arXiv subjects

Marcello Porta

Publications and source records attributed to Marcello Porta.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

A supersymmetric hierarchical model for weakly disordered $3d$ semimetals

In this paper we study a hierarchical supersymmetric model for a class of gapless, three-dimensional, weakly disordered quantum systems, displaying pointlike Fermi surface and conical intersections of the energy bands in the absence of disorder. We use rigorous renormalization group methods and supersymmetry to compute the correlation functions of the system. We prove algebraic decay of the two-point correlation function, compatible with delocalization. A main technical ingredient is the multiscale analysis of massless bosonic Gaussian integrations with purely imaginary covariances, performed via iterative stationary phase expansions.

math-ph↗

arXiv2019

Optimal Upper Bound for the Correlation Energy of a Fermi Gas in the Mean-Field Regime

While Hartree-Fock theory is well established as a fundamental approximation for interacting fermions, it has been unclear how to describe corrections to it due to many-body correlations. In this paper we start from the Hartree-Fock state given by plane waves and introduce collective particle-hole pair excitations. These pairs can be approximately described by a bosonic quadratic Hamiltonian. We use Bogoliubov theory to construct a trial state yielding a rigorous Gell-Mann-Brueckner-type upper bound to the ground state energy. Our result justifies the random phase approximation in the mean-field scaling regime, for repulsive, regular interaction potentials.

math-ph↗

arXiv2018

Universal edge transport in interacting Hall systems

We study the edge transport properties of $2d$ interacting Hall systems, displaying single-mode chiral edge currents. For this class of many-body lattice models, including for instance the interacting Haldane model, we prove the quantization of the edge charge conductance and the bulk-edge correspondence. Instead, the edge Drude weight and the edge susceptibility are interaction-dependent; nevertheless, they satisfy exact universal scaling relations, in agreement with the chiral Luttinger liquid theory. Moreover, charge and spin excitations differ in their velocities, giving rise to the spin-charge separation phenomenon. The analysis is based on exact renormalization group methods, and on a combination of lattice and emergent Ward identities. The invariance of the emergent chiral anomaly under the renormalization group flow plays a crucial role in the proof.

math-ph↗

arXiv2018

Quantization of the interacting Hall conductivity in the critical regime

The Haldane model is a paradigmatic 2d lattice model exhibiting the integer quantum Hall effect. We consider an interacting version of the model, and prove that for short-range interactions, smaller than the bandwidth, the Hall conductivity is quantized, for all the values of the parameters outside two critical curves, across which the model undergoes a `topological' phase transition: the Hall coefficient remains integer and constant as long as we continuously deform the parameters without crossing the curves; when this happens, the Hall coefficient jumps abruptly to a different integer. Previous works were limited to the perturbative regime, in which the interaction is much smaller than the bare gap, so they were restricted to regions far from the critical lines. The non-renormalization of the Hall conductivity arises as a consequence of lattice conservation laws and of the regularity properties of the current-current correlations. Our method provides a full construction of the critical curves, which are modified (`dressed') by the electron-electron interaction. The shift of the transition curves manifests itself via apparent infrared divergences in the naive perturbative series, which we resolve via renormalization group methods.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Canonical Drude weight for non-integrable quantum spin chains

The Drude weight is a central quantity for the transport properties of quantum spin chains. The canonical definition of Drude weight is directly related to Kubo formula of conductivity. However, the difficulty in the evaluation of such expression has led to several alternative formulations, accessible to different methods. In particular, the Euclidean, or imaginary-time, Drude weight can be studied via rigorous renormalization group. As a result, in the past years several universality results have been proven for such quantity at zero temperature; remarkably the proof works for both for integrable and non-integrable quantum spin chains. Here we establish the equivalence of Euclidean and canonical Drude weights at zero temperature. Our proof is based on rigorous renormalization group methods, Ward identities, and complex analytic ideas.

math-ph↗

arXiv2017

Spin Hall insulators beyond the Helical Luttinger model

We consider the interacting, spin conserving, extended Kane-Mele-Hubbard model, and we rigorously establish the exact quantization of the edge spin conductance and the validity of the Helical Luttinger liquid relations for Drude weights and susceptibilities. Our analysis fully takes into account lattice effects, typically neglected in the Helical Luttinger model approximation, which play an essential role for universality. The analysis is based on exact renormalization group methods and on a combination of lattice and emergent Ward identities, which allow to relate the emergent chiral anomaly with the finite renormalizations due to lattice corrections.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Topological phase transitions and universality in the Haldane-Hubbard model

We study the Haldane-Hubbard model by exact Renormalization Group techniques. We construct the topological phase diagram, for weak interactions. We predict that many-body interactions induce a shift of the transition line. The presence of new intermediate phases, absent in the non interacting case, is rigorously excluded at weak coupling. Despite the nontrivial renormalization of the wave function and of the Fermi velocity, the conductivity is universal: at the renormalized critical line, both the discontinuity of the transverse conductivity and the longitudinal conductivity do not depend on the interaction, thanks to remarkable cancellations due to lattice Ward Identities.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Mean field evolution of fermions with Coulomb interaction

We study the many body Schrödinger evolution of weakly coupled fermions interacting through a Coulomb potential. We are interested in a joint mean field and semiclassical scaling, that emerges naturally for initially confined particles. For initial data describing approximate Slater determinants, we prove convergence of the many-body evolution towards Hartree-Fock dynamics. Our result holds under a condition on the solution of the Hartree-Fock equation, that we can only show in a very special situation (translation invariant data, whose Hartree-Fock evolution is trivial), but that we expect to hold more generally.

math-ph↗

arXiv2016

Universality of the Hall conductivity in interacting electron systems

We prove the quantization of the Hall conductivity for general weakly interacting gapped fermionic systems on two-dimensional periodic lattices. The proof is based on fermionic cluster expansion techniques combined with lattice Ward identities, and on a reconstruction theorem that allows us to compute the Kubo conductivity as the analytic continuation of its imaginary time counterpart.

math-ph↗

arXiv2016

Universality of charge transport in weakly interacting fermionic systems

We review two rigorous results on the transport properties of weakly interacting fermionic systems on $2d$ lattices, in the linear response regime. First, we discuss the universality of the longitudinal conductivity for interacting graphene. Then, we focus on the transverse conductivity of general weakly interacting gapped fermionic systems, and we establish its universality. This last result proves the stability of the integer quantum Hall effect against weak interactions. The proofs are based on combinations of fermionic cluster expansion techniques, renormalization group and lattice Ward identities.

math-ph↗

arXiv2015

From the Hartree dynamics to the Vlasov equation

We consider the evolution of quasi-free states describing $N$ fermions in the mean field limit, as governed by the nonlinear Hartree equation. In the limit of large $N$, we study the convergence towards the classical Vlasov equation. For a class of regular interaction potentials, we establish precise bounds on the rate of convergence.

math-ph↗

arXiv2015

Mean-field Evolution of Fermionic Mixed States

In this paper we study the dynamics of fermionic mixed states in the mean-field regime. We consider initial states which are close to quasi-free states and prove that, under suitable assumptions on the inital data and on the many-body interaction, the quantum evolution of such initial data is well approximated by a suitable quasi-free state. In particular we prove that the evolution of the reduced one-particle density matrix converges, as the number of particles goes to infinity, to the solution of the time-dependent Hartree-Fock equation. Our result holds for all times, and gives effective estimates on the rate of convergence of the many-body dynamics towards the Hartree-Fock one.

math-ph↗

arXiv2015

Effective Evolution Equations from Quantum Dynamics

In these notes we review the material presented at the summer school on "Mathematical Physics, Analysis and Stochastics" held at the University of Heidelberg in July 2014. We consider the time-evolution of quantum systems and in particular the rigorous derivation of effective equations approximating the many-body Schrödinger dynamics in certain physically interesting regimes.

math-ph↗

arXiv2014

Hartree-Fock dynamics for weakly interacting fermions

We review recent results concerning the evolution of fermionic systems. We are interested in the mean field regime, where particles experience many weak collisions. For fermions, the mean field regime is naturally linked with a semiclassical limit. Assuming some regularity of the interaction potential we show that the many body evolution of initial states close to Slater determinants exhibiting the appropriate semiclassical structure can be approximated by the Hartree-Fock equation. Our method provides precise bounds on the rate of the convergence.

math-ph↗

arXiv2013

Mean-Field Dynamics of Fermions with Relativistic Dispersion

We extend the derivation of the time-dependent Hartree-Fock equation recently obtained in [2] to fermions with a relativistic dispersion law. The main new ingredient is the propagation of semiclassical commutator bounds along the pseudo-relativistic Hartree-Fock evolution.

math-ph↗

arXiv2013

Mean-field Evolution of Fermionic Systems

The mean field limit for systems of many fermions is naturally coupled with a semiclassical limit. This makes the analysis of the mean field regime much more involved, compared with bosonic systems. In this paper, we study the dynamics of initial data close to a Slater determinant, whose reduced one-particle density is an orthogonal projection $ω_N$ with the appropriate semiclassical structure. Assuming some regularity of the interaction potential, we show that the evolution of such an initial data remains close to a Slater determinant, with reduced one-particle density given by the solution of the Hartree-Fock equation with initial data $ω_N$. Our result holds for all (semiclassical) times, and gives effective bounds on the rate of the convergence towards the Hartree-Fock dynamics.

math-ph↗

arXiv2011

Lattice quantum electrodynamics for graphene

The effects of gauge interactions in graphene have been analyzed up to now in terms of effective models of Dirac fermions. However, in several cases lattice effects play an important role and need to be taken consistently into account. In this paper we introduce and analyze a lattice gauge theory model for graphene, which describes tight binding electrons hopping on the honeycomb lattice and interacting with a three-dimensional quantum U(1) gauge field. We perform an exact Renormalization Group analysis, which leads to a renormalized expansion that is finite at all orders. The flow of the effective parameters is controlled thanks to Ward Identities and a careful analysis of the discrete lattice symmetry properties of the model. We show that the Fermi velocity increases up to the speed of light and Lorentz invariance spontaneously emerges in the infrared. The interaction produces critical exponents in the response functions; this removes the degeneracy present in the non interacting case and allow us to identify the dominant excitations. Finally we add mass terms to the Hamiltonian and derive by a variational argument the correspondent gap equations, which have an anomalous non-BCS form, due to the non trivial effects of the interaction.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

A lattice gauge theory model for graphene

In this Ph.D. thesis a model for graphene in presence of quantized electromagnetic interactions is introduced. The zero and low temperature properties of the model are studied using rigorous renormalization group methods and lattice Ward identities. In particular, it is shown that, at all orders in renormalized perturbation theory, the Schwinger functions and the response functions decay with interaction dependent anomalous exponents. Regarding the 2-point Schwinger function, the wave function renormalization diverges in the infrared limit, while the effective Fermi velocity flows to the speed of light. Concerning the response functions, those associated to a Kekulé distortion of the honeycomb lattice and to a charge density wave instability are enhanced by the electromagnetic electron-electron interactions (their scaling in real space is depressed), while the lowest order correction to the scaling exponent of the density-density response function is vanishing. Then, the model in presence of a fixed Kekulé distortion is studied, and it is shown that the interaction strongly renormalizes the effective amplitude of the lattice distortion. Finally, the effect of the electronic repulsion on the Peierls-Kekulé instability is discussed by deriving a non-BCS gap equation, from which we find evidence that strong electromagnetic interactions facilitate the spontaneous distortion of the lattice and the opening of a gap. This thesis is based on joint work with A. Giuliani and V. Mastropietro.

cond-mat.str-el↗