arXiv subjects

Nikolay V. Prokof'ev

Publications and source records attributed to Nikolay V. Prokof'ev.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Stoner transitions beyond mean-field in two-dimensional electronic systems: a diagrammatic Monte Carlo study

Stoner instabilities for fermions with repulsive interaction have been well studied within the mean-field (ladder) approximation. In this study, we consider two-dimensional electronic systems with one or two valleys and discuss a Stoner transition beyond the ladder approximation. At weak coupling, the corrections to the ladder approximation come predominantly from the renormalization of the particle-hole vertex in the particle-particle channel, and the lowest-order corrections are logarithmically singular in the low-density limit. To investigate the problem beyond the lowest order, we apply the diagrammatic Monte Carlo algorithm and treat ladder and non-ladder renormalizations on equal footing. We find that in a one-valley system, a Stoner transition to a ferromagnetism occurs at low density only if there is a cutoff on the momentum transfer carried by the interaction. In a two-valley system, the restriction is less severe. Here we find either a direct Stoner transition into a spin- and valley-polarized state, or a set of two Stoner transitions via an intermediate valley-polarized state. The pathway is controlled by the anisotropy of the fermionic dispersion.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Bose-Hubbard model with power-law hopping in one dimension

We investigate the zero-temperature phase diagram of the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model with power-law hopping decaying with distance as $1/r^α$ using exact large scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations. For all $1<α\leq 3$ the quantum phase transition from a superfluid and a Mott insulator at unit filling is found to be continuous and scale invariant, in marked contrast with the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) scenario that is recovered only for $α>3$. By performing finite-size scaling collapses of the superfluid stiffness and extracting dynamical and correlation-length exponents from the low-energy spectrum, we establish that these transitions define a distinct universality class throughout the long-range regime $1<α\le 3$. Analysis of the single-particle correlation functions and grand canonical phase diagram further reveals a sequence of ordering regimes within the superfluid phase: true long-range order for $α\le 2$, anomalous quasi-long-range order for $2<α\le 3$, and conventional algebraic decay for $α>3$. Our exact numerical results provide a benchmark to compare theories of long-range quantum models and are relevant for experiments with cold neutral atom, molecules and ion chains.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2026

Superconductivity in Electron Liquids: Precision Many-Body Treatment of Coulomb Interaction

More than a century after discovery, the theory of conventional superconductivity remains incomplete. While the importance of electron-phonon coupling is understood, a controlled first-principles treatment of Coulomb interaction is lacking. Current ab initio calculations of superconductivity rely on a phenomenological downfolding approximation, replacing Coulomb interaction with a repulsive pseudopotential μ*, and leaving ambiguities in electron-phonon coupling with dynamical Coulomb interactions unresolved. We address this via an effective field theory approach, integrating out high-energy electronic degrees of freedom using variational Diagrammatic Monte Carlo. Applied to the uniform electron gas, this establishes a microscopic procedure to implement downfolding, define the pseudopotential, and express dynamical Coulomb effects on electron-phonon coupling via the electron vertex function. We find the bare pseudopotential significantly larger than conventional values. This yields improved pseudopotential estimates in simple metals and tests density functional perturbation theory accuracy for effective electron-phonon coupling. We present an ab initio workflow computing superconducting Tc from the anomalous vertex's precursory Cooper flow. This infers Tc from normal state calculations, enabling reliable estimates of very low Tc (including near quantum phase transitions) beyond conventional reach. Validating our approach on simple metals without empirical tuning, we resolve long-standing discrepancies and predict a pressure-induced transition in Al from superconducting to non-superconducting above ~60GPa. We propose ambient-pressure Mg and Na are proximal to a similar critical point. Our work establishes a controlled ab initio framework for electron-phonon superconductivity beyond the weak-correlation limit, paving the way for reliable Tc calculations and novel material design.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Strange diffusivity of incoherent metal in half-filled two-dimensional Hubbard model

We study charge transport across the metal-insulator crossover in the half-filled two-dimensional Hubbard model, with particular emphasis on precision control. The dynamic current-current correlation function is obtained directly in the thermodynamic limit, and the optical conductivity is extracted using numerical analytic continuation. To achieve this, we develop a multiscale approach: the non-perturbative low-frequency behavior is computed using the unbiased diagrammatic Monte Carlo technique, while the high-frequency physics is captured via a self-consistent (semi-)analytic diagrammatic theory. We found that across a broad temperature range where the DC resistivity displays anomalous scaling, $\sim T^α$ with $0<α\lesssim 1$, the Nernst-Einstein relation implies the diffusion constant with the characteristic $\sim 1/\sqrt{T}$ "strange metal" behavior. It was also revealed that the insulating regime is entered through a peculiar non-Fermi liquid state-which we call a Pseudogap Metal-characterized by insulating charge compressibility coexisting with metallic transport. Diagrammatically, the high-temperature incoherent transport is captured by the dressed polarization bubble, whereas near the metal-insulator crossover, the effective interaction vertex between opposite-spin particles is responsible for transferring the Drude weight to a high-frequency continuum.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Scale-invariant phase transition of disordered bosons in one dimension

The disorder-induced quantum phase transition between superfluid and non-superfluid states of bosonic particles in one dimension is generally expected to be of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) type. Here, we show that hard-core lattice bosons with integrable power-law hopping decaying with distance as $1/r^α$ - corresponding in spin language to a $XY$ model with power-law couplings - undergo a non-BKT continuous phase transition instead. We use exact quantum Monte-Carlo methods to determine the phase diagram for different values of the exponent $α$, focusing on the regime $α> 2$. We find that the scaling of the superfluid stiffness with the system size is scale-invariant at the transition point for any $α\leq 3$ - a behavior incompatible with the BKT scenario and typical of continuous phase transitions in higher dimension. By scaling analysis near the transition point, we find that our data are consistent with a correlation length exponent satisfying the Harris bound $ν\geq 2$ and demonstrate a new universal behavior of disordered bosons in one dimension. For $α>3$ our data are consistent with a BKT scenario where the liquid is pinned by infinitesimal disorder.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2023

Precursory Cooper Flow in Ultralow-Temperature Superconductors

Superconductivity at low temperature -- observed in lithium and bismuth, as well as in various low-density superconductors -- calls for developing reliable theoretical and experimental tools for predicting ultralow critical temperatures, $T_c$, of Cooper instability in a system demonstrating nothing but normal Fermi liquid behavior in a broad range of temperatures below the Fermi energy, $T_{\rm F}$. Equally important are controlled predictions of stability in a given Cooper channel. We identify such a protocol within the paradigm of precursory Cooper flow -- a universal ansatz describing logarithmically slow temperature evolution of the linear response of the normal state to the pair-creating perturbation. Applying this framework to the two-dimensional uniform electron gas, we reveal a series of exotic superconducting states, pushing controlled theoretical predictions of $T_c$ to the unprecedentedly low scale of $10^{-100} T_{\rm F}$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2023

Origin of the Coulomb Pseudopotential

We address the outstanding problem of electron pairing in the presence of strong Coulomb repulsion at small to moderate values of the Coulomb parameter, $r_s \lesssim 2$, and demonstrate that the pseudopotential framework is fundamentally biased and uncontrolled. Instead, one has to break the net result into two distinctively different effects: the Fermi liquid renormalization factor and the change in the effective low-energy coupling. The latter quantity is shown to behave non-monotonically with an extremum at $ r_s\approx 0.75$. Within the random-phase approximation, Coulomb interaction starts to enhance the effective pairing coupling at $r_s >2$, and the suppression of the critical temperature is entirely due to the renormalized Fermi liquid properties. Leading vertex corrections change this picture only quantitatively. Our results call for radical reconsideration of the widely accepted repulsive pseudopotential approach and show the need for precise microscopic treatment of Coulomb interactions in the problem of superconducting instability.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2023

Superconducting transition temperature of the Bose one-component plasma

We present results of first principle numerical simulations of the Bose one-component plasma, i.e., a Bose gas with pairwise Coulomb interactions among particles and a uniform neutralizing background. We compute the superconducting transition temperature for a wide range of densities, in two and three dimensions, for both continuous and lattice versions of the model. Our results are of direct relevance to quantitative studies of bipolaron mechanisms of (high-temperature) superconductivity.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Superconductivity in the Uniform Electron Gas: Irrelevance of Kohn-Luttinger Mechanism

We study the Cooper instability in jellium model in the controlled regime of small to intermediate values of the Coulomb parameter $r_s \leq 2$. We confirm that superconductivity naturally emerges from purely repulsive interactions described by the Kukkonen-Overhauser vertex function. By employing the implicit renormalization approach we reveal that even in the small-$r_s$ limit, the dominant mechanism behind Cooper instability is based on dynamic screening of the Coulomb interaction--accurately captured by the random phase approximation, whereas the Kohn-Luttinger contribution is negligibly small and, thus, not relevant.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2022

Dynamic Response of an Electron Gas: Towards the Exact Exchange-Correlation Kernel

Precise calculations of dynamics in the homogeneous electron gas (jellium model) are of fundamental importance for design and characterization of new materials. We introduce a diagrammatic Monte Carlo technique based on algorithmic Matsubara integration that allows us to compute frequency and momentum resolved finite temperature response directly in the real frequency domain using series of connected Feynman diagrams. The data for charge response at moderate electron density are used to extract the frequency dependence of the exchange-correlation kernel at finite momenta and temperature. These results are as important for development of the time-dependent density functional theory for materials dynamics as ground state energies are for the density functional theory.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Supertransport by Superclimbing Dislocations in $^4$He: When All Dimensions Matter

The unique superflow-through-solid effect observed in solid Helium-4 and attributed to the quasi-one-dimensional superfluidity along the dislocation cores exhibits two extraordinary features: (i) an exponentially strong suppression of the flow by a moderate increase in pressure, and (ii) an unusual temperature dependence of the flow rate with no analogy to any known system and in contradiction with the standard Luttinger liquid paradigm. Based on ab initio and model simulations, we argue that the two features are closely related: Thermal fluctuations of the shape of a superclimbing edge dislocation induce large, correlated, and asymmetric stress fields acting on the superfluid core. The critical flux is most sensitive to strong rare fluctuations and hereby acquires a sharp temperature dependence observed in experiments.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2022

Phonon-modulated-hopping Polarons: X-representation Technique

Motivated by the problem of polaron effect due to phonon-modulated hopping, we formulate a generic Monte Carlo technique for solving it in the coordinate representation for both the particle and atomic displacements. The method applies to a broad class of models; the only condition is that the hopping amplitude be sign-positive. A dramatic simplification of the scheme, with the corresponding efficiency gain, takes place in models with dispersionless phonons. Our study sheds important light on the nature and universality of the most striking qualitative and quantitative effects demonstrated by the "standard" (Peierls/Su-Schrieffer-Heeger) model based on the linearized displacement-modulated hopping.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Bond Bipolarons: Sign-free Monte Carlo Approach

Polarons originating from phonon displacement modulated hopping have relatively light masses and, thus, are of significant current interest as candidates for bipolaron mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 121}, 247001 (2018)]. We observe that the bond model, when the dominant coupling comes from atomic vibrations on lattice bonds, can be solved by efficient sign-free Monte Carlo methods based on the path-integral formulation of the particle sector in combination with either the (real-space) diagrammatic or Fock-path-integral representation of the phonon sector. We introduce the corresponding algorithms and provide illustrative results for bipolarons in two dimensions. The results suggest that the route towards high-temperature superconductivity (if any) in the multiparametric space of the model lies between the Scylla of large size of moderately light bipolarons and Charybdis of large mass of compact bipolarons. As a result, on-site repulsion is helping $s$-wave superconductivity in sharp contrast with existing expectations.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2021

Homotopic Action: A Pathway to Convergent Diagrammatic Theories

The major obstacle preventing Feynman diagrammatic expansions from accurately solving many-fermion systems in strongly correlated regimes is the series slow convergence or divergence problem. Several techniques have been proposed to address this issue: series resummation by conformal mapping, changing the nature of the starting point of the expansion by shifted action tools, and applying the homotopy analysis method to the Dyson-Schwinger equation. They emerge as dissimilar mathematical procedures aimed at different aspects of the problem. The proposed homotopic action offers a universal and systematic framework for unifying the existing -- and generating new -- methods and ideas to formulate a physical system in terms of a convergent diagrammatic series. It eliminates the need for resummation, allows one to introduce effective interactions, enables a controlled ultraviolet regularization of continuous-space theories, and reduces the intrinsic polynomial complexity of the diagrammatic Monte Carlo method. We illustrate this approach by an application to the Hubbard model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Peierls/Su-Schrieffer-Heeger polarons in two dimensions

Polarons with different types of electron-phonon coupling have fundamentally different properties. When the dominant interaction is between the electron density and lattice displacement, the momentum of the ground state does not change and the polaron gets exponentially heavy at strong coupling. In contrast, one-dimensional Peierls/Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (PSSH) polarons with interaction originating from displacement-modulated hopping feature a shift of the ground-state momentum to finite values and moderate values of effective mass as coupling is increased REF[Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 266605 (2010)]. Based on Diagrammatic Monte Carlo method, we investigate whether unusual properties of PSSH polarons depend on the type of the displacement-modulated hopping and to what degree they survive in higher dimension. We study two different PSSH models: with bosonic degrees of freedom residing on sites (model A) and bonds (model B) of the two-dimensional square lattice. For model A, we find that in both adiabatic and intermediate regimes, the momentum of the ground state experiences a continuous transition from zero to a finite value as a function of coupling strength. The transition is driven by quadratic instability of the dispersion function, implying that effective mass diverges at the critical point, and then decreases in an anisotropic fashion with increasing coupling. Unexpectedly, for model B, the momentum of the ground state always stays at zero and the effective mass increases monotonously with coupling. The increase is far from exponential and tends to level-off at strong interaction, resulting in relatively light polarons. Having light polarons in the strong coupling regime is crucial for the bi-polaron mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity REF[Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 247001 (2018)].

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Anti-Drude Metal of Bosons

In the absence of frustration, interacting bosons in the ground state exist either in the superfluid or insulating phases. Superfluidity corresponds to frictionless flow of the matter field, and in optical conductivity is revealed through a distinct $δ$-functional peak at zero frequency with the amplitude known as the Drude weight. This characteristic low-frequency feature is instead absent in insulating phases, defined by zero static optical conductivity. Here we demonstrate that bosonic particles in disordered one dimensional, $d=1$, systems can also exist in a conducting, non-superfluid, phase when their hopping is of the dipolar type, often viewed as short-ranged in $d=1$. This phase is characterized by finite static optical conductivity, followed by a broad anti-Drude peak at finite frequencies. Off-diagonal correlations are also unconventional: they feature an integrable algebraic decay for arbitrarily large values of disorder. These results do not fit the description of any known quantum phase and strongly suggest the existence of a novel conducting state of bosonic matter in the ground state.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2019

Disorder-induced quantum properties of solid Helium-4

We briefly discuss theoretical and experimental discoveries in the field of supertransport and plasticity in imperfect solid \he4 and argue that these promise new exciting developments. Several experiments aimed at clarifying the origin of the supertransport and its relation to plasticity are proposed. In particular, we argue that "cold-working" protocols of sample preparation should be crucial in this respect.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2019

Quantum-to-classical correspondence in two-dimensional Heisenberg models

The quantum-to-classical correspondence (QCC) in spin models is a puzzling phenomenon where the static susceptibility of a quantum system agrees with its classical-system counterpart, at a different corresponding temperature, within the systematic error at a sub-percent level. We employ the bold diagrammatic Monte Carlo method to explore the universality of QCC by considering three different two-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg models. In particular, we reveal the existence of QCC in two-parametric models.

cond-mat.str-el↗