arXiv subjects

C. J. Bolech

Publications and source records attributed to C. J. Bolech.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Nature of the zero-bias conductance peak associated with Majorana bound states in topological phases of semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures

Rashba spin-orbit coupled semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures in the presence of Zeeman splitting have emerged as the first experimentally realizable topological superconductor supporting zero-energy Majorana bound states. However, recent experimental studies in these hybrid structures are not in complete agreement with the theoretical predictions, for example, the observed height of the zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP) associated with the Majorana bound states is less than 10% of the predicted quantized value 2e^2/h. We try to understand the sources of various discrepancies between the recent experiments and the earlier theories by starting from a microscopic theory and studying non-equilibrium transport in these systems at arbitrary temperatures and applied bias voltages. Our approach involves quantum Langevin equations and non-equilibrium Green's functions. Here we are able to model the tunnel coupling between the one-dimensional semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structure and the metallic leads realistically; study the role of tunnel coupling on the height of the ZBCP and the subgap conductance; predict the nature of the splitting of the ZBCP with an increasing magnetic field beyond the critical field; show the behavior of the ZBCP with an increasing gate-controlled onsite potential; and study the evolution of the full differential conductance across the topological quantum phase transition. When the applied magnetic field is quite large compared to the Rashba splitting and the bulk energy gap is much reduced, we find the ZBCP even for an onsite potential much larger than the applied magnetic field. The height of the corresponding ZBCP depends on the tunnel coupling even at zero temperature and can be much smaller than 2e^2/h.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Universal out-of-equilibrium Transport in Kondo-correlated quantum dots: Renormalized dual Fermions on the Keldysh contour

The nonlinear conductance of semiconductor heterostructures and single molecule devices exhibiting Kondo physics has recently attracted attention. We address the observed sample dependence of the measured steady state transport coefficients by considering additional electronic contributions in the effective low-energy model underlying these experiments that are absent in particle-hole symmetric setups. A novel version of the superperturbation theory of Hafermann et al. in terms of dual fermions is developed, which correctly captures the low-temperature behavior. We compare our results with the measured transport coefficients.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Numerical Simulation of the Nernst Effect in Extreme Type-II Superconductors: A Negative Nernst Signal and its Noise Power Spectra

Recently, different transport coefficients have been measured in High-Tc superconductors to pinpoint the nature of the pseudogap phase. In particular, the thermoelectric coefficients received a considerable attention both theoretically and experimentally. We numerically simulate the Nernst effect in extreme type-II superconductors using the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations. We report the sign reversal of the thermoelectric coefficient, alpha_xy, at temperatures close to the mean-field transition temperature, Tc^{MF}(H), which qualitatively agrees with recent experiments on high-Tc materials. We also discuss the noise power spectrum of alpha_xy, which shows 1/f^beta behavior. Based on this observation, we propose an experiment to distinguish among different regimes of vortex dynamics by measuring the noise correlations of the Nernst signal.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Long-time behavior of the momentum distribution during the sudden expansion of a spin-imbalanced Fermi gas in one dimension

We study the sudden expansion of spin-imbalanced ultracold lattice fermions with attractive interactions in one dimension after turning off the longitudinal confining potential. We show that the momentum distribution functions of majority and minority fermions approach stationary values quickly due to a quantum distillation mechanism that results in a spatial separation of pairs and majority fermions. As a consequence, Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) correlations are lost during the expansion. Furthermore, we argue that the shape of the stationary momentum distribution functions can be understood by relating them to the integrals of motion in this integrable quantum system. We discuss our results in the context of proposals to observe FFLO correlations, related to recent experiments by Liao et al., Nature 467, 567 (2010).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Oscillatory pairing amplitude and magnetic compressible-incompressible transitions in imbalanced fermionic superfluids in optical lattices of elongated tubes

We study two-species fermion gases with attractive interaction in two-dimensional optical lattices producing an array of elongated tube confinements. Focusing on the interplay of Cooper pairing, spin imbalance (or magnetization) and intertube tunneling, we find the pairing gap can exhibit oscillatory behavior both along and across the tubes, reminiscent of a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase. We obtain a Bose-Hubbard-like phase diagram that shows that the magnetization of the system undergoes an incompressible-compressible transition as a function of magnetic field and intertube tunneling strength. We find the parity of tube-filling imbalance in incompressible states is protected by that of the oscillatory pairing gap. Finally, we discuss signatures of this transition and thus (indirectly) of the FFLO pairing in cold atom experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Majorana fermions in an out-of-equilibrium topological superconducting wire: an exact microscopic transport analysis of a p-wave open chain coupled to normal leads

Topological superconductors are prime candidates for the implementation of topological-quantum-computation ideas because they can support non-Abelian excitations like Majorana fermions. We go beyond the low-energy effective-model descriptions of Majorana bound states (MBSs), to derive non-equilibrium transport properties of wire geometries of these systems in the presence of arbitrarily large applied voltages. Our approach involves quantum Langevin equations and non-equilibrium Green's functions. By virtue of a full microscopic calculation we are able to model the tunnel coupling between the superconducting wire and the metallic leads realistically; study the role of high-energy non-topological excitations; predict how the behavior compares for increasing number of odd vs. even number of sites; and study the evolution across the topological quantum phase transition (QPT). We find that the normalized spectral weight in the MBSs can be remarkably large and goes to zero continuously at the topological QPT. Our results have concrete implications for the experimental search and study of MBSs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Expansion of 1D polarized superfluids: The FFLO state reveals itself

We study the expansion dynamics of a one dimensional polarized Fermi gas after sudden release from confinement using both the mean-field Bogoliubov-de Gennes and the numerically exact Time-Evolving Block Decimation methods. Our results show that experimentally observable spin density modulations directly related to the presence of a Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state develop during the expansion of the cloud, providing incontrovertible evidence of this long-sought state.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Bogoliubov-de Gennes study of trapped spin-imbalanced unitary Fermi gases

It is quite common that several different phases exist simultaneously in a system of trapped quantum gases of ultra-cold atoms. One such example is the strongly-interacting Fermi gas with two imbalanced spin species, which has received a great amount of attention due to the possible presence of exotic superfluid phases. By employing novel numerical techniques and algorithms, we self-consistently solve the Bogoliubov de-Gennes equations, which describe Fermi superfluids in the mean-field framework. From this study, we investigate the novel phases of spin-imbalanced Fermi gases and examine the validity of the local density approximation (LDA), which is often invoked in the extraction of bulk properties from experimental measurements within trapped systems. We show how the validity of the LDA is affected by the trapping geometry, number of atoms and spin imbalance.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Concomitant Modulated Superfluidity In Polarized Fermionic Gases

Recent groundbreaking experiments studying the effects of spin polarization on pairing in unitary Fermi gases encountered mutual qualitative and quantitative discrepancies which seem to be a function of the confining geometry. Using novel numerical algorithms we study the solution space for a 3-dimensional fully self-consistent formulation of realistic systems with up to $10^{5}$ atoms. A study of the three types of solutions obtained demonstrates a tendency towards metastability as the confining geometry is elongated. One of these solutions, which is consistent with Rice experiments at high trap aspect ratio, supports a state strikingly similar to the long sought Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state. Our study helps to resolve the long-standing controversy concerning the discrepancies between the findings from two different experimental groups and highlights the versatility of actual-size numerical calculations for investigating inhomogeneous fermionic superfluids.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Dissipative Transport of Trapped Bose-Einstein Condensates through Disorder

After almost half a century since the work of Anderson [Phys. Rev. {\bf 109}, 1492 (1958)], at present there is no well established theoretical framework for understanding the dynamics of interacting particles in the presence of disorder. Here, we address this problem for interacting bosons near $T=0$, a situation that has been realized in trapped atomic experiments with an optical speckle disorder. We develop a theoretical model for understanding the hydrodynamic transport of \emph{finite-size} Bose-Einstein condensates through disorder potentials. The goal has been to set up a simple model that will retain all the richness of the system, yet provide analytic expressions, allowing deeper insight into the physical mechanism. Comparison of our theoretical predictions with the experimental data on large-amplitude dipole oscillations of a condensate in an optical-speckle disorder shows striking agreement. We are able to quantify various dissipative regimes of slow and fast damping. Our calculations provide a clear evidence of reduction in disorder strength due to interactions. The analytic treatment presented here allows us to predict the power law governing the interaction dependance of damping. The corresponding exponents are found to depend sensitively on the dimensionality and are in excellent agreement with experimental observations. Thus, the adeptness of our model, to correctly capture the essential physics of dissipation in such transport experiments, is established.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2008

Paired states in spin-imbalanced atomic Fermi gases in one dimension

A growing expertise to engineer, manipulate and probe different cold-atom analogs of electronic condensed matter systems allows to probe properties of exotic pairing. We study paired states of spin-imbalanced ultracold atomic system of fermions with attractive short-range interactions in one-dimensional traps. Calculations are done using the Bethe Ansatz technique and the trap is incorporated into the solution via a local density approximation. The thermodynamic-Bethe-Ansatz equations are solved numerically and different local density profiles are calculated for zero and finite temperatures. A procedure to identify the homogeneous-system phase diagram using local density profiles in the trap is also proposed. Such scheme would be immediately useful for the experiments.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Bosonization approach to the mixed-valence two-channel Kondo problem

We present in detail the bosonization-refermionization solution of the anisotropic version of the two-channel Anderson model at a particular manifold in the space of parameters of the theory, where we establish an equivalence with a Fermi-Majorana bi-resonant level model. The correspondence is rigorously proved by explicitly constructing the new fermionic fields and Klein factors in terms of the original ones and showing that the commutation properties between original and new Klein factors are of semionic type. We also demonstrate that the fixed points associated to the solvable manifold are renormalization-group stable and generic, and therefore representative of the physics of the original model. The simplicity of the solution found, allows for the computation of the full set of thermodynamic quantities. In particular, we compute the entropy, occupation and magnetization of the impurity as functions of temperature, and identify the different physical energy scales. In absence of external fields, two energy scales appear and, as the temperature goes to zero, a non-trivial residual entropy indicates that the model approaches a universal line of fixed points of non-Fermi liquid type. An external field, even if small, introduces a third energy scale and causes the quenching of the impurity entropy to zero, taking the system to a corresponding Fermi-liquid fixed point.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Signatures of Strong Correlations in One-Dimensional Ultra-Cold Atomic Fermi Gases

Recent success in manipulating ultra-cold atomic systems allows to probe different strongly correlated regimes in one-dimension. Regimes such as the (spin-coherent) Luttinger liquid and the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid can be realized by tuning the inter-atomic interaction strength and trap parameters. We identify the noise correlations of density fluctuations as a robust observable (uniquely suitable in the context of trapped atomic gases) to discriminate between these two regimes. Finally, we address the prospects to realize and probe these phenomena experimentally using optical lattices.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

The Bose-Fermi Kondo model with a singular dissipative spectrum: Exact solutions and their implications

Quantum dissipation induces a critical destruction of a Kondo screened state, which is of interest in the contexts of quantum critical heavy fermion metals and magnetic nanostructures. The sub-ohmic Bose-Fermi Kondo model provides a setting to study this effect. We find that this many-body problem is exactly solvable when the spectrum of the dissipative bosonic bath, J(ω), is singular, corresponding to J(τ)=const.. We determine the local spin correlation functions, showing that the singular LONGITUDINAL fluctuations of the bosonic bath dominate over the transverse ones. Our results provide evidence that the local quantum critical solution, derived within the extended dynamical mean field approach to the Kondo lattice model, has a zero residual entropy.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Time-Loop Formalism for Irreversible Quantum Problems: Steady State Transport in Junctions with Asymmetric Dynamics

Non-unitary quantum mechanics has been used in the past to study irreversibility, dissipation and decay in a variety of physical systems. In this letter, we propose a general scheme to deal with systems governed by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. We argue that the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism gives a natural description for those problems. To elucidate the method, we study a simple model inspired by mesoscopic physics --an asymmetric junction. The system is governed by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian which captures essential aspects of irreversibility.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Observing Majorana Bound States in p-wave Superconductors Using Noise Measurements in Tunneling Experiments

The zero-energy bound states at the edges or vortex cores of chiral p-wave superconductors should behave like majorana fermions. We introduce a model Hamiltonian that describes the tunnelling process when electrons are injected into such states. Using a non-equilibrium green function formalism, we find exact analytic expressions for the tunnelling current and noise and identify experimental signatures of the majorana nature of the bound states to be found in the shot noise. We discuss the results in the context of different candidate materials that support triplet superconductivity. Experimental verification of the majorana character of midgap states would have important implications for the prospects of topological quantum computation.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2007

Proposal for a two-channel quantum dot setup: Prediction for the capacitance lineshape

We have made a detailed proposal for a two-channel quantum dot setup. The energy scales in the problem are such that we are able to make connection with the two-channel Anderson model, which, in spite of being well-known in the context of heavy-Fermion systems remained theoretically elusive until recently and lacked a mesoscopic realization. Verification of our precise and robust predictions for the differential capacitance lineshape of the dot will provide an experimental signature of the two-channel behavior.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Breakdown of the local density approximation in interacting systems of cold fermions in strongly anisotropic traps

We consider spin-polarized mixtures of cold fermionic atoms on the BEC side of the Feshbach resonance. We demonstrate that a strongly anisotropic confining potential can give rise to a double-peak structure in the axial distribution of the density difference and a polarization-dependent aspect ratio of the minority species. Both phenomena appear as a result of the breakdown of the local density approximation for the phase-separated regime. We speculate on the implications of our findings for the unitary regime.

cond-mat.str-el↗