arXiv subjects

S. L. Sondhi

Publications and source records attributed to S. L. Sondhi.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

The chiral SYK model

We study the generalization of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model to a $1+1$ dimensional chiral SYK model of $N$ flavors of right-moving chiral Majorana fermions with all-to-all random 4-fermion interactions. The interactions in this model are exactly marginal, leading to an exact scaling symmetry. We show the Schwinger-Dyson equation of this model in the large $N$ limit is exactly solvable. In addition, we show this model is integrable for small $N\le6$ by bosonization. Surprisingly, the two point function in the large $N$ limit has exactly the same form as that for $N=4$, although the four point functions of the two cases are quite different. The ground state entropy in the large $N$ limit is the same as that of $N$ free chiral Majorana fermions, leading to a zero ground state entropy density. The OTOC of the model in the large $N$ limit exhibits a non-trivial spacetime structure reminscent of that found by Gu and Kitaev for generic SYK-like models. Specifically we find a Lyapunov regime inside an asymmetric butterfly cone, which are signatures of quantum chaos, and that the maximal velocity dependent Lyapunov exponent approaches the chaos bound $2π/β$ as the interaction strength approaches its physical upper bound. Finally, the model is integrable for (at least) $N\le6$ but chaotic in the large $N$ limit, leading us to conjecture that there is a transition from integrability to chaos as $N$ increases past a critical value.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

Hydrodynamics of quantum spin liquids

Quantum spin liquids are topological states of matter that arise in frustrated quantum magnets at low temperatures. At low energies, such states exhibit emergent gauge fields and fractionalized quasiparticles and can also possess enhanced global symmetries compared to their parent microscopic Hamiltonians. We study the consequences of this emergent gauge and symmetry structure for the hydrodynamics of quantum spin liquids. Specifically, we analyze two cases, the $U(1)$ spin liquid with a Fermi surface and the $SU(4)$-symmetric "algebraic" spin liquid. We show that the emergent degrees of freedom in the spin liquid phase lead to a variety of additional hydrodynamic modes compared to the high-temperature paramagnetic phase. We identify a hydrodynamic regime for the internal $U(1)$ gauge field common to both states, characterized by slow diffusion of the internal transverse photon.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Theory of competing excitonic orders in insulating WTe$_2$ monolayers

We develop a theory of the excitonic phase recently proposed as the zero-field insulating state observed near charge neutrality in monolayer WTe$_2$. Using a Hartree-Fock approximation, we numerically identify two distinct gapped excitonic phases: a spin density wave state for weak non-zero interaction strength and spin spiral order at stronger interactions, separated by a narrow window of non-excitonic quantum spin Hall insulator. We introduce a simplified model capturing key features of the WTe$_2$ band structure, in which these phases appear as distinct valley ferromagnetic orders. We link the competition between the excitonic phases to the orbital structure of electronic wavefunctions at the Fermi surface and hence its proximity to the underlying gapped Dirac point in WTe$_2$. We briefly discuss collective modes of the two excitonic states, and comment on implications for experiments.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Many-body physics in the NISQ era: quantum programming a discrete time crystal

Recent progress in the realm of noisy, intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) devices represents an exciting opportunity for many-body physics, by introducing new laboratory platforms with unprecedented control and measurement capabilities. We explore the implications of NISQ platforms for many-body physics in a practical sense: we ask which {\it physical phenomena}, in the domain of quantum statistical mechanics, they may realize more readily than traditional experimental platforms. As a particularly well-suited target, we identify discrete time crystals (DTCs), novel non-equilibrium states of matter that break time translation symmetry. These can only be realized in the intrinsically out-of-equilibrium setting of periodically driven quantum systems stabilized by disorder induced many-body localization. While precursors of the DTC have been observed across a variety of experimental platforms - ranging from trapped ions to nitrogen vacancy centers to NMR crystals - none have \emph{all} the necessary ingredients for realizing a fully-fledged incarnation of this phase, and for detecting its signature long-range \emph{spatiotemporal order}. We show that a new generation of quantum simulators can be programmed to realize the DTC phase and to experimentally detect its dynamical properties, a task requiring extensive capabilities for programmability, initialization and read-out. Specifically, the architecture of Google's Sycamore processor is a remarkably close match for the task at hand. We also discuss the effects of environmental decoherence, and how they can be distinguished from `internal' decoherence coming from closed-system thermalization dynamics. Already with existing technology and noise levels, we find that DTC spatiotemporal order would be observable over hundreds of periods, with parametric improvements to come as the hardware advances.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2021

A comment on "Discrete time crystals: rigidity, criticality, and realizations"

The Letter by N. Y. Yao et. al. [1,2] presents three models for realizing a many-body localized discrete time-crystal (MBL DTC): a short-ranged model [1], its revised version [2], as well as a long-range model of a trapped ion experiment [1,3]. We show that none of these realize an MBL DTC for the parameter ranges quoted in Refs. [1,2]. The central phase diagrams in [1] therefore cannot be reproduced. The models show rapid decay of oscillations from generic initial states, in sharp contrast to the robust period doubling dynamics characteristic of an MBL DTC. Long-lived oscillations from special initial states (such as polarized states) can be understood from the familiar low-temperature physics of a static transverse field Ising model, rather than the nonequilibrium physics of an eigenstate-ordered MBL DTC. Our results on the long-range model also demonstrate, by extension, the absence of an MBL DTC in the trapped ion experiment of Ref. [3].

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2021

Digital Herd Immunity and COVID-19

A population can be immune to epidemics even if not all of its individual members are immune to the disease, so long as sufficiently many are immune - this is the traditional notion of herd immunity. In the smartphone era a population can be immune to epidemics even if not a single one of its members is immune to the disease - a notion we call "digital herd immunity", which is similarly an emergent characteristic of the population. This immunity arises because contact-tracing protocols based on smartphone capabilities can lead to highly efficient quarantining of infected population members and thus the extinguishing of nascent epidemics. When the disease characteristics are favorable and smartphone usage is high enough, the population is in this immune phase. As usage decreases there is a novel "contact-tracing phase transition" to an epidemic phase. We present and study a simple branching-process model for COVID-19 and show that digital immunity is possible regardless of the proportion of non-symptomatic transmission.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2021

How smooth is quantum complexity?

The "quantum complexity" of a unitary operator measures the difficulty of its construction from a set of elementary quantum gates. While the notion of quantum complexity was first introduced as a quantum generalization of the classical computational complexity, it has since been argued to hold a fundamental significance in its own right, as a physical quantity analogous to the thermodynamic entropy. In this paper, we present a unified perspective on various notions of quantum complexity, viewed as functions on the space of unitary operators. One striking feature of these functions is that they can exhibit non-smooth and even fractal behaviour. We use ideas from Diophantine approximation theory and sub-Riemannian geometry to rigorously quantify this lack of smoothness. Implications for the physical meaning of quantum complexity are discussed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Quantum oscillations in the zeroth Landau Level and the serpentine Landau fan

We identify an unusual mechanism for quantum oscillations in nodal semimetals, driven by a single pair of Landau levels periodically closing their gap at the Fermi energy as a magnetic field is varied. These `zero Landau level' quantum oscillations (ZQOs) appear in the nodal limit where the zero-field Fermi volume vanishes, and have distinctive periodicity and temperature dependence. We link the Landau spectrum of a two-dimensional (2D) nodal semimetal to the Rabi model, and show by exact solution that across the entire Landau fan, pairs of opposite-parity Landau levels are intertwined in a `serpentine' manner. We propose 2D surfaces of topological crystalline insulators as natural settings for ZQOs, and comment on implications for anomaly physics in 3D nodal semimetals.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

From hard spheres to hard-core spins

A system of hard spheres exhibits physics that is controlled only by their density. This comes about because the interaction energy is either infinite or zero, so all allowed configurations have exactly the same energy. The low density phase is liquid, while the high density phase is crystalline, an example of "order by disorder" as it is driven purely by entropic considerations. Here we study a family of hard spin models, which we call hardcore spin models, where we replace the translational degrees of freedom of hard spheres with the orientational degrees of freedom of lattice spins. Their hardcore interaction serves analogously to divide configurations of the many spin system into allowed and disallowed sectors. We present detailed results on the square lattice in $d=2$ for a set of models with $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry, which generalize Potts models, and their $U(1)$ limits, for ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic senses of the interaction, which we refer to as exclusion and inclusion models. As the exclusion/inclusion angles are varied, we find a Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition between a disordered phase and an ordered phase with quasi-long-ranged order, which is the form order by disorder takes in these systems. These results follow from a set of height representations, an ergodic cluster algorithm, and transfer matrix calculations.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2021

Ergodic and non-ergodic many-body dynamics in strongly nonlinear lattices

The study of non-linear oscillator chains in classical many-body dynamics has a storied history going back to the seminal work of Fermi, Pasta, Ulam and Tsingou (FPUT). We introduce a new family of such systems which consist of chains of $N$ harmonically coupled particles with the non-linearity introduced by confining the motion of each individual particle to a box/stadium with hard walls. The stadia are arranged on a one dimensional lattice but they individually do not have to be one dimensional thus permitting the introduction of chaos already at the lattice scale. For the most part we study the case where the motion is entirely one dimensional. We find that the system exhibits a mixed phase space for any finite value of $N$. Computations of Lyapunov spectra at randomly picked phase space locations and a direct comparison between Hamiltonian evolution and phase space averages indicate that the regular regions of phase space are not significant at large system sizes. While the continuum limit of our model is itself a singular limit of the integrable sinh-Gordon theory, we do not see any evidence for the kind of non-ergodicity famously seen in the FPUT work. Finally, we examine the chain with particles confined to two dimensional stadia where the individual stadium is already chaotic, and find a much more chaotic phase space at small system sizes.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2021

Recursive contact tracing in Reed-Frost epidemic models

We introduce a Reed-Frost epidemic model with recursive contact tracing and asymptomatic transmission. This generalizes the branching-process model introduced by the authors in a previous work [arxiv:2004.07237] to finite populations and general contact networks. We simulate the model numerically for two representative examples, the complete graph and the square lattice. On both networks, we observe clear signatures of a contact-tracing phase transition from an "epidemic phase" to an "immune phase" as contact-network coverage is increased. We verify that away from the singular line of perfect tracing, the finite-size scaling of the contact-tracing phase transition on each network lies in the corresponding percolation universality class. Finally, we use the model to quantify the efficacy of recursive contact-tracing in regimes where epidemic spread is not contained.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Prethermalization without temperature

While a clean driven system generically absorbs energy until it reaches `infinite temperature', it may do so very slowly exhibiting what is known as a prethermal regime. Here, we show that the emergence of an additional approximately conserved quantity in a periodically driven (Floquet) system can give rise to an analogous long-lived regime. This can allow for non-trivial dynamics, even from initial states that are at a high or infinite temperature with respect to an effective Hamiltonian governing the prethermal dynamics. We present concrete settings with such a prethermal regime, one with a period-doubled (time-crystalline) response. We also present a direct diagnostic to distinguish this prethermal phenomenon from its infinitely long-lived many-body localised cousin. We apply these insights to a model of the recent NMR experiments by Rovny et al., [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 180603 (2018)] which, intriguingly, detected signatures of a Floquet time crystal in a clean three-dimensional material. We show that a mild but subtle variation of their driving protocol can increase the lifetime of the time-crystalline signal by orders of magnitude.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2020

Visualizing Quasiparticles from Quantum Entanglement for general 1D phases

In this work, we present a quantum information framework for the entanglement behavior of the low energy quasiparticle (QP) excitations in various quantum phases in one-dimensional (1D) systems. We first establish an exact correspondence between the correlation matrix and the QP entanglement Hamiltonian for free fermions and find an extended in-gap state in the QP entanglement Hamiltonian as a consequence of the position uncertainty of the QP. A more general understanding of such an in-gap state can be extended to a Kramers theorem for the QP entanglement Hamiltonian, which also applies to strongly interacting systems. Further, we present a set of ubiquitous entanglement spectrum features, dubbed entanglement fragmentation, conditional mutual information, and measurement induced non-local entanglement for QPs in 1D symmetry protected topological phases. Our result thus provides a new framework to identify different phases of matter in terms of their QP entanglement.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Distinct Critical Behaviors from the Same State in Quantum Spin and Population Dynamics Perspectives

There is a deep connection between the ground states of transverse-field spin systems and the late-time distributions of evolving viral populations -- within simple models, both are obtained from the principal eigenvector of the same matrix. However, that vector is the wavefunction amplitude in the quantum spin model, whereas it is the probability itself in the population model. We show that this seemingly minor difference has significant consequences: phase transitions which are discontinuous in the spin system become continuous when viewed through the population perspective, and transitions which are continuous become governed by new critical exponents. We introduce a more general class of models which encompasses both cases, and that can be solved exactly in a mean-field limit. Numerical results are also presented for a number of one-dimensional chains with power-law interactions. We see that well-worn spin models of quantum statistical mechanics can contain unexpected new physics and insights when treated as population-dynamical models and beyond, motivating further studies.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Observing Quasiparticles through the Entanglement Lens

The low energy physics of interacting quantum systems is typically understood through the identification of the relevant quasiparticles or low energy excitations and their quantum numbers. We present a quantum information framework that goes beyond this to examine the nature of the entanglement in the corresponding quantum states. We argue that the salient features of the quasiparticles, including their quantum numbers, locality and fractionalization are reflected in the entanglement spectrum and in the mutual information. We illustrate these ideas in the specific context of the $d=1$ transverse field Ising model with an integrability breaking perturbation.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Floating topological phases

While quasi-two-dimensional (layered) materials can be highly anisotropic, their asymptotic long-distance behavior generally reflects the properties of a fully three dimensional phase of matter. However, certain topologically ordered quantum phases with an emergent 2+1 dimensional gauge symmetry can be asymptotically impervious to interplane couplings. We discuss the stability of such "floating topological phases", as well as their diagnosis by means of a non-local order parameter. Such a phase can produce a divergent ratio $ρ_{\perp}/ρ_{\parallel}$ of the inter-layer to intra-layer resistivity as $T\to 0$, even in an insulator where both $ρ_{\perp}$ and $ρ_\parallel$ individually diverge. Experimental observation of such a divergence would constitute proof of the existence of a topological (e.g. spin liquid) phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Floquet prethermalization in a Bose-Hubbard system

Periodic driving has emerged as a powerful tool in the quest to engineer new and exotic quantum phases. While driven many-body systems are generically expected to absorb energy indefinitely and reach an infinite-temperature state, the rate of heating can be exponentially suppressed when the drive frequency is large compared to the local energy scales of the system -- leading to long-lived 'prethermal' regimes. In this work, we experimentally study a bosonic cloud of ultracold atoms in a driven optical lattice and identify such a prethermal regime in the Bose-Hubbard model. By measuring the energy absorption of the cloud as the driving frequency is increased, we observe an exponential-in-frequency reduction of the heating rate persisting over more than 2 orders of magnitude. The tunability of the lattice potentials allows us to explore one- and two-dimensional systems in a range of different interacting regimes. Alongside the exponential decrease, the dependence of the heating rate on the frequency displays features characteristic of the phase diagram of the Bose-Hubbard model, whose understanding is additionally supported by numerical simulations in one dimension. Our results show experimental evidence of the phenomenon of Floquet prethermalization, and provide insight into the characterization of heating for driven bosonic systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Studying viral populations with tools from quantum spin chains

We study Eigen's model of quasi-species, characterized by sequences that replicate with a specified fitness and mutate independently at single sites. The evolution of the population vector in time is then closely related to that of quantum spins in imaginary time. We employ multiple perspectives and tools from interacting quantum systems to examine growth and collapse of realistic viral populations, specifically certain HIV proteins. All approaches used, including the simplest perturbation theory, give consistent results.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗