Collective Ground State Research Articles

Manipulating charge density wave state in kagome compound RbV3Sb5

Owing to the unique electronic structure, kagome materials AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, Cs) provide a fertile platform of quantum phenomena such as the strongly correlated state and topological Dirac band. It is well known that RbV3Sb5 exhibits a 2 × 2 unconventional charge density wave (CDW) state at low temperature, and the mechanism is controversial. Here, by using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS), we successfully manipulated the CDW state in the Sb plane of RbV3Sb5, and realized a new modulation together with the ubiquitous 2 × 2 period in the CDW state of RbV3Sb5. This work provides a new understanding of the collective quantum ground states in the kagome materials.

Nested-open-quantum-systems approach to photonic Bose-Einstein condensation

The photonic Bose-Einstein condensate is a recently observed collective ground state of a coupled light-matter system. We describe this quantum state based on macroscopic quantum electrodynamics in dispersing and absorbing environments. To model the coupled photon-dye dynamics, we derive a master equation using a nested-open-quantum-systems approach yielding all parameters essential to describe the condensation process. This approach allows us to describe photon condensates of arbitrary shapes because all geometry-dependent decay constants can be expressed in terms of the Green's tensor. In particular, we obtain the cavity mode absorption and emission rates of the dye molecules.

Dimensionality-Controlled Evolution of Charge-Transfer Energy in Digital Nickelates Superlattices.

Fundamental understanding and control of the electronic structure evolution in rare‐earth nickelates is a fascinating and meaningful issue, as well as being helpful to understand the mechanism of recently discovered superconductivity. Here the dimensionality effect on the ground electronic state in high‐quality (NdNiO3) m /(SrTiO3)1 superlattices is systematically studied through transport and soft X‐ray absorption spectroscopy. The metal‐to‐insulator transition temperature decreases with the thickness of the NdNiO3 slab decreasing from bulk to 7 unit cells, then increases gradually as m further reduces to 1 unit cell. Spectral evidence demonstrates that the stabilization of insulating phase can be attributed to the increase of the charge‐transfer energy between O 2p and Ni 3d bands. The prominent multiplet feature on the Ni L 3 edge develops with the decrease of NdNiO3 slab thickness, suggesting the strengthening of the charge disproportionate state under the dimensional confinement. This work provides convincing evidence that dimensionality is an effective knob to modulate the charge‐transfer energy and thus the collective ground state in nickelates.

A new class of bilayer kagome lattice compounds with Dirac nodal lines and pressure-induced superconductivity

Kagome lattice composed of transition-metal ions provides a great opportunity to explore the intertwining between geometry, electronic orders and band topology. The discovery of multiple competing orders that connect intimately with the underlying topological band structure in nonmagnetic kagome metals AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, Cs) further pushes this topic to the quantum frontier. Here we report a new class of vanadium-based compounds with kagome bilayers, namely AV6Sb6 (A = K, Rb, Cs) and V6Sb4, which, together with AV3Sb5, compose a series of kagome compounds with a generic chemical formula (Am-1Sb2m)(V3Sb)n (m = 1, 2; n = 1, 2). Theoretical calculations combined with angle-resolved photoemission measurements reveal that these compounds feature Dirac nodal lines in close vicinity to the Fermi level. Pressure-induced superconductivity in AV6Sb6 further suggests promising emergent phenomena in these materials. The establishment of a new family of layered kagome materials paves the way for designer of fascinating kagome systems with diverse topological nontrivialities and collective ground states.

Quantum-metric-enabled exciton condensate in double twisted bilayer graphene

Flat-band systems are a promising platform for realizing exotic collective ground states with spontaneously broken symmetry because the electron-electron interactions dominate over the kinetic energy. A collective ground state of particular interest is the chased after exciton condensate (EC). However, in flat band systems other collective ground states can compete with an EC phase, and the conventional treatment of the effect of thermal and quantum fluctuations predicts the EC phase should be unstable. Here, using double twisted bilayer graphene (TBLG) heterostructures as an example, we show that for realistic interaction strengths the EC phase is favored with respect to other TBLG's phases -- orbital magnetism and superconductivity -- when the TBLGs have opposite doping, and that the quantum metric of the Bloch wave functions stabilizes the EC, reversing the conclusion that would be drawn from the conventional approach in which quantum metric contributions are neglected. Our results suggest that the quantum metric plays a critical role in determining the stability of exciton condensates in double layers formed by systems with flat-bands.

Geometric control of emergent antiferromagnetic order in coupled artificial spin ices

Artificial spin ices (ASIs) composed of coupled nanomagnets offer the possibility to create designer geometrical frustration and manipulate inter-nanomagnet interactions. In particular, by using a dimer motif consisting of two strongly coupled single-domain nanomagnets as a building block, we can control and realize intriguing antiferromagnetic physical states in which the magnetic charge is not conserved. Here we create a dimer kagome ASI system within which the antiferromagnetic order is controlled by tuning lattice geometry. Different disordered antiferromagnetic phases and the inter-nanomagnet interactions are visualized directly in demagnetized lattices with different lattice parameters. Monte Carlo simulations establish that the collective ground state consists of disordered antiferromagnetic dimers across the lattice when the intra-dimer interaction is dominant. However, for lattices governed by intra-triad-unit interactions, the ground state exhibits a long-range spin-ordered state in which the vertex magnetic charge is uniform across all triads.

Collective spontaneous emission of two entangled atoms near an oscillating mirror

We consider the cooperative spontaneous emission of a system of two identical atoms interacting with the electromagnetic field in the vacuum state and in the presence of an oscillating mirror. We assume that the two atoms, one in the ground state and the other in the excited state, are prepared in a correlated (symmetric or antisymmetric) Bell-type state. We also suppose that the perfectly reflecting plate oscillates adiabatically, with the field modes satisfying the boundary conditions at the mirror surface at any given instant, so that the time dependence of the interaction Hamiltonian is entirely enclosed in the instantaneous atom-wall distance. Using time-dependent perturbation theory, we investigate the spectrum of the radiation emitted by the two-atom system, showing how the oscillation of the boundary modifies the features of the emitted spectrum, which exhibits two lateral peaks not present in the case of a static boundary. We also evaluate the transition rate to the collective ground state of the two-atom system in both cases of the superradiant (symmetric) and subradiant (antisymmetric) state. We show that it is modulated in time and that the presence of the oscillating mirror can enhance or inhibit the decay rate compared to the case of atoms in vacuum space or near a static boundary. Our results thus suggest that a dynamical (i.e., time-modulated) environment can offer further possibilities to control and manipulate radiative processes of atoms or molecules nearby, such as the cooperative decay, and strongly indicate a similar possibility for other radiative processes, for example, the resonance interaction and the energy transfer between atoms or molecules.

Radiative process of two entangled uniformly accelerated atoms in a thermal bath: a possible case of anti-Unruh event

We study the radiative process of two entangled two-level atoms uniformly accelerated in a thermal bath, coupled to a massless scalar field. First, by using the positive frequency Wightman function from the Minkowski modes with a Rindler transformation we provide the transition probabilities for the transitions from maximally entangled symmetric and anti-symmetric Bell states to the collective excited or ground state in (1 + 1) and (1 + 3) dimensions. We observe a possible case of anti-Unruh-like event in these transition probabilities, though the (1+1) and (1+3) dimensional results are not completely equivalent. We infer that thermal bath plays a major role in the occurrence of the anti-Unruh-like effect, as it is also present in the transition probabilities corresponding to a single detector in this case. Second, we have considered the Green’s functions in terms of the Rindler modes with the vacuum of Unruh modes for estimating the same. Here the anti-Unruh effect appears only for the transition from the anti-symmetric state to the collective excited or ground state. It is noticed that here the (1 + 1) and (1 + 3) dimensional results are equivalent, and for a single detector, we do not observe any anti-Unruh effect. This suggests that the entanglement between the states of the atoms is the main cause for the observed anti-Unruh effect in this case. In going through the investigation, we find that the transition probability for a single detector case is symmetric under the interchange between the thermal bath’s temperature and the Unruh temperature for Rindler mode analysis; whereas this is not the case for Minkowski mode. We further comment on whether this observation may shed light on the analogy between an accelerated observer and a real thermal bath. An elaborate investigation for the classifications of our observed anti-Unruh effects, i.e., either weak or strong anti-Unruh effect, is also thoroughly demonstrated.

Search for the 1/2+ intruder state in P35

The excitation energy of deformed intruder states (specifically the 2p2h bandhead) as a function of proton number $Z$ along $N=20$ is of interest both in terms of better understanding the evolution of nuclear structure between spherical $^{40}$Ca and the Island of Inversion nuclei, and for benchmarking theoretical descriptions in this region. At the center of the $N=20$ Island of Inversion, the npnh (where n=2,4,6) neutron excitations across a diminished $N=20$ gap result in deformed and collective ground states, as observed in $^{32}$Mg. In heavier isotones, npnh excitations do not dominate in the ground states, but are present in the relatively low-lying level schemes. With the aim of identifying the expected 2p2h$\otimes\mathrm{s}_{1/2^+}$ state in $^{35}$P, the only $N=20$ isotone for which the neutron 2p2h excitation bandhead has not yet been identified, the $^{36}$S(d,$^3$He)$^{35}$P reaction has been revisited in inverse kinematics with the HELical Orbit Spectrometer (HELIOS) at the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS). While a candidate state has not been located, an upper limit for the transfer reaction cross-section to populate such a configuration within a 2.5 to 3.6\,MeV energy range, provides a stringent constraint on the wavefunction compositions in both $^{36}$S and $^{35}$P.

Simulated annealing with surface acoustic wave in a dipole-coupled array of magnetostrictive nanomagnets for collective ground state computing

There is significant current interest in using arrays of interacting nanomagnets as efficient hardware platforms to solve difficult computational problems such as image processing, computer vision or combinatorial optimization. Problem variables are encoded in the magnetization states of the nanomagnets and the array is allowed to relax to the ground state, wherein the magnetic order represents the solution to the problem. This strategy is energy-frugal and ultrafast, since it does not involve software (executing instruction sets), but unfortunately it fails if the system gets stuck in a metastable state from which it cannot escape to the ground state. Here, we demonstrate, in a small system of dipole-coupled 3 × 3 array of magnetostrictive nanomagnets fabricated on a piezoelectric substrate, how the system can be driven out of the metastable state into the ground state with a surface acoustic wave. This process emulates ‘simulated annealing’, which is a well-known algorithm of finding the optimal solution of a function (representing the ground state) by driving the function out of a sub-optimal solution (representing a metastable state) by following a sequence of steps.

Collective ground states in small lattices of coupled quantum dots

Motivated by recent developments on the fabrication and control of semiconductor-based quantum dot qubits, we theoretically study a finite system of tunnel-coupled quantum dots with the electrons interacting through the long-range Coulomb interaction. When the inter-electron separation is large and the quantum dot confinement potential is weak, the system behaves as an effective Wigner crystal with a period determined by the electron average density with considerable electron hopping throughout the system. For stronger periodic confinement potentials, however, the system makes a crossover to a Mott-type strongly correlated ground state where the electrons are completely localized at the individual dots with little inter-dot tunneling. In between these two phases, the system is essentially a strongly correlated electron liquid with inter-site electron hopping constrained by strong Coulomb interaction. We characterize this Wigner-Mott-liquid quantum crossover with detailed numerical finite-size diagonalization calculations of the coupled interacting qubit system, showing that these phases can be smoothly connected by tuning the system parameters. Experimental feasibility of observing such a hopping-tuned Wigner-Mott-liquid crossover in currently available semiconductor quantum dot qubits is discussed. In particular, we connect our theoretical results to recent quantum-dot-based quantum emulation experiments where collective Coulomb blockade was demonstrated. One conclusion of our theory is that currently available realistic quantum dot arrays are unable to explore the low-density Wigner phase with only the Mott-liquid crossover being accessible experimentally.

Generation of three-dimensional entanglement between two antiblockade Rydberg atoms with detuning-compensation-induced effective resonance

We propose a scheme for generating the three-dimensional (3D) entanglement between two Rydberg atoms. Two laser fields are imposed to drive two transitions of each atom. The Rydberg antiblockade is induced through the suitable choice of the relation among parameters. We propose to offset Stark shifts by introducing detuning compensation so as to induce an effective resonant three-level system concluding two collective ground states and the double-excitation state, instead of introducing the complicated auxiliary levels and laser fields. Four 3D entangled states are calculated out, and numerical simulations show that the high-fidelity 3D entanglement can be generated. The effect of the spontaneous radiations of the Rydberg states on the generation of the 3D entanglement is analyzed. In addition, we show the numerical search algorithm so as to get optimized parameters for shortening operation time and thus decreasing the decoherence accumulation.

Being in the Anthropocene

We live in the anthropocene, the era of global warming. How are Americans responding to this predicament? To answer the question we need a philosophical concept of a collective mood and then empirical support to make it concrete. The result is a collective ground state. It has gone through the stages of confident prosperity, the dissolution of that confidence, the present state of anxious disorientation, and the hopeful prospect of grounded responsibility.

Geometric and Conventional Contribution to the Superfluid Weight in Twisted Bilayer Graphene.

By tuning the angle between graphene layers to specific "magic angles" the lowest energy bands of twisted bilayer graphene (TBLG) can be made flat. The flat nature of the bands favors the formation of collective ground states and, in particular, TBLG has been shown to support superconductivity. When the energy bands participating in the superconductivity are well isolated, the superfluid weight scales inversely with the effective mass of such bands. For flat band systems one would therefore conclude that even if superconducting pairing is present, most of the signatures of the superconducting state should be absent. This conclusion is at odds with the experimental observations for TBLG. We calculate the superfluid weight for TBLG taking into account both the conventional contribution and the contribution arising from the quantum geometry of the bands. We find that both contributions are larger than one would expect treating the bands as well isolated, that at the magic angle the geometric contribution is larger than the conventional one, and that for small deviations away from the magic angle the conventional contribution is larger than the geometric one. Our results show that, despite the flatness of the bands the superfluid weight in TBLG is finite and consistent with experimental observations. We also show how the superfluid weight can be tuned by varying the chemical potential and the twist angle opening the possibility to tune the nature of the superconducting transition between the standard BCS transition and the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition.

Engineering of entanglement and spin state transfer via quantum chains of atomic spins at large separations

Several recent experiments have shown that long-range exchange interactions can determine collective magnetic ground states of nanostructures in bulk and on surfaces. The ability to generate and control entanglement in a system with long-range interaction will be of great importance for future quantum technology. An important step forward to reach this goal is the creation of entangled states for spins of distant magnetic atoms. Herein, the generation of long-distance entanglement between remote spins at large separations in bulk and on surface is studied theoretically, based on a quantum spin Hamiltonian and time-dependent Schrödinger equation for experimentally realized conditions. We demonstrate that long-distance entanglement can be generated between remote spins by using an appropriate quantum spin chain (a quantum mediator), composed by sets of antiferromagnetically coupled spin dimers. Ground state properties and quantum spin dynamics of entangled atoms are studied. We demonstrate that one can increase or suppress entanglement by adding a single spin in the mediator. The obtained result is explained by monogamy property of entanglement distribution inside a quantum spin system. We present a novel approach for non-local sensing of remote magnetic adatoms via spin entanglement.

Nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation with Rydberg superatoms

Nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation has received increasing attention due to its robustness against control errors as well as high-speed realization. Several schemes of its implementation have been put forward based on various physical systems, each of which has some particular merits. In this paper, we put forward an alternative scheme of nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation, in which a universal set of quantum gates is realized based on Rydberg superatoms. A Rydberg superatom is a mesoscopic atomic ensemble that allows for only a single Rydberg excitation shared by many atoms within a blockade radius and can be used to generate the collective states to encode the qubits. In our scheme, the qubit is encoded into two collective ground states of Rydberg superatoms and the interaction between two long-range Rydberg superatoms is mediated by a microwave cavity with the aid of two additional collective Rydberg states. Different from the previous schemes,which are based on the systems in the microscope scale, the present scheme is based on atomic ensembles in the mesoscopic scale. Besides the common merits of nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation such as the robustness and the speediness, the Rydberg-superatom-based scheme has the following particular merits: the long coherence time of Rydberg states and the operability of the mesoscopic systems.

One-step construction of the multiple-qubit Rydberg controlled-phase gate

Although the three-body Rydberg antiblockade regime (RABR) can produce Rabi oscillation between the Rydberg collective excited state and the collective ground state, it is still hard to use the RABR to construct the three-qubit quantum logic gate in one step since the effective Hamiltonian is always accompanied by undesired Stark shifts. In order to overcome this difficulty, an additional laser is introduced to eliminate the Stark shifts in the ground-state subspace. And the initial RABR condition is modified to eliminate the remaining undesired Stark shifts in the collective-excitation subspace. The modified RABR is then generalized to the $n (ng3)$-qubit case. Based on the proposed regime, one-step schemes to construct three- and $n$-qubit quantum controlled-PHASE gates are proposed without the requirement of atomic addressability. The asymmetric Rydberg-Rydberg interaction, which is more practical for Rydberg atoms, is also discussed and proven to be feasible for the modified RABR and quantum controlled-PHASE gate in theory. A full-Hamiltonian-based master equation is used to evaluate the performance and some experimental parameters are also considered.

Fission properties of superheavy nuclei for r -process calculations

We computed a new set of static fission properties suited for r-process calculations. The potential energy surfaces and collective inertias of 3640 nuclei in the superheavy region are obtained from Self-Consistent Mean-Field calculations using the Barcelona-Catania-Paris-Madrid energy density functional. The fission path is computed as a function of the quadrupole moment by minimizing the potential energy and exploring octupole and hexadecapole deformations. The spontaneous fission lifetimes are evaluated employing different schemes for the collective inertias and vibrational energy corrections. This allows to explore the sensitivity of the lifetimes to those quantities together with the collective ground state energy along the superheavy landscape. We computed neutron induced stellar reaction rates relevant for r-process nucleosynthesis using the statistical approach and study the impact of collective inertias. The competition between different reaction channels including neutron induced rates, spontaneous fission and alpha decay is discussed for typical r-process conditions.

Endohedral Metallofullerene as Molecular High Spin Qubit: Diverse Rabi Cycles in Gd2@C79N.

An anisotropic high-spin qubit with long coherence time could scale the quantum system up. It has been proposed that Grover's algorithm can be implemented in such systems. Dimetallic aza[80]fullerenes M2@C79N (M = Y or Gd) possess an unpaired electron located between two metal ions, offering an opportunity to manipulate spin(s) protected in the cage for quantum information processing. Herein, we report the crystallographic determination of Gd2@C79N for the first time. This molecular magnet with a collective high-spin ground state (S = 15/2) generated by strong magnetic coupling (JGd-Rad = 350 ± 20 cm-1) has been unambiguously validated by magnetic susceptibility experiments. Gd2@C79N has quantum coherence and diverse Rabi cycles, allowing arbitrary superposition state manipulation between each adjacent level. The phase memory time reaches 5 μs at 5 K by dynamic decoupling. This molecule fulfills the requirements of Grover's searching algorithm proposed by Leuenberger and Loss.

Tuning the collective decay of two entangled emitters by means of a nearby surface

We consider the radiative properties of a system of two identical correlated atoms interacting with the electromagnetic field in its vacuum state in the presence of a generic dielectric environment. We suppose that the two emitters are prepared in a symmetric or antisymmetric superposition of one ground state and one excited state and we evaluate the transition rate to the collective ground state, showing distinctive cooperative radiative features. Using a macroscopic quantum electrodynamics approach to describe the electromagnetic field, we first obtain an analytical expression for the decay rate of the two entangled two-level atoms in terms of the Green’s tensor of the generic external environment. We then investigate the emission process when both atoms are in free space and, subsequently, when a perfectly reflecting mirror is present, showing how the boundary affects the physical features of the superradiant and subradiant emission by the two coupled emitters. The possibility to control and tailor radiative processes is also discussed.