arXiv subjects

Jad C. Halimeh

Publications and source records attributed to Jad C. Halimeh.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Tuning the Topological $θ$-Angle in Cold-Atom Quantum Simulators of Gauge Theories

The topological $θ$-angle in gauge theories engenders a series of fundamental phenomena, including violations of charge-parity (CP) symmetry, dynamical topological transitions, and confinement--deconfinement transitions. At the same time, it poses major challenges for theoretical studies, as it implies a sign problem in numerical simulations. Analog quantum simulators open the promising prospect of treating quantum many-body systems with such topological terms, but, contrary to their digital counterparts, they have not yet demonstrated the capacity to control the $θ$-angle. Here, we demonstrate how a tunable topological $θ$-term can be added to a prototype theory with $\mathrm{U}(1)$ gauge symmetry, a discretized version of quantum electrodynamics in one spatial dimension. As we show, the model can be realized experimentally in a single-species Bose--Hubbard model in an optical superlattice with three different spatial periods, thus requiring only standard experimental resources. Through numerical calculations obtained from the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method and exact diagonalization, we benchmark the model system, and illustrate how salient effects due to the $θ$-term can be observed. These include charge confinement, the weakening of quantum many-body scarring, as well as the disappearance of Coleman's phase transition due to explicit breaking of CP symmetry. This work opens the door towards studying the rich physics of topological gauge-theory terms in large-scale cold-atom quantum simulators.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Dynamical phase transitions in the two-dimensional transverse-field Ising model

We investigate two separate notions of dynamical phase transitions in the two-dimensional nearest-neighbor transverse-field Ising model on a square lattice using matrix product states and a new \textit{hybrid} infinite time-evolving block decimation algorithm, where the model is implemented on an infinitely long cylinder with a finite diameter along which periodic boundary conditions are employed. Starting in an ordered initial state, our numerical results suggest that quenches below the dynamical critical point give rise to a ferromagnetic long-time steady state with the Loschmidt return rate exhibiting \textit{anomalous} cusps even when the order parameter never crosses zero. Within the accessible timescales of our numerics, quenches above the dynamical critical point suggest a paramagnetic long-time steady state with the return rate exhibiting \textit{regular} cusps connected to zero crossings of the order parameter. Additionally, our simulations indicate that quenching slightly above the dynamical critical point leads to a coexistence region where both anomalous and regular cusps appear in the return rate. Quenches from the disordered phase further confirm our main conclusions. Our work supports the recent finding that anomalous cusps arise only when local spin excitations are the energetically dominant quasiparticles. Our results are accessible in modern Rydberg experiments.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Projective symmetry group classification of chiral $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquids on the pyrochlore lattice: application to the spin-$1/2$ XXZ Heisenberg model

We give a complete classification of fully symmetric as well as chiral $\mathbb{Z}_2$ quantum spin liquids on the pyrochlore lattice using a projective symmetry group analysis of Schwinger boson mean-field states. We find 50 independent ansätze, including the 12 fully symmetric nearest-neighbor $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquids that have been classified by Liu et al. [https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.075125]. For each class we specify the most general symmetry-allowed mean-field Hamiltonian. Additionally, we test the properties of a subset of the spin liquid ansätze by solving the mean-field equations for the spin-$1/2$ XXZ model near the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg point. We find four chiral spin liquids that break the screw symmetry of the lattice modulo time reversal symmetry. These states have a different symmetry than the previously studied monopole flux state and their unique characteristic is a $\fracπ{3}$ flux enclosed by every rhombus of the lattice.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Stabilizing Disorder-Free Localization

Disorder-free localization is a paradigm of nonergodicity in translation-invariant quantum many-body systems hosting gauge symmetries. The quench dynamics starting from simple initial states, which correspond to extensive superpositions of gauge superselection sectors, exhibits many-body localization with the system dynamically inducing its own disorder. An open question concerns the stability of disorder-free localization in the presence of gauge-breaking errors, and whether processes due to the latter can be controllably suppressed. Here, we show that translation-invariant \textit{single-body gauge terms} induce a quantum Zeno effect that reliably protects disorder-free localization against errors up to times at least polynomial in the protection strength. Our experimentally feasible scheme not only shows that disorder-free localization can be reliably stabilized, but also opens promising prospects for its observation in quantum simulators.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2021

Suppressing nonperturbative gauge errors in the thermodynamic limit using local pseudogenerators

With recent progress in quantum simulations of lattice-gauge theories, it is becoming a pressing question how to reliably protect the gauge symmetry that defines such models. In a recent work [J. C. Halimeh \textit{et al.}, arXiv:2108.02203], an experimentally feasible gauge-protection scheme has been proposed that is based on the concept of a \textit{local pseudogenerator}, which is required to act identically to the full gauge-symmetry generator in the target gauge sector, but not necessarily outside of it. The scheme has been analytically and numerically shown to reliably stabilize lattice gauge theories in the presence of perturbative errors on finite-size analog quantum-simulation devices. In this work, through uniform matrix product state calculations, we demonstrate the efficacy of this scheme for nonperturbative errors in analog quantum simulators up to all accessible evolution times in the thermodynamic limit, where it is \textit{a priori} neither established nor expected that this scheme will succeed. Our results indicate the presence of an emergent gauge symmetry in an adjusted gauge theory even in the thermodynamic limit, which is beyond our analytic predictions. Additionally, we show through quantum circuit model calculations that gauge protection with local pseudogenerators also successfully suppresses gauge violations on finite quantum computers that discretize time through Trotterization. Our results firm up the robustness and feasibility of the local pseudogenerator as a viable tool for enforcing gauge invariance in modern quantum simulators and NISQ devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Unconventional critical exponents at dynamical quantum phase transitions in a random Ising chain

Dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) feature singular temporal behavior in transient quantum states during nonequilibrium real-time evolution. In this work we show that DQPTs in random Ising chains exhibit critical behavior with nontrivial exponents that are not integer valued and not of mean-field type. By means of an exact renormalization group transformation we estimate the exponents with high accuracy eliminating largely any finite-size effects. We further discuss how the considered dynamical phenomena can be made accessible in current Rydberg atom platforms. In this context we explore signatures of the DQPTs in the statistics of spin configuration measurements available in such architectures. Specifically, we study the statistics of clusters of consecutively aligned spins and observe a marked influence of the DQPT on the corresponding distribution.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2021

Dynamical phase transitions in quantum spin models with antiferromagnetic long-range interactions

In recent years, dynamical phase transitions and out-of-equilibrium criticality have been at the forefront of ultracold gases and condensed matter research. Whereas universality and scaling are established topics in equilibrium quantum many-body physics, out-of-equilibrium extensions of such concepts still leave much to be desired. Using exact diagonalization and the time-dependent variational principle in uniform martrix product states, we calculate the time evolution of the local order parameter and Loschmidt return rate in transverse-field Ising chains with antiferromagnetic power law-decaying interactions, and map out the corresponding rich dynamical phase diagram. \textit{Anomalous} cusps in the return rate, which are ubiquitous at small quenches within the ordered phase in the case of ferromagnetic long-range interactions, are absent within the accessible timescales of our simulations in the antiferromagnetic case, showing that long-range interactions are not a sufficient condition for their appearance. We attribute this to much weaker domain-wall binding in the antiferromagnetic case. For quenches across the quantum critical point, \textit{regular} cusps appear in the return rate and connect to the local order parameter changing sign, indicating the concurrence of two major concepts of dynamical phase transitions. Our results consolidate conclusions of previous works that a necessary condition for the appearance of anomalous cusps in the return rate after quenches within the ordered phase is for topologically trivial local spin flips to be the energetically dominant excitations in the spectrum of the quench Hamiltonian. Our findings are readily accessible in modern trapped-ion setups, and we outline the associated experimental considerations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Local measures of dynamical quantum phase transitions

In recent years, dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) have emerged as a useful theoretical concept to characterize nonequilibrium states of quantum matter. DQPTs are marked by singular behavior in an \textit{effective free energy} $λ(t)$, which, however, is a global measure, making its experimental or theoretical detection challenging in general. We introduce two local measures for the detection of DQPTs with the advantage of requiring fewer resources than the full effective free energy. The first, called the \textit{real-local} effective free energy $λ_M(t)$, is defined in real space and is therefore suitable for systems where locally resolved measurements are directly accessible such as in quantum-simulator experiments involving Rydberg atoms or trapped ions. We test $λ_M(t)$ in Ising chains with nearest-neighbor and power-law interactions, and find that this measure allows extraction of the universal critical behavior of DQPTs. The second measure we introduce is the \textit{momentum-local} effective free energy $λ_k(t)$, which is targeted at systems where momentum-resolved quantities are more naturally accessible, such as through time-of-flight measurements in ultracold atoms. We benchmark $λ_k(t)$ for the Kitaev chain, a paradigmatic system for topological quantum matter, in the presence of weak interactions. Our introduced local measures for effective free energies can further facilitate the detection of DQPTs in modern quantum-simulator experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Quantum aging and dynamical universality in the long-range $O(N\to\infty)$ model

Quantum quenches to or near criticality give rise to the phenomenon of \textit{aging}, manifested by glassy-like dynamics at short times and far from equilibrium. The recent surge of interest in the dynamics of quantum many-body systems has rejuvenated interest in this phenomenon. Motivated by the ubiquitous long-range interactions in emerging experimental platforms, it is vital to study quantum aging in such settings. In this work, we investigate the dynamical universality and aging in the $d$-dimensional $O(N)$ model with the long-range coupling $1/x^{d+σ}$ and in the mean-field limit $N\to\infty$ that allows an exact treatment. An immediate consequence of long-range coupling is the emergence of nonlinear light cones. We focus on the correlation and response functions, and identify a rich scaling behavior depending on how the corresponding space-time positions are located relative to each other, via a \textit{local light cone}, and to the time of the quench via a global \textit{quench light cone}. We determine the initial-slip exponent that governs the short-time dependence of two-point functions. We highlight the new qualitative features of aging due to the long-range coupling, in particular in the region outside the light cones. As an important consequence of long-range coupling, the correlation function decays as $1/x^{d+σ}$ outside the quench light cone while increasing polynomially with the total time after quench. This is while, for short time differences, the two-time response function "equilibrates" at \textit{all} distances even outside this light cone. Our analytic findings are in excellent agreement with exact numerics, and provide a useful benchmark for modern experimental platforms with long-range interactions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2021

Engineering a U(1) lattice gauge theory in classical electric circuits

Lattice gauge theories are fundamental to such distinct fields as particle physics, condensed matter, and quantum information science. Their local symmetries enforce the charge conservation observed in the laws of physics. Impressive experimental progress has demonstrated that they can be engineered in table-top experiments using synthetic quantum systems. However, the challenges posed by the scalability of such lattice gauge simulators are pressing, thereby making the exploration of different experimental setups desirable. Here, we realize a U(1) lattice gauge theory with five matter sites and four gauge links in classical electric circuits employing nonlinear elements connecting LC oscillators. This allows for probing previously inaccessible spectral and transport properties in a multi-site system. We directly observe Gauss's law, known from electrodynamics, and the emergence of long-range interactions between massive particles in full agreement with theoretical predictions. Our work paves the way for investigations of increasingly complex gauge theories on table-top classical setups, and demonstrates the precise control of nonlinear effects within metamaterial devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Gauge protection in non-Abelian lattice gauge theories

Protection of gauge invariance in experimental realizations of lattice gauge theories based on energy-penalty schemes has recently stimulated impressive efforts both theoretically and in setups of quantum synthetic matter. A major challenge is the reliability of such schemes in non-Abelian gauge theories where local conservation laws do not commute. Here, we show through exact diagonalization that non-Abelian gauge invariance can be reliably controlled using gauge-protection terms that energetically stabilize the target gauge sector in Hilbert space, suppressing gauge violations due to unitary gauge-breaking errors. We present analytic arguments that predict a volume-independent protection strength $V$, which when sufficiently large leads to the emergence of an \textit{adjusted} gauge theory with the same local gauge symmetry up to least a timescale $\propto\sqrt{V/V_0^3}$. Thereafter, a \textit{renormalized} gauge theory dominates up to a timescale $\propto\exp(V/V_0)/V_0$ with $V_0$ a volume-independent energy factor, similar to the case of faulty Abelian gauge theories. Moreover, we show for certain experimentally relevant errors that single-body protection terms robustly suppress gauge violations up to all accessible evolution times in exact diagonalization, and demonstrate that the adjusted gauge theory emerges in this case as well. These single-body protection terms can be readily implemented with fewer engineering requirements than the ideal gauge theory itself in current ultracold-atom setups and NISQ devices.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Reliability of lattice gauge theories in the thermodynamic limit

Although gauge invariance is a postulate in fundamental theories of nature such as quantum electrodynamics, in quantum-simulation implementations of gauge theories it is compromised by experimental imperfections. In a recent work [Halimeh and Hauke, \href{https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.030503}{Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{125}, 030503 (2020)}], it has been shown in finite-size spin-$1/2$ quantum link lattice gauge theories that upon introducing an energy-penalty term of sufficiently large strength $V$, unitary gauge-breaking errors at strength $λ$ are suppressed $\proptoλ^2/V^2$ up to all accessible evolution times. Here, we show numerically that this result extends to quantum link models in the thermodynamic limit and with larger spin-$S$. As we show analytically, the dynamics at short times is described by an \textit{adjusted} gauge theory up to a timescale that is at earliest $τ_\text{adj}\propto\sqrt{V/V_0^3}$, with $V_0$ an energy factor. Moreover, our analytics predicts that a renormalized gauge theory dominates at intermediate times up to a timescale $τ_\text{ren}\propto\exp(V/V_0)/V_0$. In both emergent gauge theories, $V$ is volume-independent and scales at worst $\sim S^2$. Furthermore, we numerically demonstrate that robust gauge invariance is also retained through a single-body gauge-protection term, which is experimentally straightforward to implement in ultracold-atom setups and NISQ devices.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Gauge-Symmetry Violation Quantum Phase Transition in Lattice Gauge Theories

Gauge symmetry plays a key role in our description of subatomic matter. The vanishing photon mass, the long-ranged Coulomb law, and asymptotic freedom are all due to gauge invariance. Recent years have seen tantalizing progress in the microscopic reconstruction of gauge theories in engineered quantum simulators. Yet, many of these are plagued by a fundamental question: When gauge symmetry is only approximate in the quantum device, do we actually quantum-simulate a gauge theory? Here, we answer this question in the affirmative for a paradigm gauge theory akin to quantum electrodynamics. Analytically, we derive a renormalized gauge symmetry that is at least exponentially accurate. Further, numerically computing the phase diagram in the thermodynamic limit, we find that the long-distance behavior of the gauge theory is only compromised upon reaching a sharp quantum phase transition. This behavior is enabled by an energy penalty term, which lends a mass to the Higgs boson to which the coherent gauge breaking couples. Our results not only lend validity to ongoing gauge-theory quantum simulations, they also probe the fundamental question of how gauge symmetry could emerge in nature.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Diffusive-to-ballistic crossover of symmetry violation in open many-body systems

Conservation laws in a quantum many-body system play a direct role in its dynamic behavior. Understanding the effect of weakly breaking a conservation law due to coherent and incoherent errors is thus crucial, e.g., in the realization of reliable quantum simulators. In this work, we perform exact numerics and time-dependent perturbation theory to study the dynamics of \textit{symmetry violation} in quantum many-body systems with slight coherent (at strength $λ$) or incoherent (at strength $γ$) breaking of their local and global symmetries. We rigorously prove the symmetry violation to be a divergence measure in Hilbert space. Based on this, we show that symmetry breaking generically leads to a crossover in the divergence growth from diffusive behavior at onset times to ballistic or hyperballistic scaling at intermediate times, before diffusion dominates at long times. More precisely, we show that for local errors the leading coherent contribution to the symmetry violation cannot be of order lower than $\proptoλt^2$ while its leading-order incoherent counterpart is typically of order $\proptoγt$. This remarkable interplay between unitary and incoherent gauge-breaking scalings is also observed at higher orders in projectors onto symmetry (super)sectors. Due to its occurrence at short times, the diffusive-to-ballistic crossover is expected to be readily accessible in modern ultracold-atom and NISQ-device experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Fate of Lattice Gauge Theories Under Decoherence

A major test of the capabilities of modern quantum simulators and NISQ devices is the reliable realization of gauge theories, which constitute a gold standard of implementational efficacy. In addition to unavoidable unitary errors, realistic experiments suffer from decoherence, which compromises gauge invariance and, therefore, the gauge theory itself. Here, we study the effect of decoherence on the quench dynamics of a lattice gauge theory. Rigorously identifying the gauge violation as a divergence measure in the gauge sectors, we find at short times that it first grows diffusively $\simγt$ due to decoherence at environment-coupling strength $γ$, before unitary errors at strength $λ$ dominate and the violation grows ballistically $\simλ^2t^2$. We further introduce multiple quantum coherences in the context of gauge theories to quantify decoherence effects. Both experimentally accessible measures will be of independent interest beyond the immediate context of this work.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Observation of gauge invariance in a 71-site Bose-Hubbard quantum simulator

The modern description of elementary particles, as formulated in the Standard Model of particle physics, is built on gauge theories. Gauge theories implement fundamental laws of physics by local symmetry constraints. For example, in quantum electrodynamics, Gauss's law introduces an intrinsic local relation between charged matter and electromagnetic fields, which protects many salient physical properties including massless photons and a long-ranged Coulomb law. Solving gauge theories by classical computers is an extremely arduous task, which has stimulated a vigorous effort to simulate gauge-theory dynamics in microscopically engineered quantum devices. Previous achievements implemented density-dependent Peierls phases without defining a local symmetry, realized mappings onto effective models to integrate out either matter or electric fields, or were limited to very small systems. The essential gauge symmetry has not been observed experimentally. Here, we report the quantum simulation of an extended U(1) lattice gauge theory, and experimentally quantify the gauge invariance in a many-body system comprising matter and gauge fields. These are realized in defect-free arrays of bosonic atoms in an optical superlattice of 71 sites. We demonstrate full tunability of the model parameters and benchmark the matter--gauge interactions by sweeping across a quantum phase transition. Enabled by high-fidelity manipulation techniques, we measure the degree to which Gauss's law is violated by extracting probabilities of locally gauge-invariant states from correlated atom occupations. Our work provides a way to explore gauge symmetry in the interplay of fundamental particles using controllable large-scale quantum simulators.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Robustness of gauge-invariant dynamics against defects in ultracold-atom gauge theories

Recent years have seen strong progress in quantum simulation of gauge-theory dynamics using ultracold-atom experiments. A principal challenge in these efforts is the certification of gauge invariance, which has recently been realized in [B.~Yang et al., arXiv:2003.08945]. One major but poorly investigated experimental source of gauge-invariance violation is an imperfect preparation of the initial state. Using the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group, we analyze the robustness of gauge-invariant dynamics against potential preparation defects in the above ultracold-atom implementation of a $\mathrm{U}(1)$ gauge theory. We find defects related to an erroneous initialization of matter fields to be innocuous, as the associated gauge-invariance violation remains strongly localized throughout the time evolution. A defect due to faulty initialization of the gauge field leads to a mild proliferation of the associated violation. Furthermore, we characterize the influence of immobile and mobile defects by monitoring the spread of entanglement entropy. Overall, our results indicate that the aforementioned experimental realization exhibits a high level of fidelity in the gauge invariance of its dynamics at all evolution times. Our work provides strong evidence that ultracold-atom setups can serve as an extremely reliable framework for the quantum simulation of gauge-theory dynamics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Gauge-Symmetry Protection Using Single-Body Terms

Quantum-simulator hardware promises new insights into problems from particle and nuclear physics. A major challenge is to reproduce gauge invariance, as violations of this quintessential property of lattice gauge theories can have dramatic consequences, e.g., the generation of a photon mass in quantum electrodynamics. Here, we introduce an experimentally friendly method to protect gauge invariance in $\mathrm{U}(1)$ lattice gauge theories against coherent errors in a controllable way. Our method employs only single-body energy-penalty terms, thus enabling practical implementations. As we derive analytically, some sets of penalty coefficients render undesired gauge sectors inaccessible by unitary dynamics for exponentially long times, and, for few-body error terms, with resources independent of system size. These findings constitute an exponential improvement over previously known results from energy-gap protection or perturbative treatments. In our method, the gauge-invariant subspace is protected by an emergent global symmetry, meaning it can be immediately applied to other symmetries. In our numerical benchmarks for continuous-time and digital quantum simulations, gauge protection holds for all calculated evolution times (up to $t>10^{10}/J$ for continuous time, with $J$ the relevant energy scale). Crucially, our gauge-protection technique is simpler to realize than the associated ideal gauge theory, and can thus be readily implemented in current ultracold-atom analog simulators as well as digital noisy intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) devices.

quant-ph↗