arXiv subjects

Assa Auerbach

Publications and source records attributed to Assa Auerbach.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Thermal and thermoelectric transport in flat bands with non-trivial quantum geometry

Although quasiparticles in flat bands have zero group velocity, they can display an anomalous velocity due to the quantum geometry. We address the thermal and thermoelectric transport in flat bands in the clean limit with a small amount of broadening due to inelastic scattering. We derive general Kubo formulas for flat bands in the DC limit up to linear order in the broadening and extract expressions for the thermal conductivity, the Seebeck and Nernst coefficients. We show that the Seebeck coefficient for flat Chern bands is topological up to second order corrections in the broadening. We identify thermal and thermoelectric transport signatures for two generic flat Chern bands and also for the generalized flattened Lieb model, which describes a family of three equally spaced flat Chern bands where the middle one is topologically trivial. Finally, we address the saturation of the quantum metric lower bound for a general family of Hamiltonians with an arbitrary number of flat Chern bands corresponding to SU(2) coherent states. We find that only the extremal bands in this class of Hamiltonians saturate the bound, provided that the momentum dependence of their Hamiltonians is described by a meromorphic function.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Quantum Transport Theory of Strongly Correlated Matter

This report reviews recent progress in computing Kubo formulas for general interacting Hamiltonians. The aim is to calculate electric and thermal magneto-conductivities in strong scattering regimes where Boltzmann equation and Hall conductivity proxies exceed their validity. Three primary approaches are explained. 1. Degeneracy-projected polarization formulas for Hall-type conductivities, which substantially reduce the number of calculated current matrix elements. These expressions generalize the Berry curvature integral formulas to imperfect lattices. 2. Continued fraction representation of dynamical longitudinal conductivities. The calculations produce a set of thermodynamic averages, which can be controllably extrapolated using their mathematical relations to low and high frequency conductivity asymptotics. 3. Hall-type coefficients summation formulas, which are constructed from thermodynamic averages. The thermodynamic formulas are derived in the operator Hilbert space formalism, which avoids the opacity and high computational cost of the Hamiltonian eigenspectrum. The coefficients can be obtained by well established imaginary-time Monte Carlo sampling, high temperature expansion, traces of operator products, and variational wavefunctions at low temperatures. We demonstrate the power of approaches 1--3 by their application to well known models of lattice electrons and bosons. The calculations clarify the far-reaching influence of strong local interactions on the metallic transport near Mott insulators. Future directions for these approaches are discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Metallic transport of hard core bosons

Conductivities and Hall coefficients of two dimensional hard core bosons are calculated using the thermodynamic expansions of Kubo formulas. At temperatures above the superfluid transition, the resistivity rises linearly and is weakly dependent on boson filling. The zeroth order Hall coefficient diverges toward zero and unit fillings, and reverses its sign at half filling. The correction terms, which are calculated up to fourth (Krylov) orders, do not alter this behavior. The high temperature thermal Hall coefficient is reversed relative to the electric Hall coefficient. We discuss relevance of HCB transport to the metallic state of short coherence length superconductors.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

The two critical temperatures conundrum in La$_{1.83}$Sr$_{0.17}$CuO$_4$

The in-plane and out-of-plane superconducting stiffness of LSCO rings appear to vanish at different transition temperatures, which contradicts thermodynamical expectation. In addition, we observe a surprisingly strong dependence of the out-of-plane stiffness transition on sample width. With evidence from Monte Carlo simulations, this effect is explained by very small ratio $\alpha$ of interplane over intraplane superconducting stiffnesses. For three dimensional rings of millimeter dimensions, a crossover from layered three dimensional to quasi one dimensional behavior occurs at temperatures near the thermodynamic transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$, and the out of-plane stiffness appears to vanish below $T_{\rm c}$ by a temperature shift of order $\alpha L_a/\xi^\parallel$, where $L_a/\xi^\parallel$ is the sample's width over coherence length. Including the effects of layer-correlated disorder, the measured temperature shifts can be fit by $\alpha=4.1\times 10^{-5}$ near $T_{\rm c}$, which is significantly lower than its previously measured value near zero temperature.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2022

Hall map and breakdown of Fermi liquid theory in the vicinity of a Mott insulator

The Hall coefficient exhibits anomalous behavior in lightly doped Mott insulators. For strongly interacting electrons its computation has been challenged by analytical and numerical obstacles. We calculate the leading contributions in the recently derived thermodynamic formula for the Hall coefficient. We obtain its doping and temperature dependence for the square lattice tJ-model at high temperatures. The second order corrections are evaluated to be negligible. Quantum Monte Carlo sampling extends our results to lower temperatures. We find a divergence of the Hall coefficient toward the Mott limit and a sign reversal relative to Boltzmann equation's weak scattering prediction. The Hall current near the Mott phase is carried by a low density of spin-entangled vacancies, which should constitute the Cooper pairs in any superconducting phase at lower temperatures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Degeneracy-projected polarization formulas for Hall-type conductivities

Kubo formulas for Hall, transverse thermoelectric and thermal Hall conductivities are simplified into on-shell commutators of degeneracy projected polarizations. The new expressions are computationally economical, and apply to general Hamiltonians without a gap restriction. We show that Hall currents in open boundaries are carried by gapless chiral excitations. Extrapolation of finite lattice calculations to the DC-thermodynamic limit is demonstrated for a disordered metal.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Hall coefficient of semimetals

A recently developed formula for the Hall coefficient [A. Auerbach, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 66601 (2018)] is applied to nodal line and Weyl semimetals (including graphene), and to spin-orbit split semiconductor bands in two and three dimensions. The calculation reduces to a ratio of two equilibrium susceptibilities, where corrections are negligible at weak disorder. Deviations from Drude's inverse carrier density are associated with band degeneracies, Fermi surface topology, and interband scattering. Experiments which can measure these deviations are proposed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Hall anomaly and moving vortex charge in layered superconductors

Magnetotransport theory of layered superconductors in the flux flow steady state is revisited. Longstanding controversies concerning observed Hall sign reversals are resolved. The conductivity separates into a Bardeen-Stephen vortex core contribution, and a Hall conductivity due to moving vortex charge. This charge, which is responsible for Hall anomaly, diverges logarithmically at weak magnetic field. Its values can be extracted from magetoresistivity data by extrapolation of vortex core Hall angle from the normal phase. Hall anomalies in YBCO, BSCCO, and NCCO data are consistent with theoretical estimates based on doping dependence of London penetration depths. In the appendices, we derive the Streda formula for the hydrodynamical Hall conductivity, and refute previously assumed relevance of Galilean symmetry to Hall anomalies.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Equilibrium Formulae for Transverse Magneto-transport of Strongly Correlated Metals

Exact formulas for the Hall coefficient, modified Nernst coefficient, and thermal Hall coefficient of metals are derived from the Kubo formula. These coefficients depend exclusively on equilibrium (time independent) susceptibilities, which are significantly easier to compute than conductivities. For weak isotropic scattering, Boltzmann theory is recovered. For strong scattering, well controlled methods for thermodynamic functions are available. As an example, the Hall sign reversals of lattice bosons near the Mott insulator phases are determined. Appendices include mathematical supplements and instructions for calculating the coefficients.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Doped Kondo chain, a heavy Luttinger liquid

The one dimensional $SU(2)$ Kondo Lattice model is studied by Density Matrix Renormalization Group away from half-filling. We find signatures of a Heavy Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid (HTLL) phase, which describes one dimensional Heavy Fermions. We compute the wave-vector dependent charge and spin susceptibilities. Our results establish divergent charge and spin correlations at the large Fermi surface $k_F+π/2$, and its harmonics. We also find a signature of the hybridization gap at the small Fermi surface. We compare our $N\!=\!2$ results to the large-$N$ Slave Bosons mean field theory of the $SU(N)$ Kondo Lattice model, and find crucial effects of the RKKY interactions on the generation of renormalized effective mass for the $N\!=\!2$ model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

The Hall Number of Strongly Correlated Metals

An exact formula for the temperature dependent Hall number of metals is derived. It is valid for non-relativistic fermions or bosons, with arbitrary potential and interaction. This DC transport coefficient is proven to (remarkably) depend solely on equilibrium susceptibilities, which are more amenable to numerical algorithms than the conductivity. An application to strongly correlated phases is demonstrated by calculating the Hall sign in the vicinity of Mott phases of lattice bosons.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Quantum criticality at the superconductor to insulator transition revealed by specific heat measurements

The superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) is considered an excellent example of a quantum phase transition which is driven by quantum fluctuations at zero temperature. The quantum critical point is characterized by a diverging correlation length and a vanishing energy scale. Low energy fluctuations near quantum criticality may be experimentally detected by specific heat, $c_{\rm p}$, measurements. Here, we use a unique highly sensitive experiment to measure $c_{\rm p}$ of two-dimensional granular Pb films through the SIT. The specific heat shows the usual jump at the mean field superconducting transition temperature $T_{\rm c}^{\rm {mf}}$ marking the onset of Cooper pairs formation. As the film thickness is tuned toward the SIT, $T_{\rm c}^{\rm {mf}}$ is relatively unchanged, while the magnitude of the jump and low temperature specific heat increase significantly. This behaviour is taken as the thermodynamic fingerprint of quantum criticality in the vicinity of a quantum phase transition.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Non linear conductivity and collective charge excitations in the lowest Landau level

For weakly disordered fractional quantum Hall phases, the non linear photoconductivity is related to the charge susceptibility of the clean system by a Floquet boost. Thus, it may be possible to probe collective charge modes at finite wavevectors by electrical transport. Incompressible phases, irradiated at slightly above the magneto-roton gap, are predicted to exhibit negative photoconductivity and zero resistance states with spontaneous internal electric fields. Non linear conductivity can probe composite fermions' charge excitations in compressible filling factors.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Spin transport of weakly disordered Heisenberg chain at infinite temperature

We study the disordered Heisenberg spin chain, which exhibits many body localization at strong disorder, in the weak to moderate disorder regime. A continued fraction calculation of dynamical correlations is devised, using a variational extrapolation of recurrents. Good convergence for the infinite chain limit is shown. We find that the local spin correlations decay at long times as $C \sim t^{-β}$, while the conductivity exhibits a low frequency power law $σ\sim ω^α$. The exponents depict sub-diffusive behavior $ β< 1/2, α> 0 $ at all finite disorders, and convergence to the scaling result, $α+2β= 1$, at large disorders.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2015

Collective modes in a quantum solid

We provide a theoretical explanation for the optical modes observed in inelastic neutron scattering (INS) on the bcc solid phase of helium 4 [T. Markovich, E. Polturak, J. Bossy, and E. Farhi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 195301 (2002)]. We argue that these excitations are amplitude (Higgs) modes associated with fluctuations of the crystal order parameter within the unit cell. We present an analysis of the modes based on an effective Ginzburg-Landau model, classify them according to their symmetry properties, and compute their signature in INS experiments. In addition, we calculate the dynamical structure factor by means of an ab intio quantum Monte Carlo simulation and find a finite frequency excitation at zero relative momentum.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Critical capacitance and charge-vortex duality near the superfluid to insulator transition

Using a generalized reciprocity relation between charge and vortex conductivities at complex frequencies in two space dimensions, we identify the capacitance in the insulating phase as a measure of vortex condensate stiffness. We compute the ratio of boson superfluid stiffness to vortex condensate stiffness at mirror points to be 0.21(1) for the relativistic O(2) model. The product of dynamical conductivities at mirror points is used as a test of charge-vortex duality. We propose the finite wave vector compressibility as an experimental measure of the vortex condensate stiffness for neutral lattice bosons.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

The Higgs Mode in Disordered Superconductors Close to a Quantum Phase Transition

The concept of mass-generation via the Higgs mechanism was strongly inspired by earlier works on the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect in superconductors. In quantum field theory, the excitations of longitudinal components of the Higgs field manifest as massive Higgs bosons. The analogous Higgs mode in superconductors has not yet been observed due to its rapid decay into particle-hole pairs. Following recent theories, however, the Higgs mode should decrease below the pairing gap $2Δ$ and become visible in two-dimensional systems close to the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT). For experimental verification, we measured the complex terahertz transmission and tunneling density of states (DOS) of various thin films of superconducting NbN and InO close to criticality. Comparing both techniques reveals a growing discrepancy between the finite $2Δ$ and the threshold energy for electromagnetic absorption which vanishes critically towards the SIT. We identify the excess absorption below $2Δ$ as a strong evidence of the Higgs mode in two dimensional quantum critical superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Fate of the Higgs mode near quantum criticality

We study the relativistic O(N) field theory near the quantum critical point in 2+1 dimensions for N=2 and N=3. The scalar susceptibility is evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation. We show that the spectrum contains a peak associated with the Higgs mode, which remains well-defined all the way to the critical point. The fidelity of this peak and the amplitude ratio between the critical energy scales on both sides of the transition are computed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗