arXiv subjects

J. E. Moore

Publications and source records attributed to J. E. Moore.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Real-time and real-space spin- and energy dynamics in one-dimensional spin-1/2 systems induced by local quantum quenches at finite temperatures

We study the spin- and energy dynamics in one-dimensional spin-1/2 systems induced by local quantum quenches at finite temperatures using a time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method. System sizes are chosen large enough to ensure that the time-dependent data for the accesible time scales represents the behavior in the thermodynamic limit. As a main result, we observe a ballistic spreading of perturbations of the energy density in the integrable spin-1/2 XXZ chain for all temperatures and exchange anisotropies, related to the divergent thermal conductivity in this model and the exact conservation of the energy current. In contrast, the spin dynamics is ballistic in the massless phase, but shows a diffusive behavior at high temperatures in the easy-axis phase in the case of a vanishing background spin density. We extract a quantitative estimate for the spin diffusion constant from the time dependence of the spatial variance of the spin density, which agrees well with values obtained from current-current correlation functions using an Einstein relation. As an example for non-integrable models, we consider two-leg ladders, for which we observe indications of diffusive energy and spin dynamics. The relevance of our results for recent experiments with quantum magnets and bosons in optical lattices is discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Nonequilibrium thermal transport and its relation to linear response

We study the real-time dynamics of spin chains driven out of thermal equilibrium by an initial temperature gradient T_L \neq T_R using density matrix renormalization group methods. We demonstrate that the nonequilibrium energy current saturates fast to a finite value if the linear-response thermal conductivity is infinite, i.e. if the Drude weight D is nonzero. Our data suggests that a nonintegrable dimerized chain might support such dissipationless transport (D>0). We show that the steady-state value J_E of the current for arbitrary T_L \neq T_R is of the functional form J_E=f(T_L)-f(T_R), i.e. it is completely determined by the linear conductance. We argue for this functional form, which is essentially a Stefan-Boltzmann law in this integrable model; for the XXX ferromagnet, f can be computed via thermodynamic Bethe ansatz in good agreement with the numerics. Inhomogeneous systems exhibiting different bulk parameters as well as Luttinger liquid boundary physics induced by single impurities are discussed briefly.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Scaling of electrical and thermal conductivities in an almost integrable chain

Many low-dimensional materials are well described by integrable one-dimensional models such as the Hubbard model of electrons or the Heisenberg model of spins. However, the small perturbations to these models required to describe real materials are expected to have singular effects on transport quantities: integrable models often support dissipationless transport, while weak non-integrable terms lead to finite conductivities. We use matrix-product-state methods to obtain quantitative values of spin/electrical and thermal conductivities in an almost integrable gapless chain (an XXZ spin chain with staggered fields, or equivalently a spinless fermion chain with staggered on-site potentials). The results at low temperatures validate a scaling theory based on bosonization.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Reducing the numerical effort of finite-temperature density matrix renormalization group transport calculations

Finite-temperature transport properties of one-dimensional systems can be studied using the time dependent density matrix renormalization group via the introduction of auxiliary degrees of freedom which purify the thermal statistical operator. We demonstrate how the numerical effort of such calculations is reduced when the physical time evolution is augmented by an additional time evolution within the auxiliary Hilbert space. Specifically, we explore a variety of integrable and non-integrable, gapless and gapped models at temperatures ranging from T=infty down to T/bandwidth=0.05 and study both (i) linear response where (heat and charge) transport coefficients are determined by the current-current correlation function and (ii) non-equilibrium driven by arbitrary large temperature gradients. The modified DMRG algorithm removes an 'artificial' build-up of entanglement between the auxiliary and physical degrees of freedom. Thus, longer time scales can be reached.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Luttinger liquid physics from infinite-system DMRG

We study one-dimensional spinless fermions at zero and finite temperature T using the density matrix renormalization group. We consider nearest as well as next-nearest neighbor interactions; the latter render the system inaccessible by a Bethe ansatz treatment. Using an infinite-system alogrithm we demonstrate the emergence of Luttinger liquid physics at low energies for a variety of static correlation functions as well as for thermodynamic properties. The characteristic power law suppression of the momentum distribution n(k) function at T=0 can be directly observed over several orders of magnitude. At finite temperature, we show that n(k) obeys a scaling relation. The Luttinger liquid parameter and the renormalized Fermi velocity can be extracted from the density response function, the specific heat, and/or the susceptibility without the need to carry out any finite-size analysis. We illustrate that the energy scale below which Luttinger liquid power laws manifest vanishes as the half-filled system is driven into a gapped phase by large interactions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Finite temperature dynamical DMRG and the Drude weight of spin-1/2 chains

We propose an easily implemented approach to study time-dependent correlation functions of one dimensional systems at finite temperature T using the density matrix renormalization group. The entanglement growth inherent to any time-dependent calculation is significantly reduced if the auxiliary degrees of freedom which purify the statistical operator are time evolved with the physical Hamiltonian but reversed time. We exploit this to investigate the long time behavior of current correlation functions of the XXZ spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain. This allows a direct extraction of the Drude weight D at intermediate to large T. We find that D is nonzero -- and thus transport is dissipationless -- everywhere in the gapless phase. At low temperatures we establish an upper bound to D by comparing with bosonization.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in disordered topological insulator nanowires

A direct signature of electron transport at the metallic surface of a topological insulator is the Aharonov-Bohm oscillation observed in a recent study of Bi_2Se_3 nanowires [Peng et al., Nature Mater. 9, 225 (2010)] where conductance was found to oscillate as a function of magnetic flux $ϕ$ through the wire, with a period of one flux quantum $ϕ_0=h/e$ and maximum conductance at zero flux. This seemingly agrees neither with diffusive theory, which would predict a period of half a flux quantum, nor with ballistic theory, which in the simplest form predicts a period of $ϕ_0$ but a minimum at zero flux due to a nontrivial Berry phase in topological insulators. We show how h/e and h/2e flux oscillations of the conductance depend on doping and disorder strength, provide a possible explanation for the experiments, and discuss further experiments that could verify the theory.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Majorana fermion chain at the Quantum Spin Hall edge

We study a realization of a 1d chain of Majorana bound states at the interfaces between alternating ferromagnetic and superconducting regions at a quantum spin Hall insulator edge. In the limit of well separated Majoranas, the system can be mapped to the transverse field Ising model. The disordered critical point can be reached by tuning the relative magnitude or phases of the ferromagnetic and superconducting order parameters. We compute the voltage dependence of the tunneling current from a metallic tip into the Majorana chain as a direct probe of the random critical state.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Confinement-induced Berry phase and helicity-dependent photocurrents

The photocurrent in an optically active metal is known to contain a component that switches sign with the helicity of the incident radiation. At low frequencies, this current depends on the orbital Berry phase of the Bloch electrons via the "anomalous velocity" of Karplus and Luttinger. We consider quantum wells in which the parent material, such as GaAs, is not optically active and the relevant Berry phase only arises as a result of quantum confinement. Using an envelope approximation that is supported by numerical tight-binding results, it is shown that the Berry phase contribution is determined for realistic wells by a cubic Berry phase intrinsic to the bulk material, the well width, and the well direction. These results for the magnitude of the Berry-phase effect suggest that it may already have been observed in quantum well experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Understanding the nature of electronic effective mass in double-doped SrTiO$_{3}$

We present an approach to tune the effective mass in an oxide semiconductor by a double doping mechanism. We demonstrate this in a model oxide system Sr$_{1-x}$La$_x$TiO$_{3-δ}$, where we can tune the effective mass ranging from 6--20$\mathrm{m_e}$ as a function of filling or carrier concentration and the scattering mechanism, which are dependent on the chosen lanthanum and oxygen vacancy concentrations. The effective mass values were calculated from the Boltzmann transport equation using the measured transport properties of thin films of Sr$_{1-x}$La$_x$TiO$_{3-δ}$. Our method, which shows that the effective mass decreases with carrier concentration, provides a means for understanding the nature of transport processes in oxides, which typically have large effective mass and low electron mobility, contrary to the tradional high mobility semiconductors.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2009

Exciton condensation and charge fractionalization in a topological insulator film

An odd number of gapless Dirac fermions is guaranteed to exist at a surface of a strong topological insulator. We show that in a thin-film geometry and under external bias, electron-hole pairs that reside in these surface states can condense to form a coherent exciton condensate, similar in general terms to the exciton condensate recently argued to exist in a biased graphene bilayer, but with different topological properties. Such a `topological' exciton condensate (TEC) exhibits a host of unusual properties; the most interesting among them is the fractional charge +-e/2 carried by a singly quantized vortex in the TEC order parameter.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Phase diagram of the frustrated, spatially anisotropic S=1 antiferromagnet on a square lattice

We study the S=1 square lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet with spatially anisotropic nearest neighbor couplings $J_{1x}$, $J_{1y}$ frustrated by a next-nearest neighbor coupling $J_{2}$ numerically using the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method and analytically employing the Schwinger-Boson mean-field theory (SBMFT). Up to relatively strong values of the anisotropy, within both methods we find quantum fluctuations to stabilize the Néel ordered state above the classically stable region. Whereas SBMFT suggests a fluctuation-induced first order transition between the Néel state and a stripe antiferromagnet for $1/3\leq J_{1x}/J_{1y}\leq 1$ and an intermediate paramagnetic region opening only for very strong anisotropy, the DMRG results clearly demonstrate that the two magnetically ordered phases are separated by a quantum disordered region for all values of the anisotropy with the remarkable implication that the quantum paramagnetic phase of the spatially isotropic $J_{1}$-$J_{2}$ model is continuously connected to the limit of decoupled Haldane spin chains. Our findings indicate that for S=1 quantum fluctuations in strongly frustrated antiferromagnets are crucial and not correctly treated on the semiclassical level.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Topological insulators beyond the Brillouin zone via Chern parity

The topological insulator is an electronic phase stabilized by spin-orbit coupling that supports propagating edge states and is not adiabatically connected to the ordinary insulator. In several ways it is a spin-orbit-induced analogue in time-reversal-invariant systems of the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE). This paper studies the topological insulator phase in disordered two-dimensional systems, using a model graphene Hamiltonian introduced by Kane and Mele as an example. The nonperturbative definition of a topological insulator given here is distinct from previous efforts in that it involves boundary phase twists that couple only to charge, does not refer to edge states, and can be measured by pumping cycles of ordinary charge. In this definition, the phase of a Slater determinant of electronic states is determined by a Chern parity analogous to Chern number in the IQHE case. Numerically we find, in agreement with recent network model studies, that the direct transition between ordinary and topological insulators that occurs in band structures is a consequence of the perfect crystalline lattice. Generically these two phases are separated by a metallic phase, which is allowed in two dimensions when spin-orbit coupling is present. The same approach can be used to study three-dimensional topological insulators.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Coherent phonon scattering effects on thermal transport in thin semiconductor nanowires

The thermal conductance by phonons of a quasi-one-dimensional solid with isotope or defect scattering is studied using the Landauer formalism for thermal transport. The conductance shows a crossover from localized to Ohmic behavior, just as for electrons, but the nature of this crossover is modified by delocalization of phonons at low frequency. A scalable numerical transfer-matrix technique is developed and applied to model quasi-one-dimensional systems in order to confirm simple analytic predictions. We argue that existing thermal conductivity data on semiconductor nanowires, showing an unexpected linear dependence, can be understood through a model that combines incoherent surface scattering for short-wavelength phonons with nearly ballistic long-wavelength phonons. It is also found that even when strong phonon localization effects would be observed if defects are distributed throughout the wire, localization effects are much weaker when defects are localized at the boundary, as in current experiments.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2006

Topological defects and the superfluid transition of the $s=1$ spinor condensate in two dimensions

The $s=1$ spinor Bose condensate at zero temperature supports ferromagnetic and polar phases that combine magnetic and superfluid ordering. We analyze the topological defects of the polar condensate, correcting previous studies, and show that the polar condensate in two dimensions is unstable at any finite temperature; instead there is a nematic or paired superfluid phase with algebraic order in $\exp(2 i θ)$, where $θ$ is the superfluid phase, and no magnetic order. The Kosterlitz-Thouless transition out of this phase is driven by unbinding of half-vortices (the spin-disordered version of the combined spin and phase defects found by Zhou), and the anomalous universal $8 T_c / π$ stiffness jump at the transition is confirmed in numerical simulations. The anomalous stiffness jump is a clear experimental signature of this phase and the corresponding phase transition.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

Doping dependence of thermopower and thermoelectricity in strongly correlated systems

The search for semiconductors with high thermoelectric figure of merit has been greatly aided by theoretical modeling of electron and phonon transport, both in bulk materials and in nanocomposites. Recent experiments have studied thermoelectric transport in ``strongly correlated'' materials derived by doping Mott insulators, whose insulating behavior without doping results from electron-electron repulsion, rather than from band structure as in semiconductors. Here a unified theory of electrical and thermal transport in the atomic and ``Heikes'' limit is applied to understand recent transport experiments on sodium cobaltate and other doped Mott insulators at room temperature and above. For optimal electron filling, a broad class of narrow-bandwidth correlated materials are shown to have power factors (the electronic portion of the thermoelectric figure of merit) as high at and above room temperature as in the best semiconductors.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Topological invariants of time-reversal-invariant band structures

The topological invariants of a time-reversal-invariant band structure in two dimensions are multiple copies of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant found by Kane and Mele. Such invariants protect the topological insulator and give rise to a spin Hall effect carried by edge states. Each pair of bands related by time reversal is described by a single $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant, up to one less than half the dimension of the Bloch Hamiltonians. In three dimensions, there are four such invariants per band. The $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariants of a crystal determine the transitions between ordinary and topological insulators as its bands are occupied by electrons. We derive these invariants using maps from the Brillouin zone to the space of Bloch Hamiltonians and clarify the connections between $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariants, the integer invariants that underlie the integer quantum Hall effect, and previous invariants of ${\cal T}$-invariant Fermi systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Current fluctuations near to the 2D superconductor-insulator quantum critical point

Systems near to quantum critical points show universal scaling in their response functions. We consider whether this scaling is reflected in their fluctuations; namely in current-noise. Naive scaling predicts low-temperature Johnson noise crossing over to noise power $\propto E^{z/(z+1)}$ at strong electric fields. We study this crossover in the metallic state at the 2d z=1 superconductor/insulator quantum critical point. Using a Boltzmann-Langevin approach within a 1/N-expansion, we show that the current noise obeys a scaling form $S_j=T Φ[T/T_{eff}(E)]$ with $T_{eff} \propto \sqrt{E}$. We recover Johnson noise in thermal equilibrium and $S_j \propto \sqrt{E}$ at strong electric fields. The suppression from free carrier shot noise is due to strong correlations at the critical point. We discuss its interpretation in terms of a diverging carrier charge $\propto 1/\sqrt{E}$ or as out-of-equilibrium Johnson noise with effective temperature $\propto \sqrt{E}$.

cond-mat.str-el↗