arXiv subjects

Siddhartha Lal

Publications and source records attributed to Siddhartha Lal.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Origin of Topological Order in a Cooper Pair Insulator

We unveil the microscopic origin of the topologically ordered counterpart of the s-wave superconductor in this work. For this, we employ the recently developed unitary renormalisation group (URG) method on a generalised model of 2D electrons attractive interactions. The effective Hamiltonian obtained at the stable low-energy fixed point of the RG flow corresponds to a gapped, insulating state of quantum matter we call the Cooper pair insulator (CPI). We show that the CPI ground state manifold displays several signatures of topological order, including a four-fold degeneracy when placed on the torus. Spectral flow arguments reveal the emergent gauge-theoretic structure of the effective Hamiltonian, as it can be written entirely in terms of non-local Wilson loops. It also contains a topological $θ$-term whose coefficient is quantised, in keeping with the requirement of invariance of the ground state under large gauge transformations. We find that the long-ranged many-particle entanglement content of the CPI ground state is driven by inter-helicity two-particle scattering processes. Analysis of the passage from CPI to BCS superconducting ground state shows the RG flow promotes fluctuations in the number of condensed Cooper pairs and lowers those in the conjugate global phase. Consequently, the distinct signatures of long-ranged entanglement in the CPI are replaced by the well-known short-ranged entanglement of the BCS state. Finally, we study the renormalisation of the entanglement in $k$-space for both the CPI and BCS ground states. The topologically ordered CPI state is shown to possess an emergent hierarchy of scales of entanglement, and that this hierarchy collapses in the BCS state. Our work offers clear evidence for the microscopic origins of topological order in this prototypical system, and lays the foundation for similar investigations in other systems of correlated electrons.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Holographic unitary renormalization group for correlated electrons -- II: insights on fermionic criticality

Capturing the interplay between electronic correlations and many-particle entanglement requires a unified framework for Hamiltonian and eigenbasis renormalization. In this work, we apply the unitary renormalization group (URG) scheme developed in a companion work (Ref.[1]) to the study of two archetypal models of stongly correlated lattice electrons, one with translation invariance and one without. We obtain detailed insight into the emergence of various gapless and gapped phases of quantum electronic matter by computing effective Hamiltonians as well as entanglement signatures through their respective tensor network descriptions. For the translationally invariant model of a single-band of interacting electrons, this includes results on gapless metallic phases such as the Fermi liquid and Marginal Fermi liquid, as well as gapped phases such as the reduced Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer, pair density-wave and Mott liquid phases. Additionally, a study of a generalised Sachdev-Ye model with disordered four-fermion interactions offers detailed results on many-body localised phases, as well as thermalised phase. We emphasise the distinctions between the various phases based on a combined analysis of their dynamical (obtained from the effective Hamiltonian) and entanglement properties. Importantly, the RG flow of the Hamiltonian vertex tensor network is shown to lead to emergent gauge theories for the gapped phases. Taken together with results on the holographic spacetime generated from the RG of the many-particle eigenstate (seen through, for instance, the holographic upper bound of the one-particle entanglement entropy), our analysis offer an ab-initio perspective of the gauge-gravity duality for quantum liquids that are emergent in systems of correlated electrons.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Holographic unitary renormalization group for correlated electrons -- I: a tensor network approach

We present a unified framework for the renormalisation of the Hamiltonian and eigenbasis of a system of correlated electrons, unveiling thereby the interplay between electronic correlations and many-particle entanglement. For this, we extend substantially the unitary renormalization group (URG) scheme introduced in Refs.\cite{anirbanmotti,anirbanmott2,mukherjee2020}. We recast the RG as a discrete flow of the Hamiltonian tensor network, i.e., the collection of various $2n$-point scattering vertex tensors comprising the Hamiltonian. The renormalisation progresses via unitary transformations that block diagonalizes the Hamiltonian iteratively via the disentanglement of single-particle eigenstates. This procedure incorporates naturally the role of quantum fluctuations. The RG flow equations possess a non-trivial structure, displaying a feedback mechanism through frequency-dependent dynamical self-energies and correlation energies. The interplay between various UV energy scales enables the coupled RG equations to flow towards a stable fixed point in the IR. The effective Hamiltonian at the IR fixed point generically has a reduced parameter space, as well as number of degrees of freedom, compared to the microscopic Hamiltonian. Importantly, the vertex tensor network is observed to govern the RG flow of the tensor network that denotes the coefficients of the many-particle eigenstates. The RG evolution of various many-particle entanglement features of the eigenbasis are, in turn, quantified through the coefficient tensor network. In this way, we show that the URG framework provides a microscopic understanding of holographic renormalisation: the RG flow of the vertex tensor network generates a eigenstate coefficient tensor network possessing a many-particle entanglement metric. We find that the eigenstate tensor network accommodates sign factors arising from fermion exchange.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Fermionic criticality is shaped by Fermi surface topology: a case study of the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid

We perform a unitary renormalization group (URG) study of the 1D fermionic Hubbard model. The formalism generates a family of effective Hamiltonians and many-body eigenstates arranged holographically across the tensor network from UV to IR. The URG is realized as a quantum circuit, leading to the entanglement holographic mapping (EHM) tensor network description. A topological $Θ$-term of the projected Hilbert space of the degrees of freedom at the Fermi surface are shown to govern the nature of RG flow towards either the gapless Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid or gapped quantum liquid phases. This results in a nonperturbative version of the Berezenskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) RG phase diagram, revealing a line of intermediate coupling stable fixed points, while the nature of RG flow around the critical point is identical to that obtained from the weak-coupling RG analysis. This coincides with a phase transition in the many-particle entanglement, as the entanglement entropy RG flow shows distinct features for the critical and gapped phases depending on the value of the topological $Θ$-term. We demonstrate the Ryu-Takyanagi entropy bound for the many-body eigenstates comprising the EHM network, concretizing the relation to the holographic duality principle. The scaling of the entropy bound also distinguishes the gapped and gapless phases, implying the generation of very different holographic spacetimes across the critical point. Finally, we treat the Fermi surface as a quantum impurity coupled to the high energy electronic states. A thought-experiment is devised in order to study entanglement entropy generated by isolating the impurity, and propose ways by which to measure it by studying the quantum noise and higher order cumulants of the full counting statistics.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Scaling theory for Mott-Hubbard transitions

We present a $T=0K$ renormalization group (RG) phase diagram for the electronic Hubbard model in two dimensions on the square lattice at, and away from, half filling. The RG procedure treats quantum fluctuations in the single particle occupation number nonperturbatively via the unitarily decoupling of one electronic state at every RG step. The resulting phase diagram thus possess the quantum fluctuation energy scale ($ω$) as one of its axes. A relation is derived between $ω$ and the effective temperature scale upto which gapless, as well as emergent gapped, phases can be obtained. We find that the transition in the half-filled Hubbard model involves, for any on-site repulsion, passage from a marginal Fermi liquid to a topologically-ordered gapped Mott liquid through a pseudogapped phase bookended by Fermi surface topology-changing Lifshitz transitions. Using effective Hamiltonians and wavefunctions for the low-energy many-body eigenstates for the doped Mott liquid obtained from the stable fixed point of the RG flow, we demonstrate the collapse of the pseudogap for charge excitations (Mottness) at a quantum critical point possessing a nodal non-Fermi liquid with superconducting fluctuations, and spin-pseudogapping near the antinodes. d-wave Superconducting order is shown to arise from this quantum critical state of matter. Benchmarking of the ground state energy per particle and the double-occupancy fraction against existing numerical results also yields excellent agreement. We present detailed insight into the $T=0$ origin of several experimentally observed findings in the cuprates, including Homes law and Planckian dissipation. Our results offer insight on the ubiquitous origin of superconductivity in doped Mott insulating states, and pave the way towards a systematic search for higher superconducting transition temperatures in such systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Non-perturbative approach to quantum liquid ground states on geometrically frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnets

We have formulated a twist operator argument for the geometrically frustrated quantum spin systems on the kagome and triangular lattices, thereby extending the application of the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) and Oshikawa-Yamanaka-Affleck (OYA) theorems to these systems. The equivalent large gauge transformation for the geometrically frustrated lattice differs from that for non-frustrated systems due to the existence of multiple sublattices in the unit cell and non-orthogonal basis vectors. Our study for the $S=1/2$ kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet at zero external magnetic field gives a criterion for the existence of a two-fold degenerate ground state with a finite excitation gap and fractionalized excitations. At finite field, we predict various plateaux at fractional magnetisation, in analogy with integer and fractional quantum Hall states of the primary sequence. These plateaux correspond to gapped quantum liquid ground states with a fixed number of singlets and spinons in the unit cell. A similar analysis for the triangular lattice predicts a single fractional magnetization plateau at $1/3$. Our results are in broad agreement with numerical and experimental studies.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Magnetisation plateaux of the quantum pyrochlore Heisenberg antiferromagnet

We predict magnetisation plateaux ground states for $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnets on pyrochlore lattices by formulating arguments based on gauge and spin-parity transformations. We derive a twist operator appropriate to the pyrochlore lattice, and show that it is equivalent to a large gauge transformation. Invariance under this large gauge transformation indicates the sensitivity of the ground state to changes in boundary conditions. This leads to the formulation of an Oshikawa-Yamanaka-Affleck (OYA)-like criterion at finite external magnetic field, enabling the prediction of plateaux in the magnetisation versus field diagram. We also develop an analysis based on the spin-parity operator, leading to a condition from which identical predictions are obtained of magnetisation plateaux ground states. Both analyses are based on the non-local nature of the transformations, and rely only on the symmetries of the Hamiltonian. This suggests that the plateaux ground states can possess properties arising from non-local entanglement between the spins. We also demonstrate that while a spin-lattice coupling stabilises plateaux in a system of quantum spins with antiferromagnetic exchange, it can compete with weak ferromagnetic spin exchange in leading to frustration-induced magnetisation plateaux.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Correlated spin liquids in the quantum kagome antiferromagnet at finite field: a renormalisation group analysis

We analyse the antiferromagnetic spin-$1/2$ XXZ model on the kagome lattice at finite external magnetic field with the help of a nonperturbative zero-temperature renormalization group (RG) technique. Following the work of Kumar \emph{et al} (Phys. Rev. B {\bf 90}, 174409 (2014)), we use a Jordan-Wigner transformation to map the spin problem into one of spinless fermions (spinons) in the presence of a statistical gauge field, and with nearest-neighbour interactions. While the work of Kumar \emph{et al} was confined mostly to the plateau at $1/3$-filling (magnetisation per site) in the XY regime, we analyse the role of inter-spinon interactions in shaping the phases around this plateau in the entire XXZ model. The RG phase diagram obtained contains three spin liquid phases whose position is determined as a function of the exchange anisotropy and the energy scale for fluctuations arising from spinon scattering. Two of these spins liquids are topologically ordered states of matter with gapped, degenerate states on the torus. The gap for one of these phases corresponds to the one-spinon band gap of the Azbel-Hofstadter spectrum for the XY part of the Hamiltonian, while the other arises from two-spinon interactions. The Heisenberg point of this problem is found to lie within the interaction gapped spin liquid phase, in broad agreement with a recent experimental finding. The third phase is an algebraic spin liquid with a gapless Dirac spectrum for spinon excitations, and possess properties that show departures from the Fermi liquid paradigm. The three phase boundaries correspond to critical theories, and meet at a $SU(2)$-symmetric multicritical point. This special critical point agrees well with the gap-closing transition point predicted by Kumar \emph{et al}. We discuss the relevance of our findings to various recent experiments, as well as results obtained from other theoretical analyses.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Orbital and spin ordering physics of the Mn$_3$O$_4$ spinel

Motivated by recent experiments, we present a comprehensive theoretical study of the geometrically frustrated strongly correlated magnetic insulator Mn$_3$O$_4$ spinel oxide based on a microscopic Hamiltonian involving lattice, spin and orbital degrees of freedom. Possessing the physics of degenerate e$_g$ orbitals, this system shows a strong Jahn-Teller effect at high temperatures. Further, careful attention is paid to the special nature of the superexchange physics arising from the 90$^o$ Mn-O-Mn bonding angle. The Jahn-Teller and superexchange-based orbital-spin Hamiltonians are then analysed in order to track the dynamics of orbital and spin ordering. We find that a high-temperature structural transition results in orbital ordering whose nature is mixed with respect to the two originally degenerate $e_{g}$ orbitals. This ordering of orbitals is shown to relieve the intrinsic geometric frustration of the spins on the spinel lattice, leading to ferrimagnetic Yafet-Kittel ordering at low-temperatures. Finally, we develop a model for a magnetoelastic coupling in Mn$_3$O$_4$, enabling a systematic understanding of the experimentally observed complexity in the low-temperature structural and magnetic phenomenology of this spinel. Our analysis predicts that a quantum fluctuation-driven orbital-spin liquid phase may be stabilised at low temperatures upon the application of pressure.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Topological transitions in Ising models

The thermal dynamics of the two-dimensional Ising model and quantum dynamics of the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model (TFIM) are mapped to one another through the transfer-matrix formalism. We show that the fermionised TFIM undergoes a Fermi-surface topology-changing Lifshitz transition at its critical point. We identify the degree of freedom which tracks the Lifshitz transition via changes in topological quantum numbers (e.g., Chern number, Berry phase etc.). An emergent $SU(2)$ symmetry at criticality is observed to lead to a topological quantum number different from that which characterises the ordered phase. The topological transition is also understood via a spectral flow thought-experiment in a Thouless charge pump, revealing the bulk-boundary correspondence across the transition. The duality property of the phases and their entanglement content are studied, revealing a holographic relation with the entanglement at criticality. The effects of a non-zero longitudinal field and interactions that scatter across the singular Fermi surface are treated within the renormalisation group (RG) formalism. The analysis reveals that the critical point of the 1D TFIM and the 1D spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain are connected via a line of $SU(2)$-symmetric theories. We extend our analysis to show that the classical to quantum correspondence links the critical theories of Ising models in various dimensions holographically through the universal effective Hamiltonian that describes the Lifshitz transition of the 1D TFIM. We obtain in this way a unified perspective of transitions in Ising models that lie beyond the traditional Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson paradigm. We discuss the consequences of our results for similar topological transitions observed in classical spin models, topological insulators, superconductors and lattice gauge-field theories which are related to the Ising universality class.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2012

Charge Fractionalization in a Mesoscopic Ring

We study the fractionalization of an electron tunneling into a strongly interacting electronic one-dimensional ring. As a complement to transport measurements in quantum wires connected to leads, we propose non-invasive measures involving the magnetic field profile around the ring to probe this fractionalization. In particular, we show that the magnetic-field squared produced by the electron and the power that it would induce in a detector exhibit anisotropic profiles that depend on the degree of fractionalization. We contrast true fractionalization with two other scenarios which could mimic it -- quantum superposition and classical probabilistic electron insertion. We show that the proposed field-dependent measures and those of the persistent current can distinguish between these three scenarios.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Transport Through Andreev Bound States in a Graphene Quantum Dot

Andreev reflection-where an electron in a normal metal backscatters off a superconductor into a hole-forms the basis of low energy transport through superconducting junctions. Andreev reflection in confined regions gives rise to discrete Andreev bound states (ABS), which can carry a supercurrent and have recently been proposed as the basis of qubits [1-3]. Although signatures of Andreev reflection and bound states in conductance have been widely reported [4], it has been difficult to directly probe individual ABS. Here, we report transport measurements of sharp, gate-tunable ABS formed in a superconductor-quantum dot (QD)-normal system, which incorporates graphene. The QD exists in the graphene under the superconducting contact, due to a work-function mismatch [5, 6]. The ABS form when the discrete QD levels are proximity coupled to the superconducting contact. Due to the low density of states of graphene and the sensitivity of the QD levels to an applied gate voltage, the ABS spectra are narrow, can be tuned to zero energy via gate voltage, and show a striking pattern in transport measurements.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Charge-Density-Wave and Superconductor Competition in Stripe Phases of High Temperature Superconductors

We discuss the problem of competition between a superconducting (SC) ordered state with a charge density wave (CDW) state in stripe phases of high $T_c$ superconductors. We consider an effective model for each stripe motivated by studies of spin-gapped electronic ladder systems. We analyze the problem of dimensional crossover arising from inter-stripe SC and CDW couplings using non-Abelian bosonization and renormalization group (RG) arguments to derive an effective $O(4)$-symmetric nonlinear $σ$-model in $D=2+1$ for the case of when both inter-stripe couplings are of equal magnitude as well as equally RG relevant. By studying the effects of various symmetry lowering perturbations, we determine the structure of the phase diagram and show that, in general, it has a broad regime in which both orders coexist. The quantum and thermal critical behavior is discussed in detail, and the phase coexistence region is found to end at associated $T=0$ as well as $T>0$ tetracritical points. The possible role of hedgehog topological excitations of the theory is considered and argued to be RG irrelevant at the spatially anisotropic higher dimensional low-energy fixed point theory. Our results are also relevant to the case of competing Néel and valence bond solid (VBS) orders in quantum magnets on 2D isotropic square as well as rectangular lattices interacting via nearest neighbor Heisenberg exchange interactions.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Two-step stabilization of orbital order and the dynamical frustration of spin in the model charge-transfer insulator KCuF3

We report a combined experimental and theoretical study of KCuF3, which offers - because of this material's relatively simple lattice structure and valence configuration (d9, i.e., one hole in the d-shell) - a particularly clear view of the essential role of the orbital degree of freedom in governing the dynamical coupling between the spin and lattice degrees of freedom. We present Raman and x-ray scattering evidence that the phase behaviour of KCuF3 is dominated above the Neel temperature (T_N = 40 K) by coupled orbital/lattice fluctuations that are likely associated with rotations of the CuF6 octahedra, and we show that these orbital fluctuations are interrupted by a static structural distortion that occurs just above T_N. A detailed model of the orbital and magnetic phases of KCuF3 reveals that these orbital fluctuations - and the related frustration of in-plane spin-order-are associated with the presence of nearly degenerate low-energy spin-orbital states that are highly susceptible to thermal fluctuations over a wide range of temperatures. A striking implication of these results is that the ground state of KCuF3 at ambient pressure lies near a quantum critical point associated with an orbital/spin liquid phase that is obscured by emergent Neel ordering of the spins; this exotic liquid phase might be accessible via pressure studies.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Approaching multichannel Kondo physics using correlated bosons: Quantum phases and how to realize them

We discuss how multichannel Kondo physics can arise in the setting of a localized level coupled to several bosonic Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid leads. We propose one physical realization involving ultracold bosonic atoms coupled to an atomic quantum dot, and a second, based on superconducting nanowires coupled to a Cooper-pair box. The corresponding zero-temperature phase diagram is determined via an interplay between Kondo-type phenomena arising from the dot and the consequences of direct inter-lead hopping, which can suppress the Kondo effect. We demonstrate that the multichannel Kondo state is stable over a wide range of parameters. We establish the existence of two nontrivial phase transitions, involving a competition between Kondo screening at the dot and strong correlations either within or between the leads (which respectively promote local number- and phase-pinning). These transitions coalesce at a self-dual multicritical point.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Transport through constricted quantum Hall edge systems: beyond the quantum point contact

Motivated by surprises in recent experimental findings, we study transport in a model of a quantum Hall edge system with a gate-voltage controlled constriction. A finite backscattered current at finite edge-bias is explained from a Landauer-Buttiker analysis as arising from the splitting of edge current caused by the difference in the filling fractions of the bulk ($ν_{1}$) and constriction ($ν_{2}$) quantum Hall fluid regions. We develop a hydrodynamic theory for bosonic edge modes inspired by this model. The constriction region splits the incident long-wavelength chiral edge density-wave excitations among the transmitting and reflecting edge states encircling it. The competition between two interedge tunneling processes taking place inside the constriction, related by a quasiparticle-quasihole (qp-qh) symmetry, is accounted for by computing the boundary theories of the system. This competition is found to determine the strong coupling configuration of the system. A separatrix of qp-qh symmetric gapless critical states is found to lie between the relevant RG flows to a metallic and an insulating configuration of the constriction system. This constitutes an interesting generalisation of the Kane-Fisher quantum impurity model. The features of the RG phase diagram are also confirmed by computing various correlators and chiral linear conductances of the system. In this way, our results find excellent agreement with many recent puzzling experimental results for the cases of $ν_{1}=1/3,~1$. We also discuss and make predictions for the case of a constriction system with $ν_{2}=5/2$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Ordering from frustration in a strongly correlated one-dimensional system

We study a one-dimensional extended Hubbard model with longer-range Coulomb interactions at quarter-filling in the strong coupling limit. We find two different charge-ordered (CO) ground states as the strength of the longer range interactions is varied. At lower energies, these CO states drive two different spin-ordered ground states. A variety of response functions computed here bear a remarkable resemblance to recent experimental observations for organic TMTSF systems, and so we propose that these systems are proximate to a QCP associated with T=0 charge order. For a ladder system relevant to $Sr_{14}Cu_{24}O_{41}$, we find in-chain CO, rung-dimer, and orbital antiferromagnetic ordered phases with varying interchain couplings and superconductivity with hole-doping. RPA studies of many chains (ladders) coupled reveal a phase diagram with the ordered phase extended to finite temperatures and a phase boundary ending at a quantum critical point (QCP). Critical quantum fluctuations at the QCP are found to enhance the transverse dispersion, leading to a dimensional crossover and a T=0 decofinement transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

From frustrated insulators to correlated anisotropic metals: charge ordering and quantum criticality in coupled chain systems

A recent study revealed the dynamics of the charge sector of a one-dimensional quarter-filled electronic system with extended Hubbard interactions to be that of an effective pseudospin transverse-field Ising model (TFIM) in the strong coupling limit. With the twin motivations of studying the co-existing charge and spin order found in strongly correlated chain systems and the effects of inter-chain couplings, we investigate the phase diagram of coupled effective (TFIM) systems. A bosonisation and RG analysis for a two-leg TFIM ladder yields a rich phase diagram showing Wigner/Peierls charge order and Neel/dimer spin order. In a broad parameter regime, the orbital antiferromagnetic phase is found to be stable. An intermediate gapless phase of finite width is found to lie in between two charge-ordered gapped phases. Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions are found to lead from the gapless phase to either of the charge-ordered phases. A detailed analysis is also carried out for the dimensional crossover physics when many such pseudospin systems are coupled to one another. Importantly, the analysis reveals the key role of critical quantum fluctuations in driving the strong dispersion in the transverse directions, as well as a T=0 deconfinement transition. Our work is potentially relevant for a unified description of a class of strongly correlated, quarter-filled chain and ladder systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗