arXiv subjects

Emanuele G. Dalla Torre

Publications and source records attributed to Emanuele G. Dalla Torre.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Non equilibrium phase transitions and Floquet Kibble-Zurek scaling

We study the slow crossing of non-equilibrium quantum phase transitions in periodically-driven systems. We explicitly consider a spin chain with a uniform time-dependent magnetic field and focus on the Floquet state that is adiabatically connected to the ground state of the static model. We find that this {\it Floquet ground state} undergoes a series of quantum phase transitions characterized by a non-trivial topology. To dinamically probe these transitions, we propose to start with a large driving frequency and slowly decrease it as a function of time. Combining analytical and numerical methods, we uncover a Kibble-Zurek scaling that persists in the presence of moderate interactions. This scaling can be used to experimentally demonstrate non-equilibrium transitions that cannot be otherwise observed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Quantum heat waves in a one-dimensional condensate

We study the dynamics of phase relaxation between a pair of one-dimensional condensates created by a bi-directional, supersonic `unzipping' of a finite single condensate. We find that the system fractures into different \emph{extensive} chunks of space-time, within which correlations appear thermal but correspond to different effective temperatures. Coherences between different eigen-modes are crucial for understanding the development of such thermal correlations; at no point in time can our system be described by a generalized Gibbs' ensemble despite nearly always appearing locally thermal. We rationalize a picture of propagating fronts of hot and cold sound waves, populated at effective, relativistically red- and blue-shifted temperatures to intuitively explain our findings. The disparity between these hot and cold temperatures vanishes for the case of instantaneous splitting but diverges in the limit where the splitting velocity approaches the speed of sound; in this limit, a sonic boom occurs wherein the system is excited only along an infinitely narrow, and infinitely hot beam. We expect our findings to apply generally to the study of superluminal perturbations in systems with emergent Lorentz symmetry.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Dicke phase transition without total spin conservation

We develop a new fermionic path-integral formalism to analyze the phase diagram of open nonequilibrium systems. The formalism is applied to analyze an ensemble of two-level atoms interacting with a single-mode optical cavity, described by the Dicke model. While this model is often used as the paradigmatic example of a phase transition in driven-dissipative systems, earlier theoretical studies were limited to the special case when the total spin of the atomic ensemble is conserved. This assumption is not justified in most experimental realizations. Our new approach allows us to analyze the problem in a more general case, including the experimentally relevant case of dissipative processes that act on each atom individually and do not conserve the total spin. We obtain a general expression for the position of the transition, which contains as special cases the two previously known regimes: i) non-equilibrium systems with losses and conserved spin and ii) closed systems in thermal equilibrium and with the Gibbs ensemble averaging over the values of the total spin. We perform a detailed study of different types of baths and point out the possibility of a surprising non-monotonous dependence of the transition on the baths' parameters.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Friedel Oscillations as a Probe of Fermionic Quasiparticles

When immersed in a see of cold electrons, local impurities give rise to density modulations known as Friedel oscillations. In spite of the generality of this phenomenon, the exact shape of these modulations is usually computed only for non-interacting electrons with a quadratic dispersion relation. In actual materials, one needs to take into account several additional factors, such as (i) the details of the band structure, (ii) the lifetime of quasiparticles, (iii) in superconductors, the presence of a pairing gap. Studying how these effects influence Friedel oscillations is a viable way to access the properties of fermionic excitations in strongly-correlated materials. In this work we analyze the signatures of Friedel oscillations in STM and X-ray scattering experiments, focusing on the concrete example of cuprates superconductors. A detailed comparison with recent experiments reveals a rich interplay between local modulation of the chemical potential and of the pairing gap.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Holographic Maps of Quasiparticle Interference

The analysis of Fourier-transformed scanning-tunneling-microscopy (STM) images with subatomic resolution is a common tool for studying properties of quasiparticle excitations in strongly correlated materials. While Fourier amplitudes are generally complex valued, earlier analysis mostly considered only their absolute values. Their complex phases were deemed random, and thus irrelevant, due to the unknown positions of impurities in the sample. Here we show how to factor out these random phases by analysing overlaps between Fourier amplitudes that differ by reciprocal lattice vectors. The resulting holographic maps provide important and previously-unknown information about the electronic structures of materials. When applied to superconducting cuprates, our method solves a long-standing puzzle of the dichotomy between equivalent wavevectors. We show that $d$-wave Wannier functions of the conduction band provide a natural explanation for experimental results that were interpreted as evidence for competing unconventional charge modulations. Our work opens a new pathway to identify the nature of electronic states in STM measurements.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Dynamical Stability of a Many-body Kapitza Pendulum

We consider a many-body generalization of the Kapitza pendulum: the periodically-driven sine-Gordon model. We show that this interacting system is dynamically stable to periodic drives with finite frequency and amplitude. This finding is in contrast to the common belief that periodically-driven unbounded interacting systems should always tend to an absorbing infinite-temperature state. The transition to an unstable absorbing state is described by a change in the sign of the kinetic term in the effective Floquet Hamiltonian and controlled by the short-wavelength degrees of freedom. We investigate the stability phase diagram through an analytic high-frequency expansion, a self-consistent variational approach, and a numeric semiclassical calculations. Classical and quantum experiments are proposed to verify the validity of our results.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Unstable Avoided Crossing in Coupled Spinor Condensates

We consider the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate with two internal states, coupled through a coherent drive. We focus on a specific quench protocol, in which the sign of the coupling field is suddenly changed. At a mean-field level, the system is transferred from a minimum to a maximum of the coupling energy and can remain dynamically stable, in spite of the development of negative- frequency modes. In the presence of a non-zero detuning between the two states, the "charge" and "spin" modes couple, giving rise to an unstable avoided crossing. This phenomenon is generic to systems with two dispersing modes away from equilibrium and constitutes an example of class-$I_o$ non-equilibrium pattern formation in quantum systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Chiral Prethermalization in supersonically split condensates

We study the dynamics of phase relaxation between a pair of one-dimensional condensates created by a supersonic unzipping of a single condensate. We use the Lorentz invariance of the low energy sector of such systems to show that dephasing results in an unusual prethermal state, in which right- and left-moving excitations have different, Doppler-shifted temperatures. The chirality of these modes can be probed experimentally by measuring the interference fringe contrasts with the release point of the split condensates moving at another supersonic velocity. Further, an accelerated motion of the release point can be used to observe a space-like analogue of the Unruh effect. A concrete experimental realization of the quantum zipper for a BEC of trapped atoms on a atom chip is outlined. We interpret these results in the context of the general question of the Lorentz transformation of temperature, and the close analogy with the dipolar anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Exploring Quasiparticles in High-Tc Cuprates Through Photoemission, Tunneling, and X-ray Scattering Experiments

One of the key challenges in the field of high-temperature superconductivity is understanding the nature of fermionic quasiparticles. Experiments consistently demonstrate the existence of a second energy scale, distinct from the d-wave superconducting gap, that persists above the transition temperature into the "pseudogap" phase. One common class of models relates this energy scale to the quasiparticle gap due to a competing order, such as the incommensurate "checkerboard" order observed in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and resonant elastic X-ray scattering (REXS). In this paper we show that these experiments are better described by identifying the second energy scale with the inverse lifetime of quasiparticles. We develop a minimal phenomenological model that allows us to quantitatively describe STM and REXS experiments and discuss their relation with photoemission spectroscopy. Our study refocuses questions about the nature of the pseudogap phase to the study of the origin of inelastic scattering.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Universal Rephasing Dynamics after a Quantum Quench via Sudden Coupling of Two Initially Independent Condensates

We consider a quantum quench in which two initially independent condensates are suddenly coupled, and study the subsequent "rephasing" dynamics. For weak couplings, the time-evolution of physical observables is predicted to follow universal scaling laws, connecting the short-time dynamics to the long-time non-perturbative regime. We first present a two-mode model valid in two and three dimensions and then move to one dimension, where the problem is described by a gapped Sine-Gordon theory. Combining analytical and numerical methods, we compute universal time-dependent expectation values, allowing a quantitative comparison with future experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Dynamical probing of a topological phase of bosons in one dimension

We study the linear response to time-dependent probes of a symmetry-protected topological phase of bosons in one-dimension, the Haldane insulator (HI). This phase is separated from the ordinary Mott insulator (MI) and density-wave (DW) phases by continuous transitions, whose field theoretical description is here reviewed. Using this technique, we compute the absorption spectrum to two types of periodic perturbations and relate the findings to the nature of the critical excitations at the transition between the different phases. The HI-MI phase transition is topological and the critical excitations possess trivial quantum numbers: they correspond to particles and holes at zero momentum. Our findings are corroborated by a non-local mean-field approach, which allows us to directly relate the predicted spectrum to the known microscopic theory.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Dissipative Preparation of Spin Squeezed Atomic Ensembles in a Steady State

We present and analyze a new approach for the generation of atomic spin squeezed states. Our method involves the collective coupling of an atomic ensemble to a decaying mode of an open optical cavity. We demonstrate the existence of a collective atomic dark-state, decoupled from the radiation field. By explicitly constructing this state we find that it can feature spin squeezing bounded only by the Heisenberg limit. We show that such dark states can be deterministically prepared via dissipative means, thus turning dissipation into a resource for entanglement. The scaling of the phase sensitivity taking realistic imperfections into account is discussed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Keldysh approach for non-equilibrium phase transitions in quantum optics: beyond the Dicke model in optical cavities

We investigate non-equilibrium phase transitions for driven atomic ensembles, interacting with a cavity mode, coupled to a Markovian dissipative bath. In the thermodynamic limit and at low-frequencies, we show that the distribution function of the photonic mode is thermal, with an effective temperature set by the atom-photon interaction strength. This behavior characterizes the static and dynamic critical exponents of the associated superradiance transition. Motivated by these considerations, we develop a general Keldysh path integral approach, that allows us to study physically relevant nonlinearities beyond the idealized Dicke model. Using standard diagrammatic techniques, we take into account the leading-order corrections due to the finite number of atoms N. For finite N, the photon mode behaves as a damped, classical non-linear oscillator at finite temperature. For the atoms, we propose a Dicke action that can be solved for any N and correctly captures the atoms' depolarization due to dissipative dephasing.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Noisy quantum phase transitions: an intuitive approach

Equilibrium thermal noise is known to destroy any quantum phase transition. What are the effects of non-equilibrium noise? In two recent papers we have considered the specific case of a resistively-shunted Josephson junction driven by $1/f$ charge noise. At equilibrium, this system undergoes a sharp quantum phase transition at a critical value of the shunt resistance. By applying a real-time renormalization group (RG) approach, we found that the noise has three main effects: It shifts the phase transition, renormalizes the resistance, and generates an effective temperature. In this paper we explain how to understand these effects using simpler arguments, based on Kirchhoff laws and time-dependent perturbation theory. We also show how these effects modify physical observables and especially the current-voltage characteristic of the junction. In the appendix we describe two possible realizations of the model with ultracold atoms confined to one dimension.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Non-local Order in Elongated Dipolar Gases

Dipolar particles in an elongated trap are expected to undergo a quantum phase transition from a linear to a zigzag structure with decreasing transverse confinement. We derive the low energy effective theory of the transition showing that in presence of quantum fluctuations the Zigzag phase can be characterized by a long ranged string order, while the local Ising correlations decay as a power law. This is also confirmed using DMRG calculations on a microscopic model. The non local order in the bulk gives rise to zero energy states localized at the interface between the ordered and disordered phases. Such an interface naturally arises when the particles are subject to a weak harmonic confinement along the tube axis. We compute the signature of the edge states in the single particle tunneling spectra pointing to differences between a system with bosonic versus fermionic particles. Finally we asses the magnitude of the relevant quantum fluctuations in realistic systems of dipolar particles, including ultracold polar molecules as well as alkali atoms weakly dressed by a Rydberg excitation.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Dynamics and universality in noise driven dissipative systems

We investigate the dynamical properties of low dimensional systems, driven by external noise sources. Specifically we consider a resistively shunted Josephson junction and a one dimensional quantum liquid in a commensurate lattice potential, subject to $1/f$ noise. In absence of nonlinear coupling, we have shown previously that these systems establish a non-equilibrium critical steady state [Nature Phys. 6, 806 (2010)]. Here we use this state as the basis for a controlled renormalization group analysis using the Keldysh path integral formulation to treat the non linearities: the Josephson coupling and the commensurate lattice. The analysis to first order in the coupling constant indicates transitions between superconducting and localized regimes that are smoothly connected to the respective equilibrium transitions. However at second order, the back action of the mode coupling on the critical state leads to renormalization of dissipation and emergence of an effective temperature. In the Josephson junction the temperature is parametrically small allowing to observe a universal crossover between the superconducting and insulating regimes. The IV characteristics of the junction displays algebraic behavior controlled by the underlying critical state over a wide range. In the noisy one dimensional liquid the generated dissipation and effective temperature are not small as in the junction. We find a crossover between a quasi-localized regime dominated by dissipation and another dominated by temperature. However since in the thermal regime the thermalization rate is parametrically small, signatures of the non-equilibrium critical state can be seen in transient dynamics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Quantum critical states and phase transitions in the presence of non equilibrium noise

Quantum critical points are characterized by scale invariant correlations and correspondingly long ranged entanglement. As such, they present fascinating examples of quantum states of matter, the study of which has been an important theme in modern physics. Nevertheless very little is known about the fate of quantum criticality under non equilibrium conditions. In this paper we investigate the effect of external noise sources on quantum critical points. It is natural to expect that noise will have a similar effect to finite temperature, destroying the subtle correlations underlying the quantum critical behavior. Surprisingly we find that in many interesting situations the ubiquitous 1/f noise preserves the critical correlations. The emergent states show intriguing interplay of intrinsic quantum critical and external noise driven fluctuations. We demonstrate this general phenomenon with specific examples in solid state and ultracold atomic systems. Moreover our approach shows that genuine quantum phase transitions can exist even under non equilibrium conditions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Rise and fall of hidden string order of lattice bosons

We investigate the ground state properties of a newly discovered phase of one dimensional lattice bosons with extended interactions (see E. G. Dalla Torre et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{97}, 260401 (2006)). The new phase, termed the Haldane Insulator (HI) in analogy with the gapped phase of spin-1 chains, is characterized by a non local order parameter, which can only be written as an infinite string in terms of the bosonic densities. We show that the string order can nevertheless be probed with physical fields that couple locally, via the effect those fields have on the quantum phase transitions separating the exotic phase from the conventional Mott and density wave phases. Using a field theoretical analysis we show that a perturbation which breaks lattice inversion symmetry gaps the critical point separating the Mott and Haldane phases and eliminates the sharp distinction between them. This is remarkable given that neither of these phases involves broken inversion symmetry. We also investigate the evolution of the phase diagram with the tunable coupling between parallel chains in an optical lattice setup. We find that inter-chain tunneling destroys the direct phase transition between the Mott and Haldane insulators by establishing an intermediate superfluid phase. On the other hand coupling the chains only by weak repulsive interactions does not modify the structure of the phase diagram. The theoretical predictions are confirmed with numerical calculations using the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG).

cond-mat.str-el↗