arXiv subjects

Zheng-Cheng Gu

Publications and source records attributed to Zheng-Cheng Gu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Tensor network study of the spin-1/2 square-lattice $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ model: incommensurate spiral order, mixed valence-bond solids, and multicritical points

We use the finite projected entangled pair state (PEPS) method to investigate the global phase diagram of the spin-1/2 square-lattice $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ antiferromagnetic (AFM) Heisenberg model. The ground state phase diagram is established with a rich variety of phases: AFM, gapless quantum spin liquid, valence-bond solid (VBS), stripe, and incommensurate spiral phases. The nature of the VBS region is revealed, containing a plaquette VBS and a mixed columnar-plaquette VBS, with the emergence of short-range incommensurate spin correlations in some region. The long-range incommensurate magnetic phase is also explicitly characterized as a planar spiral with incommensurate spatial periodicities. Most interestingly, there exists several multicritical points connecting different phases. These findings elucidate the true nature of the long-standing square-lattice $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ antiferromagnet at zero-temperature. Our results also pave the way to accurately simulate complex two-dimensional quantum systems that may host nonuniform features by means of finite PEPS.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Global phase diagram of doped quantum spin liquid on the Kagome lattice

It has long been believed that doped quantum spin liquids (QSLs) can give rise to fascinating quantum phases, including the possibility of high-temperature superconductivity (SC) as proposed by P. W. Anderson's resonating valence bond (RVB) scenario. The Kagome lattice $t$-$J$ model is known to exhibit spin liquid behavior at half-filling, making it an ideal system for studying the properties of doped QSL. In this study, we employ the fermionic projected entangled simplex state (PESS) method to investigate the ground state properties of the Kagome lattice $t$-$J$ model with $t/J = 3.0$. Our results reveal a phase transition from charge density wave (CDW) states to uniform states around a critical doping level $δ_c \approx 0.27$. Within the CDW phase, we observe different types of Wigner crystal (WC) formulated by doped holes that are energetically favored. As we enter the uniform phase, a non-Fermi liquid (NFL) state emerges within the doping range $0.27 < δ< 0.32$, characterized by an exponential decay of all correlation functions. With further hole doping, we discover the appearance of a pair density wave (PDW) state within a narrow doping region $0.32 < δ< 1/3$. We also discuss the potential experimental implications of our findings.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Stacking Group Structure of Fermionic Symmetry-Protected Topological Phases

In the past decade, there has been a systematic investigation of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases in interacting fermion systems. Specifically, by utilizing the concept of equivalence classes of finite-depth fermionic symmetric local unitary (FSLU) transformations and the fluctuating decorated symmetry domain wall picture, a large class of fixed-point wave functions have been constructed for fermionic SPT (FSPT) phases. Remarkably, this construction coincides with the Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence, enabling a complete classification of FSPT phases. However, unlike bosonic SPT phases, the stacking group structure in fermion systems proves to be much more intricate. The construction of fixed-point wave functions does not explicitly provide this information. In this paper, we employ FSLU transformations to investigate the stacking group structure of FSPT phases. Specifically, we demonstrate how to compute stacking FSPT data from the input FSPT data in each layer, considering both unitary and anti-unitary symmetry, up to 2+1 dimensions. As concrete examples, we explicitly compute the stacking group structure for crystalline FSPT phases in all 17 wallpaper groups and the mixture of wallpaper groups with onsite time-reversal symmetry using the fermionic crystalline equivalence principle. Importantly, our approach can be readily extended to higher dimensions, offering a versatile method for exploring the stacking group structure of FSPT phases.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Non-Abelian Three-Loop Braiding Statistics for 3D Fermionic Topological Phases

Fractional statistics is one of the most intriguing features of topological phases in 2D. In particular, the so-called non-Abelian statistics plays a crucial role towards realizing universal topological quantum computation. Recently, the study of topological phases has been extended to 3D and it has been proposed that loop-like extensive objects can also carry fractional statistics. In this work, we systematically study the so-called three-loop braiding statistics for loop-like excitations for 3D fermionic topological phases. Most surprisingly, we discovered new types of non-Abelian three-loop braiding statistics that can only be realized in fermionic systems (or equivalently bosonic systems with fermionic particles). The simplest example of such non-Abelian braiding statistics can be realized in interacting fermionic systems with a gauge group $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_8$ or $\mathbb{Z}_4 \times \mathbb{Z}_4$, and the physical origin of non-Abelian statistics can be viewed as attaching an open Majorana chain onto a pair of linked loops, which will naturally reduce to the well known Ising non-Abelian statistics via the standard dimension reduction scheme. Moreover, due to the correspondence between gauge theories with fermionic particles and classifying fermionic symmetry-protected topological (FSPT) phases with unitary symmetries, our study also give rise to an alternative way to classify FSPT phases with unitary symmetries. We further compare the classification results for FSPT phases with arbitrary Abelian total symmetry $G^f$ and find systematical agreement with previous studies using other methods. We believe that the proposed framework of understanding three-loop braiding statistics (including both Abelian and non-Abelian cases) in interacting fermion systems applies for generic fermonic topological phases in 3D.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Tensor network renormalization: application to dynamic correlation functions and non-hermitian systems

In recent years, tensor network renormalization (TNR) has emerged as an efficient and accurate method for studying (1+1)D quantum systems or 2D classical systems using real-space renormalization group (RG) techniques. One notable application of TNR is its ability to extract central charge and conformal scaling dimensions for critical systems. In this paper, we present the implementation of the Loop-TNR algorithm, which allows for the computation of dynamical correlation functions. Our algorithm goes beyond traditional approaches by not only calculating correlations in the spatial direction, where the separation is an integer, but also in the temporal direction, where the time difference can contain decimal values. Our algorithm is designed to handle both imaginary-time and real-time correlations, utilizing a tensor network representation constructed from a path-integral formalism. Additionally, we highlight that the Loop-TNR algorithm can also be applied to investigate critical properties of non-Hermitian systems, an area that was previously inaccessible using density matrix renormalization group(DMRG) and matrix product state(MPS) based algorithms.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Emergent Symmetry in Quantum Phase Transitions: From Deconfined Quantum Critical Point to Gapless Quantum Spin Liquid

The emergence of exotic quantum phenomena in frustrated magnets is rapidly driving the development of quantum many-body physics, raising fundamental questions on the nature of quantum phase transitions. Here we unveil the behaviour of emergent symmetry involving two extraordinarily representative phenomena, i.e., the deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) and the quantum spin liquid (QSL) state. Via large-scale tensor network simulations, we study a spatially anisotropic spin-1/2 square-lattice frustrated antiferromagnetic (AFM) model, namely the $J_{1x}$-$J_{1y}$-$J_2$ model, which contains anisotropic nearest-neighbor couplings $J_{1x}$, $J_{1y}$ and the next nearest neighbor coupling $J_2$. For small $J_{1y}/J_{1x}$, by tuning $J_2$, a direct continuous transition between the AFM and valence bond solid phase is observed.(Of course, the possibility of weakly first order transition can not be fully excluded.) With growing $J_{1y}/J_{1x}$, a gapless QSL phase gradually emerges between the AFM and VBS phases. We observe an emergent O(4) symmetry along the AFM--VBS transition line, which is consistent with the prediction of DQCP theory. Most surprisingly, we find that such an emergent O(4) symmetry holds for the whole QSL--VBS transition line as well. These findings reveal the intrinsic relationship between the QSL and DQCP from categorical symmetry point of view, and strongly constrain the quantum field theory description of the QSL phase. The phase diagram and critical exponents presented in this paper are of direct relevance to future experiments on frustrated magnets and cold atom systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Intrinsically Interacting Higher-Order Topological Superconductors

We propose a minimal interacting lattice model for two-dimensional class-$D$ higher-order topological superconductors with no free-fermion counterpart. A Lieb-Schultz-Mattis-type constraint is proposed and applied to guide our lattice model construction. Our model exhibits a trivial product ground state in the weakly interacting regime, whereas, increasing electron interactions provoke a novel topological quantum phase transition to a $D_4$-symmetric higher-order topological superconducting state. The symmetry-protected Majorana corner modes are numerically confirmed with the matrix-product-state technique. Our theory paves the way for studying interacting higher-order topology with explicit lattice model constructions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Competing orders in the honeycomb lattice $t$-$J$ model

We study the honeycomb lattice $t$-$J$ model using the fermionic tensor network approach. By examining the ansatz with various unit cells, we discover several different stripe states with different periods that compete strongly with uniform states. At very small doping $δ< 0.05$, we find almost degenerate uniform $d$-wave superconducting ground states coexisting with antiferromagnetic order. While at larger doping $δ> 0.05$, the ground state is an approximately half-filled stripe-ordered state, where the stripe period decreases with increasing hole doping $δ$. Furthermore, the stripe states with the lowest variational energy always display $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave pairing symmetry. The similarity between our results and those on the square lattice contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of doped Mott insulators.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Real-space construction of crystalline topological superconductors and insulators in 2D interacting fermionic systems

The construction and classification of crystalline symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases in interacting bosonic and fermionic systems have been intensively studied in the past few years. Crystalline SPT phases are not only of conceptual importance, but also provide great opportunities towards experimental realization since space group symmetries naturally exist for any realistic material. In this paper, we systematically classify the crystalline topological superconductors (TSC) and topological insulators (TI) in 2D interacting fermionic systems by using an explicit real-space construction. In particular, we discover an intriguing fermionic crystalline topological superconductor that can only be realized in interacting fermionic systems (i.e., not in free-fermion or bosonic SPT systems). Moreover, we also verify the recently conjectured crystalline equivalence principle for generic 2D interacting fermionic systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Spin-charge separation and unconventional superconductivity in \textit{t}-\textit{J} model on honeycomb lattice

The physical nature of doped Mott-insulator has been intensively studied for more than three decades. It is well known that the single band Hubbard model or $t$-$J$ model on the bipartite lattice is the simplest model to describe a doped Mott insulator. Unfortunately, the key mechanism of superconductivity in these toy models is still under debate. In this paper, we propose a new mechanism for the $d+id$-wave superconductivity (SC) that occurs in the small-doping region of the honeycomb lattice $t$-$J$ model based on the Grassmann tensor product state numerical simulation and spin-charge separation formulation. Moreover, in the presence of anti-ferromagnetic order, a continuum effective field theory for holons is developed near half-filling. It reveals the competition between repulsive and attractive holon interactions induced by spinon fluctuations and gauge fluctuations, respectively. At a large value of $t/J$, the repulsive interaction dominates, leading to the non-Fermi liquid like behavior; while in a moderate range of $t/J$, the attractive interaction dominates, leading to the SC order. Possible experimental detection of spin-charge separation phenomena is also discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Chiral SO(4) spin-valley density wave and degenerate topological superconductivity in magic-angle-twisted bilayer-graphene

Starting from a realistic extended Hubbard model for a $p_{x,y}$-orbital tight-binding model on the Honeycomb lattice, we perform a thorough investigation on the possible electron instabilities in the MA-TBG near the van Hove (VH) dopings. Here we focus on the interplay between the approximate SU(2)$\times$SU(2) symmetry and the $D_3$ symmetry, which leads to intriguing quantum states relevant to recent experiments, as revealed by our systematic RPA based calculations followed by a succeeding mean-field energy minimization for the ground state energy. At the SU(2)$\times$SU(2) symmetric point, the degenerate inter-valley SDW and VDW are mixed into a new state of matter dubbed as the chiral SO(4) spin-valley DW. This state simultaneously hosts three 4-component vectorial spin-valley DW orders with each adopting one wave vector, and the polarization directions of the three DW orders are mutually perpendicular to one another. %in the $\mathbb{R}^4$ space. In the presence of a tiny inter-valley exchange interaction with coefficient $J_H\to 0^{-}$ which breaks the SU(2)$\times$SU(2) symmetry, a pure chiral SDW state is obtained. In the case of $J_H\to 0^{+}$, a nematic VDW+SDW state emerges which possesses a stripy distribution of the charge density, consistent with the recent STM observations. On the aspect of SC, while the triplet $p+ip$ and singlet $d+id$ topological SCs are degenerate at $J_H=0$ near the VH dopings, the former (latter) is favored for $J_H\to 0^{-}$ ($J_H\to 0^{+}$). In addition, the two asymmetric doping-dependent behaviors of the obtained pairing phase diagram are well consistent with experiments.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Enforced symmetry breaking by invertible topological order

It is well known that two-dimensional fermionic systems with a nonzero Chern number must break the time reversal symmetry, manifested by the appearance of chiral edge modes on an open boundary. Such an incompatibility between topology and symmetry can occur more generally. We will refer to this phenomenon as enforced symmetry breaking by topological orders. In this work, we systematically study enforced breaking of a general finite group $G_f$ by a class of topological orders, namely 0D, 1D and 2D fermionic invertible topological orders. Mathematically, the symmetry group $G_f$ is a central extension of a bosonic group $G$ by the fermion parity group $Z_2^f$, characterized by a 2-cocycle $λ$ $\in H^2(G,Z_2)$. With some minor assumptions and for given $G$ and $λ$, we are able to obtain a series of criteria on the existence or non-existence of enforced symmetry breaking by the fermionic invertible topological orders. Using these criteria, we discover many examples that are not known previously. For 2D systems, we define the physical quantities to describe symmetry-enriched invertible topological orders and derive some obstruction functions using both fermionic and bosonic languages. In the latter case which is done via gauging the fermion parity, we find that some obstruction functions are consequences of conditional anomalies of the bosonic symmetry-enriched topological states, with the conditions inherited from the original fermionic system. We also study enforced breaking of the continuous group $SU_f(N)$ by 2D invertible topological orders through a different argument.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Exactly solvable lattice models for interacting electronic insulators in two dimensions

In the past decade, tremendous efforts have been made towards understanding fermionic symmetry protected topological (FSPT) phases in interacting systems. Nevertheless, for systems with continuum symmetry, e.g., electronic insulators, it is still unclear how to construct an exactly solvable model with a finite dimensional Hilbert space in general. In this paper, we give a lattice model construction and classification for 2D interacting electronic insulators. Based on the physical picture of $\mathrm{U(1)}_f$-charge decorations, we illustrate the key idea by considering the well known 2D interacting topological insulator. Then we generalize our construction to an arbitrary 2D interacting electronic insulator with symmetry $G_f=\mathrm{U(1)}_f \rtimes_{ρ_1,ω_2} G$, where $\mathrm{U(1)}_f$ is the charge conservation symmetry and $ρ_1, ω_2$ are additional data which fully characterize the group structure of $G_f$. Finally we study more examples, including the full interacting classification of 2D crystalline topological insulators.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Computing classification of interacting fermionic symmetry-protected topological phases using topological invariants

In recent years, great success has been achieved on the classification of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases for interacting fermion systems by using generalized cohomology theory. However, the explicit calculation of generalized cohomology theory is extremely hard due to the difficulty of computing obstruction functions. In this paper, based on the physical picture of topological invariants and mathematical techniques in homotopy algebra, we develop an algorithm to resolve this hard problem. It is well known that cochains in the cohomology of the symmetry group, which are used to enumerate the SPT phases, can be expressed equivalently in different linear bases, known as the resolutions. By expressing the cochains in a reduced resolution containing much fewer basis than the choice commonly used in previous studies, the computational cost is drastically reduced. In particular, it reduces the computational cost for infinite discrete symmetry groups, like the wallpaper groups and space groups, from infinity to finity. As examples, we compute the classification of two-dimensional interacting fermionic SPT phases, for all 17 wallpaper symmetry groups

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

The emergence of gapless quantum spin liquid from deconfined quantum critical point

A quantum spin liquid (QSL) is a novel phase of matter with long-range entanglement where localized spins are highly correlated with the vanishing of magnetic order. Such exotic quantum states provide the opportunities to develop new theoretical frameworks for many-body physics and have the potential application in realizing robust quantum computations. Here we show that a gapless QSL can naturally emerge from a deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP), which is originally proposed to describe Landau forbidden continuous phase transition between antiferromagnetic (AFM) and valence-bond solid (VBS) phases. Via large-scale tensor network simulations of a square-lattice spin-1/2 frustrated Heisenberg model, both QSL state and DQCP-type AFM-VBS transition are observed. With tuning coupling constants, the AFM-VBS transition vanishes and instead, a gapless QSL phase gradually develops in between. Remarkably, along the phase boundaries of AFM-QSL and QSL-VBS transitions, we always observe the same correlation length exponents $ν\approx 1.0$, which is intrinsically different from the one of the DQCP-type transition, indicating new types of universality classes. Our results explicitly demonstrate a new scenario for understanding the emergence of gapless QSL from an underlying DQCP. The discovered QSL phase survives in a large region of tuning parameters and we expect its experimental realizations in solid state materials or quantum simulators.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Gapless quantum spin liquid and global phase diagram of the spin-1/2 $J_1$-$J_2$ square antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model

The nature of the zero-temperature phase diagram of the spin-$1/2$ $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on a square lattice has been debated in the past three decades, which may hold the key to understand high temperature superconductivity. By using the state-of-the-art tensor network method, specifically, the finite projected entangled pair state (PEPS) algorithm, to simulate the global phase diagram the $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model up to $24\times 24$ sites, we provide very solid evidences to show that the nature of the intermediate nonmagnetic phase is a gapless quantum spin liquid (QSL), whose spin-spin and dimer-dimer correlations both decay with a power law behavior. There also exists a valence-bond solid (VBS) phase in a very narrow region $0.56\lesssim J_2/J_1\leq0.61$ before the system enters the well known collinear antiferromagnetic phase. The physical nature of the discovered gapless QSL and potential experimental implications are also addressed. We stress that we make the first detailed comparison between the results of PEPS and the well-established density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method through one-to-one direct benchmark for small system sizes, and thus give rise to a very solid PEPS calculation beyond DMRG. Our numerical evidences explicitly demonstrate the huge power of PEPS for precisely capturing long-range physcis for highly frustrated systems, and also demonstrate the finite PEPS method is a very powerful approach to study strongly corrleated quantum many-body problems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Accurate simulation for finite projected entangled pair states in two dimensions

Based on the scheme of variational Monte Carlo sampling, we develop an accurate and efficient two-dimensional tensor-network algorithm to simulate quantum lattice models. We find that Monte Carlo sampling shows huge advantages in dealing with finite projected entangled pair states, which allows significantly enlarged system size and improves the accuracy of tensor network simulation. We demonstrate our method on the square-lattice antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model up to $32 \times 32$ sites, as well as a highly frustrated $J_1-J_2$ model up to $24\times 24$ sites. The results, including ground state energy and spin correlations, are in excellent agreement with those of the available quantum Monte Carlo or density matrix renormalization group methods. Therefore, our method substantially advances the calculation of 2D tensor networks for finite systems, and potentially opens a new door towards resolving many challenging strongly correlated quantum many-body problems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Topological gravity in 3+1D and a possible origin of dark matte

Dark matter is one of the deepest mystery of the universe. So far there is no natural explanation why the dark matter should exist and even dominate the universe. In this paper, we begin with a 3+1D topological gravity theory which is super renormalizable with vanishing beta functions, then we argue that Einstein gravity can emerge by condensing loop-like excitation from the underlying topological gravity theory. In the meanwhile, the uncondensed loop-like excitations serves as a natural candidate of dark matter and a generalized Einstein equation can be derived in the presence of loop-source(dark matter) background. Surprisingly, we find that such kind of dark matter will not contribute to scalar curvature, however, it will become a source of torsion. Finally, we derive the generalized Einstein equation in the presence of Dirac field. Very different from the usual Einstein-Carton theory, our theory further predicts that any type of normal matter, including Dirac field will not produce torsion. All these unique predictions can be tested by future experiments. Our framework suggests that topological invariant principle might play a more profound role than the well-known general covariance principle, especially towards understanding the nature of dark matter and quantum gravity in 3+1D.

gr-qc↗