Power-law Singularity Research Articles

Taming the Goldstone contributions to the effective potential

The standard perturbative effective potential suffers from two related problems of principle involving the field-dependent Goldstone boson squared mass, G. First, in general G can be negative, and it actually is negative in the Standard Model; this leads to imaginary contributions to the effective potential that are not associated with a physical instability, and therefore spurious. Second, in the limit that G approaches zero, the effective potential minimization condition is logarithmically divergent already at two-loop order, and has increasingly severe power-law singularities at higher loop orders. I resolve both issues by resumming the Goldstone boson contributions to the effective potential. For the resulting resummed effective potential, the minimum value and the minimization condition that gives the vacuum expectation value are obtained in forms that do not involve G at all.

Particle propagator of the spin Calogero–Sutherland model

Explicit-exact expressions for the particle propagator of the spin 1/2 Calogero–Sutherland model are derived for the system of a finite number of particles and for that in the thermodynamic limit. Derivation of the expression in the thermodynamic limit is also presented in detail. Combining this result with the hole propagator obtained in earlier studies, we calculate the spectral function of the single particle Green's function in the full range of the energy and momentum space. The resultant spectral function exhibits power-law singularity characteristic to correlated particle systems in one dimension.

On transition from Alfvén resonance to forced magnetic reconnection

We revisit the transition from Alfvén resonance to forced magnetic reconnection with a focus on the property of their singularities. As the driven frequency tends to zero, the logarithmic singularity of Alfvén resonance shifts to the power-law singularity of forced reconnection, due to merging of the two resonance layers. The transition criterion depends on either kinetic effects or dissipations that resolve the singularity. As an example, a small but finite resistivity η is introduced to investigate the transition process. The transition threshold is then obtained as the driven frequency reaches a level of ∼O((η/k)1/3).

Edge physics of the quantum spin Hall insulator from a quantum dot excited by optical absorption.

The gapless edge modes of the quantum spin Hall insulator form a helical liquid in which the direction of motion along the edge is determined by the spin orientation of the electrons. In order to probe the Luttinger liquid physics of these edge states and their interaction with a magnetic (Kondo) impurity, we consider a setup where the helical liquid is tunnel coupled to a semiconductor quantum dot that is excited by optical absorption, thereby inducing an effective quantum quench of the tunneling. At low energy, the absorption spectrum is dominated by a power-law singularity. The corresponding exponent is directly related to the interaction strength (Luttinger parameter) and can be computed exactly using boundary conformal field theory thanks to the unique nature of the quantum spin Hall edge.

Linear response of a one-dimensional conductor coupled to a dynamical impurity with a Fermi edge singularity

I study the dynamical correlations that a quantum impurity induces in the Fermi sea to which it is coupled. I consider a quantum transport set-up in which the impurity can be realised in a double quantum dot. The same Hamiltonian describes tunnelling states in metallic glasses, and can be mapped onto the Ohmic spin-boson model. It exhibits a Fermi edge singularity, i.e. many fermion correlations result in an impurity decay rate with a non-trivial power law energy dependence. I show that there is a simple relation between temporal impurity correlations on the one hand, and the linear response of the Fermi sea to external perturbations on the other. This results in a power law singularity in the space and time dependence of the non-local polarisability of the Fermi sea, which can be detected in transport experiments.

Structure factor of interacting one-dimensional helical systems

We calculate the dynamical structure factor $S(q,\ensuremath{\omega})$ of a weakly interacting helical edge state in the presence of a magnetic field $B$. The latter opens a gap of width $2B$ in the single-particle spectrum, which becomes strongly nonlinear near the Dirac point. For chemical potentials $|\ensuremath{\mu}|>B$, the system then behaves as a nonlinear helical Luttinger liquid, and a mobile-impurity analysis reveals power-law singularities in $S(q,\ensuremath{\omega})$ which depend on the interaction strength as well as on the spin texture of the edge states. For $|\ensuremath{\mu}|<B$, the low-energy excitations are gapped, and we determine $S(q,\ensuremath{\omega})$ by using an analogy to exciton physics.

Interaction quench in nonequilibrium Luttinger liquids

We study the relaxation dynamics of a nonequilibrium Tomonaga-Luttinger model after a sudden interaction switch-on (``quench''), focusing on a double-step initial momentum distribution function. In the framework of the nonequilibrium bosonization, the results are obtained in terms of singular Fredholm determinants that are evaluated numerically and whose asymptotics are found analytically. While the quasiparticle weights decay exponentially with time after the quench, this is not a relaxation into a thermal state, in view of the integrability of the model. The steady-state distribution emerging at infinite times retains two edges which support Luttinger-liquid-like power-law singularities smeared by dephasing. The obtained critical exponents and the dephasing length are found to depend on the initial nonequilibrium state.

Singularity of Inertial Particle Concentration in the Viscous Sublayer of Wall-bounded Turbulent Flows

The exact kinetic equation for probability density function (PDF) of the velocity and the position of inertial particle transported by turbulent non-Gaussian fluid velocity fields in the viscous sublayer of wall-bounded turbulent flow is analyzed by the method of matched asymptotic expansions. It is shown that the particle concentration near the wall exhibits a power-law singularity giving rise to the phenomenon of particle accumulation. It is shown how the corresponding exponent depends upon the particle Stokes number. The result is in good agreement with previously published results of numerical simulations. A corresponding singularity is found for the standardized higher-order moments of particle velocity.

Commutative law for products of infinitely large isotropic random matrices

Ensembles of isotropic random matrices are defined by the invariance of the probability measure under the left (and right) multiplication by an arbitrary unitary matrix. We show that the multiplication of large isotropic random matrices is spectrally commutative and self-averaging in the limit of infinite matrix size N→∞. The notion of spectral commutativity means that the eigenvalue density of a product ABC... of such matrices is independent of the order of matrix multiplication, for example, the matrix ABCD has the same eigenvalue density as ADCB. In turn, the notion of self-averaging means that the product of n independent but identically distributed random matrices, which we symbolically denote by AAA..., has the same eigenvalue density as the corresponding power A(n) of a single matrix drawn from the underlying matrix ensemble. For example, the eigenvalue density of ABCCABC is the same as that of A(2)B(2)C(3). We also discuss the singular behavior of the eigenvalue and singular value densities of isotropic matrices and their products for small eigenvalues λ→0. We show that the singularities at the origin of the eigenvalue density and of the singular value density are in one-to-one correspondence in the limit N→∞: The eigenvalue density of an isotropic random matrix has a power-law singularity at the origin ~|λ|(-s) with a power sε(0,2) when and only when the density of its singular values has a power-law singularity ~λ(-σ) with a power σ=s/(4-s). These results are obtained analytically in the limit N→∞. We supplement these results with numerical simulations for large but finite N and discuss finite-size effects for the most common ensembles of isotropic random matrices.

Correlations in Nonequilibrium Luttinger Liquid and Singular Fredholm Determinants

We study interaction-induced correlations in Luttinger liquid with multiple Fermi edges. Many-particle correlation functions are expressed in terms of Fredholm determinants det(1+ÂB[over ^]), where A(ε) and B(t) have multiple discontinuities in energy and time spaces. We propose a general asymptotic formula for this class of determinants and provide analytical and numerical support to this conjecture. This allows us to establish nonequilibrium Fermi-edge singularities of many-particle correlation functions. As an example, we calculate a two-particle distribution function characterizing genuinely nonequilibrium quantum correlations between left- and right-moving fermions that have left the interaction region.

Scaling of entanglement entropy across Lifshitz transitions

We investigate the scaling of the bipartite entanglement entropy across Lifshitz quantum phase transitions, where the topology of the Fermi surface changes without any changes in symmetry. We present both numerical and analytical results which show that Lifshitz transitions are characterized by a well-defined set of critical exponents for the entanglement entropy near the phase transition. In one dimension, we show that the entanglement entropy exhibits a length scale that diverges as the system approaches a Lifshitz critical point. In two dimensions, the leading and subleading coefficients of the scaling of entanglement entropy show distinct power-law singularities at critical points. The effect of weak interactions is investigated using the density matrix renormalization group algorithm.

Power-law singularity as a possible catastrophe warning observed in rock experiments

The question which type of signals can be determinately related to catastrophic rupture in heterogeneous brittle media still remains open. Here we report a specific precursor of catastrophic rupture, i.e. a power-law singularity of responses, based on rock experiments. Our experimental observations show that the singularity with power exponent −β, where β=0.51±0.10 (mean±s.d.), appears ahead of catastrophic rupture in some rocks, and the singularity does not appear at all for gradual failure. It is indicated that the power-law singularity can emerge well only close to catastrophic rupture and thus it could serve as a specific warning for catastrophic rupture. To address the potential forewarning of imminent catastrophic rupture, a fitting process based on the data before catastrophic rupture was developed to determine the two unknowns related to the occurrence, catastrophe point UF and the power exponent −βu. It is demonstrated that the power-law singularity appears only in the vicinity of catastrophe, and that the power-law singularity does not occur for gradual failure.

Pulling self-interacting linear polymers on a family of fractal lattices embedded in three-dimensional space

We have studied the problem of force pulling self-interacting linear polymers situated in fractal containers that belong to the Sierpinski gasket (SG) family of fractals embedded in three-dimensional (3D) space. Each member of this family is labeled with an integer b (2 ≤ b ≤ ∞). The polymer chain is modeled by a self-avoiding walk (SAW) with one end anchored to one of the four boundary walls of the lattice, while the other (floating in the bulk of the fractal) is the position at which the force is acting. By applying an exact renormalization group (RG) method we have established the phase diagrams, including the critical force–temperature dependence, for fractals with b = 2,3 and 4. Also, for the same fractals, in all polymer phases, we examined the generating function G1 for the numbers of all possible SAWs with one end anchored to the boundary wall. We found that besides the usual power-law singularity of G1, governed by the critical exponent γ1, whose specific values are worked out for all cases studied, in some regimes the function G1 displays an essential singularity in its behavior.

Singular probability distribution of shot-noise driven systems

We study the stationary probability distribution of a system driven by shot noise. We find that both in the overdamped and underdamped regime, the coordinate distribution displays power-law singularities in its central part. For sufficiently low rate of noise pulses they correspond to distribution peaks. We find the positions of the peaks and the corresponding exponents. In the underdamped regime the peak positions are given by a geometric progression. The energy distribution in this case also displays multiple peaks with positions given by a geometric progression. Such structure is a signature of the shot-noise induced fluctuations. The analytical results are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations.

What Happens beyond Drucker’s Proposition in Heterogeneous Media

This paper briefly reviews our recent analytical and experimental results on 3 interrelated features beyond the peak load in heterogeneous media: continuous bifurcation, damage localization and catastrophic rupture (CR). Firstly, an Elastic Statistically-Brittle model (ESB) was introduced to formulate the basic features of a kind of heterogeneous media, like rocks and cements. The global mean field approximation (GMF) shows that the measure of heterogeneity, like the Weibull modulus m in the distribution of meso-strength plays a key role to distinguish CR from gradual failure. Then, with the ESB model and corresponding experimental results, continuous bifurcation and damage localization are discussed. In accord with these, regional mean field approximation (RMF) is adopted and it shows that any scale of damage localization can satisfy the conservation laws in continuum mechanics. This implies that catastrophic rupture could appear at any state beyond the peak load, depending on the unknown evolution of damage localization zone. Hence, catastrophic rupture seems to occur stochastically at macroscopic level. On the other hand, both experimental and analytic studies demonstrate that a robust power law singularity (-1/2) appears ahead of CR. Preliminary applications of these ideas are briefly described.

Time-Dependent Impurity in Ultracold Fermions: Orthogonality Catastrophe and Beyond

Recent experimental realization of strongly imbalanced mixtures of ultracold atoms opens new possibilities for studying impurity dynamics in a controlled setting. We discuss how the techniques of atomic physics can be used to explore new regimes and manifestations of Anderson's orthogonality catastrophe (OC), which could not be accessed in solid state systems. We consider a system of impurity atoms localized by a strong optical lattice potential and immersed in a sea of itinerant Fermi atoms. Ramsey interference experiments with impurity atoms probe OC in the time domain, while radio-frequency (RF) spectroscopy probes OC in the frequency domain. The OC in such systems is universal for all times and is determined by the impurity scattering length and Fermi wave vector of itinerant fermions. We calculate the universal Ramsey response and RF absorption spectra. In addition to the standard power-law contribution, which corresponds to the excitation of multiple particle-hole pairs near the Fermi surface, we identify a novel contribution to OC that comes from exciting one extra particle from the bottom of the itinerant band. This gives rise to a non-analytic feature in the RF absorption spectra, which evolves into a true power-law singularity with universal exponent 1/4 at the unitarity. Furthermore, we discuss the manifestations of OC in spin-echo experiments, as well as in the energy counting statistic of the Fermi gas following a sudden quench of the impurity state. Finally, systems in which the itinerant fermions have two or more hyperfine states provide an even richer playground for studying non-equilibrium impurity physics, allowing one to explore non-equilibrium OC and to simulate quantum transport through nano-structures. This provides a useful connection between cold atomic systems and mesoscopic quantum transport.

Response functions in multicomponent Luttinger liquids

We derive an analytic expression for the zero temperature Fourier transform of the density–density correlation function of a multicomponent Luttinger liquid with different velocities. By employing a Schwinger identity and a generalized Feynman identity exact integral expressions are derived, and approximate analytical forms are given for frequencies close to each component singularity. We find power-law singularities and compute the corresponding exponents. Numerical results are shown for N = 3 components and implications for experiments on cold atoms are discussed.

Effect of disorder on quantum phase transition in the double layered ruthenates (Sr1−xCax)3Ru2O7

(Sr1-xCax)3Ru2O7 is characterized by complex magnetic states, spanning from a long-range antiferromagnetically ordered state over an unusual heavy-mass nearly ferromagnetic (NFM) state to an itinerant metamagnetic (IMM) state. The NFM state, which occurs in the 0.4 > x > 0.08 composition range, freezes into a cluster-spin-glass (CSG) phase at low temperatures [Z. Qu et al., Phys. Rev. B 78, 180407(R) (2008)]. In this article, we present the scaling analyses of magnetization and the specific heat for (Sr1-xCax)3Ru2O7 in the 0.4 > x > 0.08 composition range. We find that in a temperature region immediately above the spin freezing temperature T$_f$, the isothermal magnetization M(H) and the temperature dependence of electronic specific heat C_e(T) exhibit anomalous power-law singularities; both quantities are controlled by a single exponent. The temperature dependence of magnetization M(T) also displays a power-law behavior, but its exponent differs remarkably from that derived from M(H) and C_e(T). Our analyses further reveal that the magnetization data M(H,T) obey a phenomenological scaling law of M(H,T) \propto H^\alpha f(H/T^\delta) in a temperature region between the spin freezing temperature T_f and the scaling temperature T_scaling. T_scaling systematically decreases with the decease of Ca content. This scaling law breaks down near the critical concentration x = 0.1 where a CSG-to-IMM phase transition occurs. We discussed these behaviors in term of the effect of disorder on the quantum phase transition.

Generalized Scaling Theory for Critical Phenomena Including Essential Singularities and Infinite Dimensionality

We propose a generic scaling theory for critical phenomena that includes power-law and essential singularities in finite and infinite dimensional systems. In addition, we clarify its validity by analyzing the Potts model in a simple hierarchical network, where a saddle-node bifurcation of the renormalization-group fixed point governs the essential singularity.

Dispersion of an acoustic pulse passing through a large-grained polycrystalline film

Propagation of a short acoustic pulse through a polycrystalline film comprised of large randomly oriented elastically anisotropic grains is analyzed theoretically. For average grain size much larger than the film thickness, a short acoustic pulse launched normally into the film will traverse each grain in a time determined by the acoustic slowness in the direction normal to the film, which will depend on the local grain orientation. A typical measurement averages over a large number of grains resulting in the broadening of the composite output pulse. The resulting pulse shape is characterized by distinct features related to stationary values of the directionally dependent acoustic slowness of the crystalline material. Maxima and minima in the slowness yield discontinuities in the pulse shape, while saddle points yield logarithmic singularities. For cubic and hexagonal crystals, power law singularities result from cones of directions in which the slowness is a maximum or minimum. Numerical results, taking into account Gaussian broadening of the input pulse, are presented for thin film materials commonly encountered in picosecond ultrasonic experiments, such as copper, gold, and aluminum.