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SciPost Physics

SciPost Physics Vol. 4 issue 1 (January 2018)

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Mutually attracting spin waves in the square-lattice quantum antiferromagnet

Michael Powalski, Kai P. Schmidt, Götz S. Uhrig

SciPost Phys. 4, 001 (2018) · published 17 January 2018 | · pdf

The Heisenberg model for S=1/2 describes the interacting spins of electrons localized on lattice sites due to strong repulsion. It is the simplest strong-coupling model in condensed matter physics with wide-spread applications. Its relevance has been boosted further by the discovery of curate high-temperature superconductors. In leading order, their undoped parent compounds realize the Heisenberg model on square-lattices. Much is known about the model, but mostly at small wave vectors, i.e., for long-range processes, where the physics is governed by spin waves (magnons), the Goldstone bosons of the long-range ordered antiferromagnetic phase. Much less, however, is known for short-range processes, i.e., at large wave vectors. Yet these processes are decisive for understanding high-temperature superconductivity. Recent reports suggest that one has to resort to qualitatively different fractional excitations, spinons. By contrast, we present a comprehensive picture in terms of dressed magnons with strong mutual attraction on short length scales. The resulting spectral signatures agree strikingly with experimental data.
Many-body localization of spinless fermions with attractive interactions in one dimension

Sheng-Hsuan Lin, Björn Sbierski, Florian Dorfner, Christoph Karrasch, Fabian Heidrich-Meisner

SciPost Phys. 4, 002 (2018) · published 18 January 2018 | · pdf

We study the finite-energy density phase diagram of spinless fermions with attractive interactions in one dimension in the presence of uncorrelated diagonal disorder. Unlike the case of repulsive interactions, a delocalized Luttinger-liquid phase persists at weak disorder in the ground state, which is a well-known result. We revisit the ground-state phase diagram and show that the recently introduced occupation-spectrum discontinuity computed from the eigenspectrum of one-particle density matrices is noticeably smaller in the Luttinger liquid compared to the localized regions. Moreover, we use the functional renormalization scheme to study the finite-size dependence of the conductance, which resolves the existence of the Luttinger liquid as well and is computationally cheap. Our main results concern the finite-energy density case. Using exact diagonalization and by computing various established measures of the many-body localization-delocalization transition, we argue that the zero-temperature Luttinger liquid smoothly evolves into a finite-energy density ergodic phase without any intermediate phase transition.
Spin Liquid versus Spin Orbit Coupling on the Triangular Lattice

Jason Iaconis, Chunxiao Liu, Gábor B. Halász, Leon Balents

SciPost Phys. 4, 003 (2018) · published 19 January 2018 | · pdf

In this paper, we explore the relationship between strong spin-orbit coupling and spin liquid physics. We study a very general model on the triangular lattice where spin-orbit coupling leads to the presence of highly anisotropic interactions. We use variational Monte Carlo to study both $U(1)$ quantum spin liquid states and ordered ones, via the Gutzwiller projected fermion construction. We thereby obtain the ground state phase diagram in this phase space. We furthermore consider effects beyond the Gutzwiller wavefunctions for the spinon Fermi surface quantum spin liquid, which are of particular importance when spin-orbit coupling is present.
Gapless chiral spin liquid from coupled chains on the kagome lattice

Rodrigo G. Pereira, Samuel Bieri

SciPost Phys. 4, 004 (2018) · published 24 January 2018 | · pdf

Using a perturbative renormalization group approach, we show that the extended ($J_1$-$J_2$-$J_d$) Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice with a staggered chiral interaction ($J_\chi$) can exhibit a gapless chiral quantum spin liquid phase. Within a coupled-chains construction, this phase can be understood as a chiral sliding Luttinger liquid with algebraic decay of spin correlations along the chain directions. We calculate the low-energy properties of this gapless chiral spin liquid using the effective field theory and show that they are compatible with the predictions from parton mean-field theories with symmetry-protected line Fermi surfaces. These results may be relevant to the state observed in the kapellasite material.
Generalized global symmetries and holography

Diego M. Hofman, Nabil Iqbal

SciPost Phys. 4, 005 (2018) · published 29 January 2018 | · pdf

We study the holographic duals of four-dimensional field theories with 1-form global symmetries, both discrete and continuous. Such higher-form global symmetries are associated with antisymmetric tensor gauge fields in the bulk. Various different realizations are possible: we demonstrate that a Maxwell action for the bulk antisymmetric gauge field results in a non-conformal field theory with a marginally running double-trace coupling. We explore its hydrodynamic behavior at finite temperature and make contact with recent symmetry-based formulations of magnetohydrodynamics. We also argue that discrete global symmetries on the boundary are dual to discrete gauge theories in the bulk. Such gauge theories have a bulk Chern-Simons description: we clarify the conventional 0-form case and work out the 1-form case. Depending on boundary conditions, such discrete symmetries may be embedded in continuous higher-form symmetries that are spontaneously broken. We study the resulting boundary Goldstone mode, which in the 1-form case may be thought of as a boundary photon. Our results clarify how the global form of the field theory gauge group is encoded in holography. Finally, we study the interplay of Maxwell and Chern-Simons terms put together. We work out the operator content and demonstrate the existence of new backreacted anisotropic scaling solutions that carry higher-form charge.
Scalar products and norm of Bethe vectors for integrable models based on $U_q(\widehat{\mathfrak{gl}}_{n})$

A. Hutsalyuk, A. Liashyk, S. Z. Pakuliak, E. Ragoucy, N. A. Slavnov

SciPost Phys. 4, 006 (2018) · published 30 January 2018 | · pdf

We obtain recursion formulas for the Bethe vectors of models with periodic boundary conditions solvable by the nested algebraic Bethe ansatz and based on the quantum affine algebra $U_q(\widehat{\mathfrak{gl}}_{n})$. We also present a sum formula for their scalar products. This formula describes the scalar product in terms of a sum over partitions of the Bethe parameters, whose factors are characterized by two highest coefficients. We provide different recursions for these highest coefficients. In addition, we show that when the Bethe vectors are on-shell, their norm takes the form of a Gaudin determinant.
Strictly local one-dimensional topological quantum error correction with symmetry-constrained cellular automata

Nicolai Lang, Hans Peter Büchler

SciPost Phys. 4, 007 (2018) · published 31 January 2018 | · pdf

Active quantum error correction on topological codes is one of the most promising routes to long-term qubit storage. In view of future applications, the scalability of the used decoding algorithms in physical implementations is crucial. In this work, we focus on the one-dimensional Majorana chain and construct a strictly local decoder based on a self-dual cellular automaton. We study numerically and analytically its performance and exploit these results to contrive a scalable decoder with exponentially growing decoherence times in the presence of noise. Our results pave the way for scalable and modular designs of actively corrected one-dimensional topological quantum memories.
(Non) equilibrium dynamics: a (broken) symmetry of the Keldysh generating functional

Camille Aron, Giulio Biroli, Leticia F. Cugliandolo

SciPost Phys. 4, 008 (2018) · published 31 January 2018 | · pdf

We unveil the universal (model-independent) symmetry satisfied by Schwinger-Keldysh quantum field theories whenever they describe equilibrium dynamics. This is made possible by a generalization of the Schwinger-Keldysh path-integral formalism in which the physical time can be re-parametrized to arbitrary contours in the complex plane. Strong relations between correlation functions, such as the fluctuation-dissipation theorems, are derived as immediate consequences of this symmetry of equilibrium. In this view, quantum non-equilibrium dynamics -- e.g. when driving with a time-dependent potential -- are seen as symmetry-breaking processes. The symmetry-breaking terms of the action are identified as a measure of irreversibility, or entropy creation, defined at the level of a single quantum trajectory. Moreover, they are shown to obey quantum fluctuation theorems. These results extend stochastic thermodynamics to the quantum realm.