arXiv subjects

I. P. McCulloch

Publications and source records attributed to I. P. McCulloch.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

What is a quantum shock wave?

Shock waves are examples of the far-from-equilibrium behaviour of matter; they are ubiquitous in nature, yet the underlying microscopic mechanisms behind their formation are not well understood. Here, we study the dynamics of dispersive quantum shock waves in a one-dimensional Bose gas, and show that the oscillatory train forming from a local density bump expanding into a uniform background is a result of quantum mechanical self-interference. The amplitude of oscillations, i.e., the interference contrast, decreases with the increase of both the temperature of the gas and the interaction strength due to the reduced phase coherence length. Furthermore, we show that vacuum and thermal fluctuations can significantly wash out the interference contrast, seen in the mean-field approaches, due to shot-to-shot fluctuations in the position of interference fringes around the mean.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Topological nature of spinons and holons: Elementary excitations from matrix product states with conserved symmetries

We develop variational matrix product state (MPS) methods with symmetries to determine dispersion relations of one dimensional quantum lattices as a function of momentum and preset quantum number. We test our methods on the XXZ spin chain, the Hubbard model and a non-integrable extended Hubbard model, and determine the excitation spectra with a precision similar to the one of the ground state. The formulation in terms of quantum numbers makes the topological nature of spinons and holons very explicit. In addition, the method also enables an easy and efficient direct calculation of the necessary magnetic field or chemical potential required for a certain ground state magnetization or particle density.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Detection and characterization of symmetry-broken long-range orders in the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ triangular Heisenberg model

We present new numerical tools to analyze symmetry-broken phases in the context of $SU(2)$-symmetric translation-invariant matrix product states (MPS) and density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) methods for infinite cylinders, and determine the phase diagram of the geometrically-frustrated triangular Heisenberg model with nearest and next-nearest neighbor (NN and NNN) interactions. The appearance of Nambu-Goldstone modes in the excitation spectrum is characterized by "tower of states" levels in the momentum-resolved entanglement spectrum. Symmetry-breaking phase transitions are detected by a combination of the correlation lengths and second and fourth cumulants of the magnetic order parameters (which we call the Binder ratio), even though symmetry implies that the order parameter itself is strictly zero. Using this approach, we have identified $120^{\circ}$ order, a columnar order, and an algebraic spin liquid (specific to width-6 systems), alongside the previously studied topological spin liquid phase. For the latter, we also demonstrate robustness against chiral perturbations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Phase diagram of the quantum Ising model with long-range interactions on an infinite-cylinder triangular lattice

Obtaining quantitative ground-state behavior for geometrically-frustrated quantum magnets with long-range interactions is challenging for numerical methods. Here, we demonstrate that the ground states of these systems on two-dimensional lattices can be efficiently obtained using state-of-the-art translation-invariant variants of matrix product states and density-matrix renormalization-group algorithms. We use these methods to calculate the fully-quantitative ground-state phase diagram of the long-range interacting triangular Ising model with a transverse field on 6-leg infinite-length cylinders, and scrutinize the properties of the detected phases. We compare these results with those of the corresponding nearest neighbor model. Our results suggest that, for such long-range Hamiltonians, the long-range quantum fluctuations always lead to long-range correlations, where correlators exhibit power-law decays instead of the conventional exponential drops observed for short-range correlated gapped phases. Our results are relevant for comparisons with recent ion-trap quantum simulator experiments that demonstrate highly-controllable long-range spin couplings for several hundred ions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Low-energy effective theories of the two-thirds filled Hubbard model on the triangular necklace lattice

Motivated by Mo$_3$S$_7$(dmit)$_3$, we investigate the Hubbard model on the triangular necklace lattice at two-thirds filling. We show, using second order perturbation theory, that in the molecular limit, the ground state and the low energy excitations of this model are identical to those of the spin-one Heisenberg chain. The latter model is known to be in the symmetry protected topological Haldane phase. Away from this limit we show, on the basis of symmetry arguments and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations, that the low-energy physics of the Hubbard model on the triangular necklace lattice at two-thirds filling is captured by the ferromagnetic Hubbard-Kondo lattice chain at half filling. This is consistent with and strengthens previous claims that both the half-filled ferromagnetic Kondo lattice model and the two-thirds filled Hubbard model on the triangular necklace lattice are also in the Haldane phase. A connection between Hund's rules and Nagaoka's theorem is also discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Phase Diagram of the Spin-$1/2$ Triangular $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg Model on a 3-leg Cylinder

We study the phase diagram of the frustrated Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice with nearest and next-nearest neighbor spin exchange coupling, on 3-leg ladders. Using the density-matrix renormalization-group method, we obtain the complete phase diagram of the model, which includes quasi-long-range $120^\circ$ and columnar order, and a Majumdar-Ghosh phase with short-ranged correlations. All these phases are non-chiral and planar. We also identify the nature of phase transitions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Symmetry fractionalization in the topological phase of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ $J_1$-$J_2$ triangular Heisenberg model

Using density-matrix renormalization-group calculations for infinite cylinders, we elucidate the properties of the spin-liquid phase of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice. We find four distinct ground-states characteristic of a non-chiral, $Z_2$ topologically ordered state with vison and spinon excitations. We shed light on the interplay of topological ordering and global symmetries in the model by detecting fractionalization of time-reversal and space-group dihedral symmetries in the anyonic sectors, which leads to coexistence of symmetry protected and intrinsic topological order. The anyonic sectors, and information on the particle statistics, can be characterized by degeneracy patterns and symmetries of the entanglement spectrum. We demonstrate the ground-states on finite-width cylinders are short-range correlated and gapped; however some features in the entanglement spectrum suggest that the system develops gapless spinon-like edge excitations in the large-width limit.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Precursor of Laughlin state of hard core bosons on a two leg ladder

We study hard core bosons on a two leg ladder lattice under the orbital effect of a uniform magnetic field. At densities which are incommensurate with flux, the ground state is a Meissner state, or a vortex state, depending on the strength of the flux. When the density is commensurate with the flux, analytical arguments predict the existence of a ground state of central charge $c = 1$, which displays signatures compatible with the expected Laughlin state at $ν=1/2$. This differs from the coupled wire construction of the Laughlin state in that there exists a nonzero backscattering term in the edge Hamiltonian. We construct a phase diagram versus density and flux in order to delimit the region where this precursor to the Laughlin state is the ground state, by using a combination of bosonization and numerics based on the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) and exact diagonalization. We obtain the phase diagram from local observables and central charge. We use bipartite charge fluctuations to deduce the Luttinger parameter for the edge Luttinger liquid corresponding to the Laughlin state. The properties studied with local observables are confirmed by the long distance behavior of correlation functions. Our findings are consistent with a calculation of the many body ground state transverse conductivity in a thin torus geometry for parameters corresponding to the Laughlin state. The model considered is simple enough such that the precursor to the Laughlin state could be realized in current ultracold atom, Josephson junction array, and quantum circuit experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Generic Construction of Efficient Matrix Product Operators

Matrix Product Operators (MPOs) are at the heart of the second-generation Density Matrix Renormalisation Group (DMRG) algorithm formulated in Matrix Product State language. We first summarise the widely known facts on MPO arithmetic and representations of single-site operators. Second, we introduce three compression methods (Rescaled SVD, Deparallelisation and Delinearisation) for MPOs and show that it is possible to construct efficient representations of arbitrary operators using MPO arithmetic and compression. As examples, we construct powers of a short-ranged spin-chain Hamiltonian, a complicated Hamiltonian of a two-dimensional system and, as proof of principle, the long-range four-body Hamiltonian from quantum chemistry.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Symmetry-broken states in a system of interacting bosons on a two-leg ladder with a uniform Abelian gauge field

We study the quantum phases of bosons with repulsive contact interactions on a two-leg ladder in the presence of a uniform Abelian gauge field. The model realizes many interesting states, including Meissner phases, vortex-fluids, vortex-lattices, charge-density-waves and the biased-ladder phase. Our work focuses on the subset of these states that break a discrete symmetry. We use density matrix renormalization group simulations to demonstrate the existence of three vortex-lattice states at different vortex densities and we characterize the phase transitions from these phases into neighboring states. Furthermore, we provide an intuitive explanation of the chiral-current reversal effect that is tied to some of these vortex lattices. We also study a charge-density-wave state that exists at 1/4 particle filling at large interaction strengths and flux values close to half a flux quantum. By changing the system parameters, this state can transition into a completely gapped vortex-lattice Mott-insulating state. We elucidate the stability of these phases against nearest-neighbor interactions on the rungs of the ladder relevant for experimental realizations with a synthetic lattice dimension. A charge-density-wave state at 1/3 particle filling can be stabilized for flux values close to half a flux-quantum and for very strong on-site interactions in the presence of strong repulsion on the rungs. Finally, we analytically describe the emergence of these phases in the low-density regime, and, in particular, we obtain the boundaries of the biased-ladder phase, i.e., the phase that features a density imbalance between the legs. We make contact to recent quantum-gas experiments that realized related models and discuss signatures of these quantum states in experimentally accessible observables.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Spontaneous increase of magnetic flux and chiral-current reversal in bosonic ladders: Swimming against the tide

The interplay between spontaneous symmetry breaking in many-body systems, the wavelike nature of quantum particles and lattice effects produces an extraordinary behavior of the chiral current of bosonic particles in the presence of a uniform magnetic flux defined on a two-leg ladder. While non-interacting as well as strongly interacting particles, stirred by the magnetic field, circulate along the system's boundary in the counterclockwise direction in the ground state, interactions stabilize vortex lattices. These states break translational symmetry, which can lead to a reversal of the circulation direction. Our predictions could readily be accessed in quantum gas experiments with existing setups or in arrays of Josephson junctions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Haldane insulator protected by reflection symmetry in the doped Hubbard model on the three-legged ladder

We demonstrate the existence of an insulating phase in the three-legged Hubbard ladder at two-thirds filling. In this phase chargons are bound because the physics within a unit cell favors the formation of triplets. The resultant moments lead to a ground state in the Haldane phase, a symmetry protected topological state of matter. In this purely fermionic model, reflection is protecting but time reversal and dihedral symmetries are not, in contrast to spin models.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Strongly interacting bosons on a three-leg ladder in the presence of a homogeneous flux

We perform a density-matrix renormalization-group study of strongly interacting bosons on a three-leg ladder in the presence of a homogeneous flux. Focusing on one-third filling, we explore the phase diagram in dependence of the magnetic flux and the inter-leg tunneling strength. We find several phases including a Meissner phase, vortex liquids, a vortex lattice, as well as a staggered-current phase. Moreover, there are regions where the chiral current reverses its direction, both in the Meissner and in the staggered-current phase. While the reversal in the latter case can be ascribed to spontaneous breaking of translational invariance, in the first it stems from an effective flux increase in the rung direction. Interactions are a necessary ingredient to realize either type of chiral-current reversal.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Vortex and Meissner phases of strongly-interacting bosons on a two-leg ladder

We establish the phase diagram of the strongly-interacting Bose-Hubbard model defined on a two-leg ladder geometry in the presence of a homogeneous flux. Our work is motivated by a recent experiment [Atala et al., Nature Phys. 10, 588 (2014)], which studied the same system, in the complementary regime of weak interactions. Based on extensive density matrix renormalization group simulations and a bosonization analysis, we fully explore the parameter space spanned by filling, inter-leg tunneling, and flux. As a main result, we demonstrate the existence of gapless and gapped Meissner and vortex phases, with the gapped states emerging in Mott-insulating regimes. We calculate experimentally accessible observables such as chiral currents and vortex patterns.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Quantum Critical Spin-2 Chain with Emergent SU(3) Symmetry

We study the quantum critical phase of a SU(2) symmetric spin-2 chain obtained from spin-2 bosons in a one-dimensional lattice. We obtain the scaling of the entanglement entropy and finite-size energies by exact diagonalization and density-matrix renormalization group methods. From the numerical results of the energy spectrum, central charge, and scaling dimension we identify the conformal field theory describing the whole critical phase to be the SU(3)$_1$ Wess-Zumino-Witten model. We find that while in the whole critical phase the Hamiltonian is only SU(2) invariant, there is an emergent SU(3) symmetry in the thermodynamic limit.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Topological spin liquid phase in a low-dimensional organic molecular compound

We report the discovery of a correlated insulator with a bulk gap at two-thirds filling in a geometrically frustrated Hubbard model that describes the low-energy physics of Mo$_3$S$_7$(dmit)$_3$. This is very different from the Mott insulator expected at half-filling. We show that the insulating phase, which persists even for very weak electron-electron interactions ($U$), is adiabatically connected to the Haldane phase and is consistent with experiments on Mo$_3$S$_7$(dmit)$_3$

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Conformal Data from Finite Entanglement Scaling

In this paper we apply the formalism of translation invariant (continuous) matrix product states in the thermodynamic limit to $(1+1)$ dimensional critical models. Finite bond dimension bounds the entanglement entropy and introduces an effective finite correlation length, so that the state is perturbed away from criticality. The assumption that the scaling hypothesis holds for this kind of perturbation is known in the literature as finite entanglement scaling. We provide further evidence for the validity of finite entanglement scaling and based on this formulate a scaling algorithm to estimate the central charge and critical exponents of the conformally invariant field theories describing the critical models under investigation. The algorithm is applied to three exemplary models; the cMPS version to the non-relativistic Lieb-Liniger model and the relativistic massless boson, and MPS version to the one-dimensional quantum Ising model at the critical point. Another new aspect to our approach is that we directly use the (c)MPS induced correlation length rather than the bond dimension as scaling parameter. This choice is motivated by several theoretical arguments as well as by the remarkable accuracy of our results.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Entanglement spectroscopy of SU(2)-broken phases in two dimensions

In magnetically ordered systems the breaking of SU(2) symmetry in the thermodynamic limit is associated with the appearance of a special type of low-lying excitations in finite size energy spectra, the so called tower of states (TOS). In the present work we numerically demonstrate that there is a correspondence between the SU(2) tower of states and the lower part of the ground state entanglement spectrum (ES). Using state-of-the-art DMRG calculations, we examine the ES of the 2D antiferromagnetic J1-J2 Heisenberg model on both the triangular and kagomé lattice. At large ferromagnetic J2 the model exhibits a magnetically ordered ground state. Correspondingly, its ES contains a family of low-lying levels that are reminiscent of the energy tower of states. Their behavior (level counting, finite size scaling in the thermodynamic limit) sharply reflects tower of states features, and is characterized in terms of an effective entanglement Hamiltonian that we provide. At large system sizes TOS levels are divided from the rest by an entanglement gap. Our analysis suggests that (TOS) entanglement spectroscopy provides an alternative tool for detecting and characterizing SU(2)-broken phases using DMRG.

cond-mat.str-el↗