arXiv subjects

Jean-Marie Stéphan

Publications and source records attributed to Jean-Marie Stéphan.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Universal terms in the overlap of the ground state of the spin-1/2 XXZ chain with the Néel state

We analyze universal terms that appear in the large system size scaling of the overlap between the Néel state and the ground state of the spin-1/2 XXZ chain in the antiferromagnetic regime. In a critical theory, the order one term of the asymptotics of such an overlap may be expressed in terms of $g$-factors, known in the context of boundary conformal field theory. In particular, for the XXZ model in its gapless phase, this term provides access to the Luttinger parameter. In its gapped phase, on the other hand, the order one term simply reflects the symmetry broken nature of the phase. In order to study the large system size scaling of this overlap analytically and to compute the order one term exactly, we use a recently derived finite-size determinant formula and perform an asymptotic expansion. Our analysis confirms the predictions of boundary conformal field theory and enables us to determine the exponent of the leading finite-size correction.

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arXiv2017

Emergence of curved light-cones in a class of inhomogeneous Luttinger liquids

The light-cone spreading of entanglement and correlation is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of homogeneous extended quantum systems. Here we point out that a class of inhomogenous Luttinger liquids (those with a uniform Luttinger parameter $K$) at low energy display the universal phenomenon of curved light cones: gapless excitations propagate along the geodesics of the metric $ds^2=dx^2+v(x)^2 dτ^2$, with $v(x)$ being the calculable spatial dependent velocity induced by the inhomogeneity. We confirm our findings with explicit analytic and numerical calculations both in- and out-of-equilibrium for a Tonks-Girardeau gas in a harmonic potential and in lattice systems with artificially tuned hamiltonian density.

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arXiv2016

Conformal Field Theory for Inhomogeneous One-dimensional Quantum Systems: the Example of Non-Interacting Fermi Gases

Conformal field theory (CFT) has been extremely successful in describing large-scale universal effects in one-dimensional (1D) systems at quantum critical points. Unfortunately, its applicability in condensed matter physics has been limited to situations in which the bulk is uniform because CFT describes low-energy excitations around some energy scale, taken to be constant throughout the system. However, in many experimental contexts, such as quantum gases in trapping potentials and in several out-of-equilibrium situations, systems are strongly inhomogeneous. We show here that the powerful CFT methods can be extended to deal with such 1D situations, providing a few concrete examples for non-interacting Fermi gases. The system's inhomogeneity enters the field theory action through parameters that vary with position; in particular, the metric itself varies, resulting in a CFT in curved space. This approach allows us to derive exact formulas for entanglement entropies which were not known by other means.

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arXiv2016

Full counting statistics in the Haldane-Shastry chain

We present analytical and numerical results regarding the magnetization full counting statistics (FCS) of a subsystem in the ground-state of the Haldane-Shastry chain. Exact Pfaffian expressions are derived for the cumulant generating function, as well as any observable diagonal in the spin basis. In the limit of large systems, the scaling of the FCS is found to be in agreement with the Luttinger liquid theory. The same techniques are also applied to inhomogeneous deformations of the chain. This introduces a certain amount of disorder in the system; however we show numerically that this is not sufficient to flow to the random singlet phase, that corresponds to $XXZ$ chains with uncorrelated bond disorder.

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arXiv2016

Inhomogeneous field theory inside the arctic circle

Motivated by quantum quenches in spin chains, a one-dimensional toy-model of fermionic particles evolving in imaginary-time from a domain-wall initial state is solved. The main interest of this toy-model is that it exhibits the arctic circle phenomenon, namely a spatial phase separation between a critically fluctuating region and a frozen region. Large-scale correlations inside the critical region are expressed in terms of correlators in a (euclidean) two-dimensional massless Dirac field theory. It is observed that this theory is inhomogenous: the metric is position-dependent, so it is in fact a Dirac field theory in curved space. The technique used to solve the toy-model is then extended to deal with the transfer matrices of other models: dimers on the honeycomb and square lattice, and the six-vertex model at the free fermion point ($Δ=0$). In all cases, explicit expressions are given for the long-range correlations in the critical region, as well as for the underlying Dirac action. Although the setup developed here is heavily based on fermionic observables, the results can be translated into the language of height configurations and of the gaussian free field, via bosonization. Correlations close to the phase boundary and the generic appearance of Airy processes in all these models are also briefly revisited in the appendix.

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arXiv2015

Overlap distributions for quantum quenches in the anisotropic Heisenberg chain

The dynamics after a quantum quench is determined by the weights of the initial state in the eigenspectrum of the final Hamiltonian, i.e., by the distribution of overlaps in the energy spectrum. We present an analysis of such overlap distributions for quenches of the anisotropy parameter in the one-dimensional anisotropic spin-1/2 Heisenberg model (XXZ chain). We provide an overview of the form of the overlap distribution for quenches from various initial anisotropies to various final ones, using numerical exact diagonalization. We show that if the system is prepared in the antiferromagnetic Néel state (infinite anisotropy) and released into a non-interacting setup (zero anisotropy, XX point) only a small fraction of the final eigenstates gives contributions to the post-quench dynamics, and that these eigenstates have identical overlap magnitudes. We derive expressions for the overlaps, and present the selection rules that determine the final eigenstates having nonzero overlap. We use these results to derive concise expressions for time-dependent quantities (Loschmidt echo, longitudinal and transverse correlators) after the quench. We use perturbative analyses to understand the overlap distribution for quenches from infinite to small nonzero anisotropies, and for quenches from large to zero anisotropy.

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arXiv2015

Unusual Corrections to Scaling and Convergence of Universal Renyi Properties at Quantum Critical Points

At a quantum critical point, bipartite entanglement entropies have universal quantities which are subleading to the ubiquitous area law. For Renyi entropies, these terms are known to be similar to the von Neumann entropy, while being much more amenable to numerical and even experimental measurement. We show here that when calculating universal properties of Renyi entropies, it is important to account for unusual corrections to scaling that arise from relevant local operators present at the conical singularity in the multi-sheeted Riemann surface. These corrections grow in importance with increasing Renyi index. We present studies of Renyi correlation functions in the 1+1 transverse-field Ising model (TFIM) using conformal field theory, mapping to free fermions, and series expansions, and the logarithmic entropy singularity at a corner in 2+1 for both free bosonic field theory and the TFIM, using numerical linked cluster expansions. In all numerical studies, accurate results are only obtained when unusual corrections to scaling are taken into account. In the worst case, an analysis ignoring these corrections can get qualitatively incorrect answers, such as predicting a decrease in critical exponents with the Renyi index, when they are actually increasing. We discuss a two-step extrapolation procedure that can be used to account for the unusual corrections to scaling.

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arXiv2015

Inhomogeneous quenches in a fermionic chain: exact results

We consider the non-equilibrium physics induced by joining together two tight binding fermionic chains to form a single chain. Before being joined, each chain is in a many-fermion ground state. The fillings (densities) in the two chains might be the same or different. We present a number of exact results for the correlation functions in the non-interacting case. We present a short-time expansion, which can sometimes be fully resummed, and which reproduces the so-called `light cone' effect or wavefront behavior of the correlators. For large times, we show how all interesting physical regimes may be obtained by stationary phase approximation techniques. In particular, we derive semiclassical formulas in the case when both time and positions are large, and show that these are exact in the thermodynamic limit. We present subleading corrections to the large-time behavior, including the corrections near the edges of the wavefront. We also provide results for the return probability or Loschmidt echo. In the maximally inhomogeneous limit, we prove that it is exactly gaussian at all times. The effects of interactions on the Loschmidt echo are also discussed.

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arXiv2015

A Rényi entropy perspective on topological order in classical toric code models

Concepts of information theory are increasingly used to characterize collective phenomena in condensed matter systems, such as the use of entanglement entropies to identify emergent topological order in interacting quantum many-body systems. Here we employ classical variants of these concepts, in particular Rényi entropies and their associated mutual information, to identify topological order in classical systems. Like for their quantum counterparts, the presence of topological order can be identified in such classical systems via a universal, subleading contribution to the prevalent volume and boundary laws of the classical Rényi entropies. We demonstrate that an additional subleading $O(1)$ contribution generically arises for all Rényi entropies $S^{(n)}$ with $n \geq 2$ when driving the system towards a phase transition, e.g. into a conventionally ordered phase. This additional subleading term, which we dub connectivity contribution, tracks back to partial subsystem ordering and is proportional to the number of connected parts in a given bipartition. Notably, the Levin-Wen summation scheme -- typically used to extract the topological contribution to the Rényi entropies -- does not fully eliminate this additional connectivity contribution in this classical context. This indicates that the distillation of topological order from Rényi entropies requires an additional level of scrutiny to distinguish topological from non-topological $O(1)$ contributions. This is also the case for quantum systems, for which we discuss which entropies are sensitive to these connectivity contributions. We showcase these findings by extensive numerical simulations of a classical variant of the toric code model, for which we study the stability of topological order in the presence of a magnetic field and at finite temperatures from a Rényi entropy perspective.

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arXiv2014

Shannon and Rényi mutual information in quantum critical spin chains

We study the Shannon mutual information in one-dimensional critical spin chains, following a recent conjecture (Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 017201 (2013)), as well as Rényi generalizations of it. We combine conformal field theory arguments with numerical computations in lattice discretizations with central charge $c=1$ and $c=1/2$. For a periodic system of length $L$ cut into two parts of length $\ell$ and $L-\ell$, all our results agree with the general shape-dependence $I_n(\ell,L)=(b_n/4)\ln \left(\frac{L}π\sin \frac{π\ell}{L}\right)$, where $b_n$ is a universal coefficient. For the free boson CFT we show from general arguments that $b_n=c=1$. At $c=1/2$ we conjecture a result for $n>1$. We perform extensive numerical computations in Ising chains to confirm this, and also find $b_1\simeq 0.4801629(2)$, a nontrivial number which we do not understand analytically. Open chains at $c=1/2$ and $n=1$ are even more intriguing, with a shape-dependent logarithmic divergence of the Shannon mutual information.

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arXiv2014

Geometric mutual information at classical critical points

A practical use of the entanglement entropy in a 1d quantum system is to identify the conformal field theory describing its critical behavior. It is exactly $(c/3)\ln \ell$ for an interval of length $\ell$ in an infinite system, where $c$ is the central charge of the conformal field theory. Here we define the geometric mutual information, an analogous quantity for classical critical points. We compute this for 2d conformal field theories in an arbitrary geometry, and show in particular that for a rectangle cut into two rectangles, it is proportional to $c$. This makes it possible to extract $c$ in classical simulations, which we demonstrate for the critical Ising and 3-state Potts models.

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arXiv2014

Emptiness formation probability, Toeplitz determinants, and conformal field theory

We revisit the study of the emptiness formation probability, the probability of forming a sequence of $\ell$ spins with the same ferromagnetic orientation in the ground-state of a quantum spin chain. We focus on two different examples, exhibiting strikingly different behavior: the XXZ and Ising chains. One has a conserved number of particles, the other does not. In the latter we show that the sequence of fixed spins can be viewed as an additional boundary in imaginary time. We then use conformal field theory (CFT) techniques to derive all universal terms in its scaling, and provide checks in free fermionic systems. These are based on numerical simulations or, when possible, mathematical results on the asymptotic behavior of Toeplitz and Toeplitz+Hankel determinants. A perturbed CFT analysis uncovers an interesting $\ell^{-1}\log \ell$ correction, that also appears in the closely related spin full counting statistics. The XXZ case turns out to be more challenging, as scale invariance is broken. We use a simple qualitative picture in which the ferromagnetic sequence of spins freezes all degrees of freedom inside of a certain "arctic" region, that we determine numerically. We also provide numerical evidence for the existence of universal logarithmic terms, generated by the massless field theory living outside of the arctic region.

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arXiv2013

Logarithmic corrections to the free energy from sharp corners with angle $2π$

We study subleading corrections to the corner free energy in classical two-dimensional critical systems, focusing on a generic boundary perturbation by the stress-tensor of the underlying conformal field theory (CFT). In the particular case of an angle $2π$, we find that there is an unusual correction of the form $L^{-1}\log L$, where $L$ is a typical length scale in the system. This correction also affects the one-point function of an operator near the corner. The prefactor can be seen as semi-universal, in the sense that it depends on a \emph{single} non-universal quantity, the extrapolation length. Once this ultraviolet cutoff is known, the term is entirely fixed by the geometry of the system, and the central charge of the CFT. Such a corner appears for example in the bipartite fidelity of a one-dimensional quantum system at criticality, which allows for several numerical checks in free fermions systems. We also present an exact result in the XX and Ising chains that confirms this analysis. Finally, we consider applications to the time evolution of the (logarithmic) Loschmidt echo and the entanglement entropy following a local quantum quench. Due to subtle issues in analytic continuation, we find that the logarithmic term in imaginary time transforms into a time-dependent $L^{-2}$ correction for the entanglement entropy, and a $L^{-2}\log L$ term for the Loschmidt echo.

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arXiv2013

Entanglement in gapless resonating valence bond states

We study resonating-valence-bond (RVB) states on the square lattice of spins and of dimers, as well as SU(N)-invariant states that interpolate between the two. These states are ground states of gapless models, although the SU(2)-invariant spin RVB state is also believed to be a gapped liquid in its spinful sector. We show that the gapless behavior in spin and dimer RVB states is qualitatively similar by studying the Rényi entropy for splitting a torus into two cylinders, We compute this exactly for dimers, showing it behaves similarly to the familiar one-dimensional log term, although not identically. We extend the exact computation to an effective theory believed to interpolate among these states. By numerical calculations for the SU(2) RVB state and its SU(N)-invariant generalizations, we provide further support for this belief. We also show how the entanglement entropy behaves qualitatively differently for different values of the Rényi index $n$, with large values of $n$ proving a more sensitive probe here, by virtue of exhibiting a striking even/odd effect.

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arXiv2011

Rényi entanglement entropies in quantum dimer models : from criticality to topological order

Thanks to Pfaffian techniques, we study the Rényi entanglement entropies and the entanglement spectrum of large subsystems for two-dimensional Rokhsar-Kivelson wave functions constructed from a dimer model on the triangular lattice. By including a fugacity $t$ on some suitable bonds, one interpolates between the triangular lattice (t=1) and the square lattice (t=0). The wave function is known to be a massive $\mathbb Z_2$ topological liquid for $t>0$ whereas it is a gapless critical state at t=0. We mainly consider two geometries for the subsystem: that of a semi-infinite cylinder, and the disk-like setup proposed by Kitaev and Preskill [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 110404 (2006)]. In the cylinder case, the entropies contain an extensive term -- proportional to the length of the boundary -- and a universal sub-leading constant $s_n(t)$. Fitting these cylinder data (up to a perimeter of L=32 sites) provides $s_n$ with a very high numerical accuracy ($10^{-9}$ at t=1 and $10^{-6}$ at $t=0.5$). In the topological $\mathbb{Z}_2$ liquid phase we find $s_n(t>0)=-\ln 2$, independent of the fugacity $t$ and the Rényi parameter $n$. At t=0 we recover a previously known result, $s_n(t=0)=-(1/2)\ln(n)/(n-1)$ for $n<1$ and $s_n(t=0)=-\ln(2)/(n-1)$ for $n>1$. In the disk-like geometry -- designed to get rid of the boundary contributions -- we find an entropy $s^{\rm KP}_n(t>0)=-\ln 2$ in the whole massive phase whatever $n>0$, in agreement with the result of Flammia {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 261601 (2009)]. Some results for the gapless limit $R^{\rm KP}_n(t\to 0)$ are discussed.

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arXiv2011

Local quantum quenches in critical one-dimensional systems: entanglement, the Loschmidt echo, and light-cone effects

We study a particular type of local quench in a generic quantum critical one-dimensional system, using conformal field theory (CFT) techniques, and providing numerical checks of the results in free fermion systems. The system is initially cut into two subsystems $A$ and $B$ which are glued together at time $t=0$. We study the entanglement entropy (EE) between the two parts $A$ and $B$, using previous results by Calabrese and Cardy, and further extending them. We also study in detail the (logarithmic) Loschmidt echo (LLE). For finite-size systems both quantities turn out to be (almost) periodic in the scaling limit, and exhibit striking light-cone effects. While these two quantities behave similarly immediately after the quench---namely as $c/3 \log t$ for the EE and $c/4 \log t$ for the LLE---, we observe some discrepancy once the excitations emitted by the quench bounce on the boundary and evolve within the same subsystem $A$ (or $B$). The decay of the EE is then non-universal, as noticed by Eisler and Peschel. On the contrary, we find that the evolution of the LLE is less sensitive than the EE to non-universal details of the model, and is still accurately described by our CFT prediction. To further probe these light-cone effects, we also introduce a variant of the Loschmidt echo specifically constructed to detect the excitations emitted just after the quench.

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arXiv2011

Phase transition in the Rényi-Shannon entropy of Luttinger liquids

The Rényi-Shannon entropy associated to critical quantum spins chain with central charge $c=1$ is shown to have a phase transition at some value $n_c$ of the Rényi parameter $n$ which depends on the Luttinger parameter (or compactification radius R). Using a new replica-free formulation, the entropy is expressed as a combination of single-sheet partition functions evaluated at $n-$ dependent values of the stiffness. The transition occurs when a vertex operator becomes relevant at the boundary. Our numerical results (exact diagonalizations for the XXZ and $J_1-J_2$ models) are in agreement with the analytical predictions: above $n_c=4/R^2$ the subleading and universal contribution to the entropy is $\ln(L)(R^2-1)/(4n-4)$ for open chains, and $\ln(R)/(1-n)$ for periodic ones (R=1 at the free fermion point). The replica approach used in previous works fails to predict this transition and turns out to be correct only for $n<n_c$. From the point of view of two-dimensional Rokhsar-Kivelson states, the transition reveals a rich structure in the entanglement spectra.

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arXiv2011

Universal behavior of a bipartite fidelity at quantum criticality

We introduce the (logarithmic) bipartite fidelity of a quantum system $A\cup B$ as the (logarithm of the) overlap between its ground-state wave function and the ground-state one would obtain if the interactions between two complementary subsystems $A$ and $B$ were switched off. We argue that it should typically satisfy an area law in dimension $d>1$. In the case of one-dimensional quantum critical points (QCP) we find that it admits a universal scaling form $\sim \ln \ell$, where $\ell$ is the typical size of the smaller subsystem. The prefactor is proportional to the central charge $c$ and depends on the geometry. We also argue that this quantity can be useful to locate quantum phase transitions, allows for a reliable determination of the central charge, and in general exhibits various properties that are similar to the entanglement entropy. Like the entanglement entropy, it contains subleading universal terms in the case of a 2D conformal QCP.

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