Publications

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• GHZ-like states in the Qubit-Qudit Rabi model

  Yuan Shen, Giampiero Marchegiani, Gianluigi Catelani, Luigi Amico, Ai Qun Liu, Weijun Fan, Leong-Chuan Kwek

  SciPost Phys. 11, 099 (2021) · published 1 December 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study a Rabi type Hamiltonian system in which a qubit and a d-level quantum system (qudit) are coupled through a common resonator. In the weak and strong coupling limits the spectrum is analysed through suitable perturbative schemes. The analysis show that the presence of the multilevels of the qudit effectively enhance the qubit-qudit interaction. The ground state of the strongly coupled system is found to be of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) type. Therefore, despite the qubit-qudit strong coupling, the nature of the specific tripartite entanglement of the GHZ state suppresses the bipartite entanglement. We analyze the system dynamics under quenching and adiabatic switching of the qubit-resonator and qudit-resonator couplings. In the quench case, we found that the non-adiabatic generation of photons in the resonator is enhanced by the number of levels in the qudit. The adiabatic control represents a possible route for preparation of GHZ states. Our analysis provides relevant information for future studies on coherent state transfer in qubit-qudit systems.

• Quantum approximate optimization for hard problems in linear algebra

  Ajinkya Borle, Vincent E. Elfving, Samuel J. Lomonaco

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 031 (2021) · published 30 November 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) by Farhi et al. is a quantum computational framework for solving quantum or classical optimization tasks. Here, we explore using QAOA for binary linear least squares (BLLS); a problem that can serve as a building block of several other hard problems in linear algebra, such as the non-negative binary matrix factorization (NBMF) and other variants of the non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) problem. Most of the previous efforts in quantum computing for solving these problems were done using the quantum annealing paradigm. For the scope of this work, our experiments were done on noiseless quantum simulators, a simulator including a device-realistic noise-model, and two IBM Q 5-qubit machines. We highlight the possibilities of using QAOA and QAOA-like variational algorithms for solving such problems, where trial solutions can be obtained directly as samples, rather than being amplitude-encoded in the quantum wavefunction. Our numerics show that even for a small number of steps, simulated annealing can outperform QAOA for BLLS at a QAOA depth of $p\leq3$ for the probability of sampling the ground state. Finally, we point out some of the challenges involved in current-day experimental implementations of this technique on cloud-based quantum computers.

• The classical two-dimensional Heisenberg model revisited: An $SU(2)$-symmetric tensor network study

  Philipp Schmoll, Augustine Kshetrimayum, Jens Eisert, Román Orús, Matteo Rizzi

  SciPost Phys. 11, 098 (2021) · published 29 November 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The classical Heisenberg model in two spatial dimensions constitutes one of the most paradigmatic spin models, taking an important role in statistical and condensed matter physics to understand magnetism. Still, despite its paradigmatic character and the widely accepted ban of a (continuous) spontaneous symmetry breaking, controversies remain whether the model exhibits a phase transition at finite temperature. Importantly, the model can be interpreted as a lattice discretization of the $O(3)$ non-linear sigma model in $1+1$ dimensions, one of the simplest quantum field theories encompassing crucial features of celebrated higher-dimensional ones (like quantum chromodynamics in $3+1$ dimensions), namely the phenomenon of asymptotic freedom. This should also exclude finite-temperature transitions, but lattice effects might play a significant role in correcting the mainstream picture. In this work, we make use of state-of-the-art tensor network approaches, representing the classical partition function in the thermodynamic limit over a large range of temperatures, to comprehensively explore the correlation structure for Gibbs states. By implementing an $SU(2)$ symmetry in our two-dimensional tensor network contraction scheme, we are able to handle very large effective bond dimensions of the environment up to $\chi_E^\text{eff} \sim 1500$, a feature that is crucial in detecting phase transitions. With decreasing temperatures, we find a rapidly diverging correlation length, whose behaviour is apparently compatible with the two main contradictory hypotheses known in the literature, namely a finite-$T$ transition and asymptotic freedom, though with a slight preference for the second.

• Quantum error correction and large $N$

  Alexey Milekhin

  SciPost Phys. 11, 094 (2021) · published 19 November 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In recent years quantum error correction (QEC) has become an important part of AdS/CFT. Unfortunately, there are no field-theoretic arguments about why QEC holds in known holographic systems. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by studying the error correcting properties of the fermionic sector of various large $N$ theories. Specifically we examine $SU(N)$ matrix quantum mechanics and 3-rank tensor $O(N)^3$ theories. Both of these theories contain large gauge groups. We argue that gauge singlet states indeed form a quantum error correcting code. Our considerations are based purely on large $N$ analysis and do not appeal to a particular form of Hamiltonian or holography.

• Relativistic Landau quantization in non-uniform magnetic field and its applications to white dwarfs and quantum information

  Srishty Aggarwal, Banibrata Mukhopadhyay, Gianluca Gregori

  SciPost Phys. 11, 093 (2021) · published 18 November 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the two-dimensional motion of relativistic cold electrons in the presence of ‘strictly’ spatially varying magnetic fields satisfying, however, no magnetic monopole condition. We find that the degeneracy of Landau levels, which arises in the case of the constant magnetic field, lifts out when the field is variable and the energy levels of spin-up and spin-down electrons align in an interesting way depending on the nature of change of field. Also the varying magnetic field splits Landau levels of electrons with zero angular momentum from positive angular momentum, unlike the constant field which only can split the levels between positive and negative angular momenta. Exploring Landau quantization in non-uniform magnetic fields is a unique venture on its own and has interdisciplinary implications in the fields ranging from condensed matter to astrophysics to quantum information. As examples, we show magnetized white dwarfs, with varying magnetic fields, involved simultaneously with Lorentz force and Landau quantization affecting the underlying degenerate electron gas, exhibiting a significant violation of the Chandrasekhar mass-limit; and an increase in quantum speed of electrons in the presence of a spatially growing magnetic field.

• Parent Hamiltonians of Jastrow wavefunctions

  Mathieu Beau, Adolfo del Campo

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 030 (2021) · published 18 November 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We find the complete family of many-body quantum Hamiltonians with ground-state of Jastrow form involving the pairwise product of a pair function in an arbitrary spatial dimension. The parent Hamiltonian generally includes a two-body pairwise potential as well as a three-body potential. We thus generalize the Calogero-Marchioro construction for the three-dimensional case to arbitrary spatial dimensions. The resulting family of models is further extended to include a one-body term representing an external potential, which gives rise to an additional long-range two-body interaction. Using this framework, we provide the generalization to an arbitrary spatial dimension of well-known systems such as the Calogero-Sutherland and Calogero-Moser models. We also introduce novel models, generalizing the McGuire many-body quantum bright soliton solution to higher dimensions and considering ground-states which involve e.g., polynomial, Gaussian, exponential, and hyperbolic pair functions. Finally, we show how the pair function can be reverse-engineered to construct models with a given potential, such as a pair-wise Yukawa potential, and to identify models governed exclusively by three-body interactions.

• Entanglement measures in a nonequilibrium steady state: Exact results in one dimension

  Shachar Fraenkel, Moshe Goldstein

  SciPost Phys. 11, 085 (2021) · published 29 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Entanglement plays a prominent role in the study of condensed matter many-body systems: Entanglement measures not only quantify the possible use of these systems in quantum information protocols, but also shed light on their physics. However, exact analytical results remain scarce, especially for systems out of equilibrium. In this work we examine a paradigmatic one-dimensional fermionic system that consists of a uniform tight-binding chain with an arbitrary scattering region near its center, which is subject to a DC bias voltage at zero temperature. The system is thus held in a current-carrying nonequilibrium steady state, which can nevertheless be described by a pure quantum state. Using a generalization of the Fisher-Hartwig conjecture, we present an exact calculation of the bipartite entanglement entropy of a subsystem with its complement, and show that the scaling of entanglement with the length of the subsystem is highly unusual, containing both a volume-law linear term and a logarithmic term. The linear term is related to imperfect transmission due to scattering, and provides a generalization of the Levitov-Lesovik full counting statistics formula. The logarithmic term arises from the Fermi discontinuities in the distribution function. Our analysis also produces an exact expression for the particle-number-resolved entanglement. We find that although to leading order entanglement equipartition applies, the first term breaking it grows with the size of the subsystem, a novel behavior not observed in previously studied systems. We apply our general results to a concrete model of a tight-binding chain with a single impurity site, and show that the analytical expressions are in good agreement with numerical calculations. The analytical results are further generalized to accommodate the case of multiple scattering regions.

• Decoherent quench dynamics across quantum phase transitions

  Wei-Ting Kuo, Daniel Arovas, Smitha Vishveshwara, and Yi-Zhuang You

  SciPost Phys. 11, 084 (2021) · published 28 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a formulation for investigating quench dynamics across quantum phase transitions in the presence of decoherence. We formulate decoherent dynamics induced by continuous quantum non-demolition measurements of the instantaneous Hamiltonian. We generalize the well-studied universal Kibble-Zurek behavior for linear temporal drive across the critical point. We identify a strong decoherence regime wherein the decoherence time is shorter than the standard correlation time, which varies as the inverse gap above the groundstate. In this regime, we find that the freeze-out time $\bar{t}\sim\tau^{{2\nu z}/({1+2\nu z})}$ for when the system falls out of equilibrium and the associated freeze-out length $\bar{\xi}\sim\tau^{\nu/({1+2\nu z})}$ show power-law scaling with respect to the quench rate $1/\tau$, where the exponents depend on the correlation length exponent $\nu$ and the dynamical exponent $z$ associated with the transition. The universal exponents differ from those of standard Kibble-Zurek scaling. We explicitly demonstrate this scaling behavior in the instance of a topological transition in a Chern insulator system. We show that the freeze-out time scale can be probed from the relaxation of the Hall conductivity. Furthermore, on introducing disorder to break translational invariance, we demonstrate how quenching results in regions of imbalanced excitation density characterized by an emergent length scale which also shows universal scaling. We perform numerical simulations to confirm our analytical predictions and corroborate the scaling arguments that we postulate as universal to a host of systems.

  1 citation

• Superflow decay in a toroidal Bose gas: The effect of quantum and thermal fluctuations

  Zain Mehdi, Ashton S. Bradley, Joseph J. Hope, Stuart S. Szigeti

  SciPost Phys. 11, 080 (2021) · published 21 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We theoretically investigate the stochastic decay of persistent currents in a toroidal ultracold atomic superfluid caused by a perturbing barrier. Specifically, we perform detailed three-dimensional simulations to model the experiment of Kumar et al. in [Phys. Rev. A 95 021602 (2017)], which observed a strong temperature dependence in the timescale of superflow decay in an ultracold Bose gas. Our ab initio numerical approach exploits a classical-field framework that includes thermal fluctuations due to interactions between the superfluid and a thermal cloud, as well as the intrinsic quantum fluctuations of the Bose gas. In the low-temperature regime our simulations provide a quantitative description of the experimental decay timescales, improving on previous numerical and analytical approaches. At higher temperatures, our simulations give decay timescales that range over the same orders of magnitude observed in the experiment, however, there are some quantitative discrepancies that are not captured by any of the mechanisms we explore. Our results suggest a need for further experimental and theoretical studies into superflow stability.

• How to optimize the absorption of two entangled photons

  Edoardo G. Carnio, Andreas Buchleitner, Frank Schlawin

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 028 (2021) · published 15 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate how entanglement can enhance two-photon absorption in a three-level system. First, we employ the Schmidt decomposition to determine the entanglement properties of the optimal two-photon state to drive such a transition, and the maximum enhancement which can be achieved in comparison to the optimal classical pulse. We then adapt the optimization problem to realistic experimental constraints, where photon pairs from a down-conversion source are manipulated by local operations such as spatial light modulators. We derive optimal pulse shaping functions to enhance the absorption efficiency, and compare the maximal enhancement achievable by entanglement to the yield of optimally shaped, separable pulses.