arXiv subjects

Marcos Rigol

Publications and source records attributed to Marcos Rigol.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Many-body localization and thermalization in disordered Hubbard chains

We study the many-body localization transition in one-dimensional Hubbard chains using exact diagonalization and quantum chaos indicators. We also study dynamics in the delocalized (ergodic) and localized phases and discuss thermalization and eigenstate thermalization, or the lack thereof, in such systems. Consistently within the indicators and observables studied, we find that ergodicity is very robust against disorder, namely, even in the presence of weak Hubbard interactions the disorder strength needed for the system to localize is large. We show that this robustness might be hidden by finite size effects in experiments with ultracold fermions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Mott-insulator-to-superconductor transition in a two-dimensional superlattice

We use quantum Monte Carlo and exact diagonalization calculations to study the Mott-insulator to superconductor quantum phase transition in a two-dimensional fermionic Hubbard model with attractive interactions in the presence of a superlattice potential. The model introduced offers unique possibilities to study such transitions in optical lattice experiments. We show that, in regimes with moderate to strong interactions, the transition belongs to the 3D-XY universality class. We also explore the character of the lowest energy charge excitations in the insulating and superconducting phases and show that they can be fermionic or bosonic depending on the parameters chosen.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Quantum distillation and confinement of vacancies in a doublon sea

Ultracold atomic gases have revolutionized the study of non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum many-body systems. Many counterintuitive non-equilibrium effects have been observed, such as suppressed thermalization in a one-dimensional (1D) gas, the formation of repulsive self-bound dimers, and identical behaviors for attractive and repulsive interactions. Here, we observe the expansion of a bundle of ultracold 1D Bose gases in a flat-bottomed optical lattice potential. By combining in situ measurements with photoassociation, we follow the spatial dynamics of singly, doubly, and triply occupied lattice sites. The system sheds interaction energy by dissolving some doublons and triplons. Some singlons quantum distill out of the doublon center, while others remain confined. Our Gutzwiller mean-field model captures these experimental features in a physically clear way. These experiments might be used to study thermalization in systems with particle losses or the evolution of quantum entanglement, or if applied to fermions, to prepare very low entropy states.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Observation of coherent quench dynamics in a metallic many-body state of fermionic atoms

Quantum simulation with ultracold atoms has become a powerful technique to gain insight into interacting many-body systems. In particular, the possibility to study nonequilibrium dynamics offers a unique pathway to understand correlations and excitations in strongly interacting quantum matter. So far, coherent nonequilibrium dynamics has exclusively been observed in ultracold many-body systems of bosonic atoms. Here we report on the observation of coherent quench dynamics of fermionic atoms. A metallic state of ultracold spin-polarised fermions is prepared along with a Bose-Einstein condensate in a shallow three-dimensional optical lattice. After a quench that suppresses tunnelling between lattice sites for both the fermions and the bosons, we observe long-lived coherent oscillations in the fermionic momentum distribution, with a period that is determined solely by the Fermi-Bose interaction energy. Our results show that coherent quench dynamics can serve as a sensitive probe for correlations in delocalised fermionic quantum states and for quantum metrology.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Small quench dynamics as a probe for trapped ultracold atoms

Finite systems of bosons and/or fermions described by the Hubbard model can be realized using ultracold atoms confined in optical lattices. The ground states of these systems often exhibit a coexistence of compressible superfluid and incompressible Mott insulating regimes. We analyze such systems by studying the out-of-equilibrium dynamics following a weak sudden quench of the trapping potential. In particular, we show how the temporal variance of the site occupations reveals the location of spatial boundaries between compressible and incompressible regions. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated for several models using numerical simulations. We first consider integrable systems, hard-core bosons (spinless fermions) confined by a harmonic potential, where space separated Mott and superfluid phases coexist. Then, we analyze a nonintegrable system, a $J-V-V'$ model with coexisting charge density wave and superfluid phases. We find that the temporal variance of the site occupations is a more effective measure than other standard indicators of phase boundaries such as a local compressibility. Based on these examples, we argue that analyzing temporal fluctuations is a valuable experimental tool for exploring phase boundaries in trapped atom systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Thermodynamics of two-dimensional spin models with bimodal random-bond disorder

We use numerical linked cluster expansions to study thermodynamic properties of the two-dimensional spin-1/2 Ising, XY, and Heisenberg models with bimodal random-bond disorder on the square and honeycomb lattices. In all cases, the nearest-neighbor coupling between the spins takes values $\pm J$ with equal probability. We obtain the disorder averaged (over all disorder configurations) energy, entropy, specific heat, and uniform magnetic susceptibility in each case. These results are compared with the corresponding ones in the clean models. Analytic expressions are obtained for low orders in the expansion of these thermodynamic quantities in inverse temperature.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2015

Quantum quenches and many-body localization in the thermodynamic limit

We use thermalization indicators and numerical linked cluster expansions to probe the onset of many-body localization in a disordered one-dimensional hard-core boson model in the thermodynamic limit. We show that after equilibration following a quench from a delocalized state, the momentum distribution indicates a freezing of one-particle correlations at higher values than in thermal equilibrium. The position of the delocalization to localization transition, identified by the breakdown of thermalization with increasing disorder strength, is found to be consistent with the value from the level statistics obtained via full exact diagonalization of finite chains. Our results strongly support the existence of a many-body localized phase in the thermodynamic limit.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2014

Long-time behavior of periodically driven isolated interacting lattice systems

We study the dynamics of isolated interacting spin chains that are periodically driven by sudden quenches. Using full exact diagonalization of finite chains, we show that these systems exhibit three distinct regimes. For short driving periods, the Floquet Hamiltonian is well approximated by the time-averaged Hamiltonian, while for long periods the evolution operator exhibits properties of random matrices of a Circular Ensemble (CE). In-between, there is a crossover regime. Based on a finite-size scaling analysis and analytic arguments we argue that, for thermodynamically large systems and non-vanishing driving periods, the evolution operator always exhibits properties of CE random matrices. Consequently, the Floquet Hamiltonian is nonlocal and has multi-body interactions; and the driving leads to the equivalent of an infinite temperature state at long times. These results are connected to the breakdown of the Magnus expansion and are expected to hold beyond the specific lattice model considered.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2014

Quantum quenches in the thermodynamic limit. II. Initial ground states

A numerical linked-cluster algorithm was recently introduced to study quantum quenches in the thermodynamic limit starting from thermal initial states [M. Rigol, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 170601 (2014)]. Here, we tailor that algorithm to quenches starting from ground states. In particular, we study quenches from the ground state of the antiferromagnetic Ising model to the XXZ chain. Our results for spin correlations are shown to be in excellent agreement with recent analytical calculations based on the quench action method. We also show that they are different from the correlations in thermal equilibrium, which confirms the expectation that thermalization does not occur in general in integrable models even if they cannot be mapped to noninteracting ones.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2014

Coherent quench dynamics in the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model

Recently, it has been shown that the momentum distribution of a metallic state of fermionic atoms in a lattice Fermi-Bose mixture exhibits coherent oscillations after a global quench that suppresses tunneling. The oscillation period is determined by the Fermi-Bose interaction strength. Here we show that similar dynamics occurs in the fermionic Hubbard model when we quench a noninteracting metallic state by introducing a Hubbard interaction and suppressing tunneling. The period is determined primarily by the interaction strength. Conversely, we show that one can accurately determine the Hubbard interaction strength from the oscillation period, taking into account corrections from any small residual tunneling present in the final Hamiltonian. Such residual tunneling shortens the period and damps the oscillations, the latter being visible in the Fermi-Bose experiment.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Quenching the Anisotropic Heisenberg Chain: Exact Solution and Generalized Gibbs Ensemble Predictions

We study quenches in integrable spin-1/2 chains in which we evolve the ground state of the antiferromagnetic Ising model with the anisotropic Heisenberg Hamiltonian. For this nontrivially interacting situation, an application of the first-principles-based quench action method allows us to give an exact description of the postquench steady state in the thermodynamic limit. We show that a generalized Gibbs ensemble, implemented using all known local conserved charges, fails to reproduce the exact quench action steady state and to correctly predict postquench equilibrium expectation values of physical observables. This is supported by numerical linked-cluster calculations within the diagonal ensemble in the thermodynamic limit.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Nonequilibrium dynamics of one-dimensional hard-core anyons following a quench: Complete relaxation of one-body observables

We demonstrate the role of interactions in driving the relaxation of an isolated integrable quantum system following a sudden quench. We consider a family of integrable hard-core lattice anyon models that continuously interpolates between noninteracting spinless fermions and strongly interacting hard-core bosons. A generalized Jordan-Wigner transformation maps the entire family to noninteracting fermions. We find that, aside from the singular free-fermion limit, the entire single-particle density matrix and therefore all one-body observables relax to the predictions of the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE). This demonstrates that, in the presence of interactions, correlations between particles in the many-body wave function provide the effective dissipation required to drive relaxation of all one-body observables to the GGE. This relaxation does not depend on translational invariance, or the tracing out of any spatial domain of the system.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Self trapping in the two-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model

We study the expansion of harmonically trapped bosons in a two-dimensional lattice after suddenly turning off the confining potential. We show that, in the presence of multiple occupancies per lattice site and strong interactions, the system exhibits a clear dynamical separation into slowly and rapidly expanding clouds. We discuss how this effect can be understood within a simple picture by invoking doublons and Bose enhancement. This picture is corroborated by an analysis of the momentum distribution function in the regions with slowly and rapidly expanding bosons.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Linked-cluster expansion for the Green's function of the infinite-U Hubbard model

We implement a highly efficient strong-coupling expansion for the Green's function of the Hubbard model. In the limit of extreme correlations, where the onsite interaction is infinite, the evaluation of diagrams simplifies dramatically enabling us to carry out the expansion to the eighth order in powers of the hopping amplitude. We compute the finite-temperature Green's function analytically in the momentum and Matsubara frequency space as a function of the electron density. Employing Pade approximations, we study the equation of state, Kelvin thermopower, momentum distribution function, quasiparticle fraction, and quasiparticle lifetime of the system at temperatures lower than, or of the order of, the hopping amplitude. We also discuss several different approaches for obtaining the spectral functions through analytic continuation of the imaginary frequency Green's function, and show results for the system near half filling. We benchmark our results for the equation of state against those obtained from a numerical linked-cluster expansion carried out to the eleventh order.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Quenches in the Thermodynamic Limit

We introduce a linked-cluster based computational approach that allows one to study quantum quenches in lattice systems in the thermodynamic limit. This approach is used to study quenches in one-dimensional lattices. We provide evidence that, in the thermodynamic limit, thermalization occurs in the nonintegrable regime but fails at integrability. A phase transitionlike behavior separates the two regimes.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2014

Driven dipole oscillations and the lowest energy excitations of strongly interacting lattice bosons in a harmonic trap

We show that the analysis of the time evolution of the occupation of site and momentum modes of harmonically trapped lattice hard-core bosons, under driven dipole oscillations, allows one to determine the energy of the lowest one-particle excitations of the system in equilibrium. The analytic solution of a single particle in the absence of a lattice is used to identify which function of those time-dependent observables is best fit for the analysis, as well as to relate the dynamic response of the system to its single-particle spectrum. In the presence of the lattice and of multiple particles, a much richer and informative dynamical response is observed under the drive.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Spiral antiferromagnets beyond the spin-wave approximation: frustrated $XY$ and Heisenberg models in the honeycomb lattice

We examine the stability of classical states with a generic incommensurate spiral order against quantum fluctuations. Specifically, we focus on the frustrated spin-1/2 $XY$ and Heisenberg models on the honeycomb lattice with nearest-neighbor $J_1$ and next-nearest-neighbor $J_2$ antiferromagnetic couplings. Our variational approach is based on the Jastrow wave functions, which include quantum correlations on top of classical spin waves. We perform a systematic optimization of wave vectors and Jastrow pseudo-potentials within this class of variational states and find that quantum fluctuations favor collinear states over generic coplanar spirals. The Néel state with ${\bf Q}=(0,0)$ extends its stability well beyond the classical value $J_2/J_1=1/6$. Most importantly, the collinear states with ${\bf Q}=(0,2π/\sqrt{3})$ (and the two symmetry-related states) are found to be stable in a large regime with intermediate frustration, while at the classical level they are limited to the point $J_2/J_1=0.5$. For large frustration, the $120^\circ$ state is stabilized for finite values of $J_2/J_1$ in both models.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Nature of the phases in the frustrated XY model on the honeycomb lattice

We study the phase diagram of the frustrated XY model on the honeycomb lattice by using accurate correlated wave functions and variational Monte Carlo simulations. Our results suggest that a spin-liquid state is energetically favorable in the region of intermediate frustration, intervening between two magnetically ordered phases. The latter ones are represented by classically ordered states supplemented with a long-range Jastrow factor, which includes relevant correlations and dramatically improves the description provided by the purely classical solution of the model. The construction of the spin-liquid state is based on a decomposition of the underlying bosonic particles in terms of spin-1/2 fermions (partons), with a Gutzwiller projection enforcing no single occupancy, as well as a long-range Jastrow factor.

cond-mat.str-el↗