arXiv subjects

S. Acheche

Publications and source records attributed to S. Acheche.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

A Scalable Heuristic for Molecular Docking on Neutral-Atom Quantum Processors

Molecular docking is a critical computational method in drug discovery used to predict the binding conformation and orientation of a ligand within a protein's binding site. Mapping this challenge onto a graph-based problem, specifically the Maximum Weighted Independent Set (MWIS) problem, allows it to be addressed by specialized hardware such as neutral-atom quantum processors. However, a significant bottleneck has been the size mismatch between biologically relevant molecular systems and the limited capacity of near-term quantum devices. In this work, we overcome this scaling limitation by the use of a divide-and-conquer heuristic introduced in Cazals 2025. This algorithm decomposes a single, intractable graph instance into smaller sub-problems that can be solved sequentially on a neutral-atom quantum emulator, incurring only a linear computational overhead. We benchmark this approach on 10 real-world protein-ligand complexes, including 9 from the Astex Diverse Set, with graphs ranging from 225 to 585 vertices. The quantum heuristic consistently outperforms a greedy baseline and achieves the provably optimal solution on a 540-node instance (TACE-AS). We further assess the biological relevance of the reconstructed poses via the fraction of native contacts, and benchmark the full workflow on a standard dataset of diverse protein-ligand complexes. Our work establishes a scalable blueprint for applying quantum optimization to molecular docking, while identifying concrete directions for improving both the algorithmic strategy and the underlying graph model.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Interaction and temperature effects on the magneto-optical conductivity of Weyl liquids

Negative magnetoresistance is one of the manifestations of the chiral anomaly in Weyl semimetals. The magneto-optical conductivity also shows transitions between Landau levels that are not spaced as in an ordinary electron gas. How are such topological properties modified by interactions and temperature? We answer this question by studying a lattice model of Weyl semimetals with an on-site Hubbard interaction. Such an interacting Weyl semimetal, dubbed as Weyl liquid, may be realized in Mn$_3$Sn. We solve that model with single-site dynamical mean-field theory. We find that in a Weyl liquid, quasiparticles can be characterized by a quasiparticle spectral weight $Z$, although their lifetime increases much more rapidly as frequency approaches zero than in an ordinary Fermi liquid. The negative magnetoresistance still exists, even though the slope of the linear dependence of the DC conductivity with respect to the magnetic filed is decreased by the interaction. At elevated temperatures, a Weyl liquid crossesover to bad metallic behavior where the Drude peak becomes flat and featureless.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Orbital magnetization and anomalous Hall effect in interacting Weyl semimetals

Ferromagnetic Weyl semi-metals exhibit an anomalous Hall effect, a consequence of their topological properties. In the non-interacting case, the derivative of the orbital magnetization with respect to chemical potential is proportional to this anomalous Hall effect, the Str$\check{\text{e}}$da formula. Motivated by compounds such as $\text{Mn}_3\text{Sn}$, here we investigate how interactions modeled by a Hubbard $U$ impact on both quantities when the Fermi energy is either aligned with the Weyl nodes or away from them. Within Dynamical Mean-Field Theory, we find, in the Weyl semimetal regime, away from interaction-induced Mott or band-insulating phases, that interactions lead not only to spectral weight redistribution between coherent bands and Hubbard bands, but also to an increase in the imbalance between the densities of spin species. This increased imbalance leads to a larger anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnetic Weyl semimetals. But this interaction-induced spin imbalance also compensates the reduction in orbital magnetization of each spin species that comes from smaller quasiparticle weight. The combined effects lead to an orbital magnetization that depends weakly on interaction strength and changes linearly upon doping at small doping. The Str$\check{\text{e}}$da formula is no-longer satisfied. Away from the insulating phases, the quasiparticle picture and low-order perturbation theory go a long way to explain these results.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Temperature dependence of NMR Knight shift in pnictides: proximity to a van Hove singularity

The unconventional temperature variation of the Knight shift (static spin susceptibility) that has been observed in Fe-based superconductors AFe$_2$As$_2$ (A = K, Rb, Cs) is explained in terms of proximity to a van Hove singularity. Using the Hubbard model we show that when the Fermi energy is in the vicinity of a van Hove singularity, a downturn in spin susceptibility occurs as the temperature is lowered. This behavior is characterized by a temperature, $T^*$, which is determined by the difference in energy between the Fermi level and the van Hove singularity. When vertex corrections are taken into account in a dynamical mean-field approximation, the effect of correlations amplifies the relative drop in the Knight shift and moves $T^*$ to lower temperatures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Orbital Effect of the Magnetic Field in Dynamical Mean-Field Theory

The availability of large magnetic fields at international facilities and of simulated magnetic fields that can reach the flux-quantum-per-unit-area level in cold atoms, calls for systematic studies of orbital effects of the magnetic field on the self-energy of interacting systems. Here we demonstrate theoretically that orbital effects of magnetic fields can be treated within single-site dynamical mean-field theory with a translationally invariant quantum impurity problem. As an example, we study the one-band Hubbard model on the square lattice using iterated perturbation theory as an impurity solver. We recover the expected quantum oscillations in the scattering rate and we show that the magnetic fields allow the interaction-induced effective mass to be measured through the single-particle density of states accessible in tunneling experiments. The orbital effect of magnetic fields on scattering becomes particularly important in the Hofstadter butterfly regime.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Mott transition and magnetism on the anisotropic triangular lattice

Spin-liquid behavior was recently suggested experimentally in the moderately one-dimensional organic compound $κ$-H$_3$(Cat-EDT-TTF)$_2$. This compound can be modeled by the one-band Hubbard model on the anisotropic triangular lattice with $t^\prime/t \simeq 1.5$, where $t'$ is the minority hopping. It thus becomes important to extend previous studies, that were performed in the range $0 \leq t'/t \leq 1.2$, to find out whether there is a regime where Mott insulating behavior can be found without long-range magnetic order. To this end, we study the above model in the range $1.2 \leq t'/t \leq 2$ using cluster dynamical mean-field theory (CDMFT). We argue that it is important to choose a symmetry-preserving cluster rather than a quasi one-dimensional cluster. We find that, upon increasing $t'/t$ beyond $t^\prime/t \approx 1.3$, the Mott transition at zero-temperature is replaced by a first-order transition separating a metallic state from a collinear magnetic insulating state. Nevertheless, at the physically relevant value $t^\prime/t \simeq 1.5$, the transitions toward the magnetic and the Mott insulating phases are very close. The phase diagram obtained in this study can provide a working basis for moderately one-dimensional compounds on the anisotropic triangular lattice.

cond-mat.str-el↗