arXiv subjects

Zi Cai

Publications and source records attributed to Zi Cai.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Extended Bose-Hubbard Models with Ultracold Magnetic Atoms

The Hubbard model underlies our understanding of strongly correlated materials. While its standard form only comprises interaction between particles at the same lattice site, its extension to encompass long-range interaction, which activates terms acting between different sites, is predicted to profoundly alter the quantum behavior of the system. We realize the extended Bose-Hubbard model for an ultracold gas of strongly magnetic erbium atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice. Controlling the orientation of the atomic dipoles, we reveal the anisotropic character of the onsite interaction and hopping dynamics, and their influence on the superfluid-to-Mott insulator quantum phase transition. Moreover, we observe nearest-neighbor interaction, which is a genuine consequence of the long-range nature of dipolar interactions. Our results lay the groundwork for future studies of novel exotic many-body quantum phases.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Majoranas in Noisy Kitaev Wires

Robustness of edge states and non-Abelian excitations of topological states of matter promises quantum memory and quantum processing, which is naturally immune against microscopic imperfections such as static disorder. However, topological properties will not in general protect quantum system from time-dependent disorder or noise. Here we take the example of a network of Kitaev wires with Majorana edge modes storing qubits to investigate the effects of classical noise in the crossover from the quasi-static to the fast fluctuation regime. We present detailed results for the Majorana edge correlations, and fidelity of braiding operations for both global and local noise sources preserving parity symmetry, such as random chemical potentials and phase fluctuations. While in general noise will induce heating and dephasing, we identify examples of long-lived quantum correlations in presence of fast noise due to motional narrowing, where external noise drives the system rapidly between the topological and non-topological phases.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Cluster Luttinger liquids and emergent supersymmetric conformal critical points in the one-dimensional soft-shoulder Hubbard model

We investigate the quantum phases of hard-core bosonic atoms in an extended Hubbard model where particles interact via soft-shoulder potentials in one dimension. Using a combination of field-theoretical methods and strong-coupling perturbation theory, we demonstrate that the low-energy phase can be a conformal cluster Luttinger liquid (CLL) phase with central charge $c=1$, where the microscopic degrees of freedom correspond to mesoscopic ensembles of particles. Using numerical density-matrix-renormalization-group methods, we demonstrate that the CLL phase, first predicted in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 165302 (2013)], is separated from a conventional Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid by an exotic critical point with central charge $c=3/2$. The latter is expression of an emergent conformal supersymmetry, which is not present in the original Hamiltonian. We discuss the observability of the CLL phase in realistic experimental settings with weakly-dressed Rydberg atoms confined to optical lattices. Using quantum Monte-Carlo simulations, we show that the typical features of CLLs are stable up to comparatively high temperatures. Using exact diagonalizations and quantum trajectory methods, we provide a protocol for adiabatic state preparation as well as quantitative estimates on the effects of particle losses.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Identifying a bath-induced Bose liquid in interacting spin-boson models

We study the ground state phase diagram of a one-dimensional hard-core bosonic model with nearest-neighbor interactions (XXZ model) where every site is coupled Ohmically to an independent but identical reservoir, hereby generalizing spin-boson models to interacting spin-boson systems. We show that a bath-induced Bose metal phase can occur in the ground state phase diagram away from half filling. This phase is compressible, gapless, and conducting but not superfluid. At haf-filling, only a Luttinger liquid and a charge density wave are found. The phase transition between them is of Kosterlitz-Thouless type where the Luttinger parameter takes a non-universal value.The applied quantum Monte Carlo method can be used for all open bosonic and unfrustrated spin systems, regardless of their dimension, filling factor and spectrum of the dissipation as long as the quantum system couples to the bath via the density operators.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Monte Carlo simulation of thermodynamic properties of SU(2N) ultracold fermions in optical lattices

We have systematically studied the thermodynamic properties of a two-dimensional half-filled SU(2N) Hubbard model on a square lattice by using the determinant quantum Monte Carlo method. The entropy-temperature relation, the isoentropy curve, and the probability distribution of the onsite occupation number are calculated in both SU(4) and SU(6) cases, which exhibit prominent features of the Pomeranchuk effect. We analyze these thermodynamic behaviors based on charge and spin energy scales. In the charge channel, the interaction strength that marks the crossover from the weak to strong interaction regimes increases with the number of fermion components. In the spin channel, increasing the number of fermion components enhances quantum spin fluctuations, which is shown in the simulations of uniform spin susceptibilities and antiferromagnetic structure factors.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Quantum magnetism of bosons with synthetic gauge fields in one-dimensional optical lattices: a Density Matrix Renormalization Group study

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive study of the quantum magnetism in the Mott insulating phases of the 1D Bose-Hubbard model with abelian or non-abelian synthetic gauge fields, using the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) method. We focus on the interplay between the synthetic gauge field and the asymmetry of the interactions, which give rise to a very general effective magnetic model: a XYZ model with various Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interactions. The properties of the different quantum magnetic phases and phases transitions of this model are investigated.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Competing orders in the 2D half-filled SU(2N) Hubbard model through the pinning field quantum Monte-Carlo simulations

We non-perturbatively investigate the ground state magnetic properties of the 2D half-filled SU($2N$) Hubbard model in the square lattice by using the projector determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations combined with the method of local pinning fields. Long-range Neel orders are found for both the SU(4) and SU(6) cases at small and intermediate values of $U$. In both cases, the long-range Neel moments exhibit non-monotonic behavior with respect to $U$, which first grow and then drop as $U$ increases. This result is fundamentally different from the SU(2) case in which the Neel moments increase monotonically and saturate. In the SU(6) case, a transition to the columnar dimer phase is found in the strong interaction regime.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Algebraic versus exponential decoherence in dissipative many-particle systems

The interplay between dissipation and internal interactions in quantum many-body systems gives rise to a wealth of novel phenomena. Here we investigate spin-1/2 chains with uniform local couplings to a Markovian environment using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (tDMRG). For the open XXZ model, we discover that the decoherence time diverges in the thermodynamic limit. The coherence decay is then algebraic instead of exponential. This is due to a vanishing gap in the spectrum of the corresponding Liouville superoperator and can be explained on the basis of a perturbative treatment. In contrast, decoherence in the open transverse-field Ising model is found to be always exponential. In this case, the internal interactions can both facilitate and impede the environment-induced decoherence.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Unconventional states of bosons with synthetic spin-orbit coupling

Spin-orbit coupling with bosons gives rise to novel properties that are absent in usual bosonic systems. Under very general conditions, the conventional ground state wavefunctions of bosons are constrained by the "no-node" theorem to be positive-definite. In contrast, the linear-dependence of spin-orbit coupling leads to complex-valued condensate wavefunctions beyond this theorem. In this article, we review the study of this class of unconventional Bose-Einstein condensations focusing on their topological properties. Both the 2D Rashba and 3D $\vecσ \cdot \vec{p}$-type Weyl spin-orbit couplings give rise to Landau-level-like quantization of single-particle levels in the harmonic trap. The interacting condensates develop the half-quantum vortex structure spontaneously breaking time-reversal symmetry and exhibit topological spin textures of the skyrmion type. In particular, the 3D Weyl coupling generates topological defects in the quaternionic phase space as an SU(2) generalization of the usual U(1) vortices. Rotating spin-orbit coupled condensates exhibit rich vortex structures due to the interplay between vorticity and spin texture. In the Mott-insulating states in optical lattices, quantum magnetism is characterized by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya type exchange interactions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Pomeranchuk cooling of the SU($2N$) ultra-cold fermions in optical lattices

We investigate the thermodynamic properties of a half-filled SU(2N) Fermi-Hubbard model in the two-dimensional square lattice using the determinantal quantum Monte Carlo simulation, which is free of the fermion "sign problem". The large number of hyperfine-spin components enhances spin fluctuations, which facilitates the Pomeranchuk cooling to temperatures comparable to the superexchange energy scale at the case of SU$(6)$. Various quantities including entropy, charge fluctuation, and spin correlations have been calculated.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Magnetic phases of bosons with synthetic spin-orbit coupling in optical lattices

We investigate magnetic properties in the superfluid and Mott-insulating states of two-component bosons with spin-orbit (SO) coupling in 2D square optical lattices. The spin-independent hopping integral $t$ and SO coupled one $λ$are fitted from band structure calculations in the continuum, which exhibit oscillations as increasing SO coupling strength. The magnetic superexchange model is derived in the Mott-insulating state with one-particle per-site, characterized by the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interaction. In the limit of $|λ|\ll |t|$, we find a spin spiral Mott state whose pitch value is the same as that in the incommensurate superfluid state, while in the opposite limit $|t| \ll |λ|$, the ground state can be found by a dual transformation to the $|λ|\ll|t|$ limit.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Dissipative Effects on the Superfluid to Insulator Transition in Mixed-dimensional Optical Lattices

We study the superfluid to Mott insulator transition of a mixture of heavy bosons and light fermions loaded in an optical lattice. We focus on the effect of the light fermions on the dynamics of the heavy bosons. It is shown that, when the lattice potential is sufficiently deep to confine the bosons to one dimension but allowing the fermions to freely move in three dimensions (i.e. a mixed-dimensionality lattice), the fermions act as an ohmic bath for bosons leading to screening and dissipation effects on the bosons. Using a perturbative renormalization-group analysis, it is shown that the fermion-induced dissipative effects have no appreciable impact on the transition from the superfluid to the Mott-insulator state at integer filling. On the other hand, dissipative effects are found to be very important in the half-filled case near the critical point. In this case, in the presence of a finite incommensurability that destabilizes the Mott phase, the bosons can still be localized by virtue of dissipative effects.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Exotic phases of interacting p-band bosons

We study a model of interacting bosons that occupy the first excited p-band states of a two-dimensional optical lattice. In contrast to the much studied single band Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian, this more complex model allows for non-trivial superfluid phases associated with condensation at non-zero momentum and staggered order of the orbital angular momentum in addition to the superfluid-Mott insulator transition. More specifically, we observe staggered orbital angular momentum order in the Mott phase at commensurate filling and superfluidity at all densities. We also observe a transition between the staggered angular momentum superfluid phase and a striped superfluid, with an alternation of the phase of the superfluid along one direction. The transition between these two phases was observed in a recent experiment, which is then qualitatively well described by our model.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Quantum magnetic properties of the SU(2N) Hubbard model in the square lattice: a quantum Monte Carlo study

We employ the determinant projector quantum Monte-Carlo method to investigate the ground state magnetic properties in the Mott insulating states of the half-filled SU(4) and SU(6) Fermi-Hubbard model in the 2D square lattice, which is free of the sign problem. The long-range antiferromagnetic Neel order is found for the SU(4) case with a small residual Neel moment. Quantum fluctuations are even stronger in the SU(6) case. Numeric results are consistent with either a vanishing or even weaker Neel ordering than that of SU(4).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Frustrated Bose-Einstein condensates with non-collinear orbital ordering

We investigate the unconventional Bose-Einstein condensations (BEC) with the orbital degree of freedom in the 3D cubic optical lattice, which give rise to various exotic features absent in conventional scalar and spinor BECs. Orbital angular momentum moments are formed on lattice sites breaking time-reversal symmetry spontaneously. Furthermore, they exhibit orbital frustrations and develop a chiral ordering selected by the "order-from-disorder" mechanism.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Confinement: a real-time visualization

Due to the mechanism of confinement, as known from quantum chromodynamics, it is difficult to observe individual particles carrying fractional quantum number (e.g. quark with fractional electric charge). A condensed matter example of fractionalized particles is spinons in quasi-one-dimensional spin systems, which are domain walls in the background of Neel configurations carrying spin-1/2. Using the time-evolving block decimation algorithm, we visualize the nontrivial domain wall dynamics induced by the confine mechanism in a two-leg spin-1/2 ladder. It can be illustrated by a simple single-particle picture of Bloch oscillation, not only qualitatively but also quantitatively. We propose the experimental realization and the real time detection of the domain wall dynamics in the ultra-cold boson systems of $^{87}$Rb.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Phase-Sensitive Detection for Unconventional Bose-Einstein Condensations

We propose a phase-sensitive detection scheme to identify the unconventional $p_{x}\pm ip_{y}$ symmetry of the condensate wavefunctions of bosons, which have already been proposed and realized in high bands in optical lattices. Using the impulsive Raman operation combining with time-of-flight imaging, the off-diagonal correlation functions in momentum space give rise to the relative phase information between different components of condensate wavefunctions. This scheme is robust against the interaction and interband effects, and provides smoking gun evidence for unconventional Bose-Einstein condensations with nontrivial condensation symmetries.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Complex and real unconventional Bose-Einstein condensations in high orbital bands

We perform the theoretical study on the unconventional Bose-Einstein condensations (UBEC) in the high bands of optical lattices observed by Hemmerich's group. These exotic states are characterized by complex-valued condensate wavefunctions with nodal points, or real-valued ones with nodal lines, thus are beyond the {\it "no-node"} paradigm of the conventional BECs. A quantum phase transition is driven by the competition between the single particle band and interaction energies. The complex UBECs spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry, exhibiting a vortex-antivortex lattice structure.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗