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R. Fazio

Publications and source records attributed to R. Fazio.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Topological Order Following a Quantum Quench

We determine the conditions under which topological order survives a rapid quantum quench. Specifically, we consider the case where a quantum spin system is prepared in the ground state of the Toric Code Model and, after the quench, it evolves with a Hamiltonian that does not support topological order. We provide analytical results supported by numerical evidence for a variety of quench Hamiltonians. The robustness of topological order under non-equilibrium situations is tested by studying the topological entropy and a novel dynamical measure, which makes use of the similarity between partial density matrices obtained from different topological sectors.

quant-ph↗

Coherent detection of electron dephasing

We show that an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring with asymmetric electron injection can act as a coherent detector of electron dephasing. The presence of a dephasing source in one of the two arms of a moderately-to-highly asymmetric ring changes the response of the system from total reflection to complete transmission while preserving the coherence of the electrons propagating from the ring, even for strong dephasing. We interpret this phenomenon as an implementation of an interaction-free measurement.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Influence of interface transmissivity and inelastic scattering on the electronic entropy and specific heat of diffusive SNS Josephson junctions

We study theoretically the electronic entropy and specific heat in diffusive superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) Josephson junctions. In particular, we consider the influence of non-idealities occurring in an actual experiment, such as the presence of barriers at the NS interfaces, the spin-flip and inelastic scattering in the N region and quasiparticle subgap states in the superconductors. We find that spin-flip and inelastic scattering do not have, for typical parameters values, a large effect. On the contrary, the presence of barriers suppresses the superconducting correlations in the N region, with the consequence that the entropy and the specific heat get reduced eventually to those in the absence of superconductivity for opaque interfaces. Finally we suggest an experiment and check that it is possible, under realistic conditions, to measure the dependence of electronic specific heat on the phase difference between the superconductors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Homogeneous MERA states: an information theoretical analysis

Homogeneous Multi-scale Entanglement Renormalization Ansazt (MERA) state have been recently introduced to describe quantum critical systems. Here we present an extensive analysis of the properties of such states by clarifying the definition of their transfer super-operator whose structure is studied within a informational theoretical approach. Explicit expressions for computing the expectation values of symmetric observables are given both in the case of finite size systems and in the thermodynamic limit of infinitely many particles.

quant-ph↗

Trap modulation spectroscopy of the Mott-insulator transition in optical lattices

We introduce a new technique to probe the properties of an interacting cold atomic gas that can be viewed as a dynamical compressibility measurement. We apply this technique to the study of the superfluid to Mott insulator quantum phase transition in one and three dimensions for a bosonic gas trapped in an optical lattice. Excitations of the system are detected by time-of-flight measurements. The experimental data for the one-dimensional case are in good agreement with the results of a time-dependent density matrix renormalization group calculation.

cond-mat.other↗

Phase-Dependent Electronic Specific Heat in Mesoscopic Josephson Junctions

We study the influence of superconducting correlations on the electronic specific heat in a diffusive superconductor-normal metal-superconductor Josephson junction. We present a description of this system in the framework of the diffusive-limit Green's function theory, taking into account finite temperatures, phase difference as well as junction parameters. We find that proximity effect may lead to a substantial deviation of the specific heat as compared to that in the normal state, and that it can be largely tuned in magnitude by changing the phase difference between the superconductors. A measurement setup to confirm these predictions is also suggested.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Bound entanglement in the XY model

We study the multi-spin entanglement for the 1D anisotropic XY model concentrating on the simplest case of three-spin entanglement. As compared to the pairwise entanglement, three-party quantum correlations have a longer range and they are more robust on increasing the temperature. We find regions of the phase diagram of the system where bound entanglement occurs, both at zero and finite temperature. Bound entanglement in the ground state can be obtained by tuning the magnetic field. Thermal bound entanglement emerges naturally due to the effect of temperature on the free ground state entanglement.

quant-ph↗

Properties of Mesoscopic Hybrid Superconducting Systems

In this paper we review several aspects of mesoscopic hybrid superconducting systems. In particular we consider charge and heat transport properties in hybrid superconducting-metal structures and the effect of charging energy in superconducting nanostructures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Landau Cooling in Metal-Semiconductor Nanostructures

An electron-cooling principle based on Landau quantization is proposed for nanoscale conductor systems. Operation relies on energy-selective electron tunneling into a two-dimensional electron gas in quantizing magnetic fields. This quantum refrigerator provides significant cooling power (~1 nW at a few K for realistic parameters) and offers a unique flexibility thanks to its tunability via the magnetic-field intensity. The available performance is only marginally affected by nonidealities such as disorder or imperfections in the semiconductor. Methods for the implementation of this system and its characterization are discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Quantum vortices in optical lattices

A vortex in a superfluid gas inside an optical lattice can behave as a massive particle moving in a periodic potential and exhibiting quantum properties. In this Letter we discuss these properties and show that the excitation of vortex motions in a two-dimensional lattice can lead to striking measurable changes in its dynamic response. It would be possible by means of Bragg spectroscopy to carry out the first direct measurement of the effective vortex mass, the pinning to the underlying lattice, and the dissipative damping.

cond-mat.soft↗

Cooling electrons by magnetic-field tuning of Andreev reflection

A solid-state cooling principle based on magnetic-field-driven tunable suppression of Andreev reflection in superconductor/two-dimensional electron gas nanostructures is proposed. This cooling mechanism can lead to very large heat fluxes per channel up to 10^4 times greater than currently achieved with superconducting tunnel junctions. This efficacy and its availability in a two-dimensional electron system make this method of particular relevance for the implementation of quantum nanostructures operating at cryogenic temperatures.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Crossed Andreev reflection-induced magnetoresistance

We show that very large negative magnetoresistance can be obtained in magnetic trilayers in a current-in-plane geometry owing to the existence of crossed Andreev reflection. This spin-valve consists of a thin superconducting film sandwiched between two ferromagnetic layers whose magnetization is allowed to be either parallelly or antiparallelly aligned. For a suitable choice of structure parameters and nearly fully spin-polarized ferromagnets the magnetoresistance can exceed -80%. Our results are relevant for the design and implementation of spintronic devices exploiting ferromagnet-superconductor structures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Dynamics and Current Fluctuations in AC driven Charge Shuttle

The behavior of a charge shuttle under a pure AC field has been recently considered theoretically and experimentally. If the system presents an asymmetry in the tunneling amplitudes the device acts as a nano-electromechanical rectifier, transforming a pure AC voltage field into a direct curren. In this paper we first review the model and the appearance of the rectifying effect for bias voltages below the threshold of self-oscillation. We discuss in some details the dynamics of the central island that, like the current, presents strong dependence on the forcing AC field frequency. In presence of both a constant and a small oscillating bias voltage we analyze the transition from the static to self-oscillating solution. We then consider current fluctuations (full counting statistics) for periodic motion of the grain. We explicitly evaluate the current noise numerically and we find that it shows clear signatures of correlated transport at certain locking frequencies. In the adiabatic limit we obtain a simple expression for the full-counting statistics and calculate explicitly the first four moments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Anomalous suppression of the shot noise in a nanoelectromechanical system

In this paper we report a relaxation-induced suppression of the noise for a single level quantum dot coupled to an oscillator with incoherent dynamics in the sequential tunneling regime. It is shown that relaxation induces qualitative changes in the transport properties of the dot, depending on the strength of the electron-phonon coupling and on the applied voltage. In particular, critical thresholds in voltage and relaxation are found such that a suppression below 1/2 of the Fano factor is possible. Additionally, the current is either enhanced or suppressed by increasing relaxation, depending on bias being greater or smaller than the above threshold. These results exist for any strength of the electron-phonon coupling and are confirmed by a four states toy model.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

A scheme for entanglement extraction from a solid

Some thermodynamical properties of solids, such as heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility, have recently been shown to be linked to the amount of entanglement in a solid. However this entanglement may appear a mere mathematical artifact of the typical symmetrization procedure of many-body wave function in solid state physics. Here we show that this entanglement is physical demonstrating the principles of its extraction from a typical solid state system by scattering two particles off the system. Moreover we show how to simulate this process using present-day optical lattices technology. This demonstrates not only that entanglement exists in solids but also that it can be used for quantum information processing or for test of Bell's inequalities.

quant-ph↗

Entanglement in One-Dimensional Spin Systems

For the anisotropic XY model in transverse magnetic field, we analyze the ground state and its concurrence-free point for generic anisotropy, and the time evolution of initial Bell states created in a fully polarized background and on the ground state. We find that the pairwise entanglement propagates with a velocity proportional to the reduced interaction for all the four Bell states. A transmutation from singlet-like to triplet-like states is observed during the propagation. Characteristic for the anisotropic models is the instantaneous creation of pairwise entanglement from a fully polarized state; furthermore, the propagation of pairwise entanglement is suppressed in favor of a creation of different types of entanglement. The ``entanglement wave'' evolving from a Bell state on the ground state turns out to be very localized in space-time. Our findings agree with a recently formulated conjecture on entanglement sharing; some results are interpreted in terms of this conjecture.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Robust gates for holonomic quantum computation

Non Abelian geometric phases are attracting increasing interest because of possible experimental application in quantum computation. We study the effects of the environment (modelled as an ensemble of harmonic oscillators) on a holonomic transformation and write the corresponding master equation. The solution is analytically and numerically investigated and the behavior of the fidelity analyzed: fidelity revivals are observed and an optimal finite operation time is determined at which the gate is most robust against noise.

quant-ph↗