arXiv subjects

Armin Rahmani

Publications and source records attributed to Armin Rahmani.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Phase diagrams of Majorana-Hubbard ladders

Models of interacting Majorana modes may be realized in vortex lattices in superconducting films in contact with topological insulators and may be tuned to the strong-interaction regime by adjusting the chemical potential. Extending the results on one- and two-dimensional Majorana-Hubbard models, here we determine the phase diagrams of two- and four-leg ladders using both field theory and the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) methods.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Interacting Majorana Fermions

Majorana fermions are the real (in a mathematical sense) counterparts of complex fermions like ordinary electrons. The promise of topological quantum computing has lead to substantial experimental progress in realizing these particles in various synthetic platforms. The realization of Majorana fermions motivates a fundamental question: What phases of matter can emerge if many Majorana fermions are allowed to interact? Here we review recent progress in this direction on the proposed experimental setups, analytical and numerical results on low-dimensional lattice models, and the exactly solvable Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. The early progress thus far suggests that strongly correlated phases of matter with Majorana building blocks can exhibit many novel phenomena, such as emergent spacetime supersymmetry, topological order and the physics of black holes, in condensed matter systems. They may also provide alternative avenues for universal topological quantum computing through the realization of Fibonacci phase and measurement-based only surface codes.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Optimal control of superconducting gmon qubits using Pontryagin's minimum principle: preparing a maximally entangled state with singular bang-bang protocols

We apply the theory of optimal control to the dynamics of two "gmon" qubits, with the goal of preparing a desired entangled ground state from an initial unentangled one. Given an initial state, a target state, and a Hamiltonian with a set of permissible controls, can we reach the target state with coherent quantum evolution and, in that case, what is the minimum time required? The adiabatic theorem provides a far from optimal solution in the presence of a spectral gap. Optimal control yields the fastest possible way of reaching the target state and helps identify unreachable states. In the context of a simple quantum system, we provide examples of both reachable and unreachable target ground states and show that the unreachability is due to a symmetry. We find the optimal protocol in the reachable case using three different approaches: (i) a brute-force numerical minimization (ii) an efficient numerical minimization using the bang-bang ansatz expected from the Pontryagin minimum principle, and (iii) direct solution of the Pontryagin boundary value problem, which yields an analytical understanding of the numerically obtained optimal protocols. Interestingly, our system provides an example of singular control, where the Pontryagin theorem does not guarantee bang-bang protocols. Nevertheless, all three approaches give the same bang-bang protocol.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Interplay of Anderson localization and quench dynamics

In the context of an isolated three-dimensional noninteracting fermionic lattice system, we study the effects of a sudden quantum quench between a disorder-free situation and one in which disorder results in a mobility edge and associated Anderson localization. Salient post-quench features hinge upon the overlap between momentum states and post-quench eigenstates and whether these latter states are extended or localized. We find that the post-quench momentum distribution directly reflects these overlaps. For the local density, we show that disorder generically prevents the equilibration of quantum expectation values to a steady state and that the persistent fluctuations have a nonmonotonic dependence on the strength of disorder. We identify two distinct types of fluctuations, namely, temporal fluctuations describing the time-dependent fluctuations of the local density around its time average and sample-to-sample fluctuations characterizing the variations of these time averages from one realization of disorder to another. We demonstrate that both of these fluctuations vanish for extremely extended as well as extremely localized states, peaking at some intermediate value.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2018

Optimal noise-canceling shortcuts to adiabaticity: application to noisy Majorana-based gates

Adiabatic braiding of Majorana zero modes can be used for topologically protected quantum information processing. While extremely robust to many environmental perturbations, these systems are vulnerable to noise with high-frequency components. Ironically, slower processes needed for adiabaticity allow more noise-induced excitations to accumulate, resulting in an antiadiabatic behavior that limits the precision of Majorana gates if some noise is present. In a recent publication [Phys. Rev. B 96, 075158 (2017)], fast optimal protocols were proposed as a shortcut for implementing the same unitary operation as the adiabatic braiding. These shortcuts sacrifice topological protection in the absence of noise but provide performance gains and remarkable robustness to noise due to the shorter evolution time. Nevertheless, gates optimized for vanishing noise are suboptimal in the presence of noise. If we know the noise strength beforehand, can we design protocols optimized for the existing unavoidable noise, which will effectively correct the noise-induced errors? We address this question in the present paper. We find such optimal protocols using simulated-annealing Monte Carlo simulations. The numerically found pulse shapes, which we fully characterize, are in agreement with Pontryagin's minimum principle, which allows us to arbitrarily improve the approximate numerical results (due to discretization and imperfect convergence) and obtain numerically exact optimal protocols. The protocols are \textit{bang-bang} (sequence of sudden quenches) for vanishing noise, but contain continuous segments in the presence of multiplicative noise due to the nonlinearity of the master equation governing the evolution. We find that such noise-optimized protocols completely eliminate the above-mentioned antiadiabatic behavior.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Majorana-Hubbard model on the square lattice

We study a tight-binding model of interacting Majorana (Hermitian) modes on a square lattice. The model may have an experimental realization in a superconducting-film--topological-insulator heterostructure in a magnetic field. We find a rich phase diagram, as a function of interaction strength, including a superfluid phase with spontaneous breaking of an emergent $U(1)$ symmetry, separated by a supersymmetric transition from a gapless normal phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Optimal diabatic dynamics of Majorana-based quantum gates

In topological quantum computing, unitary operations on qubits are performed by adiabatic braiding of non-Abelian quasiparticles, such as Majorana zero modes, and are protected from local environmental perturbations. In the adiabatic regime, with timescales set by the inverse gap of the system, the errors can be made arbitrarily small by performing the process more slowly. To enhance the performance of quantum information processing with Majorana zero modes, we apply the theory of optimal control to the diabatic dynamics of Majorana-based qubits. While we sacrifice complete topological protection, we impose constraints on the optimal protocol to take advantage of the nonlocal nature of topological information and increase the robustness of our gates. By using the Pontryagin's maximum principle, we show that robust equivalent gates to perfect adiabatic braiding can be implemented in finite times through optimal pulses. In our implementation, modifications to the device Hamiltonian are avoided. Focusing on thermally isolated systems, we study the effects of calibration errors and external white and $1/f$ (pink) noise on Majorana-based gates. While a noise-induced antiadiabatic behavior, where a slower process creates more diabatic excitations, prohibits indefinite enhancement of the robustness of the adiabatic scheme, our fast optimal protocols exhibit remarkable stability to noise and have the potential to significantly enhance the practical performance of Majorana-based information processing.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Optimizing Variational Quantum Algorithms using Pontryagin's Minimum Principle

We use Pontryagin's minimum principle to optimize variational quantum algorithms. We show that for a fixed computation time, the optimal evolution has a bang-bang (square pulse) form, both for closed and open quantum systems with Markovian decoherence. Our findings support the choice of evolution ansatz in the recently proposed Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm. Focusing on the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin-glass as an example, we find a system-size independent distribution of the duration of pulses, with characteristic time scale set by the inverse of the coupling constants in the Hamiltonian. The optimality of the bang-bang protocols and the characteristic time scale of the pulses provide an efficient parameterization of the protocol and inform the search for effective hybrid (classical and quantum) schemes for tackling combinatorial optimization problems. For the particular systems we study, we find numerically that the optimal nonadiabatic bang-bang protocols outperform conventional quantum annealing in the presence of weak white additive external noise and weak coupling to a thermal bath modeled with the Redfield master equation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Anti-Kibble-Zurek Behavior in Crossing the Quantum Critical Point of a Thermally Isolated System Driven by a Noisy Control Field

We show that a thermally isolated system driven across a quantum phase transition by a noisy control field exhibits anti-Kibble-Zurek behavior, whereby slower driving results in higher excitations. We characterize the density of excitations as a function of the ramping rate and the noise strength. The optimal driving time to minimize excitations is shown to scale as a universal power law of the noise strength. Our findings reveal the limitations of adiabatic protocols such as quantum annealing and demonstrate the universality of the optimal ramping rate.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Phase Diagram of the Interacting Majorana Chain Model

The Hubbard chain and spinless fermion chain are paradigms of strongly correlated systems, very well understood using Bethe ansatz, Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) and field theory/renormalization group (RG) methods. They have been applied to one-dimensional materials and have provided important insights for understanding higher dimensional cases. Recently, a new interacting fermion model has been introduced, with possible applications to topological materials. It has a single Majorana fermion operator on each lattice site and interactions with the shortest possible range that involve 4 sites. We present a thorough analysis of the phase diagram of this model in one dimension using field theory/RG and DMRG methods. It includes a gapped supersymmetric region and a novel gapless phase with coexisting Luttinger liquid and Ising degrees of freedom. In addition to a first order transition, three critical points occur: tricritical Ising, Lifshitz and a novel generalization of the commensurate-incommensurate transition. We also survey various gapped phases of the system that arise when the translation symmetry is broken by dimerization and find both trivial and topological phases with 0, 1 and 2 Majorana zero modes bound to the edges of the chain with open boundary conditions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Dynamics of noisy quantum systems in the Heisenberg picture: application to the stability of fractional charge

Based on the Heisenberg-picture analog of the master equation, we develop a method for computing the exact time dependence of noise-averaged observables for general noninteracting fermionic systems with noisy fluctuations. Upon noise averaging, these fluctuations generate effective interactions, limiting analytical approaches. While the short-time dynamics can be studied with Langevin-type numerical simulations, the long-time limit is not amenable to such simulations. Our results provide access to this long-time limit. As a simple example, we examine the fate of the fractional charge in cold-atom emulations of polyacetylene after stochastic driving. We find that in a quantum quench to a fluctuating hopping Hamiltonian, the fractional charge remains robust for hopping between different sublattices, while it becomes unstable in the presence of noisy hopping on the same sublattice.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Emergent Supersymmetry from Strongly Interacting Majorana Zero Modes

We show that a strongly interacting chain of Majorana zero modes exhibits a supersymmetric quantum critical point corresponding to the $c={7\over 10}$ tricritical Ising model, which separates a critical phase in the Ising universality class from a supersymmetric massive phase. We verify our predictions with numerical density-matrix-renormalization-group computations and determine the consequences for tunnelling experiments.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Optimal Control of Majorana Zero Modes

Braiding of Majorana zero modes provides a promising platform for quantum information processing, which is topologically protected against errors. Strictly speaking, however, the scheme relies on infinite braiding times as it utilizes the adiabatic limit. Here we show how to minimize nonadiabatic errors for finite braiding times by finding an optimal protocol for the Majorana movement. Interestingly, these protocols are characterized by sharp transitions between Majorana motion at maximal and minimal velocities. We find that these so-called bang-bang protocols can minimize the nonadiabatic transitions of the system by orders of magnitude in comparison with naive protocols.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Hall ice

We show that the chiral kagome ice manifold exhibits an anomalous integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE) when coupled to itinerant electrons. Although electron-mediated interactions select a magnetically ordered ground state, the full ice manifold can coexist with the IQHE over a range of finite temperatures. The degenerate ice states provide a natural realization of power-law correlated flux disorder, for which the spectral gap of the system remains robust. The quantized (up to exponentially small finite-temperature corrections) Hall conductance persists over a wide range of electron densities due to the disorder-induced localization of electronic states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Anyonic Liquids in Nearly Saturated Spin Chains

Most Heisenberg-like spin chains flow to a universal free-fermion fixed point near the magnetic-field induced saturation point. Here we show that an exotic fixed point, characterized by two species of low-energy excitations with mutual anyonic statistics, may also emerge in such spin chains if the dispersion relation has two minima. By using bosonization, two-magnon exact calculations, and numerical density-matrix-renormalization-group, we demonstrate the existence of this anyonic-liquid fixed point in an XXZ spin chain with up to second neighbor interactions. We also identify a range of microscopic parameters, which support this phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

A Renormalization-Group Study of the Symmetry-Breaking Order Parameters in Spin-Orbit Coupled Iridates and Related Systems

We study the competition between various forms of density-wave-like order parameters that may arise in multi-orbital correlated materials with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) within a renormalization-group (RG) approach. The calculations are restricted to models with two spin-orbit split bands having strong inter-band Fermi surface nesting. We find that for such Fermi surface topology, the interplay between the inter-band nesting and SOC strongly enhances the inter-orbital Coulomb interaction (relative to other interactions) as the system approaches a stable fixed point. This results in an exotic spin-orbit density wave (SODW) to become the energetically favorable symmetry-broken state. While the conclusions are generic to such a Fermi surface topology, the band structure and the numerical results are presented for the iridate systems. We also find that the electronic fingerprints of the SODW are in better agreement with various experimental results than a conventional spin density wave (SDW), explaining the long-standing problem of the origin of the metal-insulator transition in these systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Low-energy theory of a two-dimensional itinerant chiral magnet

Effective actions, such as nonlinear sigma models, are important tools in studying low-energy fluctuations of magnetically ordered states. Here we derive an effective action for the smooth order-parameter distortions of noncoplanar magnetic textures [with an SO(3) order parameter, as opposed to the SO(3)/SO(2)=S^2 of collinear magnets] coupled to itinerant electrons. Noncoplanar magnetic textures commonly arise in the presence of electron-mediated long-range spin exchange interactions, giving rise to the emergence of rich electronic phenomena such as anomalous quantum Hall effect. We parameterize the smooth order-parameter distortions of such a magnetic texture by certain non-Abelian fields, and derive the action in terms of these fields by integrating out the itinerant electrons. As a concrete example, we perform explicit calculations for a triangular-lattice model with tetrahedral magnetic ordering. The action encodes the charge and spin quantum-Hall responses as well as the energetics of twisting the magnetic texture.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Quantum dynamics with an ensemble of Hamiltonians

We review recent progress in the nonequilibrium dynamics of thermally isolated many-body quantum systems, evolving with an ensemble of Hamiltonians as opposed to deterministic evolution with a single time-dependent Hamiltonian. Such questions arise in (i) quantum dynamics of disordered systems, where different realizations of disorder give rise to an ensemble of real-time quantum evolutions. (ii) quantum evolution with noisy Hamiltonians (temporal disorder), which leads to stochastic Schrodinger equations, and, (iii) in the broader context of quantum optimal control, where one needs to analyze an ensemble of permissible protocols in order to find one that optimizes a given figure of merit. The theme of ensemble quantum evolution appears in several emerging new directions in noneqilibrium quantum dynamics of thermally isolated many-body systems, which include many-body localization, noise-driven systems, and shortcuts to adiabaticity.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗