arXiv subjects

Luca Barbiero

Publications and source records attributed to Luca Barbiero.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Revealing the topological nature of the bond order wave in a strongly correlated quantum system

We investigate the topological properties of the bond order wave phase arising in the extended Fermi-Hubbard model. In particular, we uncover a topological sector, which remained elusive in previous finite-size numerical studies due to boundary effects. We first show that, for an infinite system, the bond order wave regime is characterized by two degenerate bulk states corresponding to the trivial and topological sectors. The latter turns out to be indeed characterized by an even degeneracy of the entanglement spectrum and longe-range order of a string correlation function. For finite size systems, we show that the topological sector can be stabilized by imposing a suitable border potential. This therefore provides a concrete protocol for the observation of topologically protected degenerate edge modes in finite-size systems. Furthermore, we show that the bulk of the system is characterized by exotic solitonic solutions interpolating between the trivial and topological sectors. Finally, we propose an implementation and detection scheme of this strongly-correlated topological phase in a quantum simulator based on dipolar Fermi gases in optical lattices.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Scar States in Deconfined $\mathbb{Z}_2$ Lattice Gauge Theories

The weak ergodicity breaking induced by quantum many-body scars (QMBS) represents an intriguing concept that has received great attention in recent years due to its relation to unusual non-equilibrium behaviour. Here we reveal that this phenomenon can occur in a previously unexplored regime of a lattice gauge theory, where QMBS emerge due to the presence of an extensive number of local constraints. In particular, by analyzing the gauged Kitaev model, we provide an example where QMBS appear in a regime where charges are deconfined. By means of both numerical and analytical approaches, we find a variety of scarred states far away from the regime where the model is integrable. The presence of these states is revealed both by tracing them directly from the analytically reachable limit, as well as by quantum quenches showing persistent oscillations for specific initial states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Floquet engineering of optical nonlinearities: a quantum many-body approach

Subjecting a physical system to a time-periodic drive can substantially modify its properties and applications. This Floquet-engineering approach has been extensively applied to a wide range of classical and quantum settings in view of designing synthetic systems with exotic properties. Considering a general class of two-mode nonlinear optical devices, we show that effective optical nonlinearities can be created by subjecting the light field to a repeated pulse sequence, which couples the two modes in a fast and time-periodic manner. The strength of these drive-induced optical nonlinearities, which include an emerging four-wave mixing, can be varied by simply adjusting the pulse sequence. This leads to topological changes in the system's phase space, which can be detected through light intensity and phase measurements. Our proposal builds on an effective-Hamiltonian approach, which derives from a parent quantum many-body Hamiltonian describing driven interacting bosons. As a corollary, our results equally apply to Bose-Einstein condensates in driven double-well potentials, where pair tunneling effectively arises from the periodic pulse sequence. Our scheme offers a practical route to engineer and finely tune exotic nonlinearities and interactions in photonics and ultracold quantum gases.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Topological quantum critical points in the extended Bose-Hubbard model

The combination of topology and quantum criticality can give rise to an exotic mix of counterintuitive effects. Here, we show that unexpected topological properties take place in a paradigmatic strongly-correlated Hamiltonian: the 1D extended Bose-Hubbard model. In particular, we reveal the presence of two distinct topological quantum critical points with localized edge states and gapless bulk excitations. Our results show that the topological critical points separate two phases, one topologically protected and the other topologically trivial, both characterized by a long-range ordered string correlation function. The long-range order persists also at the topological critical points and it reflects the presence of localized edge states protected by a finite charge gap. Finally, we introduce a super-resolution quantum gas microscopy scheme for dipolar dysprosium atoms, which provides a reliable route towards the experimental study of topological quantum critical points.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Applications of Quantum Randomness: From Rabi Oscillations to Fourier Axis Controlling the Musical Timbre

Randomness has attracted great interest in the field of music composition for quite some time. As early as 1962, Iannis Xenakis started exploring a stochastic approach to randomness by using computer-based interlinking probability functions to determine compositional structure, pitches and their durations. Soon after, composers and music technologists started to explore randomness with various methods of algorithmic compositions, sometimes with the help of artificial intelligence. However, in most cases, the source of randomness they used was in fact deterministic in nature. That is to say, the random numbers that they employed are imperfect in the strict sense (simply put, perfect random numbers never have repeating patterns). Moreover, the method in which they produced such randomness was extrinsic to the method in which randomness was applied. In this project, we attempt to take a further step by directly producing sound events from the genuine quantum true randomness of quantum physical systems. Through this method, we aim at achieving a new sense of aesthetic effect in music which derives from the true randomness that prevails in the natural quantum world.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Cold atoms meet lattice gauge theory

The central idea of this review is to consider quantum field theory models relevant for particle physics and replace the fermionic matter in these models by a bosonic one. This is mostly motivated by the fact that bosons are more ``accessible'' and easier to manipulate for experimentalists, but this ``substitution'' also leads to new physics and novel phenomena. It allows us to gain new information about among other things confinement and the dynamics of the deconfinement transition. We will thus consider bosons in dynamical lattices corresponding to the bosonic Schwinger or Z$_2$ Bose-Hubbard models. Another central idea of this review concerns atomic simulators of paradigmatic models of particle physics theory such as the Creutz-Hubbard ladder, or Gross-Neveu-Wilson and Wilson-Hubbard models. Finally, we will briefly describe our efforts to design experimentally friendly simulators of these and other models relevant for particle physics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Confinement and Mott transitions of dynamical charges in 1D lattice gauge theories

Confinement is an ubiquitous phenomenon when matter couples to gauge fields, which manifests itself in a linear string potential between two static charges. Although gauge fields can be integrated out in one dimension, they can mediate non-local interactions which in turn influence the paradigmatic Luttinger liquid properties. However, when the charges become dynamical and their densities finite, understanding confinement becomes challenging. Here we show that confinement in 1D $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theories, with dynamical matter fields and arbitrary densities, is related to translational symmetry breaking in a non-local basis. The exact transformation to this string-length basis leads us to an exact mapping of Luttinger parameters reminiscent of a Luther-Emery re-scaling. We include the effects of local, but beyond contact, interactions between the matter particles, and show that confined mesons can form a Mott-insulating state when the deconfined charges cannot. While the transition to the Mott state cannot be detected in the Green's function of the charges, we show that the metallic state is characterized by hidden off-diagonal quasi-long range order. Our predictions provide new insights to the physics of confinement of dynamical charges, and can be experimentally addressed in Rydberg-dressed quantum gases in optical lattices.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Clustered Superfluids in the One Dimensional Bose-Hubbard model with extended correlated hopping

Bosonic lattice systems with non-trivial interactions represent an intriguing platform to study exotic phases of matter. Here, we study the effects of extended correlated hopping processes in a system of bosons trapped in a lattice geometry. The interplay between single particle tunneling terms, correlated hopping processes and on-site repulsion is studied by means of a combination of exact diagonalization, strong coupling expansion and cluster mean field theory. We identify a rich ground state phase diagram where, apart the usual Mott and superfluid states, superfluid phases with interesting clustering properties occur.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Floquet approach to $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ lattice gauge theories with ultracold atoms in optical lattices

Quantum simulation has the potential to investigate gauge theories in strongly-interacting regimes, which are up to now inaccessible through conventional numerical techniques. Here, we take a first step in this direction by implementing a Floquet-based method for studying $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theories using two-component ultracold atoms in a double-well potential. For resonant periodic driving at the on-site interaction strength and an appropriate choice of the modulation parameters, the effective Floquet Hamiltonian exhibits $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. We study the dynamics of the system for different initial states and critically contrast the observed evolution with a theoretical analysis of the full time-dependent Hamiltonian of the periodically-driven lattice model. We reveal challenges that arise due to symmetry-breaking terms and outline potential pathways to overcome these limitations. Our results provide important insights for future studies of lattice gauge theories based on Floquet techniques.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Coupling ultracold matter to dynamical gauge fields in optical lattices: From flux-attachment to Z2 lattice gauge theories

Artificial magnetic fields and spin-orbit couplings have been recently generated in ultracold gases in view of realizing topological states of matter and frustrated magnetism in a highly-controllable environment. Despite being dynamically tunable, such artificial gauge fields are genuinely classical and exhibit no back-action from the neutral particles. Here we go beyond this paradigm, and demonstrate how quantized dynamical gauge fields can be created in mixtures of ultracold atoms in optical lattices. Specifically, we propose a protocol by which atoms of one species carry a magnetic flux felt by another species, hence realizing an instance of flux-attachment. This is obtained by combining coherent lattice modulation techniques with strong Hubbard interactions. We demonstrate how this setting can be arranged so as to implement lattice models displaying a local Z2 gauge symmetry, both in one and two dimensions. We also provide a detailed analysis of a ladder toy model, which features a global Z2 symmetry, and reveal the phase transitions that occur both in the matter and gauge sectors. Mastering flux-attachment in optical lattices envisages a new route towards the realization of strongly-correlated systems with properties dictated by an interplay of dynamical matter and gauge fields.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

One-dimensional Repulsive Fermi Gas in a Tunable Periodic Potential

By using unbiased continuos-space quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the ground state properties of a one-dimensional repulsive Fermi gas subjected to a commensurate periodic optical lattice (OL) of arbitrary intensity. The equation of state and the magnetic structure factor are determined as a function of the interaction strength and of the OL intensity. In the weak OL limit, Yang's theory for the energy of a homogeneous Fermi gas is recovered. In the opposite limit (deep OL), we analyze the convergence to the Lieb-Wu theory for the Hubbard model, comparing two approaches to map the continuous-space to the discrete-lattice model: the first is based on (noninteracting) Wannier functions, the second effectively takes into account strong-interaction effects within a parabolic approximation of the OL wells. We find that strong antiferromagnetic correlations emerge in deep OLs, and also in very shallow OLs if the interaction strength approaches the Tonks-Girardeau limit. In deep OLs we find quantitative agreement with density matrix renormalization group calculations for the Hubbard model. The spatial decay of the antiferromagnetic correlations is consistent with quasi long-range order even in shallow OLs, in agreement with previous theories for the half-filled Hubbard model.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Low energy quantum regimes of 1D dipolar Hubbard model with correlated hopping

We apply the bosonization technique to derive the phase diagram of a balanced unit density two-component dipolar Fermi gas in a one dimensional lattice geometry. The considered interaction processes are of the usual contact and dipolar long-range density-density type together with peculiar correlated hopping terms which can be generated dynamically. Rigorous bounds for the transition lines are obtained in the weak coupling regime. In addition to the standard bosonization description, we derive the low energy phase diagram taking place when part of the interaction is embodied non-perturbatively in the single component Hamiltonians. In this case the Luttinger liquid regime is shown to become unstable with respect to the opening of further gapped phases, among which insulating bond ordered wave and Haldane phases, the latter with degenerate edge modes.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Quantum bright solitons in a quasi-one-dimensional optical lattice

We study a quasi-one-dimensional attractive Bose gas confined in an optical lattice with a superimposed harmonic potential by analyzing the effective one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian of the system. In order to have a reliable description of the ground-state, that we call quantum bright soliton, we use the Density-Matrix-Renormalization-Group (DMRG) technique. By comparing DMRG results with mean-field (MF) ones we find that beyond-mean-field effects become relevant by increasing the attraction between bosons or by decreasing the frequency of the harmonic confinement. In particular we discover that, contrary to the MF predictions based on the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation, quantum bright solitons are not self-trapped. We also use the time-evolving-block-decimation (TEBD) method to investigate dynamical properties of bright solitons when the frequency of the harmonic potential is suddenly increased. This quantum quench induces a breathing mode whose period crucially depends on the final strength of the super-imposed harmonic confinement.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

How Hidden Orders Generate Gaps in 1D Fermionic Systems

We demonstrate that hidden long range order is always present in the gapped phases of interacting fermionic systems on one dimensional lattices. It is captured by correlation functions of appropriate nonlocal charge and/or spin operators, which remain asymptotically finite. The corresponding microscopic orders are classified. The results are confirmed by DMRG numerical simulation of the phase diagram of the extended Hubbard model, and of a Haldane insulator phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Detecting the tunneling rates for strongly interacting fermions on optical lattices

Strongly interacting fermionic atoms on optical lattices are studied through a Hubbard-like model Hamiltonian, in which tunneling rates of atoms and molecules between neighboring sites are assumed to be different. In the limit of large onsite repulsion U, the model is shown to reproduce the t-J Hamiltonian, in which the J coefficient of the Heisenberg term depends on the particle-assisted tunneling rate g: explicitly, $J=4 g^2/U$. At half-filling, g drives a crossover from a Brinkman-Rice paramagnetic insulator of fully localized atoms (g=0) to the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator of the standard Hubbard case (g=t). This is observed already at the intermediate coupling regime in the number of doubly occupied sites, thus providing a criterion to extract from measurements the effective value of g.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2009

Phase diagram of imbalanced strongly interacting fermions on a one-dimensional optical lattice

We show that the Hubbard Hamiltonian with particle-assisted tunneling rates --recently proposed to model a fermionic mixture near a broad Feshbach resonance-- displays a ground state phase diagram with superfluid, insulating, and phase separated regimes. In the latter case, when the populations are balanced the two phases coexist in microscopic antiferromagnetic domains. Macroscopic phase segregation into a high-density superfluid of molecules, and a low-density Fermi liquid of single atoms appears in the density profile above a critical polarization p_c.

quant-ph↗