arXiv subjects

Abhinav Prem

Publications and source records attributed to Abhinav Prem.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Quantum Fragmentation in the Extended Quantum Breakdown Model

We introduce a one-dimensional (1D) extended quantum breakdown model comprising a fermionic and a spin degree of freedom per site, and featuring a spatially asymmetric breakdown-type interaction between the fermions and spins. We analytically show that, in the absence of any magnetic field for the spins, the model exhibits Hilbert space fragmentation within each symmetry sector into exponentially many Krylov subspaces and hence displays non-thermal dynamics. Here, we demonstrate that the fragmentation naturally occurs in an entangled basis and thus provides an example of "quantum fragmentation." Besides establishing the nature of fragmentation analytically, we also study the long-time behavior of the entanglement entropy and its deviation from the expected Page value as a probe of ergodicity in the system. Upon introducing a non-trivial magnetic field for the spins, most of the Krylov subspaces merge and the model becomes chaotic. Finally, we study the effects of strong randomness on the system and observe behavior similar to that of many-body localized systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Rotational Symmetry Protected Edge and Corner States in Abelian topological phases

Spatial symmetries can enrich the topological classification of interacting quantum matter and endow systems with non-trivial strong topological invariants (protected by internal symmetries) with additional "weak" topological indices. In this paper, we study the edge physics of systems with a non-trivial shift invariant, which is protected by either a continuous $\text{U}(1)_r$ or discrete $\text{C}_n$ rotation symmetry, along with internal $\text{U}(1)_c$ charge conservation. Specifically, we construct an interface between two systems which have the same Chern number but are distinguished by their Wen-Zee shift and, through analytic arguments supported by numerics, show that the interface hosts counter-propagating gapless edge modes which cannot be gapped by arbitrary local symmetry-preserving perturbations. Using the Chern-Simons field theory description of two-dimensional Abelian topological orders, we then prove sufficient conditions for continuous rotation symmetry protected gapless edge states using two complementary approaches. One relies on the algebraic Lagrangian sub-algebra framework for gapped boundaries while the other uses a more physical flux insertion argument. For the case of discrete rotation symmetries, we extend the field theory approach to show the presence of fractional corner charges for Abelian topological orders with gappable edges, and compute them in the case where the Abelian topological order is placed on the two-dimensional surface of a Platonic solid. Our work paves the way for studying the edge physics associated with spatial symmetries in symmetry enriched topological phases.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Dynamics and transport in the boundary-driven dissipative Klein-Gordon chain

Motivated by experiments on chains of superconducting qubits, we consider the dynamics of a classical Klein-Gordon chain coupled to coherent driving and subject to dissipation solely at its boundaries. As the strength of the boundary driving is increased, this minimal classical model recovers the main features of the "dissipative phase transition" seen experimentally. Between the transmitting and non-transmitting regimes on either side of this transition (which support ballistic and diffusive energy transport respectively), we observe additional dynamical regimes of interest. These include a regime of superdiffusive energy transport at weaker driving strengths, together with a "resonant nonlinear wave" regime at stronger driving strengths, which is characterized by emergent translation symmetry, ballistic energy transport, and coherent oscillations of a nonlinear normal mode. We propose a non-local Lyapunov exponent as an experimentally measurable diagnostic of many-body chaos in this system, and more generally in open systems that are only coupled to an environment at their boundaries.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2021

Dislocation Non-Hermitian Skin Effect

We demonstrate that crystal defects can act as a probe of intrinsic non-Hermitian topology. In particular, in point-gapped systems with periodic boundary conditions, a pair of dislocations may induce a non-Hermitian skin effect, where an extensive number of Hamiltonian eigenstates localize at only one of the two dislocations. An example of such a phase are two-dimensional systems exhibiting weak non-Hermitian topology, which are adiabatically related to a decoupled stack of Hatano-Nelson chains. Moreover, we show that strong two-dimensional point-gap topology may also result in a dislocation response, even when there is no skin effect present with open boundary conditions. For both cases, we directly relate their bulk topology to a stable dislocation non-Hermitian skin effect. Finally, and in stark contrast to the Hermitian case, we find that gapless non-Hermitian systems hosting bulk exceptional points also give rise to a well-localized dislocation response.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Quantum many-body topology of quasicrystals

In this paper, we characterize quasicrystalline interacting topological phases of matter i.e., phases protected by some quasicrystalline structure. We show that the elasticity theory of quasicrystals, which accounts for both "phonon" and "phason" modes, admits non-trivial quantized topological terms with far richer structure than their crystalline counterparts. We show that these terms correspond to distinct phases of matter and also uncover intrinsically quasicrystalline phases, which have no crystalline analogues. For quasicrystals with internal $\mathrm{U}(1)$ symmetry, we discuss a number of interpretations and physical implications of the topological terms, including constraints on the mobility of dislocations in $d=2$ quasicrystals and a quasicrystalline generalization of the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis-Oshikawa-Hastings theorem. We then extend these ideas much further and address the complete classification of quasicrystalline topological phases, including systems with point-group symmetry as well as non-invertible phases. We hence obtain the "Quasicrystalline Equivalence Principle," which generalizes the classification of crystalline topological phases to the quasicrystalline setting.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Spectral statistics in constrained many-body quantum chaotic systems

We study the spectral statistics of spatially-extended many-body quantum systems with on-site Abelian symmetries or local constraints, focusing primarily on those with conserved dipole and higher moments. In the limit of large local Hilbert space dimension, we find that the spectral form factor $K(t)$ of Floquet random circuits can be mapped exactly to a classical Markov circuit, and, at late times, is related to the partition function of a frustration-free Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) type Hamiltonian. Through this mapping, we show that the inverse of the spectral gap of the RK-Hamiltonian lower bounds the Thouless time $t_{\mathrm{Th}}$ of the underlying circuit. For systems with conserved higher moments, we derive a field theory for the corresponding RK-Hamiltonian by proposing a generalized height field representation for the Hilbert space of the effective spin chain. Using the field theory formulation, we obtain the dispersion of the low-lying excitations of the RK-Hamiltonian in the continuum limit, which allows us to extract $t_{\mathrm{Th}}$. In particular, we analytically argue that in a system of length $L$ that conserves the $m^{th}$ multipole moment, $t_{\mathrm{Th}}$ scales subdiffusively as $L^{2(m+1)}$. We also show that our formalism directly generalizes to higher dimensional circuits, and that in systems that conserve any component of the $m^{th}$ multipole moment, $t_{\mathrm{Th}}$ has the same scaling with the linear size of the system. Our work therefore provides a general approach for studying spectral statistics in constrained many-body chaotic systems.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type constraints on Fractonic Matter

The Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) theorem and its descendants impose strong constraints on the low-energy behavior of interacting quantum systems. In this paper, we formulate LSM-type constraints for lattice translation invariant systems with generalized U(1) symmetries which have recently appeared in the context of fracton phases: U(1) polynomial shift and subsystem symmetries. Starting with a generic interacting system with conserved dipole moment, we examine the conditions under which it supports a symmetric, gapped, and non-degenerate ground state, which we find requires that both the filling fraction and the bulk charge polarization take integer-values. Similar constraints are derived for systems with higher moment conservation laws or subsystem symmetries, in addition to lower bounds on the ground state degeneracy when certain conditions are violated. Finally, we discuss the mapping between LSM-type constraints for subsystem symmetries and the anomalous symmetry action at boundaries of subsystem symmetric topological (SSPT) states.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Topological Defect Networks for Fractons of all Types

Fracton phases exhibit striking behavior which appears to render them beyond the standard topological quantum field theory (TQFT) paradigm for classifying gapped quantum matter. Here, we explore fracton phases from the perspective of defect TQFTs and show that topological defect networks---networks of topological defects embedded in stratified 3+1D TQFTs---provide a unified framework for describing various types of gapped fracton phases. In this picture, the sub-dimensional excitations characteristic of fractonic matter are a consequence of mobility restrictions imposed by the defect network. We conjecture that all gapped phases, including fracton phases, admit a topological defect network description and support this claim by explicitly providing such a construction for many well-known fracton models, including the X-Cube and Haah's B code. To highlight the generality of our framework, we also provide a defect network construction of a novel fracton phase hosting non-Abelian fractons. As a byproduct of this construction, we obtain a generalized membrane-net description for fractonic ground states as well as an argument that our conjecture implies no type-II topological fracton phases exist in 2+1D gapped systems. Our work also sheds light on new techniques for constructing higher order gapped boundaries of 3+1D TQFTs.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Thermalization and its absence within Krylov subspaces of a constrained Hamiltonian

We study the quantum dynamics of a simple translation invariant, center-of-mass (CoM) preserving model of interacting fermions in one dimension (1D), which arises in multiple experimentally realizable contexts. We show that this model naturally displays the phenomenology associated with fractonic systems, wherein single charges can only move by emitting dipoles. This allows us to demonstrate the rich Krylov fractured structure of this model, whose Hilbert space shatters into exponentially many dynamically disconnected subspaces. Focusing on exponentially large Krylov subspaces, we show that these can be either be integrable or non-integrable, thereby establishing the notion of Krylov-restricted thermalization. We analytically find a tower of integrable Krylov subspaces of this Hamiltonian, all of which map onto spin-1/2 XX models of various system sizes. We also discuss the physics of the non-integrable subspaces, where we show evidence for weak Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) restricted to each non-integrable Krylov subspace. Further, we show that constraints in some of the thermal Krylov subspaces cause the long-time expectation values of local operators to deviate from behavior typically expected from translation-invariant systems. Finally, we show using a Schrieffer-Wolff transformation that such models naturally appear as effective Hamiltonians in the large electric field limit of the interacting Wannier-Stark problem, and comment on connections of our work with the phenomenon of Bloch many-body localization.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Topological states on fractal lattices

We investigate the fate of topological states on fractal lattices. Focusing on a spinless chiral p-wave paired superconductor, we find that this model supports two qualitatively distinct phases when defined on a Sierpinski gasket. While the trivial phase is characterized by a self-similar spectrum with infinitely many gaps and extended eigenstates, the novel "topological" phase has a gapless spectrum and hosts chiral states propagating along edges of the graph. Besides employing theoretical probes such as the real-space Chern number, inverse participation ratio, and energy-level statistics in the presence of disorder, we develop a simple physical picture capturing the essential features of the model on the gasket. Extending this picture to other fractal lattices and topological states, we show that the p+ip state admits a gapped topological phase on the Sierpinski carpet and that a higher-order topological insulator placed on this lattice hosts gapless modes localized on corners.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Gauging permutation symmetries as a route to non-Abelian fractons

We discuss the procedure for gauging on-site $\mathbb{Z}_2$ global symmetries of three-dimensional lattice Hamiltonians that permute quasi-particles and provide general arguments demonstrating the non-Abelian character of the resultant gauged theories. We then apply this general procedure to lattice models of several well known fracton phases: two copies of the X-Cube model, two copies of Haah's cubic code, and the checkerboard model. Where the former two models possess an on-site $\mathbb{Z}_2$ layer exchange symmetry, that of the latter is generated by the Hadamard gate. For each of these models, upon gauging, we find non-Abelian subdimensional excitations, including non-Abelian fractons, as well as non-Abelian looplike excitations and Abelian fully mobile pointlike excitations. By showing that the looplike excitations braid non-trivially with the subdimensional excitations, we thus discover a novel gapped quantum order in 3D, which we term a "panoptic" fracton order. This points to the existence of parent states in 3D from which both topological quantum field theories and fracton states may descend via quasi-particle condensation. The gauged cubic code model represents the first example of a gapped 3D phase supporting (inextricably) non-Abelian fractons that are created at the corners of fractal operators.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Symmetric Tensor Gauge Theories on Curved Spaces

Fractons and other subdimensional particles are an exotic class of emergent quasi-particle excitations with severely restricted mobility. A wide class of models featuring these quasi-particles have a natural description in the language of symmetric tensor gauge theories, which feature conservation laws restricting the motion of particles to lower-dimensional sub-spaces, such as lines or points. In this work, we investigate the fate of symmetric tensor gauge theories in the presence of spatial curvature. We find that weak curvature can induce small (exponentially suppressed) violations on the mobility restrictions of charges, leaving a sense of asymptotic fractonic/sub-dimensional behavior on generic manifolds. Nevertheless, we show that certain symmetric tensor gauge theories maintain sharp mobility restrictions and gauge invariance on certain special curved spaces, such as Einstein manifolds or spaces of constant curvature.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Cage-Net Fracton Models

We introduce a class of gapped three-dimensional models, dubbed "cage-net fracton models," which host immobile fracton excitations in addition to non-Abelian particles with restricted mobility. Starting from layers of two-dimensional string-net models, whose spectrum includes non-Abelian anyons, we condense extended one-dimensional "flux-strings" built out of point-like excitations. Flux-string condensation generalizes the concept of anyon condensation familiar from conventional topological order and allows us to establish properties of the fracton ordered (equivalently, flux-string condensed) phase, such as its ground state wave function and spectrum of excitations. Through the examples of doubled Ising and SU(2)$_k$ cage-net models, we demonstrate the existence of strictly immobile Abelian fractons and of non-Abelian particles restricted to move only along one dimension. In the doubled Ising cage-net model, we show that these restricted-mobility non-Abelian excitations are a fundamentally three-dimensional phenomenon, as they cannot be understood as bound states amongst two-dimensional non-Abelian anyons and Abelian particles. We further show that the ground state wave function of such phases can be understood as a fluctuating network of extended objects -- cages -- and strings, which we dub a cage-net condensate. Besides having implications for topological quantum computation in three dimensions, our work may also point the way towards more general insights into quantum phases of matter with fracton order.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Entanglement Spectra of Stabilizer Codes: A Window into Gapped Quantum Phases of Matter

The entanglement spectrum (ES) provides a barometer of quantum entanglement and encodes physical information beyond that contained in the entanglement entropy. In this paper, we explore the ES of stabilizer codes, which furnish exactly solvable models for a plethora of gapped quantum phases of matter. Studying the ES for stabilizer Hamiltonians in the presence of arbitrary weak local perturbations thus allows us to develop a general framework within which the entanglement features of gapped topological phases can be computed and contrasted. In particular, we study models harboring fracton order, both type-I and type-II, and compare the resulting ES with that of both conventional topological order and of (strong) subsystem symmetry protected topological (SSPT) states. We find that non-local surface stabilizers (NLSS), a set of symmetries of the Hamiltonian which form on the boundary of the entanglement cut, act as purveyors of universal non-local features appearing in the entanglement spectrum. While in conventional topological orders and fracton orders, the NLSS retain a form of topological invariance with respect to the entanglement cut, subsystem symmetric systems---fracton and SSPT phases---additionally show a non-trivial geometric dependence on the entanglement cut, corresponding to the subsystem symmetry. This sheds further light on the interplay between geometric and topological effects in fracton phases of matter and demonstrates that strong SSPT phases harbour a measure of quasi-local entanglement beyond that encountered in conventional SPT phases. We further show that a version of the edge-entanglement correspondence, established earlier for gapped two-dimensional topological phases, also holds for gapped three-dimensional fracton models.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Twisted Fracton Models in Three Dimensions

We study novel three-dimensional gapped quantum phases of matter which support quasiparticles with restricted mobility, including immobile "fracton" excitations. So far, most existing fracton models may be instructively viewed as generalized Abelian lattice gauge theories. Here, by analogy with Dijkgraaf-Witten topological gauge theories, we discover a natural generalization of fracton models, obtained by twisting the gauge symmetries. Introducing generalized gauge transformation operators carrying an extra phase factor depending on local configurations, we construct a plethora of exactly solvable three-dimensional models, which we dub "twisted fracton models." A key result of our approach is to demonstrate the existence of rich non-Abelian fracton phases of distinct varieties in a three-dimensional system with finite-range interactions. For an accurate characterization of these novel phases, the notion of being inextricably non-Abelian is introduced for fractons and quasiparticles with one-dimensional mobility, referring to their new behavior of displaying braiding statistics that is, and remains, non-Abelian regardless of which quasiparticles with higher mobility are added to or removed from them. We also analyze these models by embedding them on a three-torus and computing their ground state degeneracies, which exhibit a surprising and novel dependence on the system size in the non-Abelian fracton phases. Moreover, as an important advance in the study of fracton order, we develop a general mathematical framework which systematically captures the fusion and braiding properties of fractons and other quasiparticles with restricted mobility.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Pinch Point Singularities of Tensor Spin Liquids

Recently, a new class of three-dimensional spin liquid models have been theoretically discovered, which feature generalized Coulomb phases of emergent symmetric tensor $U(1)$ gauge theories. These "higher rank" tensor models are particularly intriguing due to the presence of quasi-particles with restricted mobility, such as fractons. We investigate universal experimental signatures of tensor Coulomb phases. Most notably, we show that tensor Coulomb spin liquids (both quantum and classical) feature characteristic pinch-point singularities in their spin-spin correlation functions, accessible via neutron scattering, which can be readily distinguished from pinch points in conventional $U(1)$ spin liquids. These pinch points can thus serve as a crisp experimental diagnostic for such phases. We also tabulate the low-temperature heat capacity of various tensor Coulomb phases, which serves as a useful additional diagnostic in certain cases.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Emergent Phases of Fractonic Matter

Fractons are emergent particles which are immobile in isolation, but which can move together in dipolar pairs or other small clusters. These exotic excitations naturally occur in certain quantum phases of matter described by tensor gauge theories. Previous research has focused on the properties of small numbers of fractons and their interactions, effectively mapping out the "Standard Model" of fractons. In the present work, however, we consider systems with a finite density of either fractons or their dipolar bound states, with a focus on the $U(1)$ fracton models. We study some of the phases in which emergent fractonic matter can exist, thereby initiating the study of the "condensed matter" of fractons. We begin by considering a system with a finite density of fractons, which we show can exhibit microemulsion physics, in which fractons form small-scale clusters emulsed in a phase dominated by long-range repulsion. We then move on to study systems with a finite density of mobile dipoles, which have phases analogous to many conventional condensed matter phases. We focus on two major examples: Fermi liquids and quantum Hall phases. A finite density of fermionic dipoles will form a Fermi surface and enter a Fermi liquid phase. Interestingly, this dipolar Fermi liquid exhibits a finite-temperature phase transition, corresponding to an unbinding transition of fractons. Finally, we study chiral two-dimensional phases corresponding to dipoles in "quantum Hall" states of their emergent magnetic field. We study numerous aspects of these generalized quantum Hall systems, such as their edge theories and ground state degeneracies.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Multiply quantized vortices in fermionic superfluids: angular momentum, unpaired fermions, and spectral asymmetry

We compute the orbital angular momentum $L_z$ of an s-wave paired superfluid in the presence of an axisymmetric multiply quantized vortex. For vortices with winding number $|k| > 1$, we find that in the weak-pairing BCS regime $L_z$ is significantly reduced from its value $\hbar N k/2$ in the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) regime, where $N$ is the total number of fermions. This deviation results from the presence of unpaired fermions in the BCS ground state, which arise as a consequence of spectral flow along the vortex sub-gap states. We support our results analytically and numerically by solving the Bogoliubov-de-Gennes equations within the weak-pairing BCS regime.

cond-mat.supr-con↗