Many-body Excitations Research Articles

Partial node configuration-interaction Monte Carlo as applied to the Fermi polaron

Finding the ground state of a fermionic Hamiltonian using quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) is a very difficult problem, due to the Fermi sign problem. While still scaling exponentially, full configuration-interaction Monte Carlo (FCIQMC) mitigates some of the exponential variance by allowing annihilation of noise---whenever two walkers arrive at the same configuration with opposite signs, they are removed from the simulation. While FCIQMC has been quite successful for quantum chemistry problems, its application to problems in condensed systems has been limited. In this paper, we apply the FCIQMC algorithm to the Fermi polaron problem, which provides an ideal test bed for improving the algorithm, although since we restrict the number of many-body excitations, our algorithm is more precisely a QMC implementation of the configuration-interaction method (CIQMC). In its simplest form, CIQMC is unstable for even a fairly small system sizes. However, with a series of algorithmic improvements, we are able to significantly increase its effectiveness. We modify fixed node QMC to work in these systems, introduce a well chosen importance sampled trial wave function, a partial node approximation, and a variant of release node. Finally, we develop a way to perform CIQMC directly in the thermodynamic limit.

Relaxation explosion of a quantum degenerate exciton gas in Cu2O

We present our recent experimental studies on anomalous luminescence and its connection to Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) transition of dark excitons in a bulk semiconductor. Our sensitive and quantitative detection of this nonluminous quasi-particle using hydrogen-like internal transitions allows obtaining continuous spectra of dark excitons using a quantum cascade laser. According to quantitative measurements on the two-body inelastic collision cross section of excitons, the system needs to be cooled to sub-Kelvin temperatures. We discuss in detail our recent observation of an explosive phenomenon when the BEC criterion is satisfied (Yoshioka et al 2011 Nature Commun. 2 328) for trapped excitons using a helium-3 refrigerator, and outline a plausible scenario when the BEC transition occurs in an inelastic environment. We also discuss how to increase the condensate fraction in order to study the unique ground state of many-body electric excitations in solids.

Strongly Interacting Rydberg Excitations of a Cold Atomic Gas

Highly excited Rydberg atoms have many exaggerated properties. In particular, the interaction strength between such atoms can be varied over an enormous range. In a mesoscopic ensemble, such strong, long-range interactions can be used for fast preparation of desired many-particle states. We generated Rydberg excitations in an ultra-cold atomic gas and subsequently converted them into light. As the principal quantum number n was increased beyond ~70, no more than a single excitation was retrieved from the entire mesoscopic ensemble of atoms. These results hold promise for studies of dynamics and disorder in many-body systems with tunable interactions and for scalable quantum information networks.

Low-energy scale excitations in the spectral function of organic monolayer systems

Using high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy we demonstrate that the electronic structure of several organic monolayer systems, in particular 1,4,5,8-naphthalene tetracarboxylic dianhydride and Copper-phtalocyanine on Ag(111), is characterized by a peculiar excitation feature right at the Fermi level. This feature displays a strong temperature dependence and is immediatly connected to the binding energy of the molecular states, determined by the coupling between the molecule and the substrate. At low temperatures, the line-width of this feature, appearing on top of the partly occupied lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the free molecule, amounts to only $\approx 25$ meV, representing an unusually small energy scale for electronic excitations in these systems. We discuss possible origins, related e.g. to many-body excitations in the organic-metal adsorbate system, in particular a generalized Kondo scenario based on the single impurity Anderson model.

Proposal for detecting spin-chirality terms in Mott insulators via resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

We consider the question of whether resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) can be used to detect many-body excitations that are coupled to the spin-chirality terms S_i . (S_j x S_k) in a Mott insulator. We find that while the spin-chirality terms are in general absent in the usual experimental setups of RIXS, there are prospects of realizing such terms if one considers instead the scattering near a pre-edge. We then perform detailed analyses for the square and the kagome lattices, and brief analyses for the triangular and the honeycomb lattices, in which we show that the spin-chirality terms are indeed present in all the above lattices, but that they occur at a higher order in our expansion for the kagome and the honeycomb lattices. The merit of using RIXS in addition to Raman spectroscopy to detect excitations that are coupled to the spin-chirality terms is also briefly discussed in the context of the emergent gauge boson in the U(1) Dirac spin liquid.

Localization of Bogoliubov quasiparticles in interacting Bose gases with correlated disorder

We study the Anderson localization of Bogoliubov quasiparticles (elementary many-body excitations) in a weakly interacting Bose gas of chemical potential $\ensuremath{\mu}$ subjected to a disordered potential $V$. We introduce a general mapping (valid for weak inhomogeneous potentials in any dimension) of the Bogoliubov--de Gennes equations onto a single-particle Schr\"odinger-like equation with an effective potential. For disordered potentials, the Schr\"odinger-like equation accounts for the scattering and localization properties of the Bogoliubov quasiparticles. We derive analytically the localization lengths for correlated disordered potentials in the one-dimensional geometry. Our approach relies on a perturbative expansion in $V/\ensuremath{\mu}$, which we develop up to third order, and we discuss the impact of the various perturbation orders. Our predictions are shown to be in very good agreement with direct numerical calculations. We identify different localization regimes: For low energy, the effective disordered potential exhibits a strong screening by the quasicondensate density background, and localization is suppressed. For high-energy excitations, the effective disordered potential reduces to the bare disordered potential, and the localization properties of quasiparticles are the same as for free particles. The maximum of localization is found at intermediate energy when the quasicondensate healing length is of the order of the disorder correlation length. Possible extensions of our work to higher dimensions are also discussed.

Revealing the high-energy electronic excitations underlying the onset of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates

In strongly correlated systems the electronic properties at the Fermi energy (EF) are intertwined with those at high-energy scales. One of the pivotal challenges in the field of high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC) is to understand whether and how the high-energy scale physics associated with Mott-like excitations (|E−EF|>1 eV) is involved in the condensate formation. Here, we report the interplay between the many-body high-energy CuO2 excitations at 1.5 and 2 eV, and the onset of HTSC. This is revealed by a novel optical pump-supercontinuum-probe technique that provides access to the dynamics of the dielectric function in Bi2Sr2Ca0.92Y0.08Cu2O8+δ over an extended energy range, after the photoinduced suppression of the superconducting pairing. These results unveil an unconventional mechanism at the base of HTSC both below and above the optimal hole concentration required to attain the maximum critical temperature (Tc).

Cooper pair insulators and theory of correlated superconductors

The pseudogap state of cuprate high-temperature superconductors has been often viewed as either a yet unknown competing order or a precursor state to superconductivity. While awaiting the resolution of the pseudogap problem in cuprates, we demonstrate that local pairing fluctuations, vortex liquid dynamics, and other precursor phenomena can emerge quite generally whenever fermionic excitations remain gapped across the superconducting transition, regardless of the gap origin. Our choice of a tractable model is a lattice band insulator with short-range attractive interactions between fermions in the $s$-wave channel. An effective crossover between Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) and Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) regimes can be identified in any band insulator above two dimensions, while in two dimensions only the BEC regime exists. The superconducting transition is ``unconventional'' (non-pair-breaking) in the BEC regime, identified by either the bosonic mean field or $\mathit{XY}$ universality class. The insulator adjacent to the superconductor in the BEC regime is a bosonic Mott insulator of Cooper pairs, which may be susceptible to charge density wave ordering. We construct a function of the many-body excitation spectrum whose nonanalytic changes define a sharp distinction between band and Mott insulators. The corresponding ``second-order transition'' can be observed out of equilibrium by driving a Cooper pair laser in the Mott insulator. We explicitly show that the gap for charged bosonic excitations lies below the threshold for Cooper pair breakup in any BEC regime, despite quantum fluctuations. Our discussion ends with a view of possible consequences for cuprates, where antinodal pair dynamics has certain features in common with our simple $s$-wave picture.

Correlated Electron Effects in Low EnergySr+Ion Scattering

Resonant charge transfer during low energy ion scattering reveals correlated-electron behavior at high temperature. The valence electron of a singly charged alkaline-earth ion is a magnetic impurity that interacts with the continuum of many-body excitations in the metal, leading to Kondo and mixed valence resonances near the Fermi energy. The occupation of these resonances is acutely sensitive to the surface temperature, which results in a marked temperature dependence of the ion neutralization. We report such a dependence for low energy Sr(+) scattered from polycrystalline gold.

Interplay between excitation kinetics and reaction-center dynamics in purple bacteria

Photosynthesis is arguably the fundamental process of life, since it enables energy from the Sun to enter the food chain on the Earth. It is a remarkable non-equilibrium process in which photons are converted to many-body excitations, which traverse a complex biomolecular membrane, where they are captured and fuel chemical reactions within a reaction center (RC) in order to produce nutrients. The precise nature of these dynamical processes—which lie at the interface between quantum and classical behavior and involve both noise and coordination—is still being explored. Here, we focus on a striking recent empirical finding concerning an illumination-driven transition in the biomolecular membrane architecture of the purple bacteria Rsp. photometricum. Using stochastic realizations to describe a hopping rate model for excitation transfer, we show numerically and analytically that this surprising shift in preferred architectures can be traced to the interplay between the excitation kinetics and the RC dynamics. The net effect is that the bacteria profit from efficient metabolism at low illumination intensities while using dissipation to avoid an oversupply of energy at high illumination intensities.

Fermi-surface collapse and dynamical scaling near a quantum-critical point

Quantum criticality arises when a macroscopic phase of matter undergoes a continuous transformation at zero temperature. While the collective fluctuations at quantum-critical points are being increasingly recognized as playing an important role in a wide range of quantum materials, the nature of the underlying quantum-critical excitations remains poorly understood. Here we report in-depth measurements of the Hall effect in the heavy-fermion metal YbRh(2)Si(2), a prototypical system for quantum criticality. We isolate a rapid crossover of the isothermal Hall coefficient clearly connected to the quantum-critical point from a smooth background contribution; the latter exists away from the quantum-critical point and is detectable through our studies only over a wide range of magnetic field. Importantly, the width of the critical crossover is proportional to temperature, which violates the predictions of conventional theory and is instead consistent with an energy over temperature, E/T, scaling of the quantum-critical single-electron fluctuation spectrum. Our results provide evidence that the quantum-dynamical scaling and a critical Kondo breakdown simultaneously operate in the same material. Correspondingly, we infer that macroscopic scale-invariant fluctuations emerge from the microscopic many-body excitations associated with a collapsing Fermi-surface. This insight is expected to be relevant to the unconventional finite-temperature behavior in a broad range of strongly correlated quantum systems.

Multiple pre-edge structures in CuK-edge x-ray absorption spectra of high-Tccuprates revealed by high-resolution x-ray absorption spectroscopy

Using high-resolution x-ray absorption spectroscopy and state-of-the-art electronic structure calculations we demonstrate that the pre-edge region at the Cu $K$ edge of high-${T}_{c}$ cuprates is composed of several excitations invisible in standard x-ray absorption spectra. We consider in detail the case of ${\text{Ca}}_{2\ensuremath{-}x}{\text{CuO}}_{2}{\text{Cl}}_{2}$ and show that the many pre-edge excitations (two for $c$-axis polarization, four for in-plane polarization and out-of-plane incident x-ray momentum) are dominated by off-site transitions and intersite hybridization. This demonstrates the relevance of approaches beyond the single-site model for the description of the pre edges of correlated materials. Finally, we show the occurrence of a doubling of the main edge peak that is most visible when the polarization is along the $c$ axis. This doubling, that has not been seen in any previous absorption data in cuprates, is not reproduced by first-principles calculations. We suggest that this peak is due to many-body charge-transfer excitations while all the other visible far-edge structures are single particle in origin. Our work indicates that previous interpretations of the Cu $K$-edge x-ray absorption spectra in high-${T}_{c}$ cuprates can be profitably reconsidered.

Physical meaning of the natural orbitals: Analysis of exactly solvable models

We investigate the suitability of natural orbitals as a basis for describing many-body excitations. We analyze to which extent the natural orbitals describe both bound as well as ionized excited states and show that depending on the specifics of the excited state the ground-state natural orbitals may yield a good approximation. We show that the success of reduced density-matrix functional theory in describing molecular dissociation lies in the flexibility provided by fractional occupation numbers while the role of the natural orbitals is minor.

Creating collective many-body states with highly excited atoms

We study the collective excitation of a gas of highly excited atoms confined to a large spacing ring lattice, where the ground and the excited states are coupled resonantly via a laser field. Our attention is focused on the regime where the interaction between the highly excited atoms is very weak in comparison to the Rabi frequency of the laser. We demonstrate that in this case the many-body excitations of the system can be expressed in terms of free spinless fermions. The complex many-particle states arising in this regime are characterized and their properties, e.g. their correlation functions, are studied. In addition we investigate how one can actually experimentally access some of these many-particle states by a temporal variation of the laser parameters.

Observation of Carrier-Density-Dependent Many-Body Effects in Graphene via Tunneling Spectroscopy

We find the scanning tunneling spectra of backgated graphene monolayers to be significantly altered by many-body excitations. Experimental features in the spectra arising from electron-plasmon interactions show carrier density dependence, distinguishing them from density-independent electron-phonon features. Using a straightforward model, we are able to calculate theoretical tunneling spectra that agree well with our data, providing insight into the effects of many-body interactions on the lifetime of graphene quasiparticles.

Spin-dependent dipole excitation in alkali-metal nanoparticles

We study the spin-dependent electronic excitations in alkali-metal nanoparticles. Using numerical and analytical approaches, we focus on the resonances in the response to spin-dependent dipole fields. In the spin-dipole absorption spectrum for closed-shell systems, we investigate in detail the lowest-energy excitation, the ``surface paramagnon'' predicted by Serra et al. [Phys. Rev. A 47, R1601 (1993)]. We estimate its frequency from simple assumptions for the dynamical magnetization density. In addition, we numerically determine the dynamical magnetization density for all low-energy spin-dipole modes in the spectrum. Those many-body excitations can be traced back to particle-hole excitations of the noninteracting system. In open-shell systems, the spin-dipole response to an electrical dipole field is found to increase proportionally with the ground-state spin polarization.

Unified mechanisms for structural relaxation and crystallization in phase-change memory devices

Data retention in phase-change memory (PCM) devices is the result of two physical phenomena: structural relaxation (SR) and crystallization of the amorphous chalcogenide material. Although the two processes are rather different, we show in this paper that a common physical interpretation for SR and crystallization kinetics is possible. Activation energies and Arrhenius pre-factors for SR and crystallization are found to coherently obey a Meyer–Neldel rule and are explained by many-body thermal excitation of weakly-bonded and normally-bonded clusters, respectively.

Short-time Enhancement of the Decay of Coherent Excitations in Bose-Einstein Condensates

We study, both experimentally and theoretically, short-time modifications of the decay of excitations in a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) embedded in an optical lattice. Strong enhancement of the decay is observed compared to the Golden Rule results. This enhancement of decay increases with the lattice depth. It indicates that the description of decay modifications of few-body quantum systems also holds for decay of many-body excitations of a BEC.

Common signature of many-body thermal excitation in structural relaxation and crystallization of chalcogenide glasses

The structural stability of amorphous chalcogenides used in electrical and optical phase-change devices is critically affected by structural relaxation (SR) and crystallization. We studied the temperature activation of SR and crystallization in amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5. We demonstrate that SR and crystallization coherently obey the same Meyer–Neldel (MN) rule, evidencing the key role of many-body thermal excitation in these transformations. The different activation energies for SR and crystallization are discussed based on the strength and number of bonds to be rearranged during the transitions. The MN rule provides a straightforward explanation of the unphysical pre-exponential times (10−24–10−22 s) observed in chalcogenide glasses.

Local Density of States for Individual Energy Levels in Finite Quantum Wires

The local density of states in finite quantum wires is calculated as a function of discrete energies and position along the wire. By using a combination of numerical density matrix renormalization group calculations and analytical bosonization techniques, it is possible to obtain a good understanding of the local spectral weights along the wire in terms of the underlying many-body excitations.