arXiv subjects

Eugene A. Demler

Publications and source records attributed to Eugene A. Demler.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Quantum correlations at infinite temperature: the dynamical Nagaoka effect

Do quantum correlations play a role in high temperature dynamics of many-body systems? A common expectation is that thermal fluctuations lead to fast decoherence and make dynamics classical. In this paper, we provide a striking example of a single particle created in a featureless, infinite temperature spin bath which not only exhibits non-classical dynamics but also induces strong long-lived correlations between the surrounding spins. We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of a hole created in a fermionic or bosonic Mott insulator in the atomic limit, which corresponds to a degenerate spin system. In the absence of interactions, the spin correlations arise purely from quantum interference, and the correlations are both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic, in striking contrast to the equilibrium Nagaoka effect. These results are relevant for several condensed matter spin systems, and should be observable using state of the art bosonic or fermionic quantum gas microscopes.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Confinement induced interlayer molecules: a route to strong interatomic interactions

We study theoretically the interaction between two species of ultracold atoms confined into two layers of a finite separation, and demonstrate the existence of new types of confinement-induced interlayer bound and quasi-bound molecules: these novel exciton-like interlayer molecules appear for both positive and negative scattering lengths, and exist even for layer separations many times larger than the interspecies scattering length. The lifetime of the quasi-bound molecules grows exponentially with increasing layer separation, and they can therefore be observed in simple shaking experiments, as we demonstrate through detailed many-body calculations. These quasi-bound molecules can also give rise to novel interspecies Feshbach resonances, enabling one to control geometrically the interaction between the two species by changing the layer separation. Rather counter-intuitively, the species can be made strongly interacting, by increasing their spatial separation. The separation induced interlayer resonances provide a powerful tool for the experimental control of interspecies interactions and enables one to realize novel quantum phases of multicomponent quantum gases.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering as a probe of band structure effects in cuprates

We analyze within quasi-particle theory a recent resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) experiment on $\mathrm{YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x}}$ with the incoming photon energy detuned at several values from the resonance maximum [Minola et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 217003 (2015)]. Surprisingly, the data shows much weaker dependence on detuning than expected from recent measurements on a different cuprate superconductor, $\mathrm{Bi_2Sr_2CuO_{6+x}}$ [Guarise et al., Nat. Commun. 5, 5760 (2014)]. We demonstrate here, that this discrepancy, originally attributed to collective magnetic excitations, can be understood in terms of the differences between the band structures of these materials. We find good agreement between theory and experiment over a large range of dopings, both in the underdoped and in the overdoped regime. Moreover, we demonstrate that the RIXS signal depends sensitively on excitations at energies well above the Fermi surface, that are inaccessible to traditionally used band structure probes, such as angle-resolved photemisson spectroscopy. This makes RIXS a powerful probe of band structure, not suffering from surface preparation problems and small sample sizes, making it potentially applicable to a number of cuprate materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Anomalous conductances in an ultracold quantum wire

We analyze the recently measured anomalous transport properties of an ultracold gas through a ballistic constriction [S. Krinner et al., PNAS 201601812 (2016)]. The quantized conductance observed at weak interactions increases several-fold as the gas is made strongly interacting, which cannot be explained by the Landauer theory of single-channel transport. We show that this phenomenon is due to the multichannel Andreev reflections at the edges of the constriction, where the interaction and confinement result in a superconducting state. Andreev processes convert atoms of otherwise reflecting channels into the condensate propagating through the constriction, leading to a significant excess conductance. Furthermore, we find the spin conductance being suppressed by superconductivity; the agreement with experiment provides an additional support for our model.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Interferometric Approach to Probing Fast Scrambling

Out-of-time-order correlation functions provide a proxy for diagnosing chaos in quantum systems. We propose and analyze an interferometric scheme for their measurement, using only local quantum control and no reverse time evolution. Our approach utilizes a combination of Ramsey interferometry and the recently demonstrated ability to directly measure Renyi entropies. To implement our scheme, we present a pair of cold-atom-based experimental blueprints; moreover, we demonstrate that within these systems, one can naturally realize the transverse-field Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (TFSK) model, which exhibits certain similarities with fast scrambling black holes. We perform a detailed numerical study of scrambling in the TFSK model, observing an interesting interplay between the fast scrambling bound and the onset of spin-glass order.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Interferometric Measurements of Many-body Topological Invariants using Mobile Impurities

Topological quantum phases cannot be characterized by Ginzburg-Landau type order parameters, and are instead described by non-local topological invariants. Experimental platforms capable of realizing such exotic states now include "synthetic" many-body systems such as ultracold atoms or photons. Unique tools available in these systems enable a new characterization of strongly correlated many-body states. Here we propose a general scheme for detecting topological order using interferometric measurements of elementary excitations. The key ingredient is the use of mobile impurities which bind to quasiparticles of a host many-body system. Specifically we show how fractional charges can be probed in the bulk of fractional quantum Hall systems. We demonstrate that combining Ramsey interference with Bloch oscillations can be used to measure Chern numbers of individual quasiparticles, which gives a direct probe of their fractional charges. We discuss possible extensions of our method to other topological many-body systems, such as spin liquids.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Weak crystallization theory of metallic alloys

We extend the Weak Crystallization theory to the case of metallic alloys. The additional ingredient -- itinerant electrons -- generates nontrivial dependence of free energy on the angles between ordering wave vectors of ionic density. That leads to stabilization of FCC, Rhombohedral, and icosahedral quasicrystalline (iQC) phases, which are absent in the generic theory with only local interactions. The condition for stability of iQC that we find, is consistent with the Hume-Rothery rules known empirically for majority of stable iQC; namely, the length of the primary Bragg peak wavevector is approximately equal to the diameter of the Fermi surface.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Stabilizing the false vacuum: Mott skyrmions

Topological excitations keep fascinating physicists since many decades. While individual vortices and solitons emerge and have been observed in many areas of physics, their most intriguing higher dimensional topological relatives, skyrmions (smooth, topologically stable textures) and magnetic monopoles -- emerging almost necessarily in any grand unified theory and responsible for charge quantization -- remained mostly elusive. Here we propose that loading a three-component nematic superfluid such as $^{23}$Na into a deep optical lattice and thereby creating an insulating core, one can create topologically stable skyrmion textures and investigate their properties in detail. We show furthermore that the spectrum of the excitations of the superfluid and their quantum numbers change dramatically in the presence of the skyrmion, and they reflect the presence of a trapped monopole, as imposed by the skyrmion's topology.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Many-body Localization with Dipoles

Systems of strongly interacting dipoles offer an attractive platform to study many-body localized phases, owing to their long coherence times and strong interactions. We explore conditions under which such localized phases persist in the presence of power-law interactions and supplement our analytic treatment with numerical evidence of localized states in one dimension. We propose and analyze several experimental systems that can be used to observe and probe such states, including ultracold polar molecules and solid-state magnetic spin impurities.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2013

Reply to Comment on "Quantum quasicrystals of spin-orbit coupled dipolar bosons''

In a recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 185304 (2013)], we proposed a scheme for realizing quantum quasicrystals using spin-orbit coupled dipolar bosons. We remarked that these quantum quasicrystals have additional ``phason''-like modes compared with their classical counterparts. A recent comment by Lifshitz [arXiv:1312.1388] contests this claim. We argue here that our enumeration of gapless modes is indeed the physically relevant one; whether the additional modes are ``phasons'' is, however, a matter of definition.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Quantum quasicrystals of spin-orbit coupled dipolar bosons

We study quasi-two-dimensional dipolar Bose gases in which the bosons experience a Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We show that the degenerate dispersion minimum due to the spin-orbit coupling, combined with the long-range dipolar interaction, can stabilize a number of quantum crystalline and quasicrystalline ground states. Coupling the bosons to a fermionic species can further stabilize these phases. We estimate that the crystalline and quasicrystalline phases should be detectable in realistic dipolar condensates, e.g., dysprosium, and discuss their symmetries and excitations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Enhanced anti-ferromagnetic exchange between magnetic impurities in a superconducting host

It is generally believed that superconductivity only weakly affects the indirect exchange between magnetic impurities. If the distance r between impurities is smaller than than the superconducting coherence length (r < ξ), this exchange is thought to be dominated by RKKY interactions, identical to the those in a normal metallic host. This perception is based upon a perturbative treatment of the exchange interaction. Here, we provide a non-perturbative analysis and demonstrate that the presence of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov bound states induces a strong 1/r^2 anti-ferromagnetic interaction that can dominate over conventional RKKY even at distances significantly smaller than the coherence length. Experimental signatures, implications and applications are discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1999

Topological doping and the stability of stripe phases

We analyze the properties of a general Ginzburg-Landau free energy with competing order parameters, long-range interactions, and global constraints (e.g., a fixed value of a total ``charge'') to address the physics of stripe phases in underdoped high-Tc and related materials. For a local free energy limited to quadratic terms of the gradient expansion, only uniform or phase-separated configurations are thermodynamically stable. ``Stripe'' or other non-uniform phases can be stabilized by long-range forces, but can only have non-topological (in-phase) domain walls where the components of the antiferromagnetic order parameter never change sign, and the periods of charge and spin density waves coincide. The antiphase domain walls observed experimentally require physics on an intermediate lengthscale, and they are absent from a model that involves only long-distance physics. Dense stripe phases can be stable even in the absence of long-range forces, but domain walls always attract at large distances, i.e., there is a ubiquitous tendency to phase separation at small doping. The implications for the phase diagram of underdoped cuprates are discussed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗