SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

M. Holzmann

Publications and source records attributed to M. Holzmann.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Neutral band gap of carbon by quantum Monte Carlo methods

We present a method of calculating the energy gap of a charge-neutral excitation using only ground-state calculations. We report Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of $Γ\rightarrowΓ$ and $Γ\rightarrow X$ particle-hole excitation energies in diamond carbon. We analyze the finite-size effect and find the same $1/L$ decay rate as that in a charged excitation, where $L$ is the linear extension of the supercell. This slow decay is attributed to the delocalized nature of the excitation in supercells too small to accommodate excitonic binding effects. At larger system sizes, the apparent $1/L$ decay crosses over to a $1/L^3$ behavior. Estimation of the scale of exciton binding can be used to correct finite-size effects of neutral gaps.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Extended Bose-Hubbard model with dipolar excitons

The Hubbard model constitutes one of the most celebrated theoretical frameworks of condensed-matter physics. It describes strongly correlated phases of interacting quantum particles confined in lattice potentials. For bosons, the Hubbard Hamiltonian has been deeply scrutinised for short-range on-site interactions. However, accessing longer-range couplings has remained elusive experimentally. This marks the frontier towards the extended Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian that allows insulating ordered phases at fractional lattice fillings. Here we implement this Hamiltonian by confining semiconductor dipolar excitons in an artificial two-dimensional square lattice. Strong dipolar repulsions between nearest neighbouring lattice sites then stabilise an insulating state at half filling. This characteristic feature of the extended Bose-Hubbard model exhibits signatures theoretically expected for a checkerboard spatial order. Our work thus highlights that dipolar excitons enable controlled implementations of boson-like arrays with strong off-site interactions, in lattices with programmable geometries and over 100 sites.

cond-mat.str-el

Observation of Algebraic Time Order for Two-Dimensional Dipolar Excitons

Emergence of algebraic quasi-long-range order is a key feature of superfluid phase transitions at two dimensions. For this reduced dimensionality interactions prevent Bose-Einstein condensation with true long range order, at any finite temperature. Here, we report the occurence of algebraic order in a strongly interacting quantum liquid formed by dipolar excitons confined in a bilayer semiconductor heterostructure. We observe a transition from exponential to algebraic decay of the excitons temporal coherence, accompanied by a universal scaling behaviour of the equation of state. Our results provide strong evidence for a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in a multi-component boson-like system governed by strong dipolar interactions.

cond-mat.quant-gas

Superconductor-insulator transition in Josephson junction chains by quantum Monte-Carlo

We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of a dissipationless and disorder-free Josephson junction chain. Namely, we determine the critical Josephson energy below which the chain becomes insulating, as a function of the ratio of two capacitances: the capacitance of each Josephson junction and the capacitance between each superconducting island and the ground. We develop an imaginary-time path integral Quantum Monte-Carlo algorithm in the charge representation, which enables us to efficiently handle the electrostatic part of the chain Hamiltonian. We find that a large part of the phase diagram is determined by anharmonic corrections which are not captured by the standard Kosterlitz-Thouless renormalization group description of the transition.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Upper bounds of spin-density wave energies in the homogeneous electron gas

Studying the jellium model in the Hartree-Fock approximation, Overhauser has shown that spin density waves (SDW) can lower the energy of the Fermi gas, but it is still unknown if these SDW are actually relevant for the phase diagram. In this paper, we give a more complete description of SDW states. We show that a modification of the Overhauser ansatz explains the behavior of the jellium at high density compatible with previous Hartree-Fock simulations.

math-ph

Observation of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless Phase Transition in an Ultracold Fermi Gas

We experimentally investigate the first-order correlation function of a trapped Fermi gas in the two-dimensional BEC-BCS crossover. We observe a transition to a low-temperature superfluid phase with algebraically decaying correlations. We show that the spatial coherence of the entire trapped system can be characterized by a single temperature-dependent exponent. We find the exponent at the transition to be constant over a wide range of interaction strengths across the crossover. This suggests that the phase transitions in both the bosonic regime and the strongly interacting crossover regime are of Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless-type and lie within the same universality class. On the bosonic side of the crossover, our data are well-described by Quantum Monte Carlo calculations for a Bose gas. In contrast, in the strongly interacting regime, we observe a superfluid phase which is significantly influenced by the fermionic nature of the constituent particles.

cond-mat.quant-gas

Properties of Hartree-Fock solutions of the three-dimensional electron gas

In a previous letter, L. Baguet et al., (Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 111}, 166402 (2013)), we presented the ground state phase diagram of the homogeneous electron gas in three dimensions within the Hartree-Fock approximation yielding incommensurate crystal states at high density. Here, we analyze the properties of these solutions. In particular, at high density we find universal behavior of the incommensurate crystal strongly supporting the existence of a spin density wave ground state.

cond-mat.str-el

Coherence properties of a 2D trapped Bose gas around the superfluid transition

We measure the momentum distribution of a 2D trapped Bose gas and observe the increase of the range of coherence around the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition. We quantitatively compare our observed profiles to both a Hartee-Fock mean-field theory and to quantum Monte-Carlo simulations. In the normal phase, we already observe a sharpening of the momentum distribution. This behavior is partially captured in a mean-field approach, in contrast to the physics of the BKT transition.

physics.atom-ph

The Hartree-Fock phase diagram of the two-dimensional electron gas

We calculate the ground state phase diagram of the homogeneous electron gas in two dimensions within the Hartree-Fock approximation. At high density, we find stable solutions, where the electronic charge and spin density form an incommensurate crystal having more crystal sites than electrons, whereas the commensurate Wigner crystal is favored at lower densities, rs> 1.22. Our explicit calculations demonstrate that the homogeneous Fermi liquid state -- though being an exact stationary solution of the Hartree-Fock equations -- is never the Hartree-Fock ground state of the electron gas.

cond-mat.str-el

Many-body effects in TiSe2: Can GW describe an Excitonic Insulator?

We present both theoretical ab initio GW and experimental angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) and scanning tunneling (STS) spectroscopy results on TiSe2. With respect to the density-functional Kohn-Sham metallic picture, the many-body GW self-energy leads to a ~ 0.2 eV band gap insulator consistent with our STS spectra at 5 K. The band shape is strongly renormalized, with the top-of-valence moved towards a circle of points away from Γ, arising in a mexican hat feature typical of an excitonic insulator. Our calculations are in good agreement with experiment.

cond-mat.str-el

Ground state of a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas

We consider the three-dimensional electron gas confined by a strictly two-dimensional homogeneous positive charge density at $z=0$. Within the Hartree-Fock approximation, we study the mode structure in the confined direction in the metallic regime. We find, that for $r_s<1.3$ ($r_s<2.5$) the unpolarized (polarized) electron gas starts to populate also the first excited state in the $z$-direction.

cond-mat.str-el

Metal-insulator transition in the two-dimensional fully polarized homogeneous electron gas from Hartree-Fock solutions

We determine the ground state of the two-dimensional, fully polarized electron gas within the Hartree-Fock approximation without imposing any particular symmetries on the solutions. At low electronic densities, the Wigner crystal solution is stable, but for higher densities ($r_s$ less than $\sim 3$) we obtain a ground state of different symmetry: the charge density forms a triangular lattice with about 11% more sites than electrons. We argue that this conducting state with broken translational symmetry remains the ground state of the high density region in the thermodynamic limit giving rise to a metal to insulator transition.

cond-mat.str-el

Backflow Correlations for the Electron Gas and Metallic Hydrogen

We justify and evaluate backflow-threebody wavefunctions for a two component system of electrons and protons. Based on the generalized Feynman-Kacs formula, many-body perturbation theory, and band structure calculations, we analyze the use and the analytical form of the backflow function from different points of view. The resulting wavefunctions are used in Variational and Diffusion Monte Carlo calculations of the electron gas and of solid and liquid metallic hydrogen. For the electron gas, the purely analytic backflow and three-body form gives lower energies than those of previous calculations. For bcc hydrogen, analytical and optimized backflow-threebody wavefunctions lead to energies nearly as low as those from using LDA orbitals in the trial wavefunction. However, compared to wavefunctions constructed from density functional solutions, backflow wavefunctions have the advantage of only few parameters to estimate, the ability to include easily and accurately electron-electron correlations, and that they can be directly generalized from the crystal to a disordered liquid of protons.

cond-mat.str-el

Ursell operators in statistical physics of dense systems: the role of high order operators and of exchange cycles

The purpose of this article is to discuss cluster expansions in dense quantum systems as well as their interconnection with exchange cycles. We show in general how the Ursell operators of order 3 or more contribute to an exponential which corresponds to a mean-field energy involving the second operator U2, instead of the potential itself as usual. In a first part, we consider classical statistical mechanics and recall the relation between the reducible part of the classical cluster integrals and the mean-field; we introduce an alternative method to obtain the linear density contribution to the mean-field, which is based on the notion of tree-diagrams and provides a preview of the subsequent quantum calculations. We then proceed to study quantum particles with Boltzmann statistics (distinguishable particles) and show that each Ursell operator Un with n greater or equal to 3 contains a ``tree-reducible part'', which groups naturally with U2 through a linear chain of binary interactions; this part contributes to the associated mean-field experienced by particles in the fluid. The irreducible part, on the other hand, corresponds to the effects associated with three (or more) particles interacting all together at the same time. We then show that the same algebra holds in the case of Fermi or Bose particles, and discuss physically the role of the exchange cycles, combined with interactions. Bose condensed systems are not considered at this stage. The similarities and differences between Boltzmann and quantum statistics are illustrated by this approach, in contrast with field theoretical or Green's functions methods, which do not allow a separate study of the role of quantum statistics and dynamics.

cond-mat.stat-mech

Validity of the Hohenberg Theorem for a Generalized Bose-Einstein Condensation in Two Dimensions

Several authors have considered the possibility of a generalized Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in which a band of low states is occupied so that the total occupation number is macroscopic, even if the occupation number of each state is not extensive. The Hohenberg theorem (HT) states that there is no BEC into a single state in 2D; we consider its validity for the case of a generalized condensation and find that, under certain conditions, the HT does not forbid a BEC in 2D. We discuss whether this situation actually occurs in any theoretical model system.

cond-mat.stat-mech

Instability in a Two-Dimensional Dilute Interacting Bose System

The formalism of Ursell operators provides a self-consistent integral equation for the one-particle reduced operator. In three dimensions this technique yields values of the shift in the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) transition temperature, as a function of the scattering length, that are in good agreement with those of Green's function and quantum Monte Carlo methods. We have applied the same equations to a uniform two-dimensional system and find that, as we alter the chemical potential, an instability develops so that the self-consistent equations no longer have a solution. This instability, which seems to indicate that interactions restore a transition, occurs at a non-zero value of an effective chemical potential. The non-linear equations are limited to temperatures greater than or equal to Tc, so that they do not indicate the nature of the new stable state, but we speculate concerning whether it is a Kosterlitz-Thouless state or a ``smeared'' BEC, which might avoid any violation of the Hohenberg theorem, as described in an accompanying paper.

cond-mat.stat-mech

Bose-Einstein condensation in quasi2D trapped gases

We discuss BEC in (quasi)2D trapped gases and find that well below the transition temperature $T_c$ the equilibrium state is a true condensate, whereas at intermediate temperatures $T<T_c$ one has a quasicondensate (condensate with fluctuating phase). The mean-field interaction in a quasi2D gas is sensitive to the frequency $ω_0$ of the (tight) confinement in the "frozen" direction, and one can switch the sign of the interaction by changing $ω_0$. Variation of $ω_0$ can also reduce the rates of inelastic processes, which opens prospects for tunable BEC in trapped quasi2D gases.

cond-mat.stat-mech