Effects of energy extensivity on the quantum phases of long-range interacting systems
Botzung T., Hagenmüller D., Masella G., Dubail J., Defenu N., We investigate the ground state properties of one-dimensional hard-core bosons interacting via a variable long-range potential using the density matrix renormalization group. We show that restoring energy extensivity in the system, which is done by rescaling the interaction potential with a suitable size-dependent factor known as Kac's prescription, has a profound influence on the low-energy properties in the thermodynamic limit. While an insulating phase is found in the absence of Kac's rescaling, the latter leads to a new metallic phase that does not fall into the conventional Luttinger liquid paradigm. We discuss a scheme for the observation of this new phase using cavity-mediated long-range interactions with cold atoms. Our findings raise fundamental questions on how to study the thermodynamics of long-range interacting quantum systems.
Topological phase transitions in four dimensions
Defenu N., We show that four-dimensional systems may exhibit a topological phase transition analogous to the well-known Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless vortex unbinding transition in two-dimensional systems. We study a suitable generalization of the sine-Gordon model in four dimensions and the renormalization group flow equation of its couplings, showing that the critical value of the frequency is the square of the corresponding value in 2D. The value of the anomalous dimension at the critical point is determined (η=1/32) and a conjecture for the universal jump of the superfluid stiffness (4/π2) presented.
Self-consistent harmonic approximation in presence of non-local couplings
Giachetti G., Defenu N., Ruffo S., We derive the self-consistent harmonic approximation for the 2D XY model with non-local interactions. The resulting equation for the variational couplings holds for any form of the spin-spin coupling as well as for any dimension. Our analysis is then specialized to power-law couplings decaying with the distance r as in order to investigate the robustness, at finite σ, of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition, which occurs in the short-range limit σ → ∞. We propose an ansatz for the functional form of the variational couplings and show that for any σ > 2 the BKT mechanism occurs. The present investigation provides an upper bound σ ∗ = 2 for the critical threshold σ ∗ above which the traditional BKT transition persists in spite of the non-local nature of the couplings.
Thermodynamic Properties of Ultracold Fermi Gases Across the BCS-BEC Crossover and the Bertsch Problem
Iori M., Macrì T., In this chapter we review the thermodynamic properties of ultracold Fermi gases in which the strength of the interaction is continuously varied. The system features a crossover between a state described by the BCS theory of superconductivity and a Bose-Einstein condensate. A discussion of the Bertsch problem is presented.
Prime Suspects in a Quantum Ladder
Mussardo G., In this Letter we set up a suggestive number theory interpretation of a quantum ladder system made of N coupled chains of spin 1/2. Using the hard-core boson representation and a leg-Hamiltonian made of a magnetic field and a hopping term, we can associate to the spins σa the prime numbers pa so that the chains become quantum registers for square-free integers. The rung Hamiltonian involves permutation terms between next-neighbor chains and a coprime repulsive interaction. The system has various phases; in particular, there is one whose ground state is a coherent superposition of the first N prime numbers. We also discuss the realization of such a model in terms of an open quantum system with a dissipative Lindblad dynamics.
Dynamical phase diagram of ultracold Josephson junctions
Xhani K., Galantucci L., Barenghi C.F., Roati G., We provide a complete study of the phase diagram characterising the distinct dynamical regimes emerging in a three-dimensional Josephson junction in an ultracold quantum gas. Considering trapped ultracold superfluids separated into two reservoirs by a barrier of variable height and width, we analyse the population imbalance dynamics following a variable initial population mismatch. We demonstrate that as the chemical potential difference is increased, the system transitions from Josephson plasma oscillations to either a dissipative (in the limit of low and narrow barriers) or a self-trapped regime (for large and wider barriers), with a crossover between the dissipative and the self-trapping regimes which we explore and characterize for the first time. This work, which extends beyond the validity of the standard two-mode model, connects the role of the barrier width, vortex rings and associated acoustic emission with different regimes of the superfluid dynamics across the junction, establishing a framework for its experimental observation, which is found to be within current experimental reach.
Back-reaction in canonical analogue black holes
Liberati S., Tricella G., We study the back-reaction associated with Hawking evaporation of an acoustic canonical analogue black hole in a Bose–Einstein condensate. We show that the emission of Hawking radiation induces a local back-reaction on the condensate, perturbing it in the near-horizon region, and a global back-reaction in the density distribution of the atoms. We discuss how these results produce useful insights into the process of black hole evaporation and its compatibility with a unitary evolution.
Finite temperature off-diagonal long-range order for interacting bosons
Colcelli A., Defenu N., Mussardo G., Characterizing the scaling with the total particle number (N) of the largest eigenvalue of the one-body density matrix (++0) provides information on the occurrence of the off-diagonal long-range order (ODLRO) according to the Penrose-Onsager criterion. Setting ++0Gê+NC0, then C0=1 corresponds in ODLRO. The intermediate case, 0
Spin-1/2 Ising–Heisenberg Cairo pentagonal model in the presence of an external magnetic field: effect of Landé g-factors
Arian Zad H., Abstract: In the present paper, a study of the magnetic properties of a spin-1/2 Ising–Heisenberg Cairo pentagonal structure is presented. The model has been investigated in [F.C. Rodrigues, S.M. de Souza, O. Rojas, Ann. Phys. 379, 1 (2017)] in the absence of external magnetic field. Here, we consider the effects of an external tunable magnetic field. By using the transfer matrix approach, we investigate the magnetic ground-state phase transition, the low-temperature magnetization process, and how the magnetic field influences the various thermodynamic parameters such as entropy, internal energy and specific heat. It is shown that the model exhibits intermediate magnetization plateaux accompanied by a double-peak in the specific heat curve versus temperature. The position of each magnetization jump is in accordance with the merging and/or separation of the two peaks in the specific heat curve. Considering different g-factors for the nodal Ising spins and spin dimers also results in arising different intermediate plateaux and to remarkable alterations of the thermodynamic properties of the model. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
Dynamics of one-dimensional quantum many-body systems in time-periodic linear potentials
Colcelli A., Mussardo G., Sierra G., We study a system of one-dimensional interacting quantum particles subjected to a time-periodic potential linear in space. After discussing the cases of driven one- A nd two-particle systems, we derive the analogous results for the many-particle case in the presence of a general interaction two-body potential and the corresponding Floquet Hamiltonian. When the undriven model is integrable, the Floquet Hamiltonian is shown to be integrable too. We determine the micromotion operator and the expression for a generic time evolved state of the system. We discuss various aspects of the dynamics of the system both at stroboscopic and intermediate times, in particular the motion of the center of mass of a generic wave packet and its spreading over time. We also discuss the case of accelerated motion of the center of mass, obtained when the integral of the coefficient strength of the linear potential on a time period is nonvanishing, and we show that the Floquet Hamiltonian gets in this case an additional static linear potential. We also discuss the application of the obtained results to the Lieb-Liniger model.
Detecting composite orders in layered models via machine learning
Rządkowski W., Defenu N., Chiacchiera S., Determining the phase diagram of systems consisting of smaller subsystems 'connected' via a tunable coupling is a challenging task relevant for a variety of physical settings. A general question is whether new phases, not present in the uncoupled limit, may arise. We use machine learning and a suitable quasidistance between different points of the phase diagram to study layered spin models, in which the spin variables constituting each of the uncoupled systems (to which we refer as layers) are coupled to each other via an interlayer coupling. In such systems, in general, composite order parameters involving spins of different layers may emerge as a consequence of the interlayer coupling. We focus on the layered Ising and Ashkin-Teller models as a paradigmatic case study, determining their phase diagram via the application of a machine learning algorithm to the Monte Carlo data. Remarkably our technique is able to correctly characterize all the system phases also in the case of hidden order parameters, i.e. order parameters whose expression in terms of the microscopic configurations would require additional preprocessing of the data fed to the algorithm. We correctly retrieve the three known phases of the Ashkin-Teller model with ferromagnetic couplings, including the phase described by a composite order parameter. For the bilayer and trilayer Ising models the phases we find are only the ferromagnetic and the paramagnetic ones. Within the approach we introduce, owing to the construction of convolutional neural networks, naturally suitable for layered image-like data with arbitrary number of layers, no preprocessing of the Monte Carlo data is needed, also with regard to its spatial structure. The physical meaning of our results is discussed and compared with analytical data, where available. Yet, the method can be used without any a priori knowledge of the phases one seeks to find and can be applied to other models and structures.
Emerging majorana modes in junctions of one-dimensional spin systems
Giuliano D., Experimental test of exchange fluctuation relations in an open quantum system
Hernández-Gómez S., Gherardini S., Poggiali F., Cataliotti F.S., Elucidating the energy transfer between a quantum system and a reservoir is a central issue in quantum nonequilibrium thermodynamics, which could provide novel tools to engineer quantum-enhanced heat engines. The lack of information on the reservoir inherently limits the practical insight that can be gained on the exchange process of open quantum systems. Here we investigate the energy transfer for an open quantum system in the framework of quantum fluctuation relations. As a novel toolbox, we employ a nitrogen-vacancy center spin qubit in diamond, subject to repeated quantum projective measurements and a tunable dissipation channel. In the presence of energy fluctuations originated by dissipation and quantum projective measurements, the experimental results, supplemented by numerical simulations, show the validity of the energy exchange fluctuation relation, where the energy scale factor encodes missing reservoir information in the system out-of-equilibrium steady-state properties. This result is complemented by a theoretical argument showing that, also for an open three-level quantum system, the existence of an out-of-equilibrium steady state dictates a unique time-independent value of the energy scale factor for which the fluctuation relation is verified. Our findings pave the way to the investigation of energy exchange mechanisms in arbitrary open quantum systems.
Reaching the quantum Hall regime with rotating Rydberg-dressed atoms
Burrello M., Lesanovsky I., Despite the striking progress in the field of quantum gases, one of their much anticipated applications - the simulation of quantum Hall states - remains elusive: all experimental approaches so far have failed in reaching a sufficiently small ratio between atom and vortex densities. In this paper we consider rotating Rydberg-dressed atoms in magnetic traps: these gases offer strong and tunable nonlocal repulsive interactions and very low densities; hence they provide an exceptional platform to reach the quantum Hall regime. Based on the Lindemann criterion and the analysis of the interplay of the length scales of the system, we show that there exists an optimal value of the dressing parameters that minimizes the ratio between the filling factor of the system and its critical value to enter the Hall regime, thus making it possible to reach this strongly correlated phase for more than 1000 atoms under realistic conditions.
Renormalization-group running induced cosmic inflation
Márián I.G., Defenu N., Jentschura U.D., As a contribution to a viable candidate for a standard model of cosmology, we here show that pre-inflationary quantum fluctuations can provide a scenario for the long-sought initial conditions for the inflaton field. Our proposal is based on the assumption that at very high energies (higher than the energy scale of inflation) the vacuum-expectation value (VeV) of the field is trapped in a false vacuum and then, due to renormalization-group (RG) running, the potential starts to flatten out toward low energy, eventually tending to a convex one which allows the field to roll down to the true vacuum. We argue that the proposed mechanism should apply to large classes of inflationary potentials with multiple concave regions. Our findings favor a particle physics origin of chaotic, large-field inflationary models as we eliminate the need for large field fluctuations at the GUT scale. In our analysis, we provide a specific example of such an inflationary potential, whose parameters can be tuned to reproduce the existing cosmological data with good accuracy.
Geometry of bounded critical phenomena
Gori G., Gori G., Gori G., The quest for a satisfactory understanding of systems at criticality in dimensions d > 2 is a major field of research. We devise here a geometric description of bounded systems at criticality in any dimension d. This is achieved by altering the flat metric with a space dependent scale factor γ(x), x belonging to a bounded domain Ω. γ(x) is chosen in order to have a scalar curvature to be constant and matching the one of the hyperbolic space, the proper notion of curvature being-as called in the mathematics literature-the fractional Q-curvature. The equation for γ(x) is found to be the fractional Yamabe equation (to be solved in Ω) that, in absence of anomalous dimension, reduces to the usual Yamabe equation in the same domain. From the scale factor γ(x) we obtain novel predictions for the scaling form of one-point order parameter correlation functions. A (necessary) virtue of the proposed approach is that it encodes and allows to naturally retrieve the purely geometric content of two-dimensional boundary conformal field theory. From the critical magnetization profile in presence of boundaries one can extract the scaling dimension of the order parameter, Δ φ . For the 3D Ising model we find Δ φ = 0.518 142(8) which favorably compares (at the fifth decimal place) with the state-of-the-art estimate. A nontrivial prediction is the structure of two-point spin-spin correlators at criticality. They should depend on the fractional Q-hyperbolic distance calculated from the metric, in turn depending only on the shape of the bounded domain and on Δ φ . Numerical simulations of the 3D Ising model on a slab geometry are found to be in agreement with such predictions.
Criticality of spin systems with weak long-range interactions
Defenu N., Codello A., Ruffo S., The study of critical properties of systems with long-range interactions has attracted, in recent decades, a continuing interest and motivated the development of several analytical and numerical techniques, in particular in connection with spin models. From the point of view of the investigation of their criticality, a special role is played by systems in which the interactions are long-range enough that their universality class is different from the short-range case and, nevertheless, they maintain the extensivity of thermodynamical quantities. Such interactions are often called weak long-range. In this paper we focus on the study of the critical behaviour of spin systems with weak-long range couplings using functional renormalization group, and we review their remarkable properties. For the sake of clarity and self-consistency, we start from classical spin models and we then move to quantum spin systems.
Relaxation of Shannon entropy for trapped interacting bosons with dipolar interactions
Bera S., Haldar S.K., Chakrabarti B., Abstract: We study the quantum many-body dynamics and entropy production triggered by an interaction quench of few dipolar bosons in an external harmonic trap. We solve the time-dependent many-body Schrödinger equation by using an in-principle numerically exact many-body method called the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB). We study the dynamical measures with high level of accuracy. We monitor the time evolution of the occupation in the natural orbitals and normalized first- and second-order Glauber’s correlation functions. In particular, we focus on the relaxation dynamics of the Shannon entropy. Comparison with the corresponding results for contact interactions is presented. We observe significant effects coming from the presence of the non-local part of the dipolar interaction. The relaxation process is very fast for dipolar bosons with a clear signature of a truly saturated maximum entropy state. We also discuss the connection between the entropy production and the occurrence of correlations and loss of coherence in the system. We identify the long-time relaxed state as a many-body state retaining only diagonal correlations in the first-order correlation function and building up anti-bunching effect in the second-order correlation function. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]
Critical Transport and Vortex Dynamics in a Thin Atomic Josephson Junction
Xhani K., Neri E., Galantucci L., Scazza F., Burchianti A., Lee K.L., Barenghi C.F., We study the onset of dissipation in an atomic Josephson junction between Fermi superfluids in the molecular Bose-Einstein condensation limit of strong attraction. Our simulations identify the critical population imbalance and the maximum Josephson current delimiting dissipationless and dissipative transport, in quantitative agreement with recent experiments. We unambiguously link dissipation to vortex ring nucleation and dynamics, demonstrating that quantum phase slips are responsible for the observed resistive current. Our work directly connects microscopic features with macroscopic dissipative transport, providing a comprehensive description of vortex ring dynamics in three-dimensional inhomogeneous constricted superfluids at zero and finite temperatures.
Quantum simulating electron transport in quantum cascade laser structures
Scazza F., We propose to use ultracold-fermionic atoms in optical lattices to quantum-simulate electronic transport in quantum-cascade-laser structures. The parallelism between the two systems is discussed.