Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

D. M. Kennes

Publications and source records attributed to D. M. Kennes.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Absence of dissipationless transport in clean 2D superconductors

Dissipationless charge transport is one of the defining properties of superconductors (SC). The interplay between dimensionality and disorder in determining the onset of dissipation in SCs remains an open theoretical and experimental problem. In this work, we present measurements of the dissipation phase diagrams of SCs in the two dimensional (2D) limit, layer by layer, down to a monolayer in the presence of temperature (T), magnetic field (B), and current (I) in 2H-NbSe2. Our results show that the phase-diagram strongly depends on the SC thickness even in the 2D limit. At four layers we can define a finite region in the I-B phase diagram where dissipationless transport exists at T=0. At even smaller thicknesses, this region shrinks in area. In a monolayer, we find that the region of dissipationless transport shrinks towards a single point, defined by T=B=I=0. In applied field, we show that time-dependent-Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) simulations that describe dissipation by vortex motion, qualitatively reproduce our experimental I-B phase diagram. Last, we show that by using non-local transport and TDGL calculations that we can engineer charge flow and create phase boundaries between dissipative and dissipationless transport regions in a single sample, demonstrating control over non-equilibrium states of matter.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Effective metal-insulator non-equilibrium quantum phase transition

We consider the steady state behavior of observables in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and in the one dimensional transverse field quantum Ising model after a sudden quantum quench of the parameter controlling the gap. In the thermodynamic limit, and for times $t\rightarrow\infty$, we find non-analyticities even in simple local observables as a function of the quench parameter, that is, a non-equilibrium quantum phase transition. We trace the appearance of this non-equilibrium quantum phase transition to an effective metal-insulator transition which occurs on the level of the generalized Gibbs Ensemble (describing the steady-state of the equilibrated system). Studying whether these transitions are robust, we find, in the paradigmatic case of the SSH model, that they persist for both quantum quench protocols of finite duration in time as well as thermal initial states, while they are washed out in the presence of fermion-fermion interactions and for finite system size.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Many-Body Localization in Two Dimensions from Projected Entangled-Pair States

Using projected entangled-pair states (PEPS) we analyze the localization properties of two-dimensional systems on a square lattice. We compare the dynamics found for three different disorder types: (i) quenched disorder, (ii) sum of two quasi-periodic potentials along both spatial dimensions and (iii) a single quasi-periodic potential rotated with respect to the underlying lattice by a given angle. We establish the rate of loss of information, a quantity measuring the error made while simulating the dynamics, as a good hallmark of localization physics by comparing to entanglement build-up as well as the inverse participation ratio in exactly solvable limits. We find that the disorder strength needed to localize the system increases both with the dimensionality of as well as the interaction strength in the system. The first two cases of potential (i) and (ii) behave similar, while case (iii) requires larger disorder strength to localize.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Controlling Dynamical Quantum Phase Transitions

We study the dynamics arising from a double quantum quench where the parameters of a given Hamiltonian are abruptly changed from being in an equilibrium phase A to a different phase B and back (A$\to$B$\to$A). As prototype models, we consider the (integrable) transverse field Ising as well as the (non-integrable) ANNNI model. The return amplitude features non-analyticities after the first quench through the equilibrium quantum critical point (A$\to$B), which is routinely taken as a signature of passing through a so-called dynamical quantum phase transition. We demonstrate that non-analyticities after the second quench (B$\to$A) can be avoided and reestablished in a recurring manner upon increasing the time $T$ spent in phase B. The system retains an infinite memory of its past state, and one has the intriguing opportunity to control at will whether or not dynamical quantum phase transitions appear after the second quench.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Floquet Engineering in Quantum Chains

We consider a one-dimensional interacting spinless fermion model, which displays the well-known Luttinger liquid (LL) to charge density wave (CDW) transition as a function of the ratio between the strength of the interaction, $U$, and the hopping, $J$. We subject this system to a spatially uniform drive which is ramped up over a finite time interval and becomes time-periodic in the long time limit. We show that by using a density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) approach formulated for infinite system sizes, we can access the large-time limit even when the drive induces finite heating. When both the initial and long-time states are in the gapless (LL) phase, the final state has power law correlations for all ramp speeds. However, when the initial and final state are gapped (CDW phase), we find a pseudothermal state with an effective temperature that depends on the ramp rate, both for the Magnus regime in which the drive frequency is very large compared to other scales in the system and in the opposite limit where the drive frequency is less than the gap. Remarkably, quantum defects (instantons) appear when the drive tunes the system through the quantum critical point, in a realization of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Evidence of an improper displacive phase transition in Cd$_2$Re$_2$O$_7$ via time-resolved coherent phonon spectroscopy

We have used a combination of ultrafast coherent phonon spectroscopy, ultrafast thermometry, and time-dependent Landau theory to study the inversion symmetry breaking phase transition at $T_c = 200$ K in the strongly spin-orbit coupled correlated metal Cd$_2$Re$_2$O$_7$. We establish that the structural distortion at $T_c$ is a secondary effect through the absence of any softening of its associated phonon mode, which supports a purely electronically driven mechanism. However, the phonon lifetime exhibits an anomalously strong temperature dependence that decreases linearly to zero near $T_c$. We show that this behavior naturally explains the spurious appearance of phonon softening in previous Raman spectroscopy experiments and should be a prevalent feature of correlated electron systems with linearly coupled order parameters.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Non-monotonic response and light-cone freezing in gapless-to-(partially) gapped quantum quenches of fermionic systems

The properties of prototypical examples of one-dimensional fermionic systems undergoing a sudden quantum quench from a gapless state to a (partially) gapped state are analyzed. By means of a Generalized Gibbs Ensemble analysis or by numerical solutions in the interacting cases, we observe an anomalous, non-monotonic response of steady state correlation functions as a function of the strength of the mechanism opening the gap. In order to interpret this result, we calculate the full dynamical evolution of these correlation functions, which shows a freezing of the propagation of the quench information (light cone) for large quenches. We argue that this freezing is responsible for the non-monotonous behaviour of observables. In continuum non-interacting models, this freezing can be traced back to a Klein-Gordon equation in the presence of a source term. We conclude by arguing in favour of the robustness of the phenomenon in the cases of non-sudden quenches and higher dimensionality.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Transport through Periodically Driven Correlated Quantum Wires

We study correlated quantum wires subject to harmonic modulation of the onsite-potential concentrating on the limit of large times, where the response of the system has synchronized with the drive. We identify the ratio $Δε/Ω$ of the driving amplitude $Δε$ and the frequency of driving $Ω$ as the scale determining the crossover from a modified Luttinger liquid picture to a system that behaves effectively like a higher dimensional one. We exemplify this crossover by studying the frequency dependency of the boundary density of state $ρ_{\rm B}(ω)$ as well as the temperature dependency of the linear conductance $G(T)$ through the wire, if the latter is contacted to leads. Both observables are known to exhibit Luttinger liquid physics without driving given by characteristic power-law suppression as $ω\toε_{\rm F}$ (with $ε_{\rm F}$ the Fermi energy) or $T\to 0$, respectively. With driving we find that this suppression is modified from a single power-law to a superposition of an infinite number of power laws. At small $Δε/Ω\ll 1$ only a few terms of this infinite sum are relevant as the prefactors of higher terms are suppressed exponentially. Thus a picture similar to the equilibrium Luttinger liquid one emerges. Increasing $Δε/Ω$ an increasing number of power laws contribute to the sum and approaching $Δε/Ω\gg 1$ the system behaves effectively two dimensional, for which the suppression is wiped out completely.

cond-mat.str-el↗

The Adiabatically Deformed Ensemble: Engineering Non-Thermal States of Matter

We propose a route towards engineering non-thermal states of matter, which show largely unexplored physics. The main idea relies on the adiabatic passage of a thermal ensemble under slow variations of the system Hamiltonian. If the temperature of the initial thermal ensemble is either zero or infinite the ensemble after the passage is a simple thermal one with the same vanishing or infinite temperature. However, for any finite non-zero temperature intriguing non-thermal ensembles can be achieved. We exemplify this in: (a) a single oscillator (b) a dimerized interacting one dimensional chain of spinless fermions, (c) a BCS-type superconductor and (d) the topological Kitaev chain. We solve these models with a combination of methods; either exactly, numerically using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) or within an approximate functional renormalization group (FRG) scheme. The designed states show strongly non-thermal behavior in each of the considered models. For example, for the chain of spinless fermions we exemplify how long ranged non-thermal power-law correlations can be stabilized and for the Kitaev chain we elucidate how the non-thermal ensemble can largely alter the transition temperature separating topological and trivial phases.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Small quenches and thermalization

We study the expectation values of observables and correlation functions at long times after a global quantum quench. Our focus is on metallic (`gapless') fermionic many-body models and small quenches. The system is prepared in an eigenstate of an initial Hamiltonian, and the time evolution is performed with a final Hamiltonian which differs from the initial one in the value of one global parameter. We first derive general relations between time-averaged expectation values of observables as well as correlation functions and those obtained in an eigenstate of the final Hamiltonian. Our results are valid to linear and quadratic order in the quench parameter g and generalize prior insights in several essential ways. This allows us to develop a phenomenology for the thermalization of local quantities up to a given order in g. Our phenomenology is put to a test in several case studies of one-dimensional models representative of four distinct classes of Hamiltonians: quadratic ones, effectively quadratic ones, those characterized by an extensive set of (quasi-) local integrals of motion, and those for which no such set is known (and believed to be nonexistent). We show that for each of these models, all observables and correlation functions thermalize to linear order in g. The more local a given quantity, the longer the linear behavior prevails when increasing g. Typical local correlation functions and observables for which the term O(g) vanishes thermalize even to order g^2. Our results show that lowest order thermalization of local observables is an ubiquitous phenomenon even in models with extensive sets of integrals of motion.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Thermal conductivity of the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model

We study the thermal conductivity of the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model at finite temperature using a density matrix renormalization group approach. The integrability of this model gives rise to ballistic thermal transport. We calculate the temperature dependence of the thermal Drude weight at half filling for various interactions and moreover, we compute its filling dependence at infinite temperature. The finite-frequency contributions originating from the fact that the energy current is not a conserved quantity are investigated as well. We report evidence that breaking the integrability through a nearest-neighbor interaction leads to vanishing Drude weights and diffusive energy transport. Moreover, we demonstrate that energy spreads ballistically in local quenches with initially inhomogeneous energy density profiles in the integrable case. We discuss the relevance of our results for thermalization in ultra-cold quantum gas experiments and for transport measurements with quasi-one dimensional materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Entanglement scaling of excited states in large one-dimensional many-body localized systems

We study the properties of excited states in one-dimensional many-body localized (MBL) systems using a matrix product state algorithm. First, the method is tested for a large disordered non-interacting system, where for comparison we compute a quasi-exact reference solution via a Monte Carlo sampling of the single-particle levels. Thereafter, we present extensive data obtained for large interacting systems of L~100 sites and large bond dimensions chi~1700, which allows us to quantitatively analyze the scaling behavior of the entanglement S in the system. The MBL phase is characterized by a logarithmic growth (L)~log(L) over a large scale separating the regimes where volume and area laws hold. We check the validity of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. Our results are consistent with the existence of a mobility edge.

cond-mat.str-el↗

The Ohmic two-state system from the perspective of the interacting resonant level model: Thermodynamics and transient dynamics

We investigate the thermodynamics and transient dynamics of the (unbiased) Ohmic two-state system by exploiting the equivalence of this model to the interacting resonant level model. For the thermodynamics, we show, by using the numerical renormalization group (NRG) method, how the universal specific heat and susceptibility curves evolve with increasing dissipation strength, $α$, from those of an isolated two-level system at vanishingly small dissipation strength, with the characteristic activated-like behavior in this limit, to those of the isotropic Kondo model in the limit $α\to 1^{-}$. For the transient dynamics of the two-level system, $P(t)=\langle σ_{z}(t)\rangle$, with initial-state preparation $P(t\leq0)=+1$, we apply the time-dependent extension of the NRG (TDNRG) to the interacting resonant level model, and compare the results obtained with those from the noninteracting-blip approximation (NIBA), the functional renormalization group (FRG), and the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (TD-DMRG). We demonstrate excellent agreement on short to intermediate time scales between TDNRG and TD-DMRG for $0\lesssimα\lesssim 0.9$ for $P(t)$, and between TDNRG and FRG in the vicinity of $α=1/2$. Furthermore, we quantify the error in the NIBA for a range of $α$, finding significant errors in the latter even for $0.1\leq α\leq 0.4$. We also briefly discuss why the long-time errors in the present formulation of the TDNRG prevents an investigation of the crossover between coherent and incoherent dynamics. Our results for $P(t)$ at short to intermediate times could act as useful benchmarks for the development of new techniques to simulate the transient dynamics of spin-boson problems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Current noise of the interacting resonant level model

We study the zero-frequency current noise of the interacting resonant level model for arbitrary bias voltages using a functional renormalization group approach. For this we extend the existing nonequilibrium scheme by deriving and solving flow equations for the current-vertex functions. On-resonance artificial divergences of the latter found in lowest-order perturbation theory in the two-particle interaction are consistently removed. Away from resonance they are shifted to higher orders. This allows us to gain a comprehensive picture of the current noise in the scaling limit. At high bias voltages, the current noise exhibits a universal power-law decay, whose exponent is to leading order in the interaction identical to that of the current. The effective charge on resonance is analyzed in detail employing properties of the vertex correction. We find that it is only modified to second or higher order in the two-particle interaction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Renormalization in periodically driven quantum dots

We report on strong renormalization encountered in periodically driven interacting quantum dots in the non-adiabatic regime. Correlations between lead and dot electrons enhance or suppress the amplitude of driving depending on the sign of the interaction. Employing a newly developed flexible renormalization group based approach for periodic driving to an interacting resonant level we show analytically that the magnitude of this effect follows a power law. Our setup can act as a non-Markovian, single-parameter quantum pump.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Spin and thermal conductivity of quantum spin ladders

We study the spin and thermal conductivity of spin-1/2 ladders at finite temperature. This is relevant for experiments with quantum magnets. Using a state-of-the-art density matrix renormalization group algorithm, we compute the current autocorrelation functions on the real-time axis and then carry out a Fourier integral to extract the frequency dependence of the corresponding conductivities. The finite-time error is analyzed carefully. We first investigate the limiting case of spin-1/2 XXZ chains, for which our analysis suggests non-zero dc-conductivities in all interacting cases irrespective of the presence or absence of spin Drude weights. For ladders, we observe that all models studied are normal conductors with no ballistic contribution. Nonetheless, only the high-temperature spin conductivity of XX ladders has a simple diffusive, Drude-like form, while Heisenberg ladders exhibit a more complicated low-frequency behavior. We compute the dc spin conductivity down to temperatures of the order of T~0.5J, where J is the exchange coupling along the legs of the ladder. We further extract mean-free paths and discuss our results in relation to thermal conductivity measurements on quantum magnets.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Transport properties of the one-dimensional Hubbard model at finite temperature

We study finite-temperature transport properties of the one-dimensional Hubbard model using the density matrix renormalization group. Our aim is two-fold: First, we compute both the charge and the spin current correlation function of the integrable model at half filling. The former decays rapidly, implying that the corresponding Drude weight is either zero or very small. Second, we calculate the optical charge conductivity sigma(omega) in presence of small integrability-breaking next-nearest neighbor interactions (the extended Hubbard model). The DC conductivity is finite and diverges as the temperature is decreased below the gap. Our results thus suggest that the half-filled, gapped Hubbard model is a normal charge conductor at finite temperatures. As a testbed for our numerics, we compute sigma(omega) for the integrable XXZ spin chain in its gapped phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗