arXiv subjects

Bernard Bernu

Publications and source records attributed to Bernard Bernu.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Derivation of the free energy, entropy and specific heat for planar Ising models: Application to Archimedean lattices and their duals

The 2d ferromagnetic Ising model was solved by Onsager on the square lattice in 1944, and an explicit expression of the free energy density $f$ is presently available for some other planar lattices. But an exact derivation of the critical temperature $T_c$ only requires a partial derivation of $f$. It has been performed on many lattices, including the 11 Archimedean lattices. In this article, we give general expressions of the free energy, energy, entropy and specific heat for planar lattices with a single type of non-crossing links. It is known that the specific heat exhibits a logarithmic singularity at $T_c$: $c_V(T)\sim -A\ln|1-T_c/T|$, in all the ferromagnetic and some antiferromagnetic cases. While the non-universal weight $A$ of the leading term has often been evaluated, this is not the case for the sub-leading order term $B$ such that $c_V(T)+A\ln|1-T_c/T|\sim B$, despite its strong impact on the $c_V(T)$ values in the vicinity of $T_c$, particularly important in experimental measurements. Explicit values of $T_c$, $A$, $B$ and other thermodynamic quantities are given for the Archimedean lattices and their duals for both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

High temperature series expansions of S = 1/2 Heisenberg spin models: algorithm to include the magnetic field with optimized complexity

This work presents an algorithm for calculating high temperature series expansions (HTSE) of Heisenberg spin models with spin $S=1/2$ in the thermodynamic limit. This algorithm accounts for the presence of a magnetic field. The paper begins with a comprehensive introduction to HTSE and then focuses on identifying the bottlenecks that limit the computation of higher order coefficients. HTSE calculations involve two key steps: graph enumeration on the lattice and trace calculations for each graph. The introduction of a non-zero magnetic field adds complexity to the expansion because previously irrelevant graphs must now be considered: bridged graphs. We present an efficient method to deduce the contribution of these graphs from the contribution of sub-graphs, that drastically reduces the time of calculation for the last order coefficient (in practice increasing by one the order of the series at almost no cost). Previous articles of the authors have utilized HTSE calculations based on this algorithm, but without providing detailed explanations. The complete algorithm is publicly available, as well as the series on many lattice and for various interactions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Ground-state and thermodynamic properties of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg model on the anisotropic triangular lattice

The spin-$\frac12$ triangular lattice antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model has been for a long time the prototypical model of magnetic frustration. However, only very recently this model has been proposed to be realized in the Ba$_8$CoNb$_6$O$_{24}$ compound. The ground-state and thermodynamic properties are evaluated from a high-temperature series expansions interpolation method, called "entropy method", and compared to experiments. We find a ground-state energy $e_0 = -0.5445(2)$ in perfect agreement with exact diagonalization results. We also calculate the specific heat and entropy at all temperatures, finding a good agreement with the latest experiments, and evaluate which further interactions could improve the comparison. We explore the spatially anisotropic triangular lattice and provide evidence that supports the existence of a gapped spin liquid between the square and triangular lattices.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Emergent Potts order in the kagomé $J_1-J_3$ Heisenberg model

Motivated by the physical properties of Vesignieite BaCu$_3$V$_2$O$_8$(OH)$_2$, we study the $J_1-J_3$ Heisenberg model on the kagomé lattice, that is proposed to describe this compound for $J_1<0$ and $J_3\gg|J_1|$. The nature of the classical ground state and the possible phase transitions are investigated through analytical calculations and parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulations. For $J_1<0$ and $J_3>\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}4|J_1|$, the ground states are not all related by an Hamiltonian symmetry. Order appears at low temperature via the order by disorder mechanism, favoring colinear configurations and leading to an emergent $q=4$ Potts parameter. This gives rise to a finite temperature phase transition. Effect of quantum fluctuations are studied through linear spin wave approximation and high temperature expansions of the $S=1/2$ model. For $J_3$ between $\frac14|J_1|$ and $\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}4|J_1|$, the ground state goes through a succession of semi-spiral states, possibly giving rise to multiple phase transitions at low temperatures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Effect of perturbations on the kagome $S=1/2$ antiferromagnet at all temperatures

The ground state of the $S=1/2$ kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet is now recognized as a spin liquid, but its precise nature remains unsettled, even if more and more clues point towards a gapless spin liquid. We use high temperature series expansions (HTSE) to extrapolate the specific heat $c_V(T)$ and the magnetic susceptibility $χ(T)$ over the full temperature range, using an improved entropy method with a self-determination of the ground state energy per site $e_0$. Optimized algorithms give the HTSE coefficients up to unprecedented orders (20 in $1/T$) and as exact functions of the magnetic field. Three extrapolations are presented for different low-$T$ behaviors of $c_V$: exponential (for a gapped system), linear or quadratic (for two different types of gapless spin liquids). We study the effects of various perturbations to the Heisenberg Hamiltonian: Ising anisotropy, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, second and third neighbor interactions, and randomly distributed magnetic vacancies. We propose an experimental determination of $χ(T=0)$, which could be non zero, from $c_V$ measurements under different magnetic fields.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Chiral spin liquid on kagome antiferromagnet induced by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

The quantum spin liquid material herbertsmithite is described by an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice with non-negligible Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction~(DMI). A well established phase transition to the $\mathbf q=0$ long-range order occurs in this model when the DMI strength increases, but the precise nature of a small-DMI phase remains controversial. Here, we describe a new phase obtained from Schwinger-boson mean-field theory that is stable at small DMI, and which can explain the dispersionless spectrum seen in inelastic neutron scattering experiment by Han et al (Nature (London) 492, 406 (2012)}). It is a time-reversal symmetry breaking $\mathbb Z_2$ spin liquid, with the unique property of a small and constant spin gap in an extended region of the Brillouin zone. The phase diagram as a function of DMI and spin size is given, and dynamical spin structure factors are presented.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Confidence and efficiency scaling in Variational Quantum Monte Carlo calculations

Based on the central limit theorem, we discuss the problem of evaluation of the statistical error of Monte Carlo calculations using a time discretized diffusion process. We present a robust and practical method to determine the effective variance of general observables and show how to verify the equilibrium hypothesis by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. We then derive scaling laws of the efficiency illustrated by Variational Monte Carlo calculations on the two dimensional electron gas.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2015

Gapless chiral spin liquid in a kagome Heisenberg model

Motivated by recent experiments on the Heisenberg S=1/2 quantum spin liquid candidate material kapellasite, we classify all possible chiral (time-reversal symmetry breaking) spin liquids with fermionic spinons on the kagome lattice. We obtain the phase diagram for the physically relevant extended Heisenberg model, comparing the energies of a wide range of microscopic variational wave functions. We propose that, at low temperature, kapellasite exhibits a gapless chiral spin liquid phase with spinon Fermi surfaces. This two-dimensional state inherits many properties of the nearby one-dimensional phase of decoupled anti-ferromagnetic spin chains, but also shows some remarkable differences. We discuss the spin structure factors and other physical properties.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Hartree-Fock Ground State Phase Diagram of Jellium

We calculate the ground state phase diagram of the homogeneous electron gas in three dimensions within the Hartree-Fock approximation and show that broken symmetry states are energetically favored at any density against the homogeneous Fermi gas state with isotropic Fermi surface. At high density, we find metallic spin-unpolarized solutions where electronic charge and spin density form an incommensurate crystal having more crystal sites than electrons. For $r_s \to 0$, our solutions approach pure spin-density waves, whereas the commensurate Wigner crystal is favored at lower densities, $r_s > 3.4$. Decreasing the density, the system undergoes several structural phase transitions with different lattice symmetries. The polarization transition occurs around $r_s \approx 8.5$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

The kagome antiferromagnet: a chiral topological spin liquid ?

Inspired by the recent discovery of a new instability towards a chiral phase of the classical Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice, we propose a specific chiral spin liquid that reconciles different, well-established results concerning both the classical and quantum models. This proposal is analyzed in an extended mean-field Schwinger boson framework encompassing time reversal symmetry breaking phases which allows both a classical and a quantum phase description. At low temperatures, we find quantum fluctuations favor this chiral phase, which is stable against small perturbations of second and third neighbor interactions. For spin-1/2 this phase may be, beyond mean-field, a chiral gapped spin liquid. Such a phase is consistent with Density Matrix Renormalization Group results of Yan et al. (Science 322, 1173 (2011)). Mysterious features of the low lying excitations of exact diagonalization spectra also find an explanation in this framework. Moreover, thermal fluctuations compete with quantum ones and induce a transition from this flux phase to a planar zero flux phase at a non zero value of the renormalized temperature (T/S^2), reconciling these results with those obtained for the classical system.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

The momentum distribution of the homogeneous electron gas

We calculate the off-diagonal density matrix of the homogeneous electron gas at zero temperature using unbiased Reptation Monte Carlo for various densities and extrapolate the momentum distribution, and the kinetic and potential energies to the thermodynamic limit. Our results on the renormalization factor allows us to validate approximate G_0W_0 calculations concerning quasiparticle properties over a broad density region (1 <= r_s <= 10) and show that near the Fermi surface, vertex corrections and self-consistency aspects almost cancel each other out.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Finite-size analysis of the Fermi liquid properties of the homogeneous electron gas

We analyze the extrapolation to the thermodynamic limit of Fermi liquid properties of the homogeneous electron gas in two and three dimensions. Using field theory, we explicitly calculate finite-size effects of the total energy, the renormalization factor, and the effective mass at the Fermi surface within the random phase approximation (RPA) and discuss the validity for general metallic systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Renormalization factor and effective mass of the two-dimensional electron gas

We calculate the momentum distribution of the Fermi liquid phase of the homogeneous, two-dimensional electron gas. We show that, close to the Fermi surface, the momentum distribution of a finite system with $N$ electrons approaches its thermodynamic limit slowly, with leading order corrections scaling as $N^{-1/4}$. These corrections dominate the extrapolation of the renormalization factor, $Z$, and the single particle effective mass, $m^*$, to the infinite system size. We show how convergence can be improved analytically. In the range $1 \le r_s \le 10$, we get a lower renormalization factor $Z$ and a higher effective mass, $m^*>m$, compared to the perturbative RPA values.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Specific heat of the S=1/2 Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice: high-temperature series expansion analysis

We compute specific heat of the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice. We use a recently introduced technique to analyze high-temperature series expansion based on the knowledge of high-temperature series expansions, the total entropy of the system and the low-temperature expected behavior of the specific heat as well as the ground-state energy. In the case of kagome-lattice antiferromagnet, this method predicts a low-temperature peak at T/J<0.1.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Many-body wavefunctions for normal liquid $^3$He

We present new trial wave-functions which include 3-body correlations into the backflow coordinates and a 4-body symmetric potential. We show that our wavefunctions lower the energy enough to stabilize the ground state energies of normal liquid $^3$He in the unpolarized state at all pressures in agreement with experiment; however, quantitative discrepancies remain. Further, we include strong spin coupling into the Fermi liquid by adapting pairing wave functions. We demonstrate a new, numerically stable method to evaluate pairing functions which is also useful for Path Integrals calculations at low, but non-zero temperatures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2004

Optimized Periodic Coulomb Potential in Two Dimension

The 1/r Coulomb potential is calculated for a two dimensional system with periodic boundary conditions. Using polynomial splines in real space and a summation in reciprocal space we obtain numerically optimized potentials which allow us efficient calculations of any periodic (long-ranged) potential up to high precision. We discuss the parameter space of the optimized potential for the periodic Coulomb potential. Compared to the analytic Ewald potential, the optimized potentials can reach higher precisions by up to several orders of magnitude. We explicitly give simple expressions for fast calculations of the periodic Coulomb potential where the summation in reciprocal space is reduced to a few terms.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2000

Magneto-thermodynamics of the spin-1/2 Kagome antiferromagnet

In this paper, we use a new hybrid method to compute the thermodynamic behavior of the spin-1/2 Kagome antiferromagnet under the influence of a large external magnetic field. We find a T^2 low-temperature behavior and a very low sensitivity of the specific heat to a strong external magnetic field. We display clear evidence that this low temperature magneto-thermal effect is associated to the existence of low-lying fluctuating singlets, but also that the whole picture (T^2 behavior of Cv and thermally activated spin susceptibility) implies contribution of both non magnetic and magnetic excitations. Comparison with experiments is made.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1998

Spin-Liquid phase of the Multiple-Spin Exchange Hamiltonian on the Triangular Lattice

We performed an exact diagonalization study of the spin liquid phase of the Multiple-Spin Exchange model on the triangular lattice. It is characterized by no Neel Long Range Order (NLRO), short-ranged magnetic correlations and a spin gap. We found no LRO in any local order parameter we investigated (chiral, dimer,...). The probable asymptotic ground state degeneracy is discussed. We argue that it could be of topological origin and that the system is probably not a chiral spin liquid. A possible relation to the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) phase is discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗