Ground-state Phase Transitions Research Articles

Hidden quantum criticality and entanglement in quench dynamics

Entanglement exhibits universal behavior near the ground-state critical point where correlations are long ranged and the thermodynamic entropy is vanishing. On the other hand, a quantum quench imparts extensive energy and results in a build up of entropy, hence no critical behavior is expected at long times. In this work, we present a new paradigm in the quench dynamics of integrable spin chains which exhibit a ground-state order-disorder phase transition at a critical line. Specifically, we consider a quench along the critical line which displays a volume-law behavior of the entropy and exponentially decaying correlations; however, we show that quantum criticality is hidden in higher-order correlations and becomes manifest via measures such as the mutual information and logarithmic negativity. Furthermore, we showcase the scale invariance of the Rényi mutual information between disjoint regions as further evidence for genuine critical behavior. We attribute the emergent quantum criticality to the soft mode not getting excited in spite of the quench. Moreover, the results presented here are universal to models whose low-energy or long-wavelength dynamics are well described by a free-fermionic field theory. Our results are amenable to an experimental realization on different quantum simulator platforms, particularly the Rydberg simulators. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Boundary quantum phase transitions in the spin- 12 Heisenberg chain with boundary magnetic fields

We consider the spin $\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg chain with boundary magnetic fields and analyze it using a combination of Bethe ansatz and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) techniques. We show that the system exhibits several different ground states which depend on the orientation of the boundary magnetic fields. When both the boundary fields take equal values greater than a critical field strength, each edge in the ground state accumulates a fractional spin which saturates to spin $\frac{1}{4}$, which is similar to systems exhibiting symmetry protected topological phases (SPT). Unlike in SPT systems, the fractional boundary spin in the Heisenberg spin chain is not a genuine quantum number since the variance of the associated operator does not vanish, this is due to the absence of a bulk gap. The system exhibits high energy bound states when the boundary fields take values greater than the critical field. All the excitations in the system can be sorted out into towers whose number depends on the number of bound states exhibited by the system. As the boundary fields are varied, in addition to the ground state phase transition, we find that the system may undergo an eigenstate phase transition (EPT) where the number of towers of the Hilbert space changes. We further inquire how the EPT reflects itself on local ground state properties by computing the magnetization profile $\langle S^z_j \rangle$ using DMRG. We identify a clear qualitative change from low edge fields to high edge fields when crossing the critical field. We though are unable to conclude on the basis of our data that EPT corresponds to a genuine phase transition in the ground state.

Stability of a skyrmion crystal in a frustrated antiferromagnetic bilayer on a triangular lattice

We studied the processes of formation and conditions of stability of skyrmion lattices during thermodynamic fluctuations in magnetoelectric films, namely, in a frustrated antiferromagnetic/ferroelectric bilayer on a triangular lattice. We calculate the ground state configurations with given parameters using the steepest descent method. We consider the thermodynamic fluctuations in influence of an external magnetic field on the ground state configurations and phase transitions occurring in the model using Monte Carlo simulation.

Defect induced nonequilibrium quantum dynamics in an interacting Bose–Hubbard flux ladder

The interacting Bose–Hubbard flux ladder provides an ideal model to probe novel quantum phenomena of many-body systems. Here, we report on the first direct observation of dynamical quantum phase transition (DQPT) in interacting Bose–Hubbard flux ladder induced by defect perturbation, which provides a new scheme for experimental design and manipulation of the DQPT in ultracold atomic system. Under the mean-field approximation, DQPT is identified by resolving the order parameter and the temporal evolution of patterns of atomic density distributions and local current configurations of the system. The threshold for occurrence of DQPT is obtained analytical and the physical mechanism of DQPT is revealed explicitly. Periodic appearance and annihilation of dynamical vortex and the manifestation of symmetry restoration after perturbation from broken-symmetry phase are observed. A thorough connection among the order parameter dynamics, the underlying ground state phase transition and nonequilibrium dynamics is established in real time and real space for the first time. Interestingly, by quenching the defect, the underlying ground state phases are captured, which provides a feasible dynamical measurement scheme for the observation of the underlying ground state phase which is challenging to reach experimentally.

Magnetized and unmagnetized phases of trapped spin-orbit coupled spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the ground state phases of quasi-one-dimensional spin-orbit coupled spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in harmonic potential. Based on variational analysis, the conditions of phase transition between magnetized and unmagnetized phases are obtained analytically for the first time, and the physical mechanism of inducing phase transition is revealed. The competition relationship among spin-independent interaction, spin-dependent interaction, spin-orbit (SO) coupling and harmonic potential for generating phase transition is discussed systematically. We predict that the spin-dependent interaction plays key role in ground state phase transition. Interestingly, the phase transition of the ground state degenerate to the single particle case in free space when spin-dependent interaction is absent. In addition, the harmonic potential strengthens the influence of atomic interactions on the phase boundary. Our results provide theoretical evidence for deep understanding the ground sate phase transition of the system.

Bessel vortices in spin-orbit-coupled spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates

We investigate the stationary vortex solutions in two-dimensional (2D) Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupled spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). By introducing the generalized momentum operator, the linear version of the system can be solved exactly and its solutions are a set of the Bessel vortices. Based on the linear version solutions, the stationary vortex solutions of the full nonlinear system are constructed and determined entirely by the variational approximation. The results show that the variational results are in good agreement with the numerical ones. By means of the variational results, the vortex ground state phase-transition between the stationary vortex solutions, stability, and the unit Bloch vector textures are discussed in detail. The results have the potential to be realized in experiment.

Simulating groundstate and dynamical quantum phase transitions on a superconducting quantum computer

The phenomena of quantum criticality underlie many novel collective phenomena found in condensed matter systems. They present a challenge for classical and quantum simulation, in part because of diverging correlation lengths and consequently strong finite-size effects. Tensor network techniques that work directly in the thermodynamic limit can negotiate some of these difficulties. Here, we optimise a translationally invariant, sequential quantum circuit on a superconducting quantum device to simulate the groundstate of the quantum Ising model through its quantum critical point. We further demonstrate how the dynamical quantum critical point found in quenches of this model across its quantum critical point can be simulated. Our approach avoids finite-size scaling effects by using sequential quantum circuits inspired by infinite matrix product states. We provide efficient circuits and a variety of error mitigation strategies to implement, optimise and time-evolve these states.

Peratic phase transition by bulk-to-surface response

The study of dynamical phase transitions has been attracting considerable research efforts in the last decade. One theme of present interest is to search for exotic scenarios beyond the framework of equilibrium phase transitions. Here, we establish a duality between many-body dynamics and static Hamiltonian ground states for both classical and quantum systems. We construct frustration free Hamiltonians whose ground state phase transitions have rigorous duality to chaotic transitions in dynamical systems. By this duality, we show the corresponding ground state phase transitions are characterized by bulk-to-surface response, which are then dubbed "peratic" meaning defined by response to the boundary. For the classical system, we show how the time-like dimension emerges in the static ground states. For the quantum system, the ground state is a superposition of geometrical lines on a two dimensional array, which encode the dynamical Floquet evolution history of one dimensional disordered spin chains. Our prediction of peratic phase transition has direct consequences in quantum simulation platforms such as Rydberg atoms and superconducting qubits, as well as anisotropic spin glass materials. The discovery would shed light on the unification of dynamical phase transitions with equilibrium systems.

Tuning the magnetic states in AA-stacked bilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbons

Available reports mentioned that the magnetic ground state in the AA-stacked bilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbons is the non-magnetic state. As a consequence, it is impossible to exploit magnetism for future electronic devices. This paper aims to show how to generate magnetism in the AA-stacked bilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbons by employing ?rst-principles calculations. As we stacked different ribbon widths, the magnetic ground states appeared for all the thicknesses. In general, the G-type antiferromagnetic state, which is the antiferromagnetic alignment between both intraplane- and interplane-edge carbon atoms, is the ground state for all the thicknesses. We also found that the degenerate magnetic ground states and excited states may appear under certain thicknesses, thus yielding the richness of the magnetic state. As hole-electron doping was applied, a phase transition of magnetic ground state emerged for certain thicknesses, indicating that a new magnetic ground state in the AA-stacked bilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbons can be tuned by the doping.

Slow dynamics and large deviations in classical stochastic Fredkin chains.

The Fredkin spin chain serves as an interesting theoretical example of a quantum Hamiltonian whose ground state exhibits a phase transition between three distinct phases, one of which violates the area law. Here we consider a classical stochastic version of the Fredkin model, which can be thought of as a simple exclusion process subject to additional kinetic constraints, and study its classical stochastic dynamics. The ground-state phase transition of the quantum chain implies an equilibrium phase transition in the stochastic problem, whose properties we quantify in terms of numerical matrix product states (MPSs). The stochastic model displays slow dynamics, including power-law decaying autocorrelation functions and hierarchical relaxation processes due to exponential localization. Like in other kinetically constrained models, the Fredkin chain has a rich structure in its dynamical large deviations-which we compute accurately via numerical MPSs-including an active-inactive phase transition and a hierarchy of trajectory phases connected to particular equilibrium states of the model. We also propose, via its height field representation, a generalization of the Fredkin model to two dimensions in terms of constrained dimer coverings of the honeycomb lattice.

Quantum fluctuations and correlations in open quantum Dicke models

In the vicinity of ground-state phase transitions quantum correlations can display non-analytic behavior and critical scaling. This signature of emergent collective effects has been widely investigated within a broad range of equilibrium settings. However, under nonequilibrium conditions, as found in open quantum many-body systems, characterizing quantum correlations near phase transitions is challenging. Moreover, the impact of local and collective dissipative processes on quantum correlations is not broadly understood. This is, however, indispensable for the exploitation of quantum effects in technological applications, such as sensing and metrology. Here we consider as a paradigmatic setting the superradiant phase transition of the open quantum Dicke model and characterize quantum and classical correlations across the phase diagram. We develop an approach to quantum fluctuations which allows us to show that local dissipation, which cannot be treated within the commonly employed Holstein-Primakoff approximation, rather unexpectedly leads to an enhancement of collective quantum correlations, and to the emergence of a nonequilibrium superradiant phase in which the bosonic and spin degrees of freedom of the Dicke model are entangled.

Robust quantum entanglement and teleportation in the tetrapartite spin-1/2 square clusters: Theoretical study on the effect of a cyclic four-spin exchange

The whole entanglement measure so-called geometric Π4 average of tangles and bipartite entanglement of the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 XXX Heisenberg model on a tetranuclear square cluster with cyclic four-spin interaction are rigorously examined by the help of thermal negativities. The model comprises two nearest-neighbor exchange couplings J1 and J2 such that J1≫J2. When the cyclic four-spin exchange is zero, the maximum value of whole entanglement Π4 is achieved at low enough temperatures and relatively high magnetic fields (B≈J1). Also, maximum bipartite entanglement between pair spins with exchange coupling J1 is achievable at high temperature and high magnetic field. This quantity remains alive for sufficiently high temperature and high magnetic field values comparable with the relevant exchange coupling J1. A nonzero value of the cyclic four-spin exchange notably enhances the degree of the whole entanglement, while it weakens the bipartite entanglement degree. We demonstrate that the whole entanglement reaches an unconventional minimum at a special parameter region of cyclic four-spin exchange almost ten order of magnitude smaller than J1, where the system is in a quantum antiferromagnetic state. The real complex [Cu4L4(H2O)4](ClO4)4 as a strong antiferromagnetic tetranuclear square compound provides us an experimental representative to estimate the strength of the whole and bipartite entanglements at high enough temperature. It is demonstrated that the entanglement negativities of this complex are yet depend on the considered cyclic four-spin interaction even though its magnitude is significantly smaller than J1. We realize that the possibility of quantum teleportation through a couple of discrete Cu4II complexes would solely happen for the magnetic fields lower than a critical value. It is also demonstrated that enhancing the cyclic four-spin exchange results in diminishing the average fidelity. Moreover, we conclude that the quantum Fisher information investigated for the pair of spins with exchange interaction J1 reaches its minimum close to the critical magnetic field at which a ground-state phase transition occurs from highly entangled state to separable one.

Entropies and IPR as Markers for a Phase Transition in a Two-Level Model for Atom-Diatomic Molecule Coexistence.

A quantum phase transition (QPT) in a simple model that describes the coexistence of atoms and diatomic molecules is studied. The model, which is briefly discussed, presents a second-order ground state phase transition in the thermodynamic (or large particle number) limit, changing from a molecular condensate in one phase to an equilibrium of diatomic molecules–atoms in coexistence in the other one. The usual markers for this phase transition are the ground state energy and the expected value of the number of atoms (alternatively, the number of molecules) in the ground state. In this work, other markers for the QPT, such as the inverse participation ratio (IPR), and particularly, the Rényi entropy, are analyzed and proposed as QPT markers. Both magnitudes present abrupt changes at the critical point of the QPT.

Similar local neuronal dynamics may lead to different collective behavior.

This report is concerned with the relevance of the microscopic rules that implement individual neuronal activation, in determining the collective dynamics, under variations of the network topology. To fix ideas we study the dynamics of two cellular automaton models, commonly used, rather in-distinctively, as the building blocks of large-scale neuronal networks. One model, due to Greenberg and Hastings (GH), can be described by evolution equations mimicking an integrate-and-fire process, while the other model, due to Kinouchi and Copelli (KC), represents an abstract branching process, where a single active neuron activates a given number of postsynaptic neurons according to a prescribed "activity" branching ratio. Despite the apparent similarity between the local neuronal dynamics of the two models, it is shown that they exhibit very different collective dynamics as a function of the network topology. The GH model shows qualitatively different dynamical regimes as the network topology is varied, including transients to a ground (inactive) state, continuous and discontinuous dynamical phase transitions. In contrast, the KC model only exhibits a continuous phase transition, independently of the network topology. These results highlight the importance of paying attention to the microscopic rules chosen to model the interneuronal interactions in large-scale numerical simulations, in particular when the network topology is far from a mean-field description. One such case is the extensive work being done in the context of the Human Connectome, where a wide variety of types of models are being used to understand the brain collective dynamics.

Designing nonequilibrium states of quantum matter through stochastic resetting

We consider closed quantum many-body systems subject to stochastic resetting. This means that their unitary time evolution is interrupted by resets at randomly selected times. When a reset takes place the system is reinitialized to a state chosen from a set of reset states conditionally on the outcome of a measurement taken immediately before resetting. We construct analytically the resulting non-equilibrium stationary state, thereby establishing an explicit connection between quantum quenches in closed systems and the emergent open system dynamics induced by stochastic resetting. We discuss as an application the paradigmatic transverse-field quantum Ising chain. We show that signatures of its ground-state quantum phase transition are visible in the steady state of the reset dynamics as a sharp crossover. Our findings show that a controlled stochastic resetting dynamics allows to design non-equilibrium stationary states of quantum many-body systems, where uncontrolled dissipation and heating can be prevented. These states can thus be created on demand and exploited, e.g., as a resource for quantum enhanced sensing on quantum simulator platforms.

Non-chiral spin frustration versus highly degenerate ferromagnetic state with local chiral degrees of freedom of an exactly solvable spin-electron planar model of inter-connected trigonal bipyramids

The frustration phenomenon in an exactly solvable spin-electron planar model constituted by identical bipyramidal plaquettes is discussed within the Toulouse’s and dos Santos and Lyra’s frustration concepts. It is shown that the ground state of the model contains the unfrustrated spontaneously ordered quantum ferromagnetic phase with local chiral degrees of freedom in the electron sub-lattice and the disordered quantum one, where both the Ising and electron sub-lattices are frustrated. The frustration of the latter sub-lattice persists at finite temperatures, but only in the disordered region. It finally vanishes at a certain frustration temperature. The reentrant behaviour of the frustration in the electron sub-lattice with three consecutive frustration temperatures due to a competition with the unfrustrated ferromagnetic spin arrangement near the ground-state phase transition can also be observed.

Quantum coherence and ground-state phase transition in a four-chain Bose–Hubbard model

We study the quantum coherence and ground-state phase transition of a four-chain Bose–Hubbard model with the long-range interaction. In a special four-chain Bose–Hubbard model, i.e., each chain only has one optical potential, four types of the ground-state phases are discovered. The effects of the disorder, the on-site interaction and the long-range interaction on the quantum coherence are studied. For the system without the long-range interaction, the quantum coherence changes from one periodic oscillation to two periodic oscillations as the on-site interaction increases. By considering the long-range interaction, the quantum coherence goes back to one periodic oscillation again. The on-site interaction itself suppresses the quantum coherence, both the on-site interaction and long-range interaction together enhance the quantum coherence with the weak disorder. If the disorder strength is increased beyond a critical value, they start to suppress the quantum coherence. In a regular four-chain Bose–Hubbard model, i.e., each chain has many optical potentials, the ground-state phase transitions are obtained by using the cluster Gutzwiller mean-field method. Exotic ground-state phases are found, i.e., superfluid phase, integer Mott insulator phase, supersolid phase and loophole insulator phase. The combination of the loophole insulator phase and the supersolid phase expands the lobes with the half-integer filling per site for the small ratio β = t ∥/t ⊥.

Enhanced magnetocaloric effect in a mixed spin-(1/2, 1) Ising–Heisenberg two-leg ladder with strong–rung interaction

The magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of the mixed spin-(1/2,1) Ising-Heisenberg model on a two-leg ladder with dimer-rung alternation are exactly examined under an adiabatic demagnetization process using the transfer-matrix formalism. We notify that the magnetization curve of the model exhibits plateaux as a function of the applied magnetic field and cyclic four-spin Ising interaction at certain rational fractions of the saturation value. We precisely investigate the ability of cooling/heating of the model nearby the critical points at which discontinuous ground-state phase transition occurs. It is evidenced that the model manifests an enhanced magnetocaloric effect in a proximity of the magnetization steps and jumps, accompanying with the plateaux and jumps of correlation function of the dimer spins. We conclude that not only the cooling/heating capability of the model could be pleasantly demonstrated by the applied magnetic field variations, but also a typical cyclic four-spin Ising interaction plays essential role to determine an efficiency of the magnetocaloric effect of the model.

Ground-state phase and superfluidity of tunable spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates.

We theoretically study the ground-state phases and superfluidity of tunable spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) under the periodic driving of Raman coupling. An effective time-independent Floquet Hamiltonian is proposed by using a high-frequency approximation, and we find single-particle dispersion, spin-orbit-coupling, and asymmetrical nonlinear two-body interaction can be modulated effectively by the periodic driving. The critical Raman coupling characterizing the phase transition and relevant physical quantities in three different phases (the stripe phase, plane-wave phase, and zero momentum phase) are obtained analytically. Our results indicate that the boundary of ground-state phases can be controlled and the system will undergo three different phase transitions by adjusting the external driving. Interestingly, we find the contrast of the stripe density can be enhanced by the periodic driving in the stripe phase. We also study the superfluidity of tunable spin-orbit-coupled BECs and find the dynamical instability can be tuned by the periodic driving of Raman coupling. Furthermore, the sound velocity of the ground-state and superfluidity state can be controlled effectively by tuning the periodic driving strength. Our results indicate that the periodic driving of Raman coupling provides a powerful tool to manipulate the ground-state phase transition and dynamical instability of spin-orbit-coupled BECs.

Polarized and unpolarized phases of spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattice

We investigate the phase transition of the Bose-Einstein condensates with equal-weight Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling trapped in one-dimensional optical lattice. Based on the variational and two-mode approximation, the critical condition for phase transition between polarized and unpolarized Bloch wave phase is obtained analytically for the first time, which explicitly reveals rich competitive relationship among spin-orbit coupling, optical lattice and atomic interactions in determining the phase transition of the system. It is shown that the change of the energy minima and the phase transition point by the optical lattice depends on the atomic interactions and spin-orbit coupling. Our results provide a theoretical evidence for deep understanding of the competition mechanism between the optical lattice and spin-orbit coupling for the ground state phase transition of spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattice.