Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Ren Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Ren Zhang.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Crystal: Enhancing Blockchain Mining Transparency with Quorum Certificate

Researchers have discovered a series of theoretical attacks against Bitcoin's Nakamoto consensus; the most damaging ones are selfish mining, double-spending, and consistency delay attacks. These attacks have one common cause: block withholding. This paper proposes Crystal, which leverages quorum certificates to resist block withholding misbehavior. Crystal continuously elects committees from miners and requires each block to have a quorum certificate, i.e., a set of signatures issued by members of its committee. Consequently, an attacker has to publish its blocks to obtain quorum certificates, rendering block withholding impossible. To build Crystal, we design a novel two-round committee election in a Sybil-resistant, unpredictable and non-interactive way, and a reward mechanism to incentivize miners to follow the protocol. Our analysis and evaluations show that Crystal can significantly mitigate selfish mining and double-spending attacks. For example, in Bitcoin, an attacker with 30% of the total computation power will succeed in double-spending attacks with a probability of 15.6% to break the 6-confirmation rule; however, in Crystal, the success probability for the same attacker falls to 0.62%. We provide formal end-to-end safety proofs for Crystal, ensuring no unknown attacks will be introduced. To the best of our knowledge, Crystal is the first protocol that prevents selfish mining and double-spending attacks while providing safety proof.

cs.CR↗

Universal Hypothesis of Autocorrelation Function from Krylov Complexity

In a quantum many-body system, autocorrelation functions can determine linear responses nearby equilibrium and quantum dynamics far from equilibrium. In this letter, we bring out the connection between the operator complexity and the autocorrelation function. In particular, we focus on a particular kind of operator complexity called the Krylov complexity. We find that a set of Lanczos coefficients $\{b_n\}$ computed for determining the Krylov complexity can reveal the universal behaviors of autocorrelations, which are otherwise impossible. When the time axis is scaled by $b_1$, different autocorrelation functions obey a universal function form at short time. We further propose a characteristic parameter deduced from $\{b_n\}$ that can largely determine the behavior of autocorrelations at the intermediate time. This parameter can also largely determine whether the autocorrelation function oscillates or monotonically decays in time. We present numerical evidences and physical intuitions to support these universal hypotheses of autocorrelations. We emphasize that these universal behaviors are held across different operators and different physical systems.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Building Krylov complexity from circuit complexity

Krylov complexity has emerged as a new probe of operator growth in a wide range of non-equilibrium quantum dynamics. However, a fundamental issue remains in such studies: the definition of the distance between basis states in Krylov space is ambiguous. Here, we show that Krylov complexity can be rigorously established from circuit complexity when dynamical symmetries exist. Whereas circuit complexity characterizes the geodesic distance in a multi-dimensional operator space, Krylov complexity measures the height of the final operator in a particular direction. The geometric representation of circuit complexity thus unambiguously designates the distance between basis states in Krylov space. This geometric approach also applies to time-dependent Liouvillian superoperators, where a single Krylov complexity is no longer sufficient. Multiple Krylov complexity may be exploited jointly to fully describe operator dynamics.

quant-ph↗

Quench Dynamics of Thermal Bose Gases Across Wide and Narrow Feshbach

Using high-temperature virial expansion, we study the quench dynamics of the thermal Bose gases near a wide, narrow, and intermediate Feshbach resonance. Our results show that the shallow bound state near Feshbach resonance leads to interesting phenomena. Near the wide Feshbach resonance, the long-time $\hat{n}_{\bf k}$ oscillates when the scattering length $a_{s}$ is quenched from zero to large but with finite positive values. The oscillation frequency $ω=E_{\rm b}/\hbar$ with $E_{\rm b}$ being the binding energy. When $a_{s}$ is quenched to infinity or negative value, the oscillation vanishes. Near the narrow Feshbach resonance, the interaction should be characterized by a two-channel model. When the background scattering length $a_{\rm bg}\gtrsimλ$, there is an oscillation in the long-time dynamics, and the frequency is determined by the energy of the shallow bound state in the open channel. When $a_{\rm bg}<0$ or $0<a_{\rm bg}\llλ$, there is no shallow bound state in the open channel, hence no long-time oscillation. We check our conclusion using some realistic systems, and the results are consistent with our conclusion.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Analogue Black Holes in Reactive Molecules

We show that reactive molecules with a unit probability of reaction naturally provide a simulator of some intriguing black hole physics. The unit reaction at the short distance acts as an event horizon and delivers a one-way traffic for matter waves passing through the potential barrier when two molecules interact by high partial-wave scatterings or dipole-dipole interactions. In particular, the scattering rate as a function of the incident energy exhibits a thermal-like distribution near the maximum of the interaction energy in the same manner as a scalar field scatters with the potential barrier outside the event horizon of a black hole. Such a thermal-like scattering can be extracted from the temperature-dependent two-body loss rate measured in experiments on KRb and other molecules.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Universal energy-dependent pseudopotential for the two-body problem of confined ultracold atoms

The two-body scattering amplitude and energy spectrum of confined ultracold atoms are of fundamental importance for studies of ultracold atom physics. For many systems, one can efficiently calculate these quantities via the zero-range Huang-Yang pseudopotential (HYP), in which the interatomic interaction is characterized by the scattering length $a$. Furthermore, when the scattering length is dependent on the kinetic energy $\varepsilon_{\rm r}$ of two-atom relative motion, the results are applicable for a broad energy region. However, when the free Hamiltonian of atomic internal state does not commute with the inter-atomic interaction, or the center-of-mass (c.m.) motion is coupled to the relative motion, the generalization of this technique is still lacking. We solve this problem and construct a reasonable energy-dependent multi-channel HYP, which is characterized by a "scattering length operator" ${\hat a}_{\rm eff}$. Here ${\hat a}_{\rm eff}$ is an operator for atomic internal states and c.m. motion, and depends on both the total two-atom energy and the external field as well as the trapping parameter. The effects from the internal-state or c.m.-relative motion coupling can be self-consistently taken into account by ${\hat a}_{\rm eff}$. We further show a method based on the quantum defect theory, with which ${\hat a}_{\rm eff}$ can be analytically derived for systems with van der Waals inter-atomic interaction. To demonstrate our method, we calculate the spectrum of two ultracold fermionic alkaline-earth-like atoms confined in an optical lattice. By comparing our results with the recent experimental measurements for two Yb173 atoms and two Yb171 atoms, we calibrate the scattering lengths $a_{\pm}$ with respect to anti-symmetric and symmetric nuclear-spin states to be $a_{+}=2012(19)a_{0}$ and $a_{-}=193(4)a_{0}$ for Yb173, and $a_{+}=232(3)a_{0}$ and $a_{-}=372(1)a_{0}$ for Yb171.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Quantum Dynamics of Cold Atomic Gas with $SU(1,1)$ Symmetry

Motivated by recent advances in quantum dynamics, we investigate the dynamics of the system with $SU(1,1)$ symmetry. Instead of performing the time-ordered integral for the evolution operator of the time-dependent Hamiltonian, we show that the time evolution operator can be expressed as an $SU(1,1)$ group element. Since the $SU(1,1)$ group describes the "rotation" on a hyperbolic surface, the dynamics can be visualized on a Poincaré disk, a stereographic projection of the upper hyperboloid. As an example, we present the trajectory of the revival of Bose-Einstein condensation and that of the scale-invariant Fermi gas on the Poincaré disk. Further considering the quantum gas in the oscillating lattice, we also study the dynamics of the system with time-dependent single-particle dispersion. Our results are hopefully to be checked in current experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Curving the space by non-Hermiticity

Quantum systems are often classified into Hermitian and non-Hermitian ones. Extraordinary non-Hermitian phenomena, ranging from the non-Hermitian skin effect to the supersensitivity to boundary conditions, have been widely explored. Whereas these intriguing phenomena have been considered peculiar to non-Hermitian systems, we show that they can be naturally explained by a duality between non-Hermitian models in flat spaces and their counterparts, which could be Hermitian, in curved spaces. For instance, prototypical one-dimensional (1D) chains with uniform chiral tunnelings are equivalent to their duals in two-dimensional (2D) hyperbolic spaces with or without magnetic fields, and non-uniform tunnelings could further tailor local curvatures. Such a duality unfolds deep geometric roots of non-Hermitian phenomena, delivers an unprecedented routine connecting Hermitian and non-Hermitian physics, and gives rise to a theoretical perspective reformulating our understandings of curvatures and distance. In practice, it provides experimentalists with a powerful two-fold application, using non-Hermiticity as a new protocol to engineer curvatures or implementing synthetic curved spaces to explore non-Hermitian quantum physics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Asymmetric Conductivity of the Kondo Effect in Cold Atomic Systems

Motivated by recent theoretical and experimental advances in quantum simulations using alkaline earth(AE) atoms, we put forward a proposal to detect the Kondo physics in a cold atomic system. It has been demonstrated that the intrinsic spin-exchange interaction in AE atoms can be significantly enhanced near a confinement-induced resonance(CIR), which facilitates the simulation of Kondo physics. Since the Kondo effect appears only for antiferromagnetic coupling, we find that the conductivity of such a system exhibits an asymmetry across a resonance of spin-exchange interaction. The asymmetric conductivity can serve as the smoking gun evidence for Kondo physics in the cold atom context. When an extra magnetic field ramps up, the spin-exchange process near the Fermi surface is suppressed by Zeeman energy and the conductivity becomes more and more symmetric. Our results can be verified in the current experimental setup.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Efimov-like states and quantum funneling effects on synthetic hyperbolic surfaces

Engineering lattice models with tailored inter-site tunnelings and onsite energies could synthesize essentially arbitrary Riemannian surfaces with highly tunable local curvatures. Here, we point out that discrete synthetic Poincaré half-planes and Poincaré disks, which are created by lattices in flat planes, support infinitely degenerate eigenstates for any nonzero eigenenergies. Such Efimov-like states exhibit a discrete scaling symmetry and imply an unprecedented apparatus for studying quantum anomaly using hyperbolic surfaces. Furthermore, all eigenstates are exponentially localized in the hyperbolic coordinates, signifying the first example of quantum funneling effects in Hermitian systems. As such, any initial wave packet travels towards the edge of the Poincaré half-plane or its equivalent on the Poincaré disk, delivering an efficient scheme to harvest light and atoms in two dimensions. Our findings unfold the intriguing properties of hyperbolic spaces and suggest that Efimov states may be regarded as a projection from a curved space with an extra dimension.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Localization on a synthetic Hall cylinder

By engineering laser-atom interactions, both Hall ribbons and Hall cylinders as fundamental theoretical tools in condensed matter physics have recently been synthesized in laboratories. Here, we show that turning a synthetic Hall ribbon into a synthetic Hall cylinder could naturally lead to localization. Unlike a Hall ribbon, a Hall cylinder hosts an intrinsic lattice, which arises due to the periodic boundary condition in the azimuthal direction, in addition to the external periodic potential imposed by extra lasers. When these two lattices are incommensurate, localization may occur on a synthetic Hall cylinder. Near the localization-delocalization transitions, the dependence of physical observables on the axial magnetic flux allows us to tackle a fundamental question of determining the accuracy of rational approximation of irrational numbers. In the irrational limit, physical observables are no longer affected by fluctuations of the axial flux.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

SU(1,1) echoes for breathers in quantum gases

Though the celebrated spin echoes have been widely used to reverse quantum dynamics, they are not applicable to systems whose constituents are beyond the control of the su(2) algebra. Here, we design echoes to reverse quantum dynamics of breathers in three-dimensional unitary fermions and two-dimensional bosons and fermions with contact interactions, which are governed by an underlying su(1,1) algebra. Geometrically, SU(1,1) echoes produce closed trajectories on a single or multiple Poincare disks and thus could recover any initial states without changing the sign of the Hamiltonian. In particular, the initial shape of a breather determines the superposition of trajectories on multiple Poincare disks and whether the revival time has period multiplication. Our work provides physicists with a recipe to tailor collective excitations of interacting many-body systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Analytical solution for the spectrum of two ultracold atoms in a completely anisotropic confinement

We study the system of two ultracold atoms in a three-dimensional (3D) or two-dimensional (2D) completely anisotropic harmonic trap. We derive the algebraic equation J_{3D}(E) = 1/a_{3D} (J_{2D}(E) = ln a_{2D}) for the eigen-energy E of this system in the 3D (2D) case, with a_{3D} and a_{2D} being the corresponding s-wave scattering lengths, and provide the analytical expressions of the functions J_{3D}(E) and J_{2D}(E). In previous researches this type of equation was obtained for spherically or axially symmetric harmonic traps (T. Busch, et. al., Found. Phys. 28, 549 (1998); Z. Idziaszek and T. Calarco, Phys. Rev. A 74, 022712 (2006)). However, for our cases with a completely anisotropic trap, only the equation for the ground-state energy of some cases has been derived (J. Liang and C. Zhang, Phys. Scr. 77, 025302 (2008)). Our results in this work are applicable for arbitrary eigen-energy of this system, and can be used for the studies of dynamics and thermal-dynamics of interacting ultracold atoms in this trap, e.g., the calculation of the 2nd virial coefficient or the evolution of two-body wave functions. In addition, our approach for the derivation of the above equations can also be used for other two-body problems of ultracold atoms.

physics.atm-clus↗

Tight-Binding Kondo Model and Spin-Exchange Collision Rate of Alkaline-Earth Atoms in a Mixed-Dimensional Optical Lattice

We study the two-body problem of the ultracold fermionic alkaline-earth (like) atoms in the electronic $^1$S$_0$ state ($g$-state) and $^3$P$_0$ state ($e$-state), which are confined in a quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) tube. In addition, in the axial direction, the $g$-atom experience a 1D optical lattice and the $e$-atom is localized by a harmonic potential. In this work, we propose two appropriate tight-binding models, which are applicable for the cases that the odd-wave scattering between the $g$- and $e$-atom is negligible or not, respectively. We further give a microscopic derivation for the inter-atomic interaction parameters of these tight-binding models, by exactly calculating the low-energy inter-atomic scattering amplitude. Our results show that, as one can predict, these interaction parameters can be efficiently controlled by the confinement potentials. We further exam the simple "projection approximation" with which one derives the interaction parameters by directly projecting the 3D Huang-Yang pseudopotential on the ground state of the confinement and the lowest band of the optical lattice. We find that one should be very careful about determining the interaction parameters in the tight-binding models. Furthermore, we calculate the spin-exchanging rate, which dependents on the incident quasi-momentum $k$ of the $g$-atom, for the recent experiment (L. Riegger, {\it et. al.,} Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 120}, 143601 (2018)) of $^{173}$Yb atoms in this quasi-(1+0)D system, and study finite-momentum effect in this experiment. Our results show that in this system the finite-momentum effect of the $g$-atom is very significant, and the momentum of the $g$-atoms in this experiment may be pretty high (already in the second Brillouin zone of the optical lattice)

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Confinement-Induced Resonance with Weak Background Interaction

We studied the scattering problem of two distinguishable atoms with unequal mass, where one atom (atom $α$) is trapped in a quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) tube and the other one (atom $β$) is localized by a 3D harmonic trap. We show that in such a system if atom $α$ is much heavier than $β$, confinement-induced resonance (CIR) can appear when the 3D $s$-wave scattering length $a_s$ of these two atoms is much smaller than the characteristic lengths (CLs) of the confinements, for either $a_s>0$ or $a_s<0$. This is quite different from the usual CIRs which occurs only when $a_s$ is comparable with the CL of confinement. Moreover, the CIRs we find are broad enough that can serve as a tool for the control of effective inter-atomic interaction. We further show the mechanism of these CIRs via the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Our results can be used for the realization of strongly-interacting systems with ultracold atoms with weak 3D background interaction (i.e., small $a_s$), e.g., the realization of ultracold gases with strong spin-dependent interaction at zero magnetic fields.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Confinement Induced Resonance with Weak Bare Interaction in a Quasi 3+0 Dimensional Ultracold Gas

Confinement induced resonance (CIR) is a useful tool for the control of the interaction between ultracold atoms. In most cases the CIR occurs when the characteristic length atrap of the confinement is similar as the scattering length as of the two atoms in the free three-dimensional (3D) space. If there is a CIR which can occur with weak bare interaction, i.e., under the condition $a_{\rm{trap}}\gg a_s$, then it can be realized for much more systems, even without the help of a magnetic Feshbach resonance, and would be very useful. In a previous research by Massignan and Castin (Phys Rev A 74:013616, 2006), it was shown that it is possible to realize such a CIR in a quasi-(3+0)D system, where one ultracold atom is moving in the 3D space and another one is localized by a 3D harmonic trap. In this work we carefully investigate the properties of the CIRs in this system. We show that the CIR with $a_{\rm{trap}}\gg a_s$ can really occur, and the number of the CIRs of this type increases with the mass ratio between the moving and localized atoms. However, when $a_{\rm{trap}}\gg a_s$ the CIR becomes extremely narrow, and thus are difficult to be controlled in realistic experiments.

physics.atom-ph↗

Interaction Control of Ultracold Alkaline-Earth Atoms

Ultracold alkaline-earth atoms have now been widely explored for precision measurements and quantum simulation. Because of its unique atomic structure, alkaline earth atoms possess great advantages for quantum simulation and studying quantum many-body matters, such as simulating synthetic gauge field, Kondo physics and $SU(N)$ physics. To fully explore the potential of ultracold alkaline-earth atoms, these systems also need to be equipped with the capability of tuning the inter-atomic interaction to the strongly interacting regime. Recently several theoretical proposals and experimental demonstrations have shown that both spin-independent and spin-exchanging interaction can be tuned to resonance. In this perspective, we will review these progress and discuss the new opportunities brought by these interaction control tools for future quantum simulation studies with ultracold alkaline-earth atoms.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Efimov Enhanced Kondo Effect in Alkaline and Alkaline-Earth Atomic Gas Mixture

Recent experiment has observed Feshbach resonances between alkaline and alkaline-earth atoms. These Feshbach resonances are insensitive to the nuclear spin of alkaline-earth atoms. Ultilizing this feature, we propose to take this system as a candidate to perform quantum simulation of the Kondo effect. An alkaline atom can form a molecule with an alkaline-earth atom with different nuclear spins, which plays the role of spin-exchange scattering responsible for the Kondo effect. Furthermore, we point out that the existence of three-body bound state and atom-molecule resonance due to the Efimov effect can enhance this spin-exchange scattering, and therefore enhance the Kondo effect. We discuss this mechanism first with a three-body problem in free space, and then demonstrate that the same mechanism still holds when the alkaline atom is localized by an external trap and becomes an impurity embedded in the alkaline-earth atomic gases.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗