arXiv subjects

N. Sedlmayr

Publications and source records attributed to N. Sedlmayr.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Dynamical bulk boundary correspondence and dynamical quantum phase transitions in higher order topological insulators

Dynamical quantum phase transitions occur in dynamically evolving quantum systems when non-analyticities occur at critical times in the return rate, a dynamical analogue of the free energy. This extension of the concept of phase transitions can be brought into contact with another, namely that of topological phase transitions in which the phase transition is marked by a change in a topological invariant. Following a quantum quench dynamical quantum phase transitions can happen in topological matter, a fact which has already been explored in one dimensional topological insulators and in two dimensional Chern insulators. Additionally in one dimensional systems a dynamical bulk boundary correspondence has been seen, related to the periodic appearance of zero modes of the Loschmidt echo itself. Here we extend both of these concepts to two dimensional higher order topological matter, in which the topologically protected boundary modes are corner modes. We consider a minimal model which encompasses all possible forms of higher order topology in two dimensional topological band structures. We find that DQPTs can still occur, and can occur for quenches which cross both bulk and boundary gap closings. Furthermore a dynamical bulk boundary correspondence is also found, which takes a different form to that in one dimension.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Directional scrambling of quantum information in helical multiferroics

Local excitations as carriers of quantum information spread out in the system in ways governed by the underlying interaction and symmetry. Understanding this phenomenon, also called quantum scrambling, is a prerequisite for employing interacting systems for quantum information processing. The character and direction dependence of quantum scrambling can be inferred from the out-of-time-ordered commutators (OTOCs) containing information on correlation buildup and entanglement spreading. Employing OTOC, we study and quantify the directionality of quantum information propagation in oxide-based helical spin systems hosting a spin-driven ferroelectric order. In these systems, magnetoelectricity permits the spin dynamics and associated information content to be controlled by an electric field coupled to the emergent ferroelectric order. We show that topologically nontrivial quantum phases, such as chiral or helical spin ordering, allows for electric-field controlled anisotropic scrambling and a direction-dependent buildup of quantum correlations. Based on general symmetry considerations, we find that starting from a pure state (e.g., the ground state) or a finite temperature state is essential for observing directional asymmetry in scrambling. In the systematic numerical studies of OTOC, we quantify the directional asymmetry of the scrambling and verify the conjectured form of the OTOC around the ballistic wavefront. The obtained direction-dependent butterfly velocity $v_{\mathrm{B}}(\mathbf{n})$ provides information on the speed of the ballistic wavefront. In general, our calculations show an early-time power-law behavior of OTOC, as expected from an analytic expansion for small times. The long-time behavior of OTOC reveals the importance of (non-)integrability of the underlying Hamiltonian as well as the implications of conserved quantities such as the $z$-projection of the total spin.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Chiral Hall effect in the kink states in topological insulators with magnetic domain walls

In this article we consider the chiral Hall effect due to topologically protected kink states formed in topological insulators at boundaries between domains with differing topological invariants. Such systems include the surfaces of three dimensional topological insulators magnetically doped or in proximity with ferromagnets, as well as certain two dimensional topological insulators. We analyze the equilibrium charge current along the domain wall and show that it is equal to the sum of counter-propagating equilibrium currents flowing along external boundaries of the domains. In addition, we also calculate a dissipative current along the domain wall when an external voltage is applied perpendicularly to the wall.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Dynamical Phase Transitions in Topological Insulators

The traditional concept of phase transitions has, in recent years, been widened in a number of interesting ways. The concept of a topological phase transition separating phases with a different ground state topology, rather than phases of different symmetries, has become a large widely studied field in its own right. Additionally an analogy between phase transitions, described by non-analyticities in the derivatives of the free energy, and non-analyticities which occur in dynamically evolving correlation functions has been drawn. These are called dynamical phase transitions and one is often now far from the equilibrium situation. In these short lecture notes we will give a brief overview of the history of these concepts, focusing in particular on the way in which dynamical phase transitions themselves can be used to shed light on topological phase transitions and topological phases. We will go on to focus, first, on the effect which the topologically protected edge states, which are one of the interesting consequences of topological phases, have on dynamical phase transitions. Second we will consider what happens in the experimentally relevant situations where the system begins either in a thermal state rather than the ground state, or exchanges particles with an external environment.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

The fate of dynamical phase transitions at finite temperatures and in open systems

When a quantum system is quenched from its ground state, the time evolution can lead to non-analytic behavior in the return rate at critical times $t_c$. Such dynamical phase transitions (DPT's) can occur, in particular, for quenches between phases with different topological properties in Gaussian models. In this paper we discuss Loschmidt echos generalized to density matrices and obtain results for quenches in closed Gaussian models at finite temperatures as well as for open system dynamics described by a Lindblad master equation. While cusps in the return rate are always smoothed out by finite temperatures we show that dissipative dynamics can be fine-tuned such that DPT's persist.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2017

A bulk-boundary correspondence for dynamical phase transitions in one-dimensional topological insulators and superconductors

We study the Loschmidt echo for quenches in open one-dimensional lattice models with symmetry protected topological phases. For quenches where dynamical quantum phase transitions do occur we find that cusps in the bulk return rate at critical times tc are associated with sudden changes in the boundary contribution. For our main example, the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, we show that these sudden changes are related to the periodical appearance of two eigenvalues close to zero in the dynamical Loschmidt matrix. We demonstrate, furthermore, that the structure of the Loschmidt spectrum is linked to the periodic creation of long-range entanglement between the edges of the system.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2016

Signature of a topological phase transition in long SN junctions in the spin-polarized density of states

We investigate the spin texture of Andreev bound states and Majorana states in long SN junctions. We show that measuring the spin-polarized density of states (SPDOS) allows one to identify the topological transition. In particular, we find that its total component parallel to the wire is non-zero in the topological phase for the lowest-energy state, while vanishing in the trivial one. Also, the component parallel to the Zeeman field is symmetric between positive and negative energies in the topological phase and asymmetric in the trivial phase. Moreover the SPDOS exhibits a moderate accumulation close to the SN boundary which changes sign when crossing the topological transition. We propose that these signatures may allow one to unambiguously test the formation of a topological phase via spin-resolved transport and STM measurements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Majorana bound states in open quasi-1D and 2D systems with transverse Rashba coupling

We study the formation of Majorana states in quasi-1D and 2D square lattices with open boundary conditions, with general anisotropic Rashba coupling, in the presence of an applied Zeeman field and in the proximity of a superconductor. For systems in which the length of the system is very large (quasi-1D) we calculate analytically the exact topological invariant, and we find a rich phase diagram which is strongly dependent on the width of the system. We compare our results with previous results based on a few-band approximation. We also investigate numerically open 2D systems of finite length in both directions. We use the recently introduced generalized Majorana polarization, which can locally evaluate the Majorana character of a given state. We find that the formation of Majoranas depends strongly on the geometry of the system and if the length and the width are comparable no Majorana states can form, however, one can show the formation of "quasi-Majorana" states that have a local Majorana character, but no global Majorana symmetry.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Universal fidelity near quantum and topological phase transitions in finite 1D systems

We study the quantum fidelity (groundstate overlap) near quantum phase transitions of the Ising universality class in one dimensional (1D) systems of finite size L. Prominent examples occur in magnetic systems (e.g. spin-Peierls, the anisotropic XY model), and in 1D topological insulators of any topologically nontrivial Altland-Zirnbauer-Kitaev universality class. The rescaled fidelity susceptibility is a function of the only dimensionless parameter LM, where 2M is the gap in the fermionic spectrum. We present analytic expressions for the fidelity susceptibility for periodic and open boundaries conditions with zero, one or two edgestates. The latter are shown to have a crucial impact and alter the susceptibility both quantitatively and qualitatively. We support our analytical solutions with numerical data.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Majoranas with and without a 'character': hybridization, braiding and Majorana number

In this paper we demonstrate under what conditions a pseudo-spin degree of freedom or character can be ascribed to the Majorana bound states (MBS) which can be created at the end of one dimensional non-interacting systems, corresponding to D, DIII and BDI in the usual classification scheme. We have found that such a character is directly related to the class of the topological superconductor and its description by a $\mathbb{Z}$, rather than a $\mathbb{Z}_2$, invariant which corresponds to the BDI class. We have also found that the DIII case with mirror symmetry, which supports multiple MBS, is in fact equivalent to the BDI class with an additional time-reversal symmetry. In all cases where a character can be given to the Majorana states we show how to construct the appropriate operator explicitly in various examples. We also examine the consequences of the Majorana character by considering possible hybridization of MBS brought into proximity and find that two MBS with the same character do not hybridize. Finally, we show that having this character or not has no consequence on the braiding properties of MBS.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Flat Majorana bands in 2-d lattices with inhomogeneous magnetic fields: topology and stability

In this paper we show that for a range of configurations of inhomogeneous magnetic fields it is possible to create flat bands of Majorana states localized on the edges of 2-d lattices. Majorana bound states have been predicted to exist in both one dimensional and two dimensional systems with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, magnetic fields, and placed in proximity to a superconductor. For the proposed systems we present the bulk topological phase diagrams, and we study the conditions for weak topology which predicts the formation of bands of Majorana states. The Majorana bands are demonstrated to be relatively stable with respect to a variety of different perturbations on both square and hexagonal lattices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Boundary Fidelity and Entanglement in the symmetry protected topological phase of the SSH model

We present a detailed study of the fidelity, the entanglement entropy, and the entanglement spectrum, for a dimerized chain of spinless fermions---a simplified Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model---with open boundary conditions which is a well-known example for a model supporting a symmetry protected topological (SPT) phase. In the non-interacting case the Hamiltonian matrix is tridiagonal and the eigenvalues and -vectors can be given explicitly as a function of a single parameter which is known analytically for odd chain lengths and can be determined numerically in the even length case. From a scaling analysis of these data for essentially semi-infinite chains we obtain the fidelity susceptibility and show that it contains a boundary contribution which is different in the topologically ordered than in the topologically trivial phase. For the entanglement spectrum and entropy we confirm predictions from massive field theory for a block in the middle of an infinite chain but also consider blocks containing the edge of the chain. For the latter case we show that in the SPT phase additional entanglement---as compared to the trivial phase---is present which is localized at the boundary. Finally, we extend our study to the dimerized chain with a nearest-neighbour interaction using exact diagonalization, Arnoldi, and density-matrix renormalization group methods and show that a phase transition into a topologically trivial charge-density wave phase occurs.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Locality and thermalization in closed quantum systems

We derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the thermalization of a local observable in a closed quantum system which offers an alternative explanation, independent of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, for the thermalization process. We also show that this approach is useful to investigate thermalization based on a finite-size scaling of numerical data. The condition follows from an exact representation of the observable as a sum of a projection onto the local conserved charges of the system and a projection onto the non-local ones. We show that thermalization requires that the time average of the latter part vanishes in the thermodynamic limit while time and statistical averages for the first part are identical. As an example, we use this thermalization condition to analyze exact diagonalization data for a one-dimensional spin model. We find that local correlators do thermalize in the thermodynamic limit although we find no indications that the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis applies.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2014

Conducting fixed points for inhomogeneous quantum wires: a conformally invariant boundary theory

Inhomogeneities and junctions in wires are natural sources of scattering, and hence resistance. A conducting fixed point usually requires an adiabatically smooth system. One notable exception is "healing", which has been predicted in systems with special symmetries, where the system is driven to the homogeneous fixed point. Here we present theoretical results for a different type of conducting fixed point which occurs in inhomogeneous wires with an abrupt jump in hopping and interaction strength. We show that it is always possible to tune the system to an unstable conducting fixed point which does not correspond to translational invariance. We analyze the temperature scaling of correlation functions at and near this fixed point and show that two distinct boundary exponents appear, which correspond to different effective Luttinger liquid parameters. Even though the system consists of two separate interacting parts, the fixed point is described by a single conformally invariant boundary theory. We present details of the general effective bosonic field theory including the mode expansion and the finite size spectrum. The results are confirmed by numerical quantum Monte Carlo simulations on spinless fermions. We predict characteristic experimental signatures of the local density of states near junctions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

The Two-Band Luttinger Liquid with Spin-Orbit Coupling: Applications to Monatomic Chains on Surfaces

Recently, monatomic chains on surfaces have been synthesized which show evidence of Luttinger liquid physics. The experimental data point to a dispersion along the chain with four Fermi points. Here we investigate a general low-energy effective Hamiltonian for such a two-band model where SU(2) spin symmetry is broken but time reversal symmetry persists, as is expected due to the surface geometry. Spin-orbit coupling gives rise to a new energy scale epsilon_{SO} much smaller than the Fermi energy epsilon_F and to spin non-conserving scattering processes. We derive the generic phase diagram at zero temperature as well as an effective phase diagram at temperatures epsilon_{SO} < T << epsilon_F. For the part of the phase diagram where a Luttinger liquid is found to be stable, the density of states and the spectral function are calculated and discussed in relation to the experimental data.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Dynamics of the polarization of a pinned domain wall in a magnetic nanowire

We consider the dynamics of polarization of a single domain wall in a magnetic nanowire, which is strongly pinned by impurities. In this case the equation of motion for the polarization parameter does not include any other dynamical variables and is nonlinear due to magnetic anisotropy. We calculated numerically the magnetization dynamics for different choices of parameters under short current pulses inducing polarization switching. Our results show that the switching is most effective for very rapid current pulses. Damping also enhances the switching probability.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Closed and Open System Dynamics in a Fermionic Chain with a Microscopically Specified Bath: Relaxation and Thermalization

We study thermalization in a one-dimensional quantum system consisting of a noninteracting fermionic chain with each site of the chain coupled to an additional bath site. Using a density matrix renormalization group algorithm we investigate the time evolution of observables in the chain after a quantum quench. For low densities we show that the intermediate time dynamics can be quantitatively described by a system of coupled equations of motion. For higher densities our numerical results show a prethermalization for local observables at intermediate times and a full thermalization to the grand canonical ensemble at long times. For the case of a weak bath-chain coupling we find, in particular, a Fermi momentum distribution in the chain in equilibrium in spite of the seemingly oversimplified bath in our model.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2013

Theory of the conductance of interacting quantum wires with good contacts and applications to carbon nanotubes

Using bosonization we derive the dc conductance G(L,T) of an interacting quantum wire with good contacts including current relaxing backscattering and Umklapp processes. Our result yields the dependence of the conductance on length L and temperature T in the energy range where the Luttinger model is applicable. For a system where only a part of the current is protected by a conservation law we surprisingly find an unreduced ideal quantum conductance as for a fully ballistic wire. As a second application, we calculate the conductance of metallic single-wall carbon nanotubes in an energy range where backscattering due to phonons dominates. In contrast to previous studies we treat the electrons as interacting by using the Luttinger liquid formulation. The obtained results for the scaling of the dc conductance with temperature and length are compared with experimental data and yield a better description than the previously used non-interacting theory. Possible reasons for the remaining discrepancies in the temperature dependence between theory and experiment are discussed.

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