arXiv subjects

Nick G. Jones

Publications and source records attributed to Nick G. Jones.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Reflections on time-reversal in the Symmetry Topological Field Theory

Symmetry under time-reversal appears in the microscopic description of many physical systems. In a quantum mechanical setting it acts as an anti-unitary operator, so does not fall under general analyses based on unitary symmetries. In classifying zero temperature phases of matter in (1+1)d lattice models, the role of anti-unitary symmetries is, however, well-understood. In recent years, the Symmetry Topological Field Theory (SymTFT) approach to this classification has given a general framework to understand symmetries as topological defects, but does not naturally include anti-unitary symmetries. Following recent proposals in the literature, we adopt a symmetry-enriched SymTFT for a theory with both internal and time-reversal symmetry. In particular, we take a standard SymTFT associated with an internal unitary symmetry that is then enriched by a background time-reversal symmetry. A detailed analysis of the topological boundary conditions of this enriched SymTFT allows us to characterize the corresponding (1+1)d gapped phases that preserve the enriching symmetry (i.e. those that do not spontaneously break this symmetry in the ground state). Line operators in the SymTFT approach are related to non-local string-order parameters (with charged end-point operators) for SPT phases. These are subtle in the anti-unitary case and we explore them both on the lattice and in the continuum. We include an analysis of unitary string order parameters that reveal the Klein bottle SPT invariant. On the lattice, we show that the correct end-point charge coincides with the time-reversal-charge only when the end-point operator is hermitian.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Matrix-product operator dualities in integrable lattice models

Matrix-product operators (MPOs) appear throughout the study of integrable lattice models, notably as the transfer matrices. They can also be used as transformations to construct dualities between such models, both invertible (including unitary) and non-invertible (including discrete gauging). We analyse how the local Yang--Baxter integrable structures are modified under such dualities. We see that the $\check{R}$-matrix, that appears in the baxterization approach to integrability, transforms in a simple manner. We further argue for a broad class of MPO dualities that the usual Yang--Baxter $R$-matrix should be extended. This extended $R$-matrix satisfies modified algebraic relations, including a modified Yang--Baxter algebra previously identified in the unitary case, that altogether give a local integrable structure underlying the commuting transfer matrices of the dual model. We illustrate these results with two case studies, analysing an invertible unitary MPO and a non-invertible MPO both applied to the canonical XXZ spin chain. The former is the cluster entangler, arising in the study of symmetry-protected topological phases, while the latter is the Kramers--Wannier duality. We show several results for MPOs with exact MPO inverses that are of independent interest.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2026

Matrix-product state skeletons in Onsager-integrable quantum chains

Matrix-product state (MPS) skeletons are connected networks of Hamiltonians with exact MPS ground states that underlie a phase diagram. Such skeletons have previously been found in classes of free-fermion models. For the translation-invariant BDI and AIII free-fermion classes, it has been shown that the underlying skeleton is dense, giving an analytic approach to MPS approximation of ground states anywhere in the class. In this paper, we partially expose the skeleton in certain interacting spin chains: the $N$-state Onsager-integrable chiral clock families. We construct MPS that form a dense MPS skeleton in the gapped regions surrounding a sequence of fixed-point Hamiltonians (the generators of the Onsager algebra). Outside these gapped regions, these MPS remain eigenstates, but no longer give the many-body ground state. Rather, they are ground states in particular sectors of the spectrum. Our methods also allow us to find further MPS eigenstates; these correspond to low-lying excited states within the aforementioned gapped regions. This set of MPS excited states goes beyond the previous analysis of ground states on the $N=2$ free-fermion MPS skeleton. As an application of our results, we find a closed form for the disorder parameter in a family of interacting models. Finally, we remark that many of our results use only the Onsager algebra and are not specific to the chiral clock model representation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Textured phase diagrams of featureless insulators

We study phase diagrams of charge-conserving `class A' non-interacting fermions, focusing on the trivial phase in various dimensions. Such phases are usually termed `featureless' to distinguish them from those others with either symmetry-broken or topological order. We show that the presence of non-trivial topological families of states, including charge pumps and their generalizations, results in phase diagrams being endowed with non-trivial topological textures that can be visualized through Berry phases and their higher-dimensional generalizations. We show that for non-interacting fermion systems with translation invariance, these `higher' Berry phases can be computed using integrals of non-abelian Chern-Simons forms of the Berry-Bloch connection over momentum and parameter spaces. Singularities in these textures correspond to gap-closing loci of `diabolical points', which represent the obstruction to contracting topologically non-trivial families of states, and bulk-boundary correspondence results in a locus of robust boundary modes that terminate at the bulk diabolical points. In the presence of finite chemical potential, we argue that the edge modes are generically robust without any need for fine-tuning for two and higher dimensions, whereas in one dimension they are `estranged' in the phase diagram, i.e. appearing at different parameter values for different edges. We demonstrate our results by constructing several microscopic models of non-interacting fermions. We argue stability to interactions and explore proximate phase diagrams by mapping to continuum field theories.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Pivoting through the chiral-clock family

The Onsager algebra, invented to solve the two-dimensional Ising model, can be used to construct conserved charges for a family of integrable $N$-state chiral clock models. We show how it naturally gives rise to a "pivot" procedure for this family of chiral Hamiltonians. These Hamiltonians have an anti-unitary CPT symmetry that when combined with the usual $\mathbb{Z}_N$ clock symmetry gives a non-abelian dihedral symmetry group $D_{2N}$. We show that this symmetry gives rise to symmetry-protected topological (SPT) order in this family for all even $N$, and representation-SPT (RSPT) physics for all odd $N$. The simplest such example is a next-nearest-neighbour chain generalising the spin-1/2 cluster model, an SPT phase of matter. We derive a matrix-product state representation of its fixed-point ground state along with the ensuing entanglement spectrum and symmetry fractionalisation. We analyse a rich phase diagram combining this model with the Onsager-integrable chiral Potts chain, and find trivial, symmetry-breaking and (R)SPT orders, as well as extended gapless regions. For odd $N$, the phase transitions are "unnecessarily" critical from the SPT point of view.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2025

Classical origins of Landau-incompatible transitions

Continuous phase transitions where symmetry is spontaneously broken are ubiquitous in physics and often found between `Landau-compatible' phases where residual symmetries of one phase are a subset of the other. However, continuous `deconfined quantum critical' transitions between Landau-incompatible symmetry-breaking phases are known to exist in certain quantum systems, often with anomalous microscopic symmetries. In this Letter, we investigate the need for such special conditions. We show that Landau-incompatible transitions can be found in a family of well-known classical statistical mechanical models with anomaly-free symmetries, introduced by José, Kadanoff, Kirkpatrick and Nelson (Phys. Rev. B 16, 1217). The models are anisotropic deformations of the classical 2d XY model labelled by a positive integer $Q$. For a range of temperatures, even $Q$ models exhibit two Landau-incompatible partial symmetry-breaking phases and a direct transition between them for $Q \ge 4$. Characteristic features of deconfined quantum criticality, such as enhanced symmetries and melting of charged defects are easily seen in a classical setting. For odd $Q$, and corresponding temperature ranges, two regions of a single partial symmetry-breaking phase appear, split by a stable `unnecessary critical' line. We discuss experimental systems that realize these transitions and present anomaly-free quantum models that also exhibit similar phase diagrams.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2023

Exact correlations in topological quantum chains

Although free-fermion systems are considered exactly solvable, they generically do not admit closed expressions for nonlocal quantities such as topological string correlations or entanglement measures. We derive closed expressions for such quantities for a dense subclass of certain classes of topological fermionic wires (classes BDI and AIII). Our results also apply to spin chains called generalised cluster models. While there is a bijection between general models in these classes and Laurent polynomials, restricting to polynomials with degenerate zeros leads to a plethora of exact results: (1) we derive closed expressions for the string correlation functions - the order parameters for the topological phases in these classes; (2) we obtain an exact formula for the characteristic polynomial of the correlation matrix, giving insight into ground state entanglement; (3) the latter implies that the ground state can be described by a matrix product state (MPS) with a finite bond dimension in the thermodynamic limit - an independent and explicit construction for the BDI class is given in a concurrent work [Phys. Rev. Res. 3 (2021), 033265, 26 pages, arXiv:2105.12143]; (4) for BDI models with even integer topological invariant, all non-zero eigenvalues of the transfer matrix are identified as products of zeros and inverse zeros of the aforementioned polynomial. General models in these classes can be obtained by taking limits of the models we analyse, giving a further application of our results. To the best of our knowledge, these results constitute the first application of Day's formula and Gorodetsky's formula for Toeplitz determinants to many-body quantum physics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Bulk-boundary correspondence and singularity-filling in long-range free-fermion chains

The bulk-boundary correspondence relates topologically-protected edge modes to bulk topological invariants, and is well-understood for short-range free-fermion chains. Although case studies have considered long-range Hamiltonians whose couplings decay with a power-law exponent $α$, there has been no systematic study for a free-fermion symmetry class. We introduce a technique for solving gapped, translationally invariant models in the 1D BDI and AIII symmetry classes with $α>1$, linking together the quantized winding invariant, bulk topological string-order parameters and a complete solution of the edge modes. The physics of these chains is elucidated by studying a complex function determined by the couplings of the Hamiltonian: in contrast to the short-range case where edge modes are associated to roots of this function, we find that they are now associated to singularities. A remarkable consequence is that the finite-size splitting of the edge modes depends on the topological winding number, which can be used as a probe of the latter. We furthermore generalise these results by (i) identifying a family of BDI chains with $α<1$ where our results still hold, and (ii) showing that gapless symmetry-protected topological chains can have topological invariants and edge modes when $α-1$ exceeds the dynamical critical exponent.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Symmetry-resolved entanglement entropy in critical free-fermion chains

The symmetry-resolved Rényi entanglement entropy is the Rényi entanglement entropy of each symmetry sector of a density matrix $ρ$. This experimentally relevant quantity is known to have rich theoretical connections to conformal field theory (CFT). For a family of critical free-fermion chains, we present a rigorous lattice-based derivation of its scaling properties using the theory of Toeplitz determinants. We consider a class of critical quantum chains with a microscopic U(1) symmetry; each chain has a low energy description given by $N$ massless Dirac fermions. For the density matrix, $ρ_A$, of subsystems of $L$ neighbouring sites we calculate the leading terms in the large $L$ asymptotic expansion of the symmetry-resolved Rényi entanglement entropies. This follows from a large $L$ expansion of the charged moments of $ρ_A$; we derive $tr(e^{i αQ_A} ρ_A^n) = a e^{i α\langle Q_A\rangle} (σL)^{-x}(1+O(L^{-μ}))$, where $a, x$ and $μ$ are universal and $σ$ depends only on the $N$ Fermi momenta. We show that the exponent $x$ corresponds to the expectation from CFT analysis. The error term $O(L^{-μ})$ is consistent with but weaker than the field theory prediction $O(L^{-2μ})$. However, using further results and conjectures for the relevant Toeplitz determinant, we find excellent agreement with the expansion over CFT operators.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Integrable spin chains and the Clifford group

We construct new families of spin chain Hamiltonians that are local, integrable and translationally invariant. To do so, we make use of the Clifford group that arises in quantum information theory. We consider translation invariant Clifford group transformations that can be described by matrix product operators (MPOs). We classify the translation invariant Clifford group transformations that consist of a shift operator and an MPO of bond dimension two -- this includes transformations that preserve locality of all Hamiltonians; as well as those that lead to non-local images of particular operators but nevertheless preserve locality of certain Hamiltonians. We characterise the translation invariant Clifford group transformations that take single-site Pauli operators to local operators on at most five sites -- examples of Quantum Cellular Automata -- leading to a discrete family of Hamiltonians that are equivalent to the canonical XXZ model under such transformations. For spin chains solvable by algebraic Bethe Ansatz, we explain how conjugating by a matrix product operator affects the underlying integrable structure. This allows us to relate our results to the usual classifications of integrable Hamiltonians. We also treat the case of spin chains solvable by free fermions.

math-ph↗

arXiv2021

Gapless topological phases and symmetry-enriched quantum criticality

We introduce topological invariants for gapless systems and study the associated boundary phenomena. More generally, the symmetry properties of the low-energy conformal field theory (CFT) provide discrete invariants, establishing the notion of symmetry-enriched quantum criticality. The charges of nonlocal scaling operators, or more generally of symmetry defects, are topological and imply the presence of localized edge modes. We primarily focus on the $1+1d$ case where the edge has a topological degeneracy, whose finite-size splitting can be exponential or algebraic in system size depending on the involvement of additional gapped sectors. An example of the former is given by tuning the spin-1 Heisenberg chain to a symmetry-breaking Ising phase. An example of the latter arises between the gapped Ising and cluster phases: this symmetry-enriched Ising CFT has an edge mode with finite-size splitting $\sim 1/L^{14}$. In addition to such new cases, our formalism unifies various examples previously studied in the literature. Similar to gapped symmetry-protected topological phases, a given CFT can split into several distinct symmetry-enriched CFTs. This raises the question of classification, to which we give a partial answer -- including a complete characterization of symmetry-enriched $1+1d$ Ising CFTs. Non-trivial topological invariants can also be constructed in higher dimensions, which we illustrate for a symmetry-enriched $2+1d$ CFT without gapped sectors.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Skeleton of Matrix-Product-State-Solvable Models Connecting Topological Phases of Matter

Models whose ground states can be written as an exact matrix product state (MPS) provide valuable insights into phases of matter. While MPS-solvable models are typically studied as isolated points in a phase diagram, they can belong to a connected network of MPS-solvable models, which we call the MPS skeleton. As a case study where we can completely unearth this skeleton, we focus on the one-dimensional BDI class -- non-interacting spinless fermions with time-reversal symmetry. This class, labelled by a topological winding number, contains the Kitaev chain and is Jordan-Wigner-dual to various symmetry-breaking and symmetry-protected topological (SPT) spin chains. We show that one can read off from the Hamiltonian whether its ground state is an MPS: defining a polynomial whose coefficients are the Hamiltonian parameters, MPS-solvability corresponds to this polynomial being a perfect square. We provide an explicit construction of the ground state MPS, its bond dimension growing exponentially with the range of the Hamiltonian. This complete characterization of the MPS skeleton in parameter space has three significant consequences: (i) any two topologically distinct phases in this class admit a path of MPS-solvable models between them, including the phase transition which obeys an area law for its entanglement entropy; (ii) we illustrate that the subset of MPS-solvable models is dense in this class by constructing a sequence of MPS-solvable models which converge to the Kitaev chain (equivalently, the quantum Ising chain in a transverse field); (iii) a subset of these MPS states can be particularly efficiently processed on a noisy intermediate-scale quantum computer.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Asymptotic Correlations in Gapped and Critical Topological Phases of 1D Quantum Systems

Topological phases protected by symmetry can occur in gapped and---surprisingly---in critical systems. We consider non-interacting fermions in one dimension with spinless time-reversal symmetry. It is known that the phases are classified by a topological invariant $ω$ and a central charge $c$. We investigate the correlations of string operators, giving insight into the interplay between topology and criticality. In the gapped phases, these non-local string order parameters allow us to extract $ω$. Remarkably, ratios of correlation lengths are universal. In the critical phases, the scaling dimensions of these operators serve as an order parameter, encoding $ω$ and $c$. We derive exact asymptotics of these correlation functions using Toeplitz determinant theory. We include physical discussion, e.g., relating lattice operators to the conformal field theory. Moreover, we discuss the dual spin chains. Using the aforementioned universality, the topological invariant of the spin chain can be obtained from correlations of local observables.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Topology and edge modes in quantum critical chains

We show that topology can protect exponentially localized, zero energy edge modes at critical points between one-dimensional symmetry protected topological phases. This is possible even without gapped degrees of freedom in the bulk ---in contrast to recent work on edge modes in gapless chains. We present an intuitive picture for the existence of these edge modes in the case of non-interacting spinless fermions with time reversal symmetry (BDI class of the tenfold way). The stability of this phenomenon relies on a topological invariant defined in terms of a complex function, counting its zeros and poles inside the unit circle. This invariant can prevent two models described by the \emph{same} conformal field theory (CFT) from being smoothly connected. A full classification of critical phases in the non-interacting BDI class is obtained: each phase is labeled by the central charge of the CFT, $c \in \frac{1}{2}\mathbb N$, and the topological invariant, $ω\in \mathbb Z$. Moreover, $c$ is determined by the difference in the number of edge modes between the phases neighboring the transition. Numerical simulations show that the topological edge modes of critical chains can be stable in the presence of interactions and disorder.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗