajectories, each of which covers its invariant torus densely; the corresponding correlation function of edge modes has fractal features. This wealth of behaviors highlights the sharp differences between 4D Hall droplets and their 2D peers; it also exhibits the dependence of 4D edge modes on the choice of trap, suggesting the existence of observable bifurcations due to droplet deformations.

  4 citations