Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Anomalous phase ordering of a quenched ferromagnetic superfluid

  Lewis A. Williamson, P. Blair Blakie

  SciPost Phys. 7, 029 (2019) · published 9 September 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Coarsening dynamics, the canonical theory of phase ordering following a quench across a symmetry breaking phase transition, is thought to be driven by the annihilation of topological defects. Here we show that this understanding is incomplete. We simulate the dynamics of an isolated spin-1 condensate quenched into the easy-plane ferromagnetic phase and find that the mutual annihilation of spin vortices does not take the system to the equilibrium state. A nonequilibrium background of long wavelength spin waves remain at the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature, an order of magnitude hotter than the equilibrium temperature. The coarsening continues through a second much slower scale invariant process with a length scale that grows with time as $t^{1/3}$. This second regime of coarsening is associated with spin wave energy transport from low to high wavevectors, bringing about the the eventual equilibrium state. Because the relevant spin waves are noninteracting, the transport occurs through a dynamic coupling to other degrees of freedom of the system. The transport displays features of a spin wave energy cascade, providing a potential profitable connection with the emerging field of spin wave turbulence. Strongly coupling the system to a reservoir destroys the second regime of coarsening, allowing the system to thermalise following the annihilation of vortices.

  13 citations

• Resolving phase transitions with discontinuous Galerkin methods

  Eduardo Grossi, Nicolas Wink

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 071 (2023) · published 25 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate the applicability and advantages of Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) schemes in the context of the Functional Renormalization Group (fRG). We investigate the $O(N)$-model in the large $N$ limit. It is shown that the flow equation for the effective potential can be cast into a conservative form. We discuss results for the Riemann problem, as well as initial conditions leading to a first and second order phase transition. In particular, we unravel the mechanism underlying first order phase transitions, based on the formation of a shock in the derivative of the effective potential.

  13 citations

• Correlations of zero-entropy critical states in the XXZ model: integrability and Luttinger theory far from the ground state

  R. Vlijm, I. S. Eliëns, J. -S. Caux

  SciPost Phys. 1, 008 (2016) · published 25 October 2016 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Pumping a finite energy density into a quantum system typically leads to `melted' states characterized by exponentially-decaying correlations, as is the case for finite-temperature equilibrium situations. An important exception to this rule are states which, while being at high energy, maintain a low entropy. Such states can interestingly still display features of quantum criticality, especially in one dimension. Here, we consider high-energy states in anisotropic Heisenberg quantum spin chains obtained by splitting the ground state's magnon Fermi sea into separate pieces. Using methods based on integrability, we provide a detailed study of static and dynamical spin-spin correlations. These carry distinctive signatures of the Fermi sea splittings, which would be observable in eventual experimental realizations. Going further, we employ a multi-component Tomonaga-Luttinger model in order to predict the asymptotics of static correlations. For this effective field theory, we fix all universal exponents from energetics, and all non-universal correlation prefactors using finite-size scaling of matrix elements. The correlations obtained directly from integrability and those emerging from the Luttinger field theory description are shown to be in extremely good correspondence, as expected, for the large distance asymptotics, but surprisingly also for the short distance behavior. Finally, we discuss the description of dynamical correlations from a mobile impurity model, and clarify the relation of the effective field theory parameters to the Bethe Ansatz solution.

  13 citations

• Branch point twist field form factors in the sine-Gordon model I: Breather fusion and entanglement dynamics

  Olalla A. Castro-Alvaredo, David X. Horvath

  SciPost Phys. 10, 132 (2021) · published 4 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The quantum sine-Gordon model is the simplest massive interacting integrable quantum field theory whose two-particle scattering matrix is generally non-diagonal. As such, it is a model that has been extensively studied, especially in the context of the bootstrap programme. In this paper we compute the form factors of a special local field known as the branch point twist field, whose correlation functions are building blocks for measures of entanglement. We consider the attractive regime where the theory posesses a particle spectrum consisting of a soliton, an antisoliton (of opposite $U(1)$ charges) and several (neutral) breathers. In the breather sector we exploit the fusion procedure to compute form factors of heavier breathers from those of lighter ones. We apply our results to the study of the entanglement dynamics after a small mass quench and for short times. We show that in the presence of two or more breathers the von Neumann and R\'enyi entropies display undamped oscillations in time, whose frequencies are proportional to the even breather masses and whose amplitudes are proportional to the breather's one-particle form factor.

  13 citations

• Many-body open quantum systems

  Rosario Fazio, Jonathan Keeling, Leonardo Mazza, Marco Schirò

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 99 (2025) · published 14 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  These lecture notes discuss the recent theoretical advances in the understanding of open quantum many-body physics in platforms where both dissipative and coherent processes can be tuned and controlled to a high degree. We start by reviewing the theoretical frameworks and methods used to describe and tackle open quantum many-body systems. We then discuss the use of dissipative processes to engineer many-body stationary states with desired properties and the emergence of dissipative phase transitions arising out of the competition between coherent evolution and dissipation. We review the dynamics of open quantum many body systems in the presence of correlated many-body dissipative processes, such as heating and many-body losses. Finally we provide a different perspective on open quantum many-body systems by looking at stochastic quantum trajectories, relevant for the case in which the environment represents a monitoring device, and the associated measurement-induced phase transitions.

  13 citations

• Integrating micromagnets and hybrid nanowires for topological quantum computing

  Malcolm J. A. Jardine, John P. T. Stenger, Yifan Jiang, Eline J. de Jong, Wenbo Wang, Ania C. Bleszynski Jayich, Sergey M. Frolov

  SciPost Phys. 11, 090 (2021) · published 12 November 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Majorana zero modes are expected to arise in semiconductor-superconductor hybrid systems, with potential topological quantum computing applications. One limitation of this approach is the need for a relatively high external magnetic field that should also change direction at the nanoscale. This proposal considers devices that incorporate micromagnets to address this challenge. We perform numerical simulations of stray magnetic fields from different micromagnet configurations, which are then used to solve for Majorana wavefunctions. Several devices are proposed, starting with the basic four-magnet design to align magnetic field with the nanowire and scaling up to nanowire T-junctions. The feasibility of the approach is assessed by performing magnetic imaging of prototype patterns.

  13 citations

• Flow equations for disordered Floquet systems

  Steven J. Thomson, Duarte Magano, Marco Schirò

  SciPost Phys. 11, 028 (2021) · published 10 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this work, we present a new approach to disordered, periodically driven (Floquet) quantum many-body systems based on flow equations. Specifically, we introduce a continuous unitary flow of Floquet operators in an extended Hilbert space, whose fixed point is both diagonal and time-independent, allowing us to directly obtain the Floquet modes. We first apply this method to a periodically driven Anderson insulator, for which it is exact, and then extend it to driven many-body localized systems within a truncated flow equation ansatz. In particular we compute the emergent Floquet local integrals of motion that characterise a periodically driven many-body localized phase. We demonstrate that the method remains well-controlled in the weakly-interacting regime, and allows us to access larger system sizes than accessible by numerically exact methods, paving the way for studies of two-dimensional driven many-body systems.

  13 citations

• Symmetric Wilson Loops beyond leading order

  Xinyi Chen-Lin

  SciPost Phys. 1, 013 (2016) · published 21 December 2016 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the circular Wilson loop in the symmetric representation of U(N) in $\mathcal{N} = 4$ super-Yang-Mills (SYM). In the large N limit, we computed the exponentially-suppressed corrections for strong coupling, which suggests non-perturbative physics in the dual holographic theory. We also computed the next-to-leading order term in 1/N, and the result matches with the exact result from the k-fundamental representation.

  13 citations

• Aperiodic spin chains at the boundary of hyperbolic tilings

  Pablo Basteiro, Rathindra Nath Das, Giuseppe Di Giulio, Johanna Erdmenger

  SciPost Phys. 15, 218 (2023) · published 30 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In view of making progress towards establishing a holographic duality for theories defined on a discrete tiling of the hyperbolic plane, we consider a recently proposed boundary spin chain Hamiltonian with aperiodic couplings that are chosen such as to reflect the inflation rule, i.e. the construction principle, of the bulk tiling. As a remnant of conformal symmetry, the spin degrees of freedom are arranged in multiplets of the dihedral group under which the bulk lattice is invariant. For the boundary Hamiltonian, we use strong-disorder RG techniques and evaluate correlation functions, the entanglement entropy and mutual information for the case that the ground state is in an aperiodic singlet phase. We find that two-point functions decay as a power-law with exponent equal to one. Furthermore, we consider the case that the spin variables transform in the fundamental representation of SO(N), leading to a gapless system, and find that the effective central charge obtained from the entanglement entropy scales as lnN, reflecting the number of local degrees of freedom. We also determine the dependence of this central charge on the parameters specifying the bulk tiling. Moreover, we obtain an analytical expression for the mutual information, according to which there is no phase transition at any finite value of the distance between the two intervals involved.

  13 citations

• Quantum quench dynamics of the attractive one-dimensional Bose gas via the coordinate Bethe ansatz

  Jan C. Zill, Tod M. Wright, Karen V. Kheruntsyan, Thomas Gasenzer, Matthew J. Davis

  SciPost Phys. 4, 011 (2018) · published 25 February 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We use the coordinate Bethe ansatz to study the Lieb-Liniger model of a one-dimensional gas of bosons on a finite-sized ring interacting via an attractive delta-function potential. We calculate zero-temperature correlation functions for seven particles in the vicinity of the crossover to a localized solitonic state and study the dynamics of a system of four particles quenched to attractive interactions from the ideal-gas ground state. We determine the time evolution of correlation functions, as well as their temporal averages, and discuss the role of bound states in shaping the postquench correlations and relaxation dynamics.

  13 citations