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Johan Carlström

Publications and source records attributed to Johan Carlström.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Demonstration of a fermion Quadrupling Condensate via Quantum Monte Carlo Simulation

Fermionic condensation typically occurs via pairing. In recent decades, however, a fundamental question has emerged: whether alternative forms of order exist, such as condensates of fermion quadruplets. These states--including ``charge-4e" superconductors and ``charge-0" counterflow condensates--lie beyond the standard Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer framework, and require strong fluctuations and correlation effects that invalidate the BCS mean-field description. This makes the problem notoriously difficult to study numerically at a microscopic level, as it involves both strong interactions and the fermionic sign problem. Here, we present a microscopic fermionic model featuring correlated hopping that significantly mitigates the sign problem, enabling rigorous Monte-Carlo-based analysis. Using large-scale simulations, we demonstrate the existence of a fermion-quadrupling condensate with a transition temperature comparable to the hopping energy scale. These results provide direct numerical evidence for quartic fermionic order in a microscopic system and suggest that these exotic states are also experimentally accessible in ultracold atomic gases.

cond-mat.supr-con

Revisiting vestigial order in nematic superconductors: gauge-field mechanisms and model constraints

An electronic nematic order that originates from superconducting fluctuation but persists above the superconducting transition temperature is often referred to as a vestigial nematic phase. Such a vestigial order belongs to the broader class of composite orders discussed in earlier literature, characterized by ordering in gauge-invariant combinations of superconducting order parameters while the individual superconducting order parameters remain disordered. These states include metallic superfluids, paired phases, and composite (charge-4e) superconductors. Whether and under what conditions such a vestigial phase can emerge in realistic models of nematic superconductors remains an open question. Recent analytical work [P. T. How and S. K. Yip, Phys. Rev. B 107, 104514 (2023)] concluded that vestigial nematic phases--and related mechanisms--do not appear in the widely studied models proposed for, e.g., Bi$_2$Se$_3$-based candidates. To shed light on this question, we perform large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of a three-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau model of a nematic superconductor. Consistent with the findings of How and Yip, our numerical results confirm that commonly considered models do not exhibit vestigial nematic phases or nematic-fluctuation-induced charge-4e superconductivity. Extending the analysis to include coupling to a gauge field, we show that vestigial nematic order can, under restrictive conditions, be stabilized through an alternative mechanism: intercomponent coupling mediated by the gauge field or the effects of strong correlations.

cond-mat.supr-con

Hund-projected Kanamori model: an effective description of Hund's metals near the Mott insulating regime

Hund's coupling plays a decisive role in shaping electron correlations of multi-orbital systems, giving rise to a class of materials--Hund's metals--that combine local-moment physics with metallic transport. Here we derive an effective low-energy description of such a system near the Mott insulating regime, starting from the multi-orbital Hubbard-Kanamori Hamiltonian and projecting onto the high-spin manifold favored by Hund's first rule. The resulting Hund-projected Kanamori model captures the interplay between carrier motion and magnetic correlations in the presence of strong Hund's coupling. In the undoped limit, the model reduces to a spin-$N/2$ Heisenberg system with suppressed quantum fluctuations, approaching the classical limit for realistic five-band configurations. Upon doping, carrier motion couples strongly to the spin background and drives ferromagnetic correlations through a Hund-enhanced kinetic mechanism analogous to, but much stronger than, Nagaoka ferromagnetism. Owing to its reduced sign problem, the model can be addressed with advanced path-integral methods to determine quasiparticle structure and effective interactions between carriers-quantities that are challenging to obtain with other methods. This framework establishes a microscopic bridge between the Kanamori model and the emergent magnetic and transport phenomena characteristic of Hund's metals.

cond-mat.str-el

High-Temperature Phase Separation and Charge-Magnon Liquid in Kinetic Antiferromagnets

Understanding mechanisms of quantum ordering in strongly correlated systems remains a central challenge in condensed matter physics, with implications for designing novel quantum materials. Here, we investigate kinetic antiferromagnetism on a triangular lattice under an applied magnetic field, where spin-polarons emerge as charge-magnon bound states with mutual attraction. Using large-scale diagrammatic Monte Carlo simulations, we show that this interaction drives high-temperature phase separation into charge- and magnon-rich regions, bordered by polarised Mott insulating voids. Spectral function analysis reveals a substantial energy correction from magnon interactions, indicating that these carrier-rich regions form a strongly bound charge-magnon liquid. These findings shed new light on recent experiments on MoTe2/WSe2 moiré bilayers, underscoring kinetic magnetism as a unique pathway for strong inter-carrier attraction and high-temperature quantum ordering, with potential applications in quantum materials.

cond-mat.str-el

Fermi arcs, Landau levels and magnetic response of the nematic Weyl liquid

In classes of Weyl semimetals where the symmetry protects nodes with higher than unit charge, the nematic Weyl liquid appears as interactions destroy this underlying symmetry. In the symmetry-broken phase, the multiple-charge nodes are split into objects of unit charge, the position of which in momentum space is determined by the nematic order parameter. We examine the phenomenology of this phase, focusing on topological edge states and Landau levels. We find that the symmetry-broken phase itself, as well as the orientation of the nematic order, are identifiable from the resulting edge states. We also find that the nematic order couples to an in-plane magnetic field, indicating that it can be controlled in situ via an external field. Finally, we provide an estimate for the critical coupling where spontaneous symmetry-breaking occurs for contact interaction.

cond-mat.str-el

Integrating dynamical mean-field theory and diagrammatic Monte Carlo

Dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) is one of the most widely used theoretical methods for electronic structure calculations, providing self-consistent solutions even in low-temperature regimes, which are exact in the limit of infinite dimension. The principal limitation of this method is that it neglects spatial fluctuations, which become important in finite dimensions. Diagrammatic Monte Carlo (diagMC), by contrast, provides results that are asymptotically exact for a convergent or resummable series, but are typically limited to high temperature as they depend on the analytic structure of the expansion. In this work, we present a framework for integrating these two methods so that the diagrammatic expansion is conducted around the DMFT solution. This results in a series expansion conducted only in terms that explicitly depend on nonlocal correlations, and which is asymptotically exact.

cond-mat.str-el

Non-Hermitian Boundary State Distillation with Lossy Waveguides

The hallmark of topological phases is their exotic boundary states. In a series of remarkable experiments it has been shown that classical analogues of these states can be engineered in arrays of coupled optical waveguides given delicately fine-tuned input light. Here, we introduce and experimentally demonstrate a radically different approach in which a pattern of lossy waveguides distills the boundary states for generic, even defocused, input light, thus fully alleviating the need for fine-tuning. Our "topological distillation" approach is remarkably general: the lossy waveguides amount to an effectively non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, and the corresponding time-evolution (propagation of the light in the waveguides) removes the mundane bulk states of any topological (or trivial) band structure while retaining the intriguing boundary states by virtue of being the unique states with the longest life-time. We experimentally demonstrate the power and versatility of our approach by distilling the edge states in photonic graphene, as well as corner and edge states in non-Hermitian Kagome arrays.

physics.optics

Prediction of time-reversal-symmetry breaking fermionic quadrupling condensate in twisted bilayer graphene

Recent mean-field calculations suggest that the superconducting state of twisted bilayer graphene exhibits either a nematic order or a spontaneous breakdown of the time-reversal symmetry. The two-dimensional character of the material and the large critical temperature relative to the Fermi energy dictate that the material should have significant fluctuations. We study the effects of these fluctuations using Monte Carlo simulations. We show that in a model proposed earlier for twisted bilayer graphene there is a fluctuation-induced phase with quadrupling fermionic order for all considered parameters. This four-electron condensate, instead of superconductivity, shows a spontaneous breaking of time-reversal symmetry. Our results suggest that twisted bilayer graphene is an especially promising platform to study different types of condensates, beyond the pair-condensate paradigm.

cond-mat.str-el

Disconnected and multiply connected spectra in the 2D attractive Hubbard model

Fermi gases and liquids display an excitation spectrum that is simply connected, ensuring closed Fermi surfaces. In strongly correlated systems like the cuprate superconductors, the existence of open sheets of Fermi surface known as Fermi arcs indicates a distinctly different topology of the spectrum with no equivalent in Fermi liquid theory. Here, we demonstrate a generic mechanism by which correlation effects in fermionic systems can change the topology of the spectrum. Using diagrammatic Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate the existence of disconnected and multiply connected excitation spectra in the attractive Hubbard model in the BCS-BEC cross-over regime. These topologically nontrivial spectra are a prerequisite for Fermi arcs.

cond-mat.str-el

In situ controllable magnetic phases in doped twisted bilayer transition-metal dichalcogenides

We study the electronic structure of hole-doped transition metal dichalcogenides for small twist-angels, where the onsite repulsion is extremely strong. Using unbiased diagrammatic Monte Carlo simulations, we find evidence for magnetic correlations which are driven by delocalization and can be controlled in situ via the dielectric environment. For weak spin-orbit coupling, we find that the moderately doped system becomes anti-ferromagnetic, whilst the regime of strong spin-orbit coupling features ferromagnetic correlations. We show that this behavior is accurately predicted by an analytical theory based on moment expansion of the Hamiltonian, and analysis of corresponding particle trajectories.

cond-mat.str-el

Stability of line-node semimetals with strong Coulomb interactions and properties of the symmetry-broken state

We employ diagrammatic Monte Carlo simulations to establish criteria for the stability of line-node semimetals in the presence of Coulomb interactions. Our results indicate a phase transition to a chiral insulating state that occurs at a finite interaction threshold which we determine. We also compute the Landau levels for out-of-plane and in-plane magnetic fields in the symmetric and symmetry-broken phases. We find that the magnetic field couples to the chiral order parameter, implying that this degree of freedom can be manipulated in situ in experiments. Finally, we check the existence of edge states in the symmetry-broken phase. On the system's boundary, we note that the metallic "drum-head" states that exist in the symmetric phase are gapped out. However, the symmetry-broken phase permits topological defects in the macroscopic order parameter in the form of domain walls, which host metallic "interface states." These consist of line-like gap-closings that occur on the two-dimensional interfaces.

cond-mat.str-el

Spectral shift technique for strongly correlated lattice fermions

We present a development of strong-coupling diagrammatic techniques which relies on integrating out mean-field-like paths prior to conducting the expansion. This makes it possible to expand around a state with a quasiparticle spectrum that takes into account all kinetic effects that do not explicitly depend on nonlocal correlations. These paths contribute most of the kinetic energy in correlated systems, and so this protocol provides a starting point for the expansion that more closely resembles the full theory. Comparisons to existing exact results clearly confirm this.

cond-mat.str-el

Strong-coupling diagrammatic Monte Carlo technique for correlated fermions and frustrated spins

We describe a controllable and unbiased strong-coupling diagrammatic Monte Carlo technique that is applicable to a wide range of fermionic systems and spin models. Unlike previous strong coupling methods that generally rely on the Grassmannian Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation, our construction is based on Wick's theorem and a recursive procedure to group contractions into effective connected vertices that are non-perturbative in all local physics and can be calculated exactly. The resulting expansion is described by simple diagrammatic rules that make it suitable for systematic treatment via stochastic sampling. Benchmarks against numerical linked cluster expansion display excellent agreement.

cond-mat.str-el

Evidence of attraction between charge-carriers in a doped Mott insulator

Recent progress in optically trapped ultracold atomic gases is now making it possible to access microscopic observables in doped Mott insulators, which are the parent states of high-temperature superconductors. This makes it possible to address longstanding questions about the temperature scales at which attraction between charge carriers are present, and their mechanism. Controllable theoretical results for this problem are not available at low temperature due to the sign problem. In this work, we employ worm-algorithm Monte Carlo to obtain completely unbiased results for two charge carriers in a Mott insulator. Our method gives access to lower temperatures than what is currently possible in experiments, and provides evidence for attraction between dopants at a temperature scale that is now feasible in ultracold atomic systems. We also report on spin-correlations in the presence of charge carriers, which are directly comparable to experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas

Ab initio description of magnetic polarons in a Mott insulator

Polarons are among the most elementary quasiparticles of interacting quantum matter, consisting of a charge carrier dressed by an excited background. In Mott insulators, they take the form of a dopant surrounded by a distorted spin-background and are expected to dictate effective mass, transport properties and interactions between carriers. Despite the fundamental importance of polarons for the electronic structure of strongly correlated systems, access to their internal structure was only recently realized in experiments, while theoretical results are still lacking due to the sign problem. Here we report unbiased high-precision data obtained from worm-algorithm Monte Carlo that reveal the real-space structure of a polaron in the $t$-$J$ model deep inside the region where the sign problem becomes significant. These results are directly comparable to recent quantum gas microscopy experiments, but give access to significantly lower temperatures.

cond-mat.str-el

Correlations in non-Hermitian systems and Diagram techniques for the steady state

We describe a diagrammatic technique for non-Hermitian fermionic systems that is applicable in the steady state, and which allows addressing correlations effects by systematic expansion. Applying this method to exceptional points or rings, we find that nodal objects in non-Hermitian systems are generically displaced in momentum-space due to interactions. This in turn can be connected to the fact that exceptional points invariably break a class of orthonormal symmetries that are generally present for nodal points in Hermitian systems, and which protect the integrity of the node at low energy scales.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Knotted Non-Hermitian Metals

We report on the occurrence of knotted metallic band structures as stable topological phases in non-Hermitian (NH) systems. These knotted NH metals are characterized by open Fermi surfaces, known in mathematics as Seifert surfaces, that are bounded by knotted lines of exceptional points. Quite remarkably, and in contrast to the situation in Hermitian systems, no fine tuning or symmetries are required in order to stabilize these exotic phases of matter. By explicit construction, we derive microscopic tight-binding models hosting knotted NH metals with strictly short-ranged hopping, and investigate the stability of their topological properties against perturbations. Building up on recently developed experimental techniques for the realization of NH band structures, we discuss how the proposed models may be experimentally implemented in photonic systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Symmetry-protected nodal phases in non-Hermitian systems

Non-Hermitian (NH) Hamiltonians have become an important asset for the effective description of various physical systems that are subject to dissipation. Motivated by recent experimental progress on realizing the NH counterparts of gapless phases such as Weyl semimetals, here we investigate how NH symmetries affect the occurrence of exceptional points (EPs), that generalize the notion of nodal points in the spectrum beyond the Hermitian realm. Remarkably, we find that the dimension of the manifold of EPs is generically increased by one as compared to the case without symmetry. This leads to nodal surfaces formed by EPs that are stable as long as a protecting symmetry is preserved, and that are connected by open Fermi volumes. We illustrate our findings with analytically solvable two-band lattice models in one and two spatial dimensions, and show how they are readily generalized to generic NH crystalline systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall