arXiv subjects

S. A. Parameswaran

Publications and source records attributed to S. A. Parameswaran.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Particle-hole symmetry, many-body localization, and topological edge modes

We study the excited states of interacting fermions in one dimension with particle-hole symmetric disorder (equivalently, random-bond XXZ chains) using a combination of renormalization group methods and exact diagonalization. Absent interactions, the entire many-body spectrum exhibits infinite-randomness quantum critical behavior with highly degenerate excited states. We show that though interactions are an irrelevant perturbation in the ground state, they drastically affect the structure of excited states: even arbitrarily weak interactions split the degeneracies in favor of thermalization (weak disorder) or spontaneously broken particle-hole symmetry, driving the system into a many-body localized spin glass phase (strong disorder). In both cases, the quantum critical properties of the non-interacting model are destroyed, either by thermal decoherence or spontaneous symmetry breaking. This system then has the interesting and counterintuitive property that edges of the many-body spectrum are less localized than the center of the spectrum. We argue that our results rule out the existence of certain excited state symmetry-protected topological orders.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2016

Spin-catalyzed hopping conductivity in disordered strongly interacting quantum wires

In one-dimensional electronic systems with strong repulsive interactions, charge excitations propagate much faster than spin excitations. Such systems therefore have an intermediate temperature range [termed the "spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid'" (SILL) regime] where charge excitations are "cold" (i.e., have low entropy) whereas spin excitations are "hot." We explore the effects of charge-sector disorder in the SILL regime in the absence of external sources of equilibration. We argue that the disorder localizes all charge-sector excitations; however, spin excitations are protected against full localization, and act as a heat bath facilitating charge and energy transport on asymptotically long timescales. The charge, spin, and energy conductivities are widely separated from one another. The dominant carriers of energy are neither charge nor spin excitations, but neutral "phonon" modes, which undergo an unconventional form of hopping transport that we discuss. We comment on the applicability of these ideas to experiments and numerical simulations.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2016

Low Temperature metamagnetism and Hall effect anomaly in Kondo compound CeAgBi2

Heavy fermion (HF) materials exhibit a rich array of phenomena due to the strong Kondo coupling between their localized moments and itinerant electrons. A central question in their study is to understand the interplay between magnetic order and charge transport, and its role in stabilizing new quantum phases of matter. Particularly promising in this regard is a family of tetragonal intermetallic compounds Ce{$TX$}$_2$ ($T=$ transition metal, $X=$ pnictogen), that includes a variety of HF compounds showing $T$-linear electronic specific heat $\bf{C_e \sim γT}$, with $γ\sim$ 20-500 mJ$\cdot$mol$^{-1}$~K$^{-2}$, reflecting an effective mass enhancement ranging from small to modest. Here, we study the low-temperature field-tuned phase diagram of high-quality CeAgBi$_2$ using magnetometry and transport measurements. We find an antiferromagnetic transition at ${T_{N} = 6.4}$~K with weak magnetic anisotropy and the easy axis along the $c$-axis, similar to previous reports (${T_{N} = 6.1}$~K). This scenario, along with the presence of two anisotropic Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interactions, leads to a rich field-tuned magnetic phase diagram, consisting of five metamagnetic transitions of both first and second order. In addition, we unveil an anomalous Hall contribution for fields $H<54$ kOe which is drastically altered when $H$ is tuned through a trio of transitions at 57, 78, and 84~kOe, suggesting that the Fermi surface is reconstructed in a subset of the metamagnetic transitions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Current at a distance and resonant transparency in Weyl semimetals

Surface Fermi arcs are the most prominent manifestation of the topological nature of Weyl semimetals. In the presence of a static magnetic field oriented perpendicular to the sample surface, their existence leads to unique inter-surface cyclotron orbits. We propose two experiments which directly probe the Fermi arcs: a magnetic field dependent non-local DC voltage and sharp resonances in the transmission of electromagnetic waves at frequencies controlled by the field. We show that these experiments do not rely on quantum mechanical phase coherence, which renders them far more robust and experimentally accessible than quantum effects. We also comment on the applicability of these ideas to Dirac semimetals.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Topological Crystalline Bose Insulator in Two Dimensions via Entanglement Spectrum

Strongly correlated analogues of topological insulators have been explored in systems with purely on-site symmetries, such as time-reversal or charge conservation. Here, we use recently developed tensor network tools to study a quantum state of interacting bosons which is featureless in the bulk, but distinguished from an atomic insulator in that it exhibits entanglement which is protected by its spatial symmetries. These properties are encoded in a model many-body wavefunction that describes a fully symmetric insulator of bosons on the honeycomb lattice at half filling per site. While the resulting integer unit cell filling allows the state to bypass `no-go' theorems that trigger fractionalization at fractional filling, it nevertheless has nontrivial entanglement, protected by symmetry. We demonstrate this by computing the boundary entanglement spectra, finding a gapless entanglement edge described by a conformal field theory as well as degeneracies protected by the non-trivial action of combined charge-conservation and spatial symmetries on the edge. Here, the tight-binding representation of the space group symmetries plays a particular role in allowing certain entanglement cuts that are not allowed on other lattices of the same symmetry, suggesting that the lattice representation can serve as an additional symmetry ingredient in protecting an interacting topological phase. Our results extend to a related insulating state of electrons, with short-ranged entanglement and no band insulator analogue.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Universal properties of many-body delocalization transitions

We study the dynamical melting of "hot" one-dimensional many-body localized systems. As disorder is weakened below a critical value these non-thermal quantum glasses melt via a continuous dynamical phase transition into classical thermal liquids. By accounting for collective resonant tunneling processes, we derive and numerically solve an effective model for such quantum-to-classical transitions and compute their universal critical properties. Notably, the classical thermal liquid exhibits a broad regime of anomalously slow sub-diffusive equilibration dynamics and energy transport. The subdiffusive regime is characterized by a continuously evolving dynamical critical exponent that diverges with a universal power at the transition. Our approach elucidates the universal long-distance, low-energy scaling structure of many-body delocalization transitions in one dimension, in a way that is transparently connected to the underlying microscopic physics.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2015

Order and disorder in SU(N) simplex solid antiferromagnets

We study the structure of quantum ground states of simplex solid models, which are generalizations of the valence bond construction for quantum antiferromagnets originally proposed by Affleck, Kennedy, Lieb, and Tasaki (AKLT) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 799 (1987)]. Whereas the AKLT states are created by application of bond singlet operators for SU(2) spins, the simplex solid construction is based on N-simplex singlet operators for SU(N) spins. In both cases, a discrete one-parameter family of translationally-invariant models with exactly solvable ground states is defined on any regular lattice, and the equal time ground state correlations are given by the finite temperature correlations of an associated classical model on the same lattice, owing to the product form of the wave functions when expressed in a CP^{N-1} coherent state representation. We study these classical companion models via a mix of Monte Carlo simulations, mean-field arguments, and low-temperature effective field theories. Our analysis reveals that the ground states of SU(4) edge- and SU(8) face-sharing cubic lattice simplex solid models are long range ordered for sufficiently large values of the discrete parameter, whereas the ground states of the SU(3) models on the kagome (2D) and hyperkagome (3D) lattices are always quantum disordered. The kagome simplex solid exhibits strong local order absent in its three-dimensional hyperkagome counterpart, a contrast that we rationalize with arguments similar to those leading to `order by disorder'.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Quantum criticality of hot random spin chains

We study the infinite-temperature properties of an infinite sequence of random quantum spin chains using a real-space renormalization group approach, and demonstrate that they exhibit non-ergodic behavior at strong disorder. The analysis is conveniently implemented in terms of SU(2)$_k$ anyon chains that include the Ising and Potts chains as notable examples. Highly excited eigenstates of these systems exhibit properties usually associated with quantum critical ground states, leading us to dub them "quantum critical glasses". We argue that random-bond Heisenberg chains self-thermalize and that the excited-state entanglement crosses over from volume-law to logarithmic scaling at a length scale that diverges in the Heisenberg limit $k\rightarrow\infty$. The excited state fixed points are generically distinct from their ground state counterparts, and represent novel non-equilibrium critical phases of matter.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2015

Quantum revivals and many-body localization

We show that the magnetization of a single `qubit' spin weakly coupled to an otherwise isolated disordered spin chain exhibits periodic revivals in the localized regime, and retains an imprint of its initial magnetization at infinite time. We demonstrate that the revival rate is strongly suppressed upon adding interactions after a time scale corresponding to the onset of the dephasing that distinguishes many-body localized phases from Anderson insulators. In contrast, the ergodic phase acts as a bath for the qubit, with no revivals visible on the time scales studied. The suppression of quantum revivals of local observables provides a quantitative, experimentally observable alternative to entanglement growth as a measure of the `non-ergodic but dephasing' nature of many-body localized systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Order by Disorder and by Doping in Quantum Hall Valley Ferromagnets

We examine the Si(111) multi-valley quantum Hall system and show that it exhibits an exceptionally rich interplay of broken symmetries and quantum Hall ordering already near integer fillings $ν$ in the range $ν=0-6$. This six-valley system has a large $[SU(2)]^3\rtimes D_3$ symmetry in the limit where the magnetic length is much larger than the lattice constant. We find that the discrete ${D}_3$ factor breaks over a broad range of fillings at a finite temperature transition to a discrete nematic phase. As $T \rightarrow 0$ the $[SU(2)]^3$ continuous symmetry also breaks: completely near $ν=3$, to a residual $[U(1)]^2\times SU(2)$ near $ν=2$ and $4$ and to a residual $U(1)\times [SU(2)]^2$ near $ν=1$ and $5$. Interestingly, the symmetry breaking near $ν=2,4$ and $ν=3$ involves a combination of selection by thermal fluctuations known as "order by disorder" and a selection by the energetics of Skyrme lattices induced by moving away from the commensurate fillings, a mechanism we term "order by doping". We also exhibit modestly simpler analogs in the four-valley Si(110) system.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Anomalous Fermi liquid phase in metallic Skyrmion crystals

In non-centrosymmetric crystals such as MnSi, magnetic order can take the form of a skyrmion crystal (SkX) . In this phase, conduction electrons coupled to the local magnetic moments acquire a Berry's phase, leading to an emergent electromagnetism. Motivated by experimental reports of a non-Fermi liquid phase in MnSi, in which resistivity is observed to scale as $Δρ\sim T^{3/2}$, here we examine the effect of coupling phonons of an incommensurate SkX to electrons. Despite the formal similarity to a system consisting of a Fermi surface coupled to an electromagnetic field, the Berry phase fluctuations do not lead to non-Fermi liquid behavior. Instead, we propose a different mechanism in which electrons scatter off columnar fluctuation in a three-dimensional SkX. When the effects of lattice induced anisotropy are neglected, these fluctuations are ultra-soft and induce an `anomalous Fermi liquid' in which Landau quasiparticles survive but with an anomalous $Δρ(T)\sim T^{7/4}$ resistivity perpendicular to the columns, and a Fermi liquid resistivity along them.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Probing the chiral anomaly with nonlocal transport in three dimensional topological semimetals

Weyl semimetals are three-dimensional crystalline systems where pairs of bands touch at points in momentum space, termed Weyl nodes, that are characterized by a definite topological charge: the chirality. Consequently, they exhibit the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly, which in this condensed matter realization implies that application of parallel electric ($\mathbf{E}$) and magnetic ($\mathbf{B}$) fields pumps electrons between nodes of opposite chirality at a rate proportional to $\mathbf{E}\cdot\mathbf{B}$. We argue that this pumping is measurable via nonlocal transport experiments, in the limit of weak internode scattering. Specifically, we show that as a consequence of the anomaly, applying a local magnetic field parallel to an injected current induces a valley imbalance that diffuses over long distances. A probe magnetic field can then convert this imbalance into a measurable voltage drop far from source and drain. Such nonlocal transport vanishes when the injected current and magnetic field are orthogonal, and therefore serves as a test of the chiral anomaly. We further demonstrate that a similar effect should also characterize Dirac semimetals --- recently reported to have been observed in experiments --- where a pair of Weyl nodes coexisting at a single point in the Brillouin zone are protected by a crystal symmetry. Since the nodes are analogous to valley degrees of freedom in semiconductors, this suggests that valley currents in three dimensional topological semimetals can be controlled using electric fields, which has potential practical `valleytronic' applications.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Featureless and non-fractionalized Mott insulators on the honeycomb lattice at 1/2 site filling

Within the Landau paradigm, phases of matter are distinguished by spontaneous symmetry breaking. Implicit here is the assumption that a completely symmetric state exists: a paramagnet. At zero temperature such quantum featureless insulators may be forbidden, triggering either conventional order or topological order with fractionalized excitations. Such is the case for interacting particles when the particle number per unit cell, f, is not an integer. But, can lattice symmetries forbid featureless insulators even at integer f? An especially relevant case is the honeycomb (graphene) lattice --- where free spinless fermions at f=1 (the two sites per unit cell mean f=1 is half filling per site) are always metallic. Here we present wave functions for bosons, and a related spin-singlet wave function for spinful electrons, on the f=1 honeycomb, and demonstrate via quantum to classical mappings that they do form featureless Mott insulators. The construction generalizes to symmorphic lattices at integer f in any dimension. Our results explicitly demonstrate that in this case, despite the absence of a non-interacting insulator at the same filling, lack of order at zero temperature does not imply fractionalization.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Chiral Bosonic Mott Insulator on the Frustrated Triangular Lattice

We study the superfluid and insulating phases of interacting bosons on the triangular lattice with an inverted dispersion, corresponding to frustrated hopping between sites. The resulting single-particle dispersion has multiple minima at nonzero wavevectors in momentum space, in contrast to the unique zero-wavevector minimum of the unfrustrated problem. As a consequence, the superfluid phase is unstable against developing additonal chiral order that breaks time reversal (T) and parity (P) symmetries by forming a condensate at nonzero wavevector. We demonstrate that the loss of superfluidity can lead to an even more exotic phase, the chiral Mott insulator, with nontrivial current order that breaks T, P. These results are obtained via variational estimates, as well as a combination of bosonization and DMRG of triangular ladders, which taken together permit a fairly complete characterization of the phase diagram. We discuss the relevance of these phases to optical lattice experiments, as well as signatures of chiral symmetry breaking in time-of-flight images.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Microscopic Theory of a Quantum Hall Ising Nematic: Domain Walls and Disorder

We study the the interplay between spontaneously broken valley symmetry and spatial disorder in multivalley semiconductors in the quantum Hall regime. In cases where valleys have anisotropic electron dispersion a previous long-wavelength analysis [Phys. Rev. B 82, 035428 (2010)] identified two new phases exhibiting the QHE. The first is the quantum Hall Ising nematic (QHIN), a phase with long-range orientational order manifested in macroscopic transport anisotropies. The second is the quantum Hall random-field paramagnet (QHRFPM) that emerges when the Ising ordering is disrupted by quenched disorder, characterized by a domain structure with a distinctive response to a valley symmetry-breaking strain field. Here we provide a more detailed microscopic analysis of the QHIN, which allows us to (i) estimate its Ising ordering temperature; (ii) study its domain-wall excitations, which play a central role in determining its properties; and (iii) analyze its response to quenched disorder from impurity scattering, which gives an estimate for domain size in the descendant QHRFPM. Our results are directly applicable to AlAs heterostructures, although their qualitative aspects inform other ferromagnetic QH systems, such as Si(111) heterostructures and bilayer graphene with trigonal warping.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Wannier Permanent Wave Functions and Featureless Bosonic Mott Insulators on the 1/3 filled Kagome Lattice

We study Bose-Hubbard models on tight-binding, non-Bravais lattices, with a filling of one boson per unit cell -- and thus fractional site filling. At integer filling of a unit cell neither symmetry breaking nor topological order is required, and in principle a trivial and featureless (i.e., symmetry-unbroken) insulator is allowed. We demonstrate by explicit construction of a family of wavefunctions that such a featureless Mott insulating state exists at 1/3 filling on the kagome lattice, and construct Hamiltonians for which these wavefunctions are exact ground states. We briefly comment on the experimental relevance of our results to cold atoms in optical lattices. Such wavefunctions also yield 1/3 magnetization plateau states for spin models in an applied field. The featureless Mott states we discuss can be generalized to any lattice for which symmetric exponentially localized Wannier orbitals can be found at the requisite filling, and their wavefunction is given by the permanent over all Wannier orbitals.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Fractional Quantum Hall Physics in Topological Flat Bands

We present a pedagogical review of the physics of fractional Chern insulators with a particular focus on the connection to the fractional quantum Hall effect. While the latter conventionally arises in semiconductor heterostructures at low temperatures and in high magnetic fields, interacting Chern insulators at fractional band filling may host phases with the same topological properties, but stabilized at the lattice scale, potentially leading to high-temperature topological order. We discuss the construction of topological flat band models, provide a survey of numerical results, and establish the connection between the Chern band and the continuum Landau problem. We then briefly summarize various aspects of Chern band physics that have no natural continuum analogs, before turning to a discussion of possible experimental realizations. We close with a survey of future directions and open problems, as well as a discussion of extensions of these ideas to higher dimensions and to other topological phases.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Dipolar bogolons: from superfluids to Pfaffians

We study the structure of Bogoliubov quasiparticles, 'bogolons,' the fermionic excitations of paired superfluids that arise from fermion (BCS) pairing, including neutral superfluids, superconductors, and paired quantum Hall states. The naive construction of a stationary quasiparticle in which the deformation of the pair field is neglected leads to a contradiction: it carries a net electrical current even though it does not move. However, treating the pair field self-consistently resolves this problem: In a neutral superfluid, a dipolar current pattern is associated with the quasiparticle for which the total current vanishes. When Maxwell electrodynamics is included, as appropriate to a superconductor, this pattern is confined over a penetration depth. For paired quantum Hall states of composite fermions, the Maxwell term is replaced by a Chern-Simons term, which leads to a dipolar charge distribution and consequently to a dipolar current pattern.

cond-mat.str-el↗