arXiv subjects

Jan Carl Budich

Publications and source records attributed to Jan Carl Budich.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Topology of density matrices

We investigate topological properties of density matrices motivated by the question to what extent phenomena like topological insulators and superconductors can be generalized to mixed states in the framework of open quantum systems. The notion of geometric phases has been extended from pure to mixed states by Uhlmann in [Rep. Math. Phys. 24, 229 (1986)], where an emergent gauge theory over the density matrices based on their pure-state representation in a larger Hilbert space has been reported. However, since the uniquely defined square root $\sqrtρ$ of a density matrix $ρ$ provides a global gauge, this construction is always topologically trivial. Here, we study a more restrictive gauge structure which can be topologically non-trivial and is capable of resolving homotopically distinct mappings of density matrices subject to various spectral constraints. Remarkably, in this framework, topological invariants can be directly defined and calculated for mixed states. In the limit of pure states, the well known system of topological invariants for gapped band structures at zero temperature is reproduced. We compare our construction with recent approaches to Chern insulators at finite temperature.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Dissipative preparation of Chern insulators

Engineered dissipation can be employed to prepare interesting quantum many body states in a non-equilibrium fashion. The basic idea is to obtain the state of interest as the unique steady state of a quantum master equation, irrespective of the initial state. Due to a fundamental competition of topology and locality, the dissipative preparation of gapped topological phases with a non-vanishing Chern number has so far remained elusive. Here, we study the open quantum system dynamics of fermions on a two-dimensional lattice in the framework of a Lindblad master equation. In particular, we discover a mechanism to dissipatively prepare a topological steady state with non-zero Chern number by means of short-range system bath interaction. Quite remarkably, this gives rise to a stable topological phase in a non-equilibrium phase diagram. We demonstrate how our theoretical construction can be implemented in a microscopic model that is experimentally feasible with cold atoms in optical lattices.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Teleportation-induced entanglement of two nanomechanical oscillators coupled to a topological superconductor

A one-dimensional topological superconductor features a single fermionic zero mode that is delocalized over two Majorana bound states located at the ends of the system. We study a pair of spatially separated nanomechanical oscillators tunnel-coupled to these Majorana modes. Most interestingly, we demonstrate that the combination of electron-phonon coupling and a finite charging energy on the mesoscopic topological superconductor can lead to an effective superexchange between the oscillators via the non-local fermionic zero mode. We further show that this teleportation mechanism leads to entanglement of the two oscillators over distances that can significantly exceed the coherence length of the superconductor.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Time Reversal Symmetric Topological Exciton Condensate in Bilayer HgTe Quantum Wells

We investigate a bilayer system of critical HgTe quantum wells each featuring a spin-degenerate pair of massless Dirac fermions. In the presence of an electrostatic inter-layer Coulomb coupling, we determine the exciton condensate order parameter of the system self-consistently. Calculating the bulk topological $\mathbb Z_2$ invariant of the resulting mean field Hamiltonian, we discover a novel time reversal symmetric topological exciton condensate state coined the helical topological exciton condensate. We argue that this phase can exist for experimentally relevant parameters. Interestingly, due to its multi-band nature, the present bilayer model exhibits a nontrivial interplay between spontaneous symmetry breaking and topology: Depending on which symmetry the condensate order parameter spontaneously picks in combined orbital and spin space, stable minima in the free energy corresponding to both trivial and nontrivial gapped states can be found.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Topological invariant for generic 1D time reversal symmetric superconductors in class DIII

A one dimensional time reversal symmetric topological superconductor (symmetry class DIII) features a single Kramers pair of Majorana bound states at each of its ends. These holographic quasiparticles are non-Abelian anyons that obey Ising-type braiding statistics. In the special case where an additional U(1) spin rotation symmetry is present, this state can be understood as two copies of a Majorana wire in symmetry class D, one copy for each spin block. We present a manifestly gauge invariant construction of the topological invariant for the generic case, i.e., in the absence of any additional symmetries like spin rotation symmetry. Furthermore, we show how the presence of inversion symmetry simplifies the calcuation of the topological invariant. The proposed scheme is suitable for the classification of both interacting and disordered systems and allows for a straightforward numerical evaluation of the invariant since it does not rely on fixing a continuous phase relation between Bloch functions. Finally, we apply our method to compute the topological phase diagram of a Rashba wire with competing s-wave and p-wave superconducting pairing terms.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Group theoretical and topological analysis of the quantum spin Hall effect in silicene

Silicene consists of a monolayer of silicon atoms in a buckled honeycomb structure. It was recently discovered that the symmetry of such a system allows for interesting Rashba spin-orbit effects. A perpendicular electric field is able to couple to the sublattice pseudospin, making it possible to electrically tune and close the band gap. Therefore, external electric fields may generate a topological phase transition from a topological insulator to a normal insulator (or semimetal) and vice versa. The contribution of the present article to the study of silicene is twofold: First, we perform a group theoretical analysis to systematically construct the Hamiltonian in the vicinity of the $K$ points of the Brillouin zone and discover a new, but symmetry allowed term. Subsequently, we identify a tight binding model that corresponds to the group theoretically derived Hamiltonian near the $K$ points. Second, we start from this tight binding model to analyze the topological phase diagram of silicene by an explicit calculation of the $Z_2$ topological invariant of the band structure. To this end, we calculate the $Z_2$ topological invariant of the honeycomb lattice in a manifestly gauge invariant way which allows us to include $S_z$ symmetry breaking terms -- like Rashba spin orbit interaction -- into the topological analysis. Interestingly, we find that the interplay of two Rashba terms can generate a non-trivial quantum spin Hall phase in silicene. This is in sharp contrast to the more extensively studied honeycomb system graphene where Rashba spin orbit interaction is known to compete with the quantum spin Hall effect in a potentially detrimental way.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Entanglement of nanoelectromechanical oscillators by Cooper-pair tunneling

We demonstrate that entanglement of two macroscopic nanoelectromechanical resonators -- coupled to each other via a common detector, a tunnel junction -- can be generated by running a current through the device. We introduce a setup that overcomes generic limitations of proposals suggesting to entangle systems via a shared bath. At the heart of the proposal is an Andreev entangler setup, representing an experimentally feasible way of entangling two nanomechanical oscillators. Instead of relying on the coherence of a (fermionic) bath, in the Andreev entangler setup, a split Cooper-pair that coherently tunnels to each oscillator mediates their coupling and thereby induces entanglement between them. Since entanglement is in each instance generated by Markovian and non-Markovian noisy open system dynamics in an out-of-equilibrium situation, we argue that the present scheme also opens up perspectives to observe dissipation-driven entanglement in a condensed-matter system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Equivalent topological invariants for one-dimensional Majorana wires in symmetry class D

Topological superconductors in one spatial dimension exhibiting a single Majorana bound state at each end are distinguished from trivial gapped systems by a Z_2 topological invariant. Originally, this invariant was calculated by Kitaev in terms of the Pfaffian of the Majorana representation of the Hamiltonian: The sign of this Pfaffian divides the set of all gapped quadratic forms of Majorana fermions into two inequivalent classes. In the more familiar Bogoliubov de Gennes mean field description of superconductivity, an emergent particle hole symmetry gives rise to a quantized Zak-Berry phase the value of which is also a topological invariant. In this work, we explicitly show the equivalence of these two formulations by relating both of them to the phase winding of the transformation matrix that brings the Majorana representation matrix of the Hamiltonian into its Jordan normal form.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Unraveling of the fractional topological phase in one-dimensional flatbands with nontrivial topology

We consider a topologically non-trivial flat band structure in one spatial dimension in the presence of nearest and next nearest neighbor Hubbard interaction. The non-interacting band structure is characterized by a symmetry protected topologically quantized Berry phase. At certain fractional fillings, a gapped phase with a filling-dependent ground state degeneracy, and fractionally charged quasi-particles emerges. At filling 1/3, the ground states carry a fractional Berry phase in the momentum basis. These features at first glance suggest a certain analogy to the fractional quantum Hall scenario in two dimensions. We solve the interacting model analytically in the physically relevant limit of a large band gap in the underlying band structure, the analog of a lowest Landau level projection. Our solution affords a simple physical understanding of the properties of the gapped interacting phase. We pinpoint crucial differences to the fractional quantum Hall case by studying the Berry phase and the entanglement entropy associated with the degenerate ground states. In particular, we conclude that the `fractional topological phase in one-dimensional flatbands' is not a one-dimensional analog of the two-dimensional fractional quantum Hall states, but rather a charge density wave with a nontrivial Berry phase. Finally, the symmetry protected nature of the Berry phase of the interacting phase is demonstrated by explicitly constructing a gapped interpolation to a state with a trivial Berry phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

$\mathbb Z_2$~Green's function topology of Majorana wires

We represent the $\mathbb Z_2$~topological invariant characterizing a one dimensional topological superconductor using a Wess-Zumino-Witten dimensional extension. The invariant is formulated in terms of the single particle Green's function which allows to classify interacting systems. Employing a recently proposed generalized Berry curvature method, the topological invariant is represented independent of the extra dimension requiring only the single particle Green's function at zero frequency of the interacting system. Furthermore, a modified twisted boundary conditions approach is used to rigorously define the topological invariant for disordered interacting systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Fluctuation driven topological Hund insulators

We investigate the role of electron-electron interaction in a two-band Hubbard model based on the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang Hamiltonian exhibiting the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect. By means of dynamical mean-field theory, we find that a system with topologically trivial non-interacting parameters can be driven into a QSH phase at finite interaction strength by virtue of local dynamical fluctuations. For very strong interaction, the system reenters a trivial insulating phase by going through a Mott transition. We obtain the phase diagram of our model by direct calculation of the bulk topological invariant of the interacting system in terms of its single particle Green's function.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

From the adiabatic theorem of quantum mechanics to topological states of matter

Owing to the enormous interest the rapidly growing field of topological states of matter (TSM) has attracted in recent years, the main focus of this review is on the theoretical foundations of TSM. Starting from the adiabatic theorem of quantum mechanics which we present from a geometrical perspective, the concept of TSM is introduced to distinguish gapped many body ground states that have representatives within the class of non-interacting systems and mean field superconductors, respectively, regarding their global geometrical features. These classifying features are topological invariants defined in terms of the adiabatic curvature of these bulk insulating systems. We review the general classification of TSM in all symmetry classes in the framework of K-Theory. Furthermore, we outline how interactions and disorder can be included into the theoretical framework of TSM by reformulating the relevant topological invariants in terms of the single particle Green's function and by introducing twisted boundary conditions, respectively. We finally integrate the field of TSM into a broader context by distinguishing TSM from the concept of topological order which has been introduced to study fractional quantum Hall systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Charge conservation protected topological phases

We discuss the relation between particle number conservation and topological phases. In four spatial dimensions, we find that systems belonging to different topological phases in the presence of a U(1) charge conservation can be connected adiabatically, i.e., without closing the gap, upon intermediately breaking this local symmetry by a superconducting term. The time reversal preserving topological insulator states in 2D and 3D which can be obtained from the 4D parent state by dimensional reduction inherit this protection by charge conservation. Hence, all topological insulators can be adiabatically connected to a trivial insulating state without breaking time reversal symmetry, provided an intermediate superconducting term is allowed during the adiabatic deformation. Conversely, in one spatial dimension, non-symmetry-protected topological phases occur only in systems that break U(1) charge conservation. These results can intuitively be understood by considering a natural embedding of the classifying spaces of charge conserving Hamiltonians into the corresponding Bogoliubov de Gennes classes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Exact results for the Kondo screening cloud of two helical liquids

We analyze the screening of a magnetic quantum dot with spin 1/2 coupled to two helical liquids. Interestingly, we find two qualitatively different sets of Toulouse points, i.e., nontrivial parameters for which we can solve the two channel Kondo model exactly. This enables us to calculate the temperature and voltage dependent Kondo screening cloud, which develops oscillations for an applied spin voltage $μ_s$. Such a spin voltage can be conveniently applied by a charge bias in a four-terminal helical liquid setup.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Fluctuation-induced Topological Quantum Phase Transitions in Quantum Spin Hall and Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulators

We investigate the role of quantum fluctuations in topological quantum phase transitions of quantum spin Hall insulators and quantum anomalous Hall insulators. Employing the variational cluster approximation to obtain the single-particle Green's function of the interacting many-body system, we characterize different phases by direct calculation of the recently proposed topological order parameter for interacting systems. We pinpoint the influence of quantum fluctuations on the quantum spin Hall to Mott insulator transition in several models. Furthermore, we propose a general mechanism by which a topological quantum phase transition can be driven by the divergence of the self energy induced by interactions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Majorana bound states and non-local spin correlations in a quantum wire on an unconventional superconductor

We study theoretically the proximity effect of a one-dimensional metallic quantum wire (in the absence of spin-orbit interaction) lying on top of an unconventional superconductor. Three different material classes are considered as a substrate: (i) a chiral superconductor in class D with broken time-reversal symmetry; a class DIII superconductor (ii) with and (iii) without a nontrivial Z2 number. Interestingly, we find degenerate zero energy Majorana bound states at both ends of the wire for all three cases. They are unstable against spin-orbit interaction in case (i) while they are topologically protected by time-reversal symmetry in cases (ii) and (iii). Remarkably, we show that non-local spin correlations between the two ends of the wire can be simply controlled by a gate potential in our setup.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Renormalization group approach for the scattering off a single Rashba impurity in a helical liquid

The occurrence of two-particle inelastic backscattering has been conjectured in helical edge states of topological insulators and is expected to alter transport. In this Letter, by using a renormalization group approach, we provide a microscopic derivation of this process, in the presence of a time-reversal invariant Rashba impurity potential. Unlike previous approaches to the problem, we are able to prove that such an effect only occurs in the presence of electron-electron interactions. Furthermore, we find that the linear conductance as a function of temperature exhibits a crossover between two scaling behaviors: $T^{4K}$ for $K>1/2$ and $T^{8K-2}$ for $K<1/2$, with $K$ the Luttinger parameter.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Failure of protection of Majorana based qubits against decoherence

Qubit realizations based on Majorana bound states have been considered promising candidates for quantum information processing which is inherently inert to decoherence. We put the underlying general arguments leading to this conjecture to the test from an open quantum system perspective. It turns out that, from a fundamental point of view, the Majorana qubit is as susceptible to decoherence as any local paradigm of a qubit.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗