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E. C. Marino

Publications and source records attributed to E. C. Marino.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2018

Screening and Topological Order in Thin Superconducting Films

We derive an effective two-dimensional low-energy theory for thin superconducting films coupled to a three-dimensional fluctuating electromagnetic field. Using this theory we discuss plasma oscil- lations, interactions between charges and vortices and extract the energy of a vortex. Having found that the effective theory properly describes the long distance physics, we then use it to investigate to what extent the superconducting film is a topologically ordered phase of matter.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2017

Two-dimensional Yukawa interaction driven by a nonlocal-Proca quantum electrodynamics

We derive two versions of an effective model to describe dynamical effects of the Yukawa interaction among Dirac electrons in the plane. Such short-range interaction is obtained by introducing a mass term for the intermediate particle, which may be either scalar or an abelian gauge field, both of them in (3+1) dimensions. Thereafter, we consider that the matter field propagates only in (2+1) dimensions, whereas the bosonic field is free to propagate out of the plane. Within these assumptions, we apply a mechanism for dimensional reduction, which yields an effective model in (2+1) dimensions. In particular, for the gauge-field case, we use the Stueckelberg mechanism in order to preserve gauge invariance. We refer to this version as nonlocal-Proca quantum electrodynamics (NPQED). For both scalar and gauge cases, the effective models reproduce the usual $e^{-m r}/r$ Yukawa interaction in the static limit. By means of perturbation theory at one loop, we calculate the mass renormalization of the Dirac field. Our model is a generalization of Pseudoquantum electrodynamics (PQED), which is a gauge-field model that provides a Coulomb interaction for two-dimensional electrons. Possibilities of application to Fermi-Bose mixtures in mixed dimensions, using cold atoms, are briefly discussed.

hep-th↗
arXiv2017

Spin g-factor due to electronic interactions in graphene

The gyromagnetic factor is an important physical quantity relating the magnetic-dipole moment of a particle to its spin. The electron spin g-factor in vacuo is one of the best model-based theoretical predictions ever made, showing agreement with the measured value up to ten parts per trillion. However, for electrons in a material the g-factor is modified with respect to its value in vacuo because of environment interactions. Here, we show how interaction effects lead to the spin g-factor correction in graphene by considering the full electromagnetic interaction in the framework of pseudo-QED. We compare our theoretical prediction with experiments performed on graphene deposited on SiO2 and SiC, and we find a very good agreement between them.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2017

Dynamical Mass Generation in Pseudo Quantum Electrodynamics with Four-Fermion Interactions

We describe dynamical symmetry breaking in a system of massless Dirac fermions with both electromagnetic and four-fermion interactions in (2+1) dimensions. The former is described by the Pseudo Quantum Electrodynamics (PQED) and the latter is given by the so-called Gross-Neveu action. We apply the Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation and the large$-N_f$ expansion in our model to obtain a Yukawa action. Thereafter, the presence of a symmetry broken phase is inferred from the non-perturbative Schwinger-Dyson equation for the electron propagator. This is the physical solution whenever the fine-structure constant is larger than a critical value $α_c(D N_f)$. In particular, we obtain the critical coupling constant $α_c\approx 0.36$ for $D N_f=8$., where $D=2,4$ corresponds to the SU(2) and SU(4) cases, respectively, and $N_f$ is the flavor number. Our results show a decreasing of the critical coupling constant in comparison with the case of pure electromagnetic interaction, thus yielding a more favorable scenario for the occurrence of dynamical symmetry breaking. For two-dimensional materials,in application in condensed matter systems, it implies an energy gap at the Dirac points or valleys of the honeycomb lattice.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2017

Emerging Quantum Hall Effect in Massive Dirac Systems

An interaction-driven nonzero quantum Hall conductivity is shown to occur in time-reversal symmetric massive Dirac materials, in the absence of any external agent. The effect is produced through the dynamical breakdown of time-reversal symmetry, which is generated by quantum fluctuations, when the full dynamical electromagnetic interaction among the electrons is taken into account. The manifestation of this emergent parity anomaly should be observed in materials such as silicene, stanene, germanene and transition metal dichalcogenides, at low enough temperatures.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2015

Chiral-Symmetry Breaking in Pseudo Quantum Electrodynamics at Finite Temperature

We use the Schwinger-Dyson equations in the presence of a thermal bath, in order to study chiral symmetry breaking in a system of massless Dirac fermions interacting through pseudo quantum electrodynamics (PQED3), in (2+1) dimensions. We show that there is a critical temperature $T_c$, below which chiral symmetry is broken, and a corresponding mass gap is dynamically generated, provided the coupling is above a certain, temperature dependent, critical value $α_c$. The ratio between the energy gap and the critical temperature for this model is estimated to be $2 π$. These results are confirmed by analytical and numerical investigations of the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the electron. In addition, we calculate the first finite-temperature corrections to the static Coulomb interaction. The relevance of this result in the realm of condensed matter systems, like graphene, is briefly discussed.

hep-th↗
arXiv2015

Bosonization of Weyl Fermions and Free Electrons

The electron, discovered by Thomson by the end of the nineteenth century, was the first experimentally observed particle. The Weyl fermion, though theoretically predicted since a long time, was observed in a condensed matter environment in an experiment reported only a few weeks ago. Is there any linking thread connecting the first and the last observed fermion (quasi)particles? The answer is positive. By generalizing the method known as bosonization, the first time in its full complete form, for a spacetime with 3+1 dimensions, we are able to show that both electrons and Weyl fermions can be expressed in terms of the same boson field, namely the Kalb-Ramond anti-symmetric tensor gauge field. The bosonized form of the Weyl chiral currents lead to the angle-dependent magneto-conductance behavior observed in these systems.

hep-th↗
arXiv2014

Unitarity of theories containing fractional powers of the d'Alembertian operator

We examine the unitarity of a class of generalized Maxwell U(1) gauge theories in (2+1) D containing the pseudodifferential operator $\Box^{1-α}$, for $α\in [0,1)$. We show that only Quantum Electrodynamics (QED$_3$) and its generalization known as Pseudo Quantum Electrodynamics (PQED), for which $α=0$ and $α= 1/2$, respectively, satisfy unitarity. The latter plays an important role in the description of the electromagnetic interactions of charged particles confined to a plane, such as in graphene or in hetero-junctions displaying the quantum Hall effect.

hep-th↗
arXiv2014

Interaction Induced Quantum Valley Hall Effect in Graphene

We use Pseudo Quantum Electrodynamics (PQED) in order to describe the full electromagnetic interaction of the p-electrons of graphene in a consistent 2D formulation. We first consider the effect of this interaction in the vacuum polarization tensor or, equivalently, in the current correlator. This allows us to obtain the dc conductivity after a smooth zero-frequency limit is taken in Kubo's formula.Thereby, we obtain the usual expression for the minimal conductivity plus corrections due to the interaction that bring it closer to the experimental value. We then predict the onset of an interaction-driven spontaneous Quantum Valley Hall effect (QVHE) below a critical temperature of the order of $0.05$ K. The transverse (Hall) valley conductivity is evaluated exactly and shown to coincide with the one in the usual Quantum Hall effect. Finally, by considering the effects of PQED, we show that the electron self-energy is such that a set of P- and T- symmetric gapped electron energy eigenstates are dynamically generated, in association with the QVHE.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2013

Quantum Computation and Non-Abelian Statistics in Chern-Simons-Higgs Theory

We naturally obtain the NOT and CNOT logic gates, which are key pieces of quantum computing algorithms, in the framework of the non-Abelian Chern-Simons-Higgs theory in two spatial dimensions. For that, we consider the anyonic quantum vortex topological excitations occurring in this system and show that self-adjoint (Majorana-like) combinations of these vortices and anti-vortices have in general non-Abelian statistics. The associated unitary monodromy braiding matrices become the required logic gates in the special case when the vortex spin is $s=1/4$. We explicitly construct the vortex field operators, show that they carry both magnetic flux and charge and obtain their euclidean correlation functions by using the method of quantization of topological excitations, which is based on the order-disorder duality. These correlators are in general multivalued, the number of sheets being determined by the vortex spin. This, by its turn, is proportional to the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field and therefore can be tuned both by the free parameters of the Higgs potential and the temperature.

hep-th↗
arXiv2011

Competing superconducting, magnetic and charge orderings in the AF Heisenberg-Kondo lattice with Dirac electrons

Many recently discovered advanced materials, such as high-Tc cuprates, iron pnictides and several heavy-fermions, exhibit a rich phase diagram suggesting the presence of different competing interactions that would lead to various types of ordering. Nevertheless, there is not yet a clear unifying picture allowing the understanding of the detailed mechanisms that generate such competing interactions. Having such a picture, however, could quite well be at the very roots of the requirements for understanding high-Tc superconductivity in cuprates and pnictides, for instance. In this work we consider the antiferromagnetic (AF) Heisenberg-Kondo lattice, consisting of localized spins with AF exchange interactions between nearest neighbors on a square lattice and itinerant electrons, which undergo a magnetic Kondo interaction with the localized spins, but are otherwise non-interacting. Using the Schwinger-boson (CP$^1$) formalism and assuming the electrons are Dirac-like, we integrate on the localized degrees of freedom thereby obtaining the effective interaction among the itinerant electrons. This contains a BCS-like superconducting term, a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio-like, charge gap term and a Ising and Heisenberg-like magnetic terms. All these four competing interactions, therefore are generated by the original Kondo magnetic interaction.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2011

Superconductivity in graphene stacks: from the bilayer to graphite

We study the superconducting phase transition, both in a graphene bilayer and in graphite. For that purpose we derive the mean-field effective potential for a stack of graphene layers presenting hopping between adjacent sheets. For describing superconductivity, we assume there is an on-site attractive interaction between electrons and determine the superconducting critical temperature as a function of the chemical potential. This displays a dome-shaped curve, in agreement with previous results for two-dimensional Dirac fermions. We show that the hopping between adjacent layers increases the critical temperature for small values of the chemical potential. Finally, we consider a minimal model for graphite and show that the transition temperature is higher than that for the graphene bilayer for small values of chemical potential. This might explain why intrinsic superconductivity is observed in graphite.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2011

Magnetic and Quasiparticle Excitation Spectra of an Itinerant $J_1-J_2$ Model for Iron Pnictide Superconductors

We calculate the magnetic and quasiparticle excitation spectra of an itinerant $J_1-J_2$ model for iron pnictides. In addition to an acoustic spin-wave branch, the magnetic spectrum has a second, optical branch, resulting from the coupled four-sublattice magnetic structure. The spin-wave velocity has also a planar directional anisotropy, due to the collinear/striped antiferromagnetism. Within the magnetically ordered phase, the quasiparticle spectrum is composed of two Dirac cones, resulting from the folding of the magnetic Brillouin zone. We discuss the relevance of our findings to the understanding of both neutron scattering and photoemission spectroscopy results for SrFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2009

Duality, Quantum Skyrmions and the Stability of an SO(3) Two-Dimensional Quantum Spin-Glass

Quantum topological excitations (skyrmions) are analyzed from the point of view of their duality to spin excitations in the different phases of a disordered two-dimensional, short-range interacting, SO(3) quantum magnetic system of Heisenberg type. The phase diagram displays all the phases, which are allowed by the duality relation. We study the large distance behavior of the two-point correlation function of quantum skyrmions in each of these phases and, out of this, extract information about the energy spectrum and non-triviality of these excitations. The skyrmion correlators present a power-law decay in the spin-glass(SG)-phase, indicating that these quantum topological excitations are gapless but nontrivial in this phase. The SG phase is dual to the AF phase, in the sense that topological and spin excitations are respectively gapless in each of them. The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless mechanism guarantees the survival of the SG phase at $T \neq 0$, whereas the AF phase is washed out to T=0 by the quantum fluctuations. Our results suggest a new, more symmetric way of characterizing a SG-phase: one for which both the order and disorder parameters vanish, namely $<σ> = 0 $, $<μ> =0 $, where $σ$ is the spin and $μ$ is the topological excitation operators.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗
arXiv2009

Quantum field theory solution for a short-range interacting SO(3) quantum spin-glass

We study the quenched disordered magnetic system, which is obtained from the 2D SO(3) quantum Heisenberg model, on a square lattice, with nearest neighbors interaction, by taking a Gaussian random distribution of couplings centered in an antiferromagnetic coupling, $\bar J>0$ and with a width $ΔJ$. Using coherent spin states we can integrate over the random variables and map the system onto a field theory, which is a generalization of the SO(3) nonlinear sigma model with different flavors corresponding to the replicas, coupling parameter proportional to $\bar J$ and having a quartic spin interaction proportional to the disorder ($ΔJ$). After deriving the CP$^1$ version of the system, we perform a calculation of the free energy density in the limit of zero replicas, which fully includes the quantum fluctuations of the CP$^1$ fields $z_i$. We, thereby obtain the phase diagram of the system in terms of ($T, \bar J, ΔJ$). This presents an ordered antiferromagnetic (AF) phase, a paramagnetic (PM) phase and a spin-glass (SG) phase. A critical curve separating the PM and SG phases ends at a quantum critical point located between the AF and SG phases, at T=0. The Edwards-Anderson order parameter, as well as the magnetic susceptibilities are explicitly obtained in each of the three phases as a function of the three control parameters. The magnetic susceptibilities show a Curie-type behavior at high temperatures and exhibit a clear cusp, characteristic of the SG transition, at the transition line. The thermodynamic stability of the phases is investigated by a careful analysis of the Hessian matrix of the free energy. We show that all principal minors of the Hessian are positive in the limit of zero replicas, implying in particular that the SG phase is stable.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2008

Vanishing conductivity of quantum solitons in polyacetylene

Quantum solitons or polarons are supposed to play a crucial role in the electric conductivity of polyacetylene, in the intermediate doping regime. We present an exact fully quantized calculation of the quantum soliton conductivity in polyacetylene and show that it vanishes exactly. This is obtained by applying a general method of soliton quantization, based on order-disorder duality, to a Z(2)-symmetric complex extension of the TLM dimerization effective field theory. We show that, in this theory, polyacetylene solitons are sine-Gordon solitons in the phase of the complex field.

hep-th↗
arXiv2008

Stable Mean Field Solution of a Short-Range Interacting SO(3) Quantum Heisenberg Spin-Glass

We present a mean-field solution for a quantum, short-range interacting, disordered, SO(3) Heisenberg spin model, in which the Gaussian distribution of couplings is centered in an AF coupling $\bar J>0$, and which, for weak disorder, can be treated as a perturbation of the pure AF Heisenberg system. The phase diagram contains, apart from a Néel phase at T=0, spin-glass and paramagnetic phases whose thermodynamic stability is demonstrated by an analysis of the Hessian matrix of the free-energy. The magnetic susceptibilities exhibit the typical cusp of a spin-glass transition.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗