arXiv subjects

Alex Kamenev

Publications and source records attributed to Alex Kamenev.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Quasiparticle scattering in a superconductor near a nematic critical point: resonance mode and multiple attractive channels

We analyze the scattering rate for 2D fermions interacting via soft nematic fluctuations. The ground state is an s-wave superconductor, but other pairing channels are almost equally attractive. This strongly alters the scattering rate: At energies beyond the pairing gap $Δ$, it is renormalized by contributions from all pairing channels. At energies of order $Δ$, it is determined by the competition between scattering into a gapped continuum and dispersing nematic resonance. The outcome is a "peak-peak-dip-hump" spectrum, similar, but not identical, to the "peak-dip-hump" structure in the cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2021

Qubit Decoherence and Symmetry Restoration through Real-Time Instantons

A parametrically driven quantum oscillator, stabilized by a nonlinear dissipation, exhibits a spontaneous breaking of the parity symmetry. It results in the quantum bi-stability, corresponding to a Bloch sphere of dark states. This makes such a driven-dissipative system an attractive candidate for a qubit. The parity symmetry breaking is exact both on the classical level and within the quantum mechanical perturbation theory. Here we show that non-perturbative quantum effects lead to the symmetry restoration and result in exponentially small but finite qubit decoherence rate. Technically the symmetry restoration is due to real time instanton trajectories of the Keldysh path integral, which represents the Lindbladian evolution of the driven-dissipative oscillator.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Many-body localization enables iterative quantum optimization

We suggest an iterative quantum protocol, allowing to solve optimization problems with a glassy energy landscape. It is based on a periodic cycling around the tricritical point of the many-body localization transition. This ensures that each iteration leads to a non-exponentially small probability to find a lower local energy minimum. The other key ingredient is to tailor the cycle parameters to a currently achieved optimal state (the "reference" state) and to reset them once a deeper minimum is found. We show that, if the position of the tricritical point is known, the algorithm allows to approach the absolute minimum with any given precision in a polynomial time.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Emptiness Formation in Polytropic Quantum Liquids

We study large deviations in interacting quantum liquids with the polytropic equation of state $P(ρ)\sim ρ^γ$, where $ρ$ is density and $P$ is pressure. By solving hydrodynamic equations in imaginary time we evaluate the instanton action and calculate the emptiness formation probability (EFP), the probability that no particle resides in a macroscopic interval of a given size. Analytic solutions are found for a certain infinite sequence of rational polytropic indexes $γ$ and the result can be analytically continued to any value of $γ\ge 1$. Our findings agree with (and significantly expand on) previously known analytical and numerical results for EFP in quantum liquids. We also discuss interesting universal spacetime features of the instanton solution.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

One-dimensional scattering of two-dimensional fermions near quantum criticality

Forward and backscattering play an exceptional role in the physics of two-dimensional interacting fermions. In a Fermi liquid, both give rise to a non-analytic $ω^2 \log(ω)$ form of the fermionic scattering rate at second order in the interaction. Here we argue that higher powers of $\log(ω)$ appearin the backscattering contribution at higher orders. We show that these terms come from "planar" processes, which are effectively one-dimensional. This is explicitly demonstated by extending a Fermi liquid to the limit of $N \gg 1$ fermionic flavors, when only planar processes survive. We sum the leading logarithms for the case of a 2D Fermi liquid near a nematic transition and obtain an expression for the scattering rate at $T=0$ to all orders in the interaction. For a repulsive interaction, the resulting rate is logarithmically suppressed, and the result is valid down to $ω= 0$. For an attractive interaction, the ground state is an $s$-wave superconductor with a gap $Δ_0$. We show that in this case the scattering rate increases as $ω$ is reduced towards $Δ_0$. At $ω\geq Δ_0$, the behavior of the scattering rate is rather unconventional as many pairing channels compete near a nematic critical point, and $s$-wave wins only by a narrow margin. We take superconductivity into consideration and obtain the scattering rate also at smaller $ω\simeq Δ_0$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Dynamics of ion channels via non-Hermitian quantum mechanics

We study dynamics and thermodynamics of ion channels, considered as effective 1D Coulomb systems. The long range nature of the inter-ion interactions comes about due to the dielectric constants mismatch between the water and lipids, confining the electric filed to stay mostly within the water-filled channel. Statistical mechanics of such Coulomb systems is dominated by entropic effects which may be accurately accounted for by mapping onto an effective quantum mechanics. In presence of multivalent ions the corresponding quantum mechanics appears to be non-Hermitian. In this review we discuss a framework for semiclassical calculations for corresponding non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. Non-Hermiticity elevates WKB action integrals from the real line to closed cycles on a complex Riemann surfaces where direct calculations are not attainable. We circumvent this issue by applying tools from algebraic topology, such as the Picard-Fuchs equation. We discuss how its solutions relate to the thermodynamics and correlation functions of multivalent solutions within long water-filled channels.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Multidimensional dark space and its underlying symmetries: towards dissipation-protected qubits

Quantum systems are always subject to interactions with an environment, typically resulting in decoherence and distortion of quantum correlations. It has been recently shown that a controlled interaction with the environment may actually help to create a state, dubbed as {\em ``dark''}, which is immune to decoherence. To encode quantum information in the dark states, they need to span a space with a dimensionality larger than one, so different orthogonal states act as a computational basis. We devise a symmetry-based conceptual framework to engineer such degenerate dark spaces (DDS), protected from decoherence by the environment. We illustrate this construction with a model protocol, inspired by the fractional quantum Hall effect, where the DDS basis is isomorphic to a set of degenerate Laughlin states. The long-time steady state of our driven-dissipative model exhibits thus all the characteristics of degenerate vacua of a unitary topological system. This approach offers new possibilities for storing, protecting and manipulating quantum information in open systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Helical spin liquid in a triangular XXZ magnet from Chern-Simons theory

We propose a finite-temperature phase diagram for the 2D spin-$1/2$ $J_1-J_2$ $XXZ$ antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice. Our analysis, based on a composite fermion representation, yields several phases. This includes a zero-temperature helical spin liquid with $N=6$ {\it anisotropic} Dirac cones, and with nonzero vector chirality implying a broken $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. It is terminated at $T=0$ by a continuous quantum phase transition to $120^\circ$ ordered state around $J_2/J_1\approx0.089$ in the XX limit; these phases share a double degeneracy, which persists to finite $T$ above the helical spin liquid. By contrast, at $J_2/J_1 \simeq 0.116$, the transition into a stripe phase appears as first order. We further discuss experimental and numerical consequences of the helical order and the anisotropic nature of the Dirac dispersion.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Plasmonic Tuning of the Near Field Heat Transfer in Double Layer Graphene

We discuss the non-radiative heat transfer in non-equilibrium double layer graphene system. We show that at the neutrality point the heat exchange is dominated by the inter-layer plasmon modes and derive analytic expressions for the heat current as a function of temperature and the interlayer separation. These results show that for a range of low temperatures the two graphene layers are much more efficient heat exchanger than conventional metals. The physical reason behind this phenomenon is the presence of inter-band excitations with a large energy, and a small momentum in graphene spectrum. Plasmonic mechanism of the heat transfer is sharply suppressed by electrostatic doping. This allows for tuning of the heat exchange by a small applied voltage between the two layers.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Finite Size Scaling at the Topological Transition: Bilinear-Biquadratic Spin-1 Chain

We consider a finite size scaling function across a topological phase transition in 1D models. For models of non-interacting fermions it was shown to be universal for all topological symmetry classes and markedly asymmetric between trivial and topological sides of the transition (Gulden et al 2016). Here we verify its universality for the topological transition between dimerized and Haldane phases in bilinear-biquadratic spin-1 chain. To this end we perform high-accuracy variational matrix product state simulations. We show that the scaling function, expressed in terms of $L/ξ$, where $L$ is the chain length and $ξ$ is the correlation length, coincides with that of three species of non-interacting massive Majorana fermions. The latter is known to be a proper description of the conformal critical theory with central charge $c=3/2$. We have shown that it still holds away from the conformal point, including the finite size corrections. We have also observed peculiar differences between even and odd size chains, which may be fully accounted for by residual interactions of the edge states.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Nature of Protected Zero Energy States in Penrose Quasicrystals

The electronic spectrum of the Penrose rhombus quasicrystal exhibits a macroscopic fraction of exactly degenerate zero energy states. In contrast to other bipartite quasicrystals, such as the kite-and-dart one, these zero energy states cannot be attributed to a global mismatch $Δn$ between the number of sites in the two sublattices that form the quasicrystal. Here, we argue that these zero energy states are instead related to a local mismatch $Δn(\bf r)$. Although $Δn(\bf r)$ averages to zero, its staggered average over self-organized domains gives the correct number of zero energy states. Physically, the local mismatch is related to a hidden structure of nested self-similar domains that support the zero energy states. This allows us to develop a real space renormalization-group scheme, which yields the scaling law for the fraction of zero energy states, $Z$, versus size of their support domain, $N$, as $Z\propto N^{-η}$ with $η=1-\ln 2/\ln(1+τ) \approx 0.2798$ (where $τ$ is the golden ratio). It also reproduces the known total fraction of the zero energy states, $81-50τ\approx 0.0983$. We also show that the exact degeneracy of these states is protected against a wide variety of local perturbations, such as irregular or random hopping amplitudes, magnetic field, random dilution of the lattice, etc. We attribute this robustness to the hidden domain structure and speculate about its underlying topological origin.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

SYK non Fermi Liquid Correlations in Nanoscopic Quantum Transport

Electronic transport in nano-structures, such as long molecules or 2D exfoliated flakes, often goes through a nearly degenerate set of single-particle orbitals. Here we show that in such cases a conspiracy of the narrow band and strong e-e interactions may stabilize a non Fermi liquid phase in the universality class of the complex Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. Focusing on signatures in quantum transport, we demonstrate the existence of anomalous power laws in the temperature dependent conductance, including algebraic scaling $T^{3/2}$ in the inelastic cotunneling channel, separated from the conventional Fermi liquid $T^2$ scaling via a quantum phase transition. The relatively robust conditions under which these results are obtained indicate that the SYK non Fermi liquid universality class might be not as exotic as previously thought.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

SYK Superconductivity: Quantum Kuramoto and Generalized Richardson Models

Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model has emerged as a new paradigm of the non-Fermi-liquid behavior. Here we investigate a possibility of having a superconducting off-diagonal long-range order (ODLRO) and a pseudogap phase within the SYK framework. We found that ODLRO may be established in spin-1/2 version of the model with the time-reversal invariance and an extra attractive interaction. If the latter is taken as the on-site negative-$U$ Hubbard term, it leads to the pseudogap phase at $U<U_c$ dominated by quantum fluctuations of local phases. These fluctuations are described by a quantum version of the Kuramoto model, traditionally employed to illustrate synchronization of classical non-linear oscillators. In the opposite limit of large $U$, the SYK+Hubbard model is approaching a certain generalization of the integrable Richardson model. We present exact diagonalization studies, along with analytic solutions of the aforementioned limiting cases. We also discuss possible holographic interpretations of the model, ODLRO and the pseudogap.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Emptiness Formation Probability in 1D Bose Liquids

We study emptiness formation probability (EFP) in interacting 1D Bose liquids. That is the probability that a snapshot of its ground state reveals exactly zero number of particles within the interval $|x|<R$. For a weakly interacting liquid there is parametrically wide regime $n^{-1} < R <ξ$ (here $n$ is the average density and $ξ$ is the healing length), where EFP exhibits a non-trivial crossover from the Poisson to the Gaussian behavior. We employ the instanton technique [A. Abanov, 2004] to study quantitative details of these regime and compare it with previously reported limited cases.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Quantum criticality of granular SYK matter

We consider granular quantum matter defined by Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) dots coupled via random one-body hopping. Within the framework of Schwarzian field theory, we identify a zero temperature quantum phase transition between an insulating phase at weak and a metallic phase at strong hopping. The critical hopping strength scales inversely with the number of degrees of freedom on the dots. The increase of temperature out of either phase induces a crossover into a regime of strange metallic behavior.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

On topological transitions in metals

We investigate if a sharp topological transition in a metal with a large Fermi surface may be detected in transport measurements. In particular, we address if a skew scattering and a side jump on elastic disorder in the bulk of such a metal masks signatures of the topological transition. We conclude that certain transport coefficients exhibit discontinuous changes across the transition. These discontinuities are not smeared or dwarfed by the bulk metallic transport in a broad range of parameters.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Near-field heat transfer between disordered conductors

We study heat transfer mediated by near-field fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. In case of metals the latter are dominated by Coulomb interactions between thermal fluctuations of electronic density. We show that an elastic scattering of electrons, leading to diffusive propagation of density fluctuations, results in a qualitative change of the radiation law. While the heat flux between clean metals follows the Stefan-Boltzmann-like $T^4$ dependence, the heat exchange between disordered conductors is significantly enhanced and scales as $T^3$ at low temperatures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Landau theory of the short-time dynamical phase transitions of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang interface

We study the short-time distribution $\mathcal{P}\left(H,L,t\right)$ of the two-point two-time height difference $H=h(L,t)-h(0,0)$ of a stationary Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) interface in 1+1 dimension. Employing the optimal-fluctuation method, we develop an effective Landau theory for the second-order dynamical phase transition found previously for $L=0$ at a critical value $H=H_c$. We show that $|H|$ and $L$ play the roles of inverse temperature and external magnetic field, respectively. In particular, we find a first-order dynamical phase transition when $L$ changes sign, at supercritical $H$. We also determine analytically $\mathcal{P}\left(H,L,t\right)$ in several limits away from the second-order transition. Typical fluctuations of $H$ are Gaussian, but the distribution tails are highly asymmetric. The tails $-\ln\mathcal{P}\sim\left|H\right|^{3/2} \! /\sqrt{t}$ and $-\ln\mathcal{P}\sim\left|H\right|^{5/2} \! /\sqrt{t}$, previously found for $L=0$, are enhanced for $L \ne 0$. At very large $|L|$ the whole height-difference distribution $\mathcal{P}\left(H,L,t\right)$ is time-independent and Gaussian in $H$, $-\ln\mathcal{P}\sim\left|H\right|^{2} \! /|L|$, describing the probability of creating a ramp-like height profile at $t=0$.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗