Real-time Correlation Functions Research Articles

Real-time diagram technique for instantonic systems

The Schwinger-Keldysh diagram technique is usually involved in the calculation of real-time in-in correlation functions. In the case of a thermal state, one can analytically continue imaginary-time Matsubara correlation functions to real times. Nevertheless, not all real-time correlation functions usually can be obtained by such procedure. Moreover, numerical analytic continuation is an ill-posed problem. Thus, even in the case of a thermal state one may need for the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. If the potential of a system admits degenerate minima, instantonic effects enter the game, so one should also integrate over the instantonic moduli space, including the one, corresponding to the imaginary time translational invariance. However, the Schwinger-Keldysh closed time contour explicitly breaks such invariance. We argue, that this invariance must be recovered, and show, how it can be done. After that, we construct an extension of the Schwinger-Keldysh diagram technique to instantonic systems and demonstrate it on the example of the first few-point correlation functions.

Holstein polaron transport from numerically "exact" real-time quantum dynamics simulations.

Numerically "exact" methods addressing the dynamics of coupled electron-phonon systems have been intensively developed. Nevertheless, the corresponding results for the electron mobility μdc are scarce, even for the one-dimensional (1d) Holstein model. Building on our recent progress on single-particle properties, here we develop the momentum-space hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) method to evaluate real-time two-particle correlation functions of the 1d Holstein model at a finite temperature. We compute numerically "exact" dynamics of the current-current correlation function up to real times sufficiently long to capture the electron's diffusive motion and provide reliable results for μdc in a wide range of model parameters. In contrast to the smooth ballistic-to-diffusive crossover in the weak-coupling regime, we observe a temporally limited slow-down of the electron on intermediate time scales already in the intermediate-coupling regime, which translates to a finite-frequency peak in the optical response. Our momentum-space formulation lowers the numerical effort with respect to existing HEOM-method implementations, while we remove the numerical instabilities inherent to the undamped-mode HEOM by devising an appropriate hierarchy closing scheme. Still, our HEOM remains unstable at too low temperatures, for too strong electron-phonon coupling, and for too fast phonons.

Holographic thermal correlators: a tale of Fuchsian ODEs and integration contours

We analyze real-time thermal correlation functions of conserved currents in holographic field theories using the grSK geometry, which provides a contour prescription for their evaluation. We demonstrate its efficacy, arguing that there are situations involving components of conserved currents, or derivative interactions, where such a prescription is, in fact, essential. To this end, we first undertake a careful analysis of the linearized wave equations in AdS black hole backgrounds and identify the branch points of the solutions as a function of (complexified) frequency and momentum. All the equations we study are Fuchsian with only regular singular points that for the most part are associated with the geometric features of the background. Special features, e.g., the appearance of apparent singular points at the horizon, whence outgoing solutions end up being analytic, arise at higher codimension loci in parameter space. Using the grSK geometry, we demonstrate that these apparent singularities do not correspond to any interesting physical features in higher-point functions. We also argue that the Schwinger-Keldysh collapse and KMS conditions, implemented by the grSK geometry, continue to hold even in the presence of such singularities. For charged black holes above a critical charge, we furthermore demonstrate that the energy density operator does not possess an exponentially growing mode, associated with ‘pole-skipping’, from one such apparent singularity. Our analysis suggests that the connection between the scrambling physics of black holes and energy transport has, at best, a limited domain of validity.

Particle interferometry in a moat regime

Dense strongly interacting matter can exhibit regimes with spatial modulations, akin to crystalline phases. In this case particles can have a moat spectrum with minimal energy at nonzero momentum. We show that particle interferometry is a sensitive probe of such a regime in heavy-ion collisions. To this end, we develop a field-theoretical formalism that relates particle spectra to in-medium real-time correlation functions of quantum fields on curved hypersurfaces of spacetime. This is then applied to the study of Bose-Einstein correlations in a moat regime in heavy-ion collisions. The resulting two-particle spectra exhibit peaks at nonzero average pair momentum, in contrast to the two-particle spectra in a normal phase, which peak at zero momentum. These peaks lead to nontrivial structures in the ratio of two-particle correlation functions, which should be experimentally measurable if the resolution in the direction of average pair momentum is sufficiently large. We propose these structures in the correlation-function ratios as clear signature of a moat regime and spatially modulated phases in quantum chromodynamics (QCD).

Non-linear correlation functions and zero-point energy flow in mixed quantum-classical semiclassical dynamics.

Mixed quantum classical (MQC)-initial value representation (IVR) is a recently introduced semiclassical framework that allows for selective quantization of the modes of a complex system. In the quantum limit, MQC reproduces the semiclassical Double Herman-Kluk IVR results, accurately capturing nuclear quantum coherences and conserving zero-point energy. However, in the classical limit, although MQC mimics the Husimi-IVR for real-time correlation functions with linear operators, it is significantly less accurate for non-linear correlation functions with errors even at time zero. Here, we identify the origin of this discrepancy in the MQC formulation and propose a modification. We analytically show that the modified MQC approach is exact for all correlation functions at time zero, and in a study of zero-point energy (ZPE) flow, we numerically demonstrate that it correctly obtains the quantum and classical limits as a function of time. Interestingly, although classical-limit MQC simulations show the expected, unphysical ZPE leakage, we find that it is possible to predict and even modify the direction of ZPE flow through selective quantization of the system, with the quantum-limit modes accepting energy but preserving the minimum quantum mechanically required energy.

Quantum hydrodynamics from local thermal pure states

We provide a pure state formulation for hydrodynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems. A pure state describing quantum systems in local thermal equilibrium is constructed, which we call a local thermal pure quantum ($\ensuremath{\ell}\mathrm{TPQ}$) state. We show that the thermodynamic functional and the expectation values of local operators (including a real-time correlation function) calculated from the $\ensuremath{\ell}\mathrm{TPQ}$ state converge to those from a local Gibbs ensemble in the large fluid-cell limit. As a numerical demonstration, we investigate a one-dimensional spin chain and observe the hydrodynamic relaxation obeying Fourier's law. We further prove the second law of thermodynamics and the quantum fluctuation theorem, which are also validated numerically. The $\ensuremath{\ell}\mathrm{TPQ}$ formulation gives a useful theoretical basis to describe the emergent hydrodynamic behavior of quantum many-body systems furnished with a numerical efficiency applicable to both the nonrelativistic and relativistic regimes.

Application of the imaginary time hierarchical equations of motion method to calculate real time correlation functions.

We investigate the application of the imaginary time hierarchical equations of motion method to calculate real time quantum correlation functions. By starting from the path integral expression for the correlated system-bath equilibrium state, we first derive a new set of equations that decouple the imaginary time propagation and the calculation of auxiliary density operators. The new equations, thus, greatly simplify the calculation of the equilibrium correlated initial state that is subsequently used in the real time propagation to obtain the quantum correlation functions. It is also shown that a periodic decomposition of the bath imaginary time correlation function is no longer necessary in the new equations such that different decomposition schemes can be explored. The applicability of the new method is demonstrated in several numerical examples, including the spin-Boson model, the Holstein model, and the double-well model for proton transfer reaction.

Slowly decaying real-time oscillations in instanton crystals

Instanton crystal is a fascinating phase which is encountered when the minimum of the free energy corresponds to a configuration with an imaginary-time-dependent order parameter in the form of a chain of alternating instantons and anti-instantons. We present the results of the investigation of the real-time correlation functions of the order parameter in the instanton crystal phase. In order to obtain the correlation functions in real time, we formulate an original method of analytic continuation from imaginary times, which is easily adapted into an efficient numerical scheme for the computations. The resulting correlation functions exhibit nontrivial slowly decaying oscillations in real time, which is reminiscent of prethermal time crystals.

Nuclear two point correlation functions on a quantum computer

The calculation of dynamic response functions is expected to be an early application benefiting from rapidly developing quantum hardware resources. The ability to calculate real-time quantities of strongly-correlated quantum systems is one of the most exciting applications that can easily reach beyond the capabilities of traditional classical hardware. Response functions of fermionic systems at moderate momenta and energies corresponding roughly to the Fermi energy of the system are a potential early application because the relevant operators are nearly local and the energies can be resolved in moderately short real time, reducing the spatial resolution and gate depth required. This is particularly the case in quasielastic electron and neutrino scattering from nuclei, a topic of great interest in the nuclear and particle physics communities and directly related to experiments designed to probe neutrino properties. In this work we use current quantum hardware and error mitigation protocols to calculate response functions for a highly simplified nuclear model through calculations of a 2-point real time correlation function for a modified Fermi-Hubbard model in two dimensions with three distinguishable nucleons on four lattice sites.

Spectral and thermodynamic properties of the Holstein polaron: Hierarchical equations of motion approach

We develop a hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) approach to compute real-time single-particle correlation functions and thermodynamic properties of the Holstein model at finite temperature. We exploit the conservation of the total momentum of the system to formulate the momentum-space HEOM whose dynamical variables explicitly keep track of momentum exchanges between the electron and phonons. Our symmetry-adapted HEOM enable us to overcome the numerical instabilities inherent to the commonly used real-space HEOM. The HEOM method is then used to study the spectral function and thermodynamic quantities of chains containing up to ten sites. The HEOM results compare favorably to existing literature. To provide an independent assessment of the HEOM approach and to gain insight into the importance of finite-size effects, we devise a quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) procedure to evaluate finite-temperature single-particle correlation functions in imaginary time and apply it to chains containing up to twenty sites. QMC results reveal that finite-size effects are quite weak, so that the results on 5 to 10-site chains, depending on the parameter regime, are representative of larger systems. A detailed comparison between the HEOM and QMC data place our HEOM method among reliable methods to compute real-time finite-temperature correlation functions in parameter regimes ranging from low- to high-temperature, and weak- to strong-coupling regime.

Path Integrals for Nonadiabatic Dynamics: Multistate Ring Polymer Molecular Dynamics.

This review focuses on a recent class of path-integral-based methods for the simulation of nonadiabatic dynamics in the condensed phase using only classical molecular dynamics trajectories in an extended phase space. Specifically, a semiclassical mapping protocol is used to derive an exact, continuous, Cartesian variable path-integral representation for the canonical partition function of a system in which multiple electronic states are coupled to nuclear degrees of freedom. Building on this exact statistical foundation, multistate ring polymer molecular dynamics methods are developed for the approximate calculation of real-time thermal correlation functions. The remarkable promise of these multistate ring polymer methods, their successful applications, and their limitations are discussed in detail.

Open effective theory of scalar field in rotating plasma

We study the effective dynamics of an open scalar field interacting with a strongly-coupled two-dimensional rotating CFT plasma. The effective theory is determined by the real-time correlation functions of the thermal plasma. We employ holographic Schwinger-Keldysh path integral techniques to compute the effective theory. The quadratic effective theory computed using holography leads to the linear Langevin dynamics with rotation. The noise and dissipation terms in this equation get related by the fluctuation-dissipation relation in presence of chemical potential due to angular momentum. We further compute higher order terms in the effective theory of the open scalar field. At quartic order, we explicitly compute the coefficient functions that appear in front of various terms in the effective action in the limit when the background plasma is slowly rotating. The higher order effective theory has a description in terms of the non-linear Langevin equation with non-Gaussianity in the thermal noise.

Exact Real-Time Longitudinal Correlation Functions of the Massive XXZ Chain.

We apply a recently developed thermal form factor expansion method to evaluate the real-time longitudinal spin-spin correlation functions of the spin-1/2 XXZ chain in the antiferromagnetically ordered regime at zero temperature. An analytical result incorporating all types of excitations in the model is obtained, without any approximations. This allows for the accurate calculation of the real-time correlations in this strongly interacting quantum system for arbitrary distances and times.

Real-time dynamics of Chern-Simons fluctuations near a critical point

The real-time topological susceptibility is studied in $(1+1)$-dimensional massive Schwinger model with a $\ensuremath{\theta}$-term. We evaluate the real-time correlation function of electric field that represents the topological Chern-Pontryagin number density in ($1+1$) dimensions. Near the parity-breaking critical point located at $\ensuremath{\theta}=\ensuremath{\pi}$ and fermion mass $m$ to coupling $g$ ratio of $m/g\ensuremath{\approx}0.33$, we observe a sharp maximum in the topological susceptibility. We interpret this maximum in terms of the growth of critical fluctuations near the critical point, and draw analogies between the massive Schwinger model, QCD near the critical point, and ferroelectrics near the Curie point.

Matrix product state recursion methods for computing spectral functions of strongly correlated quantum systems

We present a method for extrapolation of real-time dynamical correlation functions which can improve the capability of matrix product state methods to compute spectral functions. Unlike the widely used linear prediction method, which ignores the origin of the data being extrapolated, our recursion methods utilize a representation of the wavefunction in terms of an expansion of the same wavefunction and its translations at earlier times. This recursion method is exact for a noninteracting Fermi system. Surprisingly, the recursion method is also more robust than linear prediction at large interaction strength. We test this method on the Hubbard two-leg ladder and present more accurate results for the spectral function than previous studies.

Investigating the Stability and Accuracy of a Classical Mapping Variable Hamiltonian for Nonadiabatic Quantum Dynamics

Previous work has shown that by using the path integral representation of quantum mechanics and by mapping discrete electronic states to continuous Cartesian variables, it is possible to derive an exact quantum “mapping variable” ring-polymer (MV-RP) Hamiltonian. The classical molecular dynamics generated by this MV-RP Hamiltonian can be used to calculate equilibrium properties of multi-level quantum systems exactly, and to approximate real-time thermal correlation functions (TCFs). Here, we derive mixed time-slicing forms of the MV-RP Hamiltonian where different modes of a multi-level system are quantized to different extents. We explore the accuracy of the approximate quantum dynamics generated by these Hamiltonians through numerical calculation of quantum real-time TCFs for a range of model nonadiabatic systems, where two electronic states are coupled to a single nuclear degree of freedom. Interestingly, we find that the dynamics generated by an MV-RP Hamiltonian with all modes treated classically is more stable across all model systems considered here than mixed quantization approaches. Further, we characterize nonadiabatic dynamics in the 6D phase space of our classical-limit MV-RP Hamiltonian using Lagrangian descriptors to identify stable and unstable manifolds.

Computing real time correlation functions on a hybrid classical/quantum computer

Quantum devices may overcome limitations of classical computers in studies of nuclear structure functions and parton Wigner distributions of protons and nuclei. In this talk, we discuss a worldline approach to compute nuclear structure functions in the high energy Regge limit of QCD using a hybrid quantum computer, by expressing the fermion determinant in the QCD path integral as a quantum mechanical path integral over 0 + 1-dimensional fermionic and bosonic world-lines in background gauge fields. Our simplest example of computing the well-known dipole model result for the structure function F2 in the high energy Regge limit is feasible with NISQ era technology using few qubits and shallow circuits. This example can be scaled up in complexity and extended in scope to compute structure functions, scattering amplitudes and other real-time correlation functions in QCD, relevant for example to describe non-equilibrium transport of quarks and gluons in a Quark-Gluon-Plasma.

Spectral functions in the ϕ4 -theory from the spectral Dyson-Schwinger equations

We develop a non-perturbative functional framework for computing real-time correlation functions in strongly correlated systems. The framework is based on the spectral representation of correlation functions and dimensional regularisation. Therefore, the non-perturbative spectral renormalisation setup here respects all symmetries of the theories at hand. In particular this includes space-time symmetries as well as internal symmetries such as chiral symmetry, and gauge symmetries. Spectral renormalisation can be applied within general functional approaches such as the functional renormalisation group, Dyson-Schwinger equations, and two- or $n$-particle irreducible approaches. As an application we compute the full, non-perturbative, spectral function of the scalar field in the $\phi^4$-theory in $2+1$ dimensions from spectral Dyson-Schwinger equations. We also compute the $s$-channel spectral function of the full $\phi^4$-vertex in this theory.

A partially linearized spin-mapping approach for nonadiabatic dynamics. II. Analysis and comparison with related approaches.

In a previous paper [J. R. Mannouch and J. O. Richardson, J. Chem. Phys. 153, 194109 (2020)], we derived a new partially linearized mapping-based classical-trajectory technique called the spin partially linearized density matrix (spin-PLDM) approach. This method describes the dynamics associated with the forward and backward electronic path integrals using a Stratonovich-Weyl approach within the spin-mapping space. While this is the first example of a partially linearized spin-mapping method, fully linearized spin-mapping is already known to be capable of reproducing dynamical observables for a range of nonadiabatic model systems reasonably accurately. Here, we present a thorough comparison of the terms in the underlying expressions for the real-time quantum correlation functions for spin-PLDM and fully linearized spin mapping in order to ascertain the relative accuracy of the two methods. In particular, we show that spin-PLDM contains an additional term within the definition of its real-time correlation function, which diminishes many of the known errors that are ubiquitous for fully linearized approaches. One advantage of partially linearized methods over their fully linearized counterparts is that the results can be systematically improved by re-sampling the mapping variables at intermediate times. We derive such a scheme for spin-PLDM and show that for systems for which the approximation of classical nuclei is valid, numerically exact results can be obtained using only a few "jumps." Additionally, we implement focused initial conditions for the spin-PLDM method, which reduces the number of classical trajectories that are needed in order to reach convergence of dynamical quantities, with seemingly little difference to the accuracy of the result.

A partially linearized spin-mapping approach for nonadiabatic dynamics. I. Derivation of the theory

We present a new partially linearized mapping-based approach for approximating real-time quantum correlation functions in condensed-phase nonadiabatic systems, called the spin partially linearized density matrix (spin-PLDM) approach. Within a classical trajectory picture, partially linearized methods treat the electronic dynamics along forward and backward paths separately by explicitly evolving two sets of mapping variables. Unlike previously derived partially linearized methods based on the Meyer-Miller-Stock-Thoss mapping, spin-PLDM uses the Stratonovich-Weyl transform to describe the electronic dynamics for each path within the spin-mapping space; this automatically restricts the Cartesian mapping variables to lie on a hypersphere and means that the classical equations of motion can no longer propagate the mapping variables out of the physical subspace. The presence of a rigorously derived zero-point energy parameter also distinguishes spin-PLDM from other partially linearized approaches. These new features appear to give the method superior accuracy for computing dynamical observables of interest when compared with other methods within the same class. The superior accuracy of spin-PLDM is demonstrated in this paper through application of the method to a wide range of spin-boson models as well as to the Fenna-Matthews-Olsen complex.