arXiv subjects

Constantine Yannouleas

Publications and source records attributed to Constantine Yannouleas.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Two-point momentum correlations of few ultracold quasi-one-dimensional trapped fermions: Diffraction patterns

Spatial and momentum correlations are important in the analysis of the quantum states and different phases of trapped ultracold atom systems as a function of the strength of interatomic interactions. Identification and understanding of spin-resolved patterns exhibited in two-point correlations, accessible directly by experiments, are key for uncovering the symmetry and structure of the many-body wave functions of the trapped system. Using the configuration interaction method for exact diagonalization of the many-body Hamiltonian of $N=2-4$ fermionic atoms trapped in single, double, triple, and quadruple wells, we analyze both two-point momentum and space correlations, as well as associated noise distributions, for a broad range of interparticle contact repulsion strengths and interwell separations, unveiling characteristics allowing insights into the transition, via an intermediate phase, from the non-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate to the weakly interacting quasi-Bose-Einstein regime, and from the latter to the strong-repulsion Tonks-Girardeau (TG) one. The ab-initio numerical predictions are shown to agree well with the results of a constructed analytical model employing localized displaced Gaussian functions to represent the $N$ fermions. The two-point momentum correlations are found to exhibit damped oscillatory diffraction behavior. This diffraction behavior develops fully for atoms trapped in a single well with strong interatomic repulsion in the TG regime, or for atoms in well-separated multi-well traps. Additionally, the two-body momentum correlation and noise distributions are found to exhibit "shortsightedness", with the main contribution coming from nearest-neighboring particles.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Trial wave functions for ring-trapped ions and neutral atoms: Microscopic description of the quantum space-time crystal

A constructive theoretical platform for the description of quantum space-time crystals uncovers for $N$ interacting and ring-confined rotating particles the existence of low-lying states with proper space-time crystal behavior. The construction of the corresponding many-body trial wave functions proceeds first via symmetry breaking at the mean-field level followed by symmetry restoration using projection techniques. The ensuing correlated many-body wave functions are stationary states and preserve the rotational symmetries, and at the same time they reflect the point-group symmetries of the mean-field crystals. This behavior results in the emergence of sequences of select magic angular momenta $L_m$. For angular-momenta away from the magic values, the trial functions vanish. Symmetry breaking beyond mean field can be induced by superpositions of such good-$L_m$ many-body stationary states. We show that superposing a pair of adjacent magic angular momenta states leads to formation of special broken-symmetry states exhibiting quantum space-time-crystal behavior. In particular, the corresponding particle densities rotate around the ring, showing undamped and nondispersed periodic crystalline evolution in both space and time. The experimental synthesis of such quantum space-time-crystal wave packets is predicted to be favored in the vicinity of ground-state energy crossings of the Aharonov-Bohm-type spectra accessed via an externally applied magnetic field. These results are illustrated here for Coulomb-repelling fermionic ions and for a lump of contact-interaction attracting bosons.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Bottom-up configuration-interaction emulations of ultracold fermions in entangled optical plaquettes: building blocks of unconventional superconductivity

A microscopic configuration-interaction (CI) methodology is introduced to enable bottom-up Schroedinger-equation emulation of unconventional superconductivity in ultracold optical traps. We illustrate the method by exploring the properties of Lithium-6 atoms in a single square plaquette in the hole-pairing regime, and by analyzing the entanglement (symmetry-preserving) and disentanglement physics (via symmetry-breaking, associated with the separation of charge and spin density waves) of two coupled plaquettes in the same regime. The single-occupancy RVB states contribute only partially to the exact many-body solutions, and the CI results map onto a Hubbard Hamiltonian, but not onto the double-occupancy-excluding t-J one. For the double-plaquette case, effects brought about by breaking the symmetry between two weakly-interacting plaquettes, either by distorting, or by tilting and detuning, one of the plaquettes with respect to the other, as well as spectral changes caused by increased coupling between the two plaquettes, are explored.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Ultracold few fermionic atoms in needle-shaped double wells: spin chains and resonating spin clusters from microscopic Hamiltonians emulated via antiferromagnetic Heisenberg and t-J models

Advances with trapped ultracold atoms intensified interest in simulating complex physical phenomena, including quantum magnetism and transitions from itinerant to non-itinerant behavior. Here we show formation of antiferromagnetic ground states of few ultracold fermionic atoms in single and double well (DW) traps, through microscopic Hamiltonian exact diagonalization for two DW arrangements: (i) two linearly oriented one-dimensional, 1D, wells, and (ii) two coupled parallel wells, forming a trap of two-dimensional, 2D, nature. The spectra and spin-resolved conditional probabilities reveal for both cases, under strong repulsion, atomic spatial localization at extemporaneously created sites, forming quantum molecular magnetic structures with non-itinerant character. These findings usher future theoretical and experimental explorations into the highly-correlated behavior of ultracold strongly-repelling fermionic atoms in higher dimensions, beyond the fermionization physics that is strictly applicable only in the 1D case. The results for four atoms are well described with finite Heisenberg spin-chain and cluster models. The numerical simulations of three fermionic atoms in symmetric double wells reveal the emergent appearance of coupled resonating 2D Heisenberg clusters, whose emulation requires the use of a t-J-like model, akin to that used in investigations of high T$_c$ superconductivity. The highly entangled states discovered in the microscopic and model calculations of controllably detuned, asymmetric, double wells suggest three-cold-atom DW quantum computing qubits.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Quantum Wigner molecules in semiconductor quantum dots and cold-atom optical traps and their mathematical symmetries

Strong repelling interactions between a few fermions or bosons confined in two-dimensional circular traps lead to particle localization and formation of quantum Wigner molecules (QWMs) possessing definite point-group space symmetries. These point-group symmetries are "hidden" (or emergent), namely they cannot be traced in the circular single-particle densities (SPDs) associated with the exact many-body wave functions, but they are manifested as characteristic signatures in the ro-vibrational spectra. An example, among many, are the few-body QWM states under a high magnetic field or at fast rotation, which are precursor states for the fractional quantum Hall effect. The hidden geometric symmetries can be directly revealed by using spin-resolved conditional probability distributions, which are extracted from configuration-interaction (CI), exact-diagonalization wave functions. The hidden symmetries can also be revealed in the CI SPDs by reducing the symmetry of the trap (from circular to elliptic to quasi-linear). In addition the hidden symmetries are directly connected to the explicitly broken-symmetry (BS) solutions of mean-field approaches, such as unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF). A companion step of restoration of the broken symmetries via projection operators applied on the BS-UHF solutions produces wave functions directly comparable to the CI ones, and sheds further light into the role played by the emergence of hidden symmetries in the exact many-body wave functions. Illustrative examples of the importance of hidden symmetries in the many-body problem of few electrons in semiconductor quantum dots and of few ultracold atoms in optical traps (where unprecedented control of the interparticle interaction has been experimentally achieved recently) will be presented.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Double-well ultracold-fermions computational microscopy: Wave-function anatomy of attractive-pairing and Wigner-molecule entanglement and natural orbitals

"Bottom-up" approaches to the many-body physics of fermions have demonstrated recently precise number and site-resolved preparations with tunability of interparticle interactions in single-well, SW, and double-well, DW, nano-scale confinements created by manipulating ultracold fermionic atoms with optical tweezers. These experiments emulate an analogue-simulator mapping onto the requisite microscopic hamiltonian, approaching realization of Feynman's vision of quantum simulators that "will do exactly the same as nature". Here we report on exact benchmark configuration-interaction computational microscopy solutions of the hamiltonian, uncovering the spectral evolution, wave-function anatomy, and entanglement properties of the interacting fermions in the entire parameter range, including crossover from a SW to a DW confinement and a controllable energy imbalance between the wells. We demonstrate attractive pairing and formation of repulsive, highly-correlated, ultracold Wigner molecules, well-described in the natural orbital representation. The agreement with the measurements affirms the henceforth gained deep insights into ultracold molecules and opens access to the size-dependent evolution of nano-clustered and condensed-matter phases and ultracold-atoms quantum information.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Transport, Aharonov-Bohm, and Topological Effects in Graphene Molecular Junctions and Graphene Nanorings

The unique ultra-relativistic, massless, nature of electron states in two-dimensional extended graphene sheets, brought about by the honeycomb lattice arrangement of carbon atoms in two-dimensions, provides ingress to explorations of fundamental physical phenomena in graphene nanostructures. Here we explore the emergence of new behavior of electrons in atomically precise segmented graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) and graphene rings with the use of tight-binding calculations, non-equilibrium Green's function transport theory, and a newly developed Dirac continuum model that absorbs the valence-to-conductance energy gaps as position-dependent masses, including topological-in-origin mass-barriers at the contacts between segments. Through transport investigations in variable-width segmented GNRs with armchair, zigzag, and mixed edge terminations we uncover development of new Fabry-Perot-like interference patterns in segmented GNRs, a crossover from the ultra-relativistic massless regime, characteristic of extended graphene systems, to a massive relativistic behavior in narrow armchair GNRs, and the emergence of nonrelativistic behavior in zigzag-terminated GNRs. Evaluation of the electronic states in a polygonal graphene nanoring under the influence of an applied magnetic field in the Aharonov-Bohm regime, and their analysis with the use of a relativistic quantum-field theoretical model, unveils development of a topological-in-origin zero-energy soliton state and charge fractionization. These results provide a unifying framework for analysis of electronic states, coherent transport phenomena, and the interpretation of forthcoming experiments in segmented graphene nanoribbons and polygonal rings.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Interplay of relativistic and nonrelativistic transport in atomically precise segmented graphene nanoribbons

Graphene's isolation launched explorations of fundamental relativistic physics originating from the planar honeycomb lattice arrangement of the carbon atoms, and of potential technological applications in nanoscale electronics. Bottom-up fabricated atomically-precise segmented graphene nanoribbons, SGNRs, open avenues for studies of electrical transport, coherence, and interference effects in metallic, semiconducting, and mixed GNRs, with different edge terminations. Conceptual and practical understanding of electric transport through SGNRs is gained through nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) conductance calculations and a Dirac continuum model that absorbs the valence-to-conductance energy gaps as position-dependent masses, including topological-in-origin mass-barriers at the contacts between segments. The continuum model reproduces the NEGF results, including optical Dirac Fabry-Perot (FP) equidistant oscillations for massless relativistic carriers in metallic armchair SGNRs, and an unequally-spaced FP pattern for mixed armchair-zigzag SGNRs where carriers transit from a relativistic (armchair) to a nonrelativistic (zigzag) regime. This provides a unifying framework for analysis of coherent transport phenomena and interpretation of forthcoming experiments in SGNRs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Beyond the constant-mass Dirac physics: Solitons, charge fractionization, and the emergence of topological insulators in graphene rings

The doubly-connected polygonal geometry of planar graphene rings is found to bring forth topological configurations for accessing nontrivial relativistic quantum field (RQF) theory models that carry beyond the constant-mass Dirac-fermion theory. These include generation of sign-alternating masses, solitonic excitations, and charge fractionization. The work integrates a RQF Lagrangian formulation with numerical tight-binding Aharonov-Bohm electronic spectra and the generalized position-dependent-mass Dirac equation. In contrast to armchair graphene rings (aGRGs) with pure metallic arms, certain classes of aGRGs with semiconducting arms, as well as with mixed metallic-semiconducting ones, are shown to exhibit properties of one-dimensional nontrivial topological insulators. This further reveals an alternative direction for realizing a graphene-based nontrivial topological insulator through the manipulation of the honeycomb lattice geometry, without a spin-orbit contribution.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Shell-correction and orbital-free density-functional methods for finite systems

Orbital-free (OF) methods promise significant speed-up of computations based on density functional theory (DFT). In this field, the development of accurate kinetic-energy density functionals remains an open question. In this chapter we review the shell-correction method (SCM, commonly known as Strutinsky's averaging method) applied originally in nuclear physics and its more recent formulation in the context of DFT [Yannouleas and Landman, Phys. Rev. B 48, 8376 (1993)]. We demonstrate the DFT-SCM method through its earlier applications to condensed-matter finite systems, including metal clusters, fullerenes, and metal nanowires. The DFT-SCM incorporates quantum mechanical interference effects and thus offers an improvement compared to the use of Thomas-Fermi-type kinetic energy density functionals in OF-DFT.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Topological effects and particle-physics analogies beyond the massless Dirac-Weyl fermion in graphene nanorings

Armchair and zigzag edge terminations in planar hexagonal and trigonal graphene nanorings are shown to underlie one-dimensional topological states associated with distinctive energy gaps and patterns (e.g., linear dispersion of the energy of an hexagonal ring with an armchair termination versus parabolic dispersion for a zigzag terminated one) in the bands of the tight-binding spectra as a function of the magnetic field. A relativistic Dirac-Kronig-Penney model analysis of the tight-binding Aharonov-Bohm behavior reveals that the graphene quasiparticle in an armchair hexagonal ring is a condensed-matter realization of an ultrarelativistic fermion with a position-dependent mass term, akin to the zero-energy fermionic solitons with fractional charge familiar from quantum field theory and from the theory of polyacetylene. The topological origins of the above behavior are highlighted by contrasting it with the case of a trigonal armchair ring, where we find that the quasiparticle excitations behave as familiar Dirac fermions with a constant mass. Furthermore, the spectra of a zigzag hexagonal ring correspond to the low-kinetic-energy nonrelativistic regime of a leptonlike massive fermion. A onedimensional relativistic Lagrangian formalism coupling a fermionic and a scalar bosonic field via a Yukawa interaction, in conjunction with the breaking of the Z2 reflectional symmetry of the scalar field, is shown to unify the above dissimilar behaviors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Graphene flakes with defective edge terminations: Universal and topological aspects, and one-dimensional quantum behavior

Systematic tight-binding investigations of the electronic spectra (as a function of the magnetic field) are presented for trigonal graphene nanoflakes with reconstructed zigzag edges, where a succession of pentagons and heptagons, that is 5-7 defects, replaces the hexagons at the zigzag edge. For nanoflakes with such reczag defective edges, emphasis is placed on topological aspects and connections underlying the patterns dominating these spectra. The electronic spectra of trigonal graphene nanoflakes with reczag edge terminations exhibit certain unique features, in addition to those that are well known to appear for graphene dots with zigzag edge termination. These unique features include breaking of the particle-hole symmetry, and they are associated with nonlinear dispersion of the energy as a function of momentum, which may be interpreted as nonrelativistic behavior. The general topological features shared with the zigzag flakes include the appearance of energy gaps at zero and low magnetic fields due to finite size, the formation of relativistic Landau levels at high magnetic fields, and the presence between the Landau levels of edge states (the socalled Halperin states) associated with the integer quantum Hall effect. Topological regimes, unique to the reczag nanoflakes, appear within a stripe of negative energies E_b < E < 0, and along a separate feature forming a constant-energy line outside this stripe. The lower bound (E_b) specifying the energy stripe is independent of size. A main finding concerns the limited applicability of the continuous Dirac-Weyl equation, since the latter does not reproduce the special reczag features. (See also the extended abstract in the paper.)

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Patterns of the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in graphene nanorings

Using extensive tight-binding calculations, we investigate (including the spin) the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect in monolayer and bilayer trigonal and hexagonal graphene rings with zigzag boundary conditions. Unlike the previous literature, we demonstrate the universality of integer (hc/e) and half-integer (hc/2e) values for the period of the AB oscillations as a function of the magnetic flux, in consonance with the case of mesoscopic metal rings. Odd-even (in the number of Dirac electrons, N) sawtooth-type patterns relating to the halving of the period have also been found; they are more numerous for a monolayer hexagonal ring, compared to the cases of a trigonal and a bilayer hexagonal ring. Additional more complicated patterns are also present, depending on the shape of the graphene ring. Overall, the AB patterns repeat themselves as a function of N with periods proportional to the number of the sides of the rings.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Unified microscopic approach to the interplay of pinned-Wigner-solid and liquid behavior of lowest-Landau-level states in the neighborhood of nu=1/3

Motivated by recent experiments, and using the rotating-and-vibrating electron-molecule (RVEM) theory [Yannouleas and Landman, Phys. Rev. B 66, 115315 (2002); Phys. Rev. A 81, 023609 (2010)], in conjunction with exact diagonalization, we develop a unified microscopic approach for the interplay between liquid fractional-quantum-Hall-effect (FQHE) states and Wigner-solid states in the lowest Landau level (LLL) in the neighborhood of nu=1/3. Liquid characteristics of the FQHE states are associated with the symmetry-conserving rotations and vibrations of the electron molecule. Although the electron densities of the symmetry-conserving LLL states do not exhibit crystalline patterns, the intrinsic crystalline correlations are reflected in the conditional probability distributions and the emergence of cusp yrast states in the LLL spectra. It is shown that away from the exact fractional fillings, weak pinning perturbations (due to weak disorder) may overcome the energy gaps between adjacent global states and generate pinned broken symmetry ground states as a superposition of symmetry-conserving LLL states with different total angular momenta. The electron densities of such mixed states (without good angular momentum quantum numbers) exhibit oscillating patterns that correspond to molecular crystallites. These pinned Wigner crystallites represent finite-size precursors of the bulk Wigner-solid state. It is further shown that the emergence of these molecular crystallites is a consequence of the presence of RVEM components in the symmetry-conserving LLL states. In addition, it is shown that the RVEM approach accounts for the Wigner-solid state in the neighborhood of nu=1, which was also found in the experiments. We utilize results for sizes in a wide range from N=6 to N=29 electrons, and we address the extrapolation to the thermodynamic limit.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Unique nature of the lowest Landau level in finite graphene samples with zigzag edges: Dirac electrons with mixed bulk-edge character

Dirac electrons in finite graphene samples with zigzag edges under high magnetic fields (in the regime of Landau-level formation) are investigated with regard to their bulk-type and edge-type character. We employ tight-binding calculations on finite graphene flakes (with various shapes) to determine the sublattice components of the electron density in conjunction with analytic expressions (via the parabolic cylinder functions) of the relativistic-electron spinors that solve the continuous Dirac-Weyl equation for a semi-infinite graphene plane. Away from the sample edge, the higher Landau levels are found to comprise exclusively electrons of bulk-type character (for both sublattices); near the sample edge, these electrons are described by edge-type states similar to those familiar from the theory of the integer quantum Hall effect for nonrelativistic electrons. In contrast, the lowest (zero) Landau level contains relativistic Dirac electrons of a mixed bulk-edge character without an analog in the nonrelativistic case. It is shown that such mixed bulk-edge states maintain also in the case of a square flake with combined zigzag and armchair edges. Implications for the many-body correlated-electron behavior (relating to the fractional quantum Hall effect) in finite graphene samples are discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Comment on "Observation of a Pinning Mode in a Wigner Solid with nu=1/3 Fractional Quantum Hall Excitations"

A recent letter [H. Zhu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 126803 (2010)] reports the first measurements of a pinned mode in a Wigner solid at the (electronic) nu = 1/3 fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) filling. The authors suggest that an interpretation of their findings may be found within the interacting composite fermion (ICF) theory. However, to date there is no record reporting crystalline correlations for nu ~ 1/3 obtained from ICF theory, or related theories. We argue that an appropriate interpretation of these findings follows naturally from the rotating-Wigner-molecule approach, which (with inclusion of the rovibrational spectrum of the molecule) encompasses both the crystalline and liquid aspects in the FQHE regime (in particular for nu=1/3, as well as in its neighborhood created by deviations of nu from 1/3, as revealed experimentally).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

A fully quantal molecular description for the spectra of bosons and fermions in the lowest Landau level

Through the introduction of a class of appropriate translationally invariant trial wave functions, we show that the strong correlations in the lowest Landau level (LLL) reflect in finite systems the emergence of intrinsic point-group symmetries associated with rotations and vibrations of molecules formed through particle localization. This quantal molecular description is universal, being valid for both bosons and fermions, for both the yrast and excited states of the LLL spectra, and for both low and high angular momenta. "Quantum-fluid" physical pictures associated with Jastrow-type trial functions are shown to be reducible to the molecular description introduced in this paper.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Edge and bulk components of lowest-Landau-level orbitals, correlated fractional quantum Hall effect incompressible states, and insulating behavior in finite graphene samples

Many-body calculations of the total energy of interacting Dirac electrons in finite graphene samples exhibit joint occurrence of cusps at angular momenta corresponding to fractional fillings characteristic of formation of incompressible (gapped) correlated states (nu=1/3 in particular) and opening of an insulating energy gap (that increases with the magnetic field) at the Dirac point, in correspondence with experiments. Single-particle basis functions obeying the zigzag boundary condition at the sample edge are employed in exact diagonalization of the interelectron Coulomb interaction, showing, at all sizes, mixed equal-weight bulk and edge components. The consequent depletion of the bulk electron density attenuates the fractional-quantum-Hall-effect excitation energies and the edge charge accumulation results in a gap in the many-body spectrum.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗