arXiv subjects

Federico Becca

Publications and source records attributed to Federico Becca.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Absence of static stripes in the two-dimensional $t{-}J$ model by an accurate and systematic quantum Monte Carlo approach

We examine the two-dimensional $t{-}J$ model by using variational approach combined with well established quantum Monte Carlo techniques [S. Sorella {\it et al.}, \prl {\bf 88}, 117002 (2002)] that are used to improve systematically the accuracy of the variational ansatz. Contrary to recent density-matrix renormalization group and projected entangled-pair state calculations [P. Corboz {\it et al.}, \prb {\bf 84}, 041108(R) (2011)], a uniform phase is found for $J/t=0.4$, even when the calculation is biased with an ansatz that explicitly contains stripe order. Moreover, in the small hole doping regime, i.e., $δ\lesssim 0.1$, our results support the coexistence of antiferromagnetism and superconductivity.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Localization and Glassy Dynamics Of Many-Body Quantum Systems

When classical systems fail to explore their entire configurational space, intriguing macroscopic phenomena like aging and glass formation may emerge. Also closed quanto-mechanical systems may stop wandering freely around the whole Hilbert space, even if they are initially prepared into a macroscopically large combination of eigenstates. Here, we report numerical evidences that the dynamics of strongly interacting lattice bosons driven sufficiently far from equilibrium can be trapped into extremely long-lived inhomogeneous metastable states. The slowing down of incoherent density excitations above a threshold energy, much reminiscent of a dynamical arrest on the verge of a glass transition, is identified as the key feature of this phenomenon. We argue that the resulting long-lived inhomogeneities are responsible for the lack of thermalization observed in large systems. Such a rich phenomenology could be experimentally uncovered upon probing the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of conveniently prepared quantum states of trapped cold atoms which we hereby suggest.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2011

Projected wave function study of Z2 spin liquids on the kagome lattice for the spin-1/2 quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet

Motivated by recent density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations [Yan, Huse, and White, Science 332, 1173 (2011)], which claimed that the ground state of the nearest-neighbor spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice geometry is a fully gapped spin liquid with numerical signatures of Z2 gauge structure, and a further theoretical work [Lu, Ran, and Lee, Phys. Rev. B 83, 224413 (2011)], which gave a classification of all Schwinger-fermion mean-field fully symmetric Z2 spin liquids on the kagome lattice, we have thoroughly studied Gutzwiller-projected fermionic wave functions by using quantum variational Monte Carlo techniques, hence implementing exactly the constraint of one fermion per site. In particular, we investigated the energetics of all Z2 candidates (gapped and gapless) that lie in the neighborhood of the energetically competitive U(1) gapless spin liquids. By using a state-of-the-art optimization method, we were able to conclusively show that the U(1) Dirac state is remarkably stable with respect to all Z2 spin liquids in its neighborhood, and in particular for opening a gap toward the so-called Z2[0,π]β state, which was conjectured to describe the ground state obtained by the DMRG method. Finally, we also considered the addition of a small second nearest-neighbor exchange coupling of both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic type, and obtained similar results, namely, a U(1) Dirac spin-liquid ground state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Valence-bond crystal in the extended kagome spin-1/2 quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet: A variational Monte Carlo approach

The highly-frustrated spin-1/2 quantum Heisenberg model with both nearest ($J_1$) and next-nearest ($J_2$) neighbor exchange interactions is revisited by using an extended variational space of projected wave functions that are optimized with state-of-the-art methods. Competition between modulated valence-bond crystals (VBCs) proposed in the literature and the Dirac spin liquid (DSL) is investigated. We find that the addition of a {\it small} ferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor exchange coupling $|J_2|>0.09 J_1$ leads to stabilization of a 36-site unit cell VBC, although the DSL remains a local minimum of the variational parameter landscape. This implies that the VBC is not trivially connected to the DSL: instead it possesses a non-trivial flux pattern and large dimerization.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Bose-glass, superfluid, and rung-Mott phases of hard-core bosons in disordered two-leg ladders

By means of Monte Carlo techniques, we study the role of disorder on a system of hard-core bosons in a two-leg ladder with both intra-chain ($t$) and inter-chain ($t^\prime$) hoppings. We find that the phase diagram as a function of the boson density, disorder strength, and $t^\prime/t$ is far from being trivial. This contrasts the case of spin-less fermions where standard localization arguments apply and an Anderson-localized phase pervades the whole phase diagram. A compressible Bose-glass phase always intrudes between the Mott insulator with zero (or one) bosons per site and the superfluid that is stabilized for weak disorder. At half filling, there is a direct transition between a (gapped) rung-Mott insulator and a Bose glass, which is driven by exponentially rare regions where disorder is suppressed. Finally, by doping the rung-Mott insulator, a direct transition to the superfluid is possible only in the clean system, whereas the Mott phase is always surrounded by the a Bose glass when disorder is present. The phase diagram based on our numerical evidence is finally reported.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Backflow correlations in the Hubbard model: an efficient tool for the metal-insulator transition and the large-U limit

We show that backflow correlations in the variational wave function for the Hubbard model greatly improve the previous results given by the Slater-Jastrow state, usually considered in this context. We provide evidence that, within this approach, it is possible to have a satisfactory connection with the strong-coupling regime. Moreover, we show that, for the Hubbard model on the lattice, backflow correlations are essentially short range, inducing an effective attraction between empty (holons) and doubly occupied sites (doublons). In presence of frustration, we report the evidence that the metal to Mott-insulator transition is marked by a discontinuity of the double occupancy, together with a similar discontinuity of the kinetic term that does not change the number of holons and doublons, while the other kinetic terms are continuous across the transition. Finally, we show the estimation of the charge gap, obtained by particle-hole excitations {\it à la Feynman} over the ground-state wave function.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Phase diagram of hard-core bosons on a frustrated zig-zag ladder

We study hard-core bosons with unfrustrated nearest-neighbor hopping $t$ and repulsive interaction $V$ on a zig-zag ladder. As a function of the boson density $ρ$ and $V/t$, the ground state displays different quantum phases. A standard one-component Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid is stable for $ρ<1/3$ (and $ρ>2/3$) at any value of $V/t$. At commensurate densities $ρ=1/3$, $1/2$, and $2/3$ insulating (crystalline) phases are stabilized for a sufficiently large interaction $V$. For intermediate densities $1/3<ρ<2/3$ and large $V/t$, the ground state shows a clear evidence of a bound state of two bosons, implying gapped single-particle excitations but gapless excitations of boson pairs. Here, the low-energy properties may be described by a two-component Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid with a finite gap in the antisymmetric sector. Finally, for the same range of boson densities and weak interactions, the system is again a one-component Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid with no evidence of any breaking of discrete symmetries, in contrast to the frustrated case, where a ${\cal Z}_2$ symmetry breaking has been predicted.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Extracting the Mott gap from energy measurements in trapped atomic gases

We show that the measure of the so-called {\it release-energy}, which is an experimentally accessible quantity, makes it possible to assess the value of the Mott gap in the presence of the confinement potential that is unavoidable in the actual experimental setup. Indeed, the curve of the release-energy as a function of the total number of particles shows kinks that are directly related to the existence of excitation gaps. Calculations are presented within the Gutzwiller approach, but the final results go beyond this simple approximation and represent a genuine feature of the real system. In the case of harmonic confinement, the Mott gaps may be renormalized with respect to the uniform case. On the other hand, in the case of the recently proposed off-diagonal confinement, our results show an almost perfect agreement with the homogeneous case.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Reptation quantum Monte Carlo for lattice Hamiltonians with a directed-update scheme

We provide an extension to lattice systems of the reptation quantum Monte Carlo algorithm, originally devised for continuous Hamiltonians. For systems affected by the sign problem, a method to systematically improve upon the so-called fixed-node approximation is also proposed. The generality of the method, which also takes advantage of a canonical worm algorithm scheme to measure off-diagonal observables, makes it applicable to a vast variety of quantum systems and eases the study of their ground-state and excited-states properties. As a case study, we investigate the quantum dynamics of the one-dimensional Heisenberg model and we provide accurate estimates of the ground-state energy of the two-dimensional fermionic Hubbard model.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2010

The itinerant ferromagnetic phase of the Hubbard model

Using a newly developed quantum Monte Carlo technique, we provide strong evidence for the stability of a saturated ferromagnetic phase in the high-density regime of the two-dimensional infinite-U Hubbard model. By decreasing the electron density, a discontinuous transition to a paramagnetic phase is observed, accompanied by a divergence of the susceptibility on the paramagnetic side. This behavior, resulting from a high degeneracy among different spin sectors, is consistent with an infinite-order phase transition. The remarkable stability of itinerant ferromagnetism renews the hope to describe this phenomenon within a purely kinetic mechanism and will facilitate the validation of experimental quantum simulators with cold atoms loaded in optical lattices.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Interaction induced Fermi-surface renormalization in the $t_1{-}t_2$ Hubbard model close to the Mott-Hubbard transition

We investigate the nature of the interaction-driven Mott-Hubbard transition of the half-filled $t_1{-}t_2$ Hubbard model in one dimension, using a full-fledged variational Monte Carlo approach including a distance-dependent Jastrow factor and backflow correlations. We present data for the evolution of the magnetic properties across the Mott-Hubbard transition and on the commensurate to incommensurate transition in the insulating state. Analyzing renormalized excitation spectra, we find that the Fermi surface renormalizes to perfect nesting right at the Mott-Hubbard transition in the insulating state, with a first-order reorganization when crossing into the conducting state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Characterization of the Bose-glass phase in low-dimensional lattices

We study by numerical simulation a disordered Bose-Hubbard model in low-dimensional lattices. We show that a proper characterization of the phase diagram on finite disordered clusters requires the knowledge of probability distributions of physical quantities rather than their averages. This holds in particular for determining the stability region of the Bose-glass phase, the compressible but not superfluid phase that exists whenever disorder is present. This result suggests that a similar statistical analysis should be performed also to interpret experiments on cold gases trapped in disordered lattices, limited as they are to finite sizes.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Ground-state properties of the disordered Hubbard model in two dimensions

We study the interplay between electron correlation and disorder in the two-dimensional Hubbard model at half-filling by means of a variational wave function that can interpolate between Anderson and Mott insulators. We give a detailed description of our improved variational state and explain how the physics of the Anderson-Mott transition can be inferred from equal-time correlations functions, which can be easily computed within the variational Monte Carlo scheme. The ground-state phase diagram is worked out in both the paramagnetic and the magnetic sector. Whereas in the former a direct second-order Anderson-Mott transition is obtained, when magnetism is allowed variationally, we find evidence for the formation of local magnetic moments that order before the Mott transition. Although the localization length increases before the Mott transition, we have no evidence for the stabilization of a true metallic phase. The effect of a frustrating next-nearest-neighbor hopping $t^\prime$ is also studied in some detail. In particular, we show that $t^\prime$ has two primary effects. The first one is the narrowing of the stability region of the magnetic Anderson insulator, also leading to a first-order magnetic transition. The second and most important effect of a frustrating hopping term is the development of a ``glassy'' phase at strong couplings, where many paramagnetic states, with disordered local moments, may be stabilized.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Spin-liquid and magnetic phases in the anisotropic triangular lattice: the case of $κ$-(ET)$_2$X

The two-dimensional Hubbard model on the anisotropic triangular lattice, with two different hopping amplitudes $t$ and $t^\prime$, is relevant to describe the low-energy physics of $κ$-(ET)$_2$X, a family of organic salts. The ground-state properties of this model are studied by using Monte Carlo techniques, on the basis of a recent definition of backflow correlations for strongly-correlated lattice systems. The results show that there is no magnetic order for reasonably large values of the electron-electron interaction $U$ and frustrating ratio $t^\prime/t = 0.85$, suitable to describe the non-magnetic compound with X=Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$. On the contrary, Néel order takes place for weaker frustrations, i.e., $t^\prime/t \sim 0.4 ÷0.6$, suitable for materials with X=Cu$_2$(SCN)$_2$, Cu[N(CN)$_2$]Cl, or Cu[N(CN)$_2$]Br.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Variational wave functions for frustrated magnetic models

Variational wave functions containing electronic pairing and suppressed charge fluctuations (i.e., projected BCS states) have been proposed as the paradigm for disordered magnetic systems (including spin liquids). Here we discuss the general properties of these states in one and two dimensions, and show that different quantum phases may be described with high accuracy by the same class of variational wave functions, including dimerized and magnetically ordered states. In particular, phases with magnetic order may be obtained from a straightforward generalization containing both antiferromagnetic and superconducting order parameters, as well as suitable spin Jastrow correlations. In summary, projected wave functions represent an extremely flexible tool for understanding the physics of low-dimensional magnetic systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

From magnetism to one-dimensional spin liquid in the anisotropic triangular lattice

We investigate the anisotropic triangular lattice that interpolates from decoupled one-dimensional chains to the isotropic triangular lattice and has been suggested to be relevant for various quasi-two-dimensional materials, such as Cs$_2$CuCl$_4$ or $κ$-(ET)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$, an organic material that shows intriguing magnetic properties. We obtain an excellent accuracy by means of a novel representation for the resonating valence bond wave function with both singlet and triplet pairing. This approach allows us to establish that the magnetic order is rapidly destroyed away from the pure triangular lattice and incommensurate spin correlations are short range. A non-magnetic spin liquid naturally emerges in a wide range of the phase diagram, with strong one-dimensional character. The relevance of the triplet pairing for $κ$-(ET)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$ is also discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Metal-insulator transition and strong-coupling spin liquid in the $t{-}t^\prime$ Hubbard model

We study the phase diagram of the frustrated $t{-}t^\prime$ Hubbard model on the square lattice by using a novel variational wave function. Taking the clue from the backflow correlations that have been introduced long-time ago by Feynman and Cohen and have been used for describing various interacting systems on the continuum (like liquid $^3$He, the electron jellium, and metallic Hydrogen), we consider many-body correlations to construct a suitable approximation for the ground state of this correlated model on the lattice. In this way, a very accurate {\it ansatz} can be achieved both at weak and strong coupling. We present the evidence that an insulating and non-magnetic phase can be stabilized at strong coupling and sufficiently large frustrating ratio $t^\prime/t$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Local moments and magnetic order in the two-dimensional Anderson-Mott transition

We study the role of electronic correlation in a disordered two-dimensional model by using a variational wave function that can interpolate between Anderson and Mott insulators. Within this approach, the Anderson-Mott transition can be described both in the paramagnetic and in the magnetic sectors. In the latter case, we find evidence for the formation of local magnetic moments that order before the Mott transition. The charge gap opening in the Mott insulator is accompanied by the vanishing of the $\lim_{q\to 0} \overline{< n_q>< n_{-q}>}$ (the bar denoting the impurity average), which is related to the compressibility fluctuations. The role of a frustrating (second-neighbor) hopping is also discussed, with a particular emphasis to the formation of metastable spin-glass states.

cond-mat.str-el↗