Solvable Quantum Research Articles

Low-energy Majorana states in spin liquid transitions in a three-dimensional Kitaev model

A three-dimensional Kitaev model on a hyperhoneycomb lattice is investigated numerically at finite temperature. The Kitaev model is one of the solvable quantum spin models, where the ground state is given by gapped and gapless spin liquids, depending on the anisotropy of the interactions. This model can be rewritten as a free Majorana fermion system coupled with Z2 variables. The density of states of Majorana fermions shows an excitation gap in the gapped region, while it is semimetallic in the gapless region reflecting the Dirac node. Performing the Monte Carlo simulation, we calculate the temperature dependence of the Majorana spectra. We find that the semimetallic dip is filled as temperature increases in the gapless region, but surprisingly, the spectrum develops an excitation gap in the region near the gapless-gapped boundary. Such changes of the low-energy spectrum appear sharply at the transition temperature from the spin liquid to the paramagnetic state. The results indicate that thermal fluctuations of the Z2 fields significantly influence the low-energy state of Majorana fermions, especially in the spin liquid formation.

Noncommutative supergeometry and quantum supergroups

This is a review of concepts of noncommutative supergeometry - namely Hilbert superspace, C*-superalgebra, quantum supergroup - and corresponding results. In particular, we present applications of noncommutative supergeometry in harmonic analysis of Lie supergroups, non-formal deformation quantization of supermanifolds, quantum field theory on noncommutative spaces; and we give explicit examples as deformation of flat superspaces, noncommutative supertori, solvable topological quantum supergroups.

Ladder operators for solvable potentials connected with exceptional orthogonal polynomials

Exceptional orthogonal polynomials constitute the main part of the bound-state wavefunctions of some solvable quantum potentials, which are rational extensions of well-known shape-invariant ones. The former potentials are most easily built from the latter by using higher-order supersymmetric quantum mechanics (SUSYQM) or Darboux method. They may in general belong to three different types (or a mixture of them): types I and II, which are strictly isospectral, and type III, for which k extra bound states are created below the starting potential spectrum. A well-known SUSYQM method enables one to construct ladder operators for the extended potentials by combining the supercharges with the ladder operators of the starting potential. The resulting ladder operators close a polynomial Heisenberg algebra (PHA) with the corresponding Hamiltonian. In the special case of type III extended potentials, for this PHA the k extra bound states form k singlets isolated from the higher excited states. Some alternative constructions of ladder operators are reviewed. Among them, there is one that combines the state-adding and state-deleting approaches to type III extended potentials (or so-called Darboux-Crum and Krein-Adler transformations) and mixes the k extra bound states with the higher excited states. This novel approach can be used for building integrals of motion for two-dimensional superintegrable systems constructed from rationally-extended potentials.

Extension of the class of exactly solvable nonstationary quantum mechanics problems

A modified factorization method for a charged particle in a time-dependent magnetic field has been developed by virtue of motion quantum integrals. Application of this method to the considered system helps to find exact solutions for a range of nonstationary potentials.

Double semion phase in an exactly solvable quantum dimer model on the kagome lattice

Quantum dimer models typically arise in various low energy theories like those of frustrated antiferromagnets. We introduce a quantum dimer model on the kagome lattice which stabilizes an alternative $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order, namely the so-called "double semion" order. For a particular set of parameters, the model is exactly solvable, allowing us to access the ground state as well as the excited states. We show that the double semion phase is stable over a wide range of parameters using numerical exact diagonalization. Furthermore, we propose a simple microscopic spin Hamiltonian for which the low-energy physics is described by the derived quantum dimer model.

Quasimodular instanton partition function and the elliptic solution of Korteweg–de Vries equations

The Gauge/Bethe correspondence relates Omega-deformed N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories to some quantum integrable models, in simple cases the integrable models can be treated as solvable quantum mechanics models. For SU(2) gauge theory with an adjoint matter, or with 4 fundamental matters, the potential of corresponding quantum model is the elliptic function. If the mass of matter takes special value then the potential is an elliptic solution of KdV hierarchy. We show that the deformed prepotential of gauge theory can be obtained from the average densities of conserved charges of the classical KdV solution, the UV gauge coupling dependence is assembled into the Eisenstein series. The gauge theory with adjoint mass is taken as the example.

Solvable Few-Body Quantum Problems

This work is devoted to the study of some exactly solvable quantum problems of four, five and six bodies moving on the line. We solve completely the corresponding stationary Schrödinger equation for these systems confined in an harmonic trap, and interacting pairwise, in clusters of two and three particles, by two-body inverse square Calogero potential. Both translationaly and non-translationaly invariant multi-body potentials are added. In each case, the full solutions are provided, namely the normalized regular eigensolutions and the eigenenergies spectrum. The irregular solutions are also studied. We discuss the domains of coupling constants for which these irregular solutions are square integrable. The case of a “Coulomb-type” confinement is investigated only for the bound states of the four-body systems.

Entanglement and the Born-Oppenheimer approximation in an exactly solvable quantum many-body system

We investigate the correlations between different bipartitions of an exactly solvable one-dimensional many-body Moshinsky model consisting of N n “nuclei” and N e “electrons.” We study the dependence of entanglement on the inter-particle interaction strength, on the number of particles, and on the particle masses. Consistent with kinematic intuition, the entanglement between two subsystems vanishes when the subsystems have very different masses, while it attains its maximal value for subsystems of comparable mass. We show how this entanglement feature can be inferred by means of the Born-Oppenheimer Ansatz, whose validity and breakdown can be understood from a quantum information point of view.

Dynamical properties of an exactly solvable coupled quantum double-well system: The evolution speed and entanglement

We have studied dynamical properties of an exactly solvable quantum coupled double-well (DW) system with Razavy's hyperbolic potential. With the use of four kinds of initial wavepackets, the correlation function Γ(t) and the concurrence C(t) which is a typical measure of the entanglement in two qubits, are calculated. We obtain the orthogonality time τ which signifies a time interval for an initial state to evolve to its orthogonal state, and the temporal average of Cav(=〈C(t)2〉). The coupling dependence of τ and the concurrence [Cav or C(0)], and the relation between τ and the concurrence are investigated. Our calculations have shown that the evolution speed measured by τ-1 is not necessarily increased with increasing the concurrence in coupled DW systems.

A unified model for an external trap in a cigar-shaped Bose–Einstein condensate

In recent years, the study of cigar shaped Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) under a variety of external confinements has attracted a great deal of attention, from both theoretical and experimental researchers. We report a unified model for obtaining explicit solutions under various kinds of physically relevant space- and time-modulated external traps and nonlinearities for the cigar shaped BEC. Our novel mechanism paves the way to investigate the system for a family of potential functions unified as a physical parameter of the system. We apply and illustrate our results for a number of exactly solvable quantum mechanical potentials; harmonic, double-well, Pösch–Teller, Morse, Toda lattice and power-law as some of the applications of our model. Expressions of the condensate density are provided for these potentials. In addition, as an application of our model, we have illustrated the condensate dynamics for harmonic, double-well and Pösch–Teller potentials. In the presence of loss/gain for a Pösch–Teller potential, the condensate density shows an interesting collapse and revival.

An exactly solvable deformation of the Coulomb problem associated with the Taub–NUT metric

In this paper we quantize the N-dimensional classical Hamiltonian system H=|q|2(η+|q|)p2−kη+|q|, that can be regarded as a deformation of the Coulomb problem with coupling constant k, that it is smoothly recovered in the limit η→0. Moreover, the kinetic energy term in H is just the one corresponding to an N-dimensional Taub–NUT space, a fact that makes this system relevant from a geometric viewpoint. Since the Hamiltonian H is known to be maximally superintegrable, we propose a quantization prescription that preserves such superintegrability in the quantum mechanical setting. We show that, to this end, one must choose as the kinetic part of the Hamiltonian the conformal Laplacian of the underlying Riemannian manifold, which combines the usual Laplace–Beltrami operator on the Taub–NUT manifold and a multiple of its scalar curvature. As a consequence, we obtain a novel exactly solvable deformation of the quantum Coulomb problem, whose spectrum is computed in closed form for positive values of η and k, and showing that the well-known maximal degeneracy of the flat system is preserved in the deformed case. Several interesting algebraic and physical features of this new exactly solvable quantum system are analyzed, and the quantization problem for negative values of η and/or k is also sketched.

Numerical evolution of squeezed and non-Gaussian states in loop quantum cosmology

In recent years, numerical simulations with Gaussian initial states have demonstrated the existence of a quantum bounce in loop quantum cosmology in various models. A key issue pertaining to the robustness of the bounce and the associated physics is to understand the quantum evolution for more general initial states, which may depart significantly from Gaussianity and may have no well defined peakedness properties. The analysis of such states, including squeezed and highly non-Gaussian states, has been computationally challenging until now. In this paper, we overcome these challenges by using the Chimera scheme for the spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic model sourced with a massless scalar field. We demonstrate that the quantum bounce in this model occurs even for states that are highly squeezed or are non-Gaussian with multiple peaks and with little resemblance to semi-classical states. The existence of the bounce is found to be robust, being independent of the properties of the states. The evolution of squeezed and non-Gaussian states turns out to be qualitatively similar to that of Gaussian states, and satisfies strong constraints on the growth of the relative fluctuations across the bounce. We also compare the results from the effective dynamics and find that, although it captures the qualitative aspects of the evolution for squeezed and highly non-Gaussian states, it always underestimates the bounce volume. We show that various properties of the evolution, such as the energy density at the bounce, are in excellent agreement with the predictions from an exactly solvable loop quantum cosmological model for arbitrary states.

Optimal control of quantum gates in an exactly solvable non-Markovian open quantum bit system

We apply quantum optimal control theory (QOCT) to an exactly solvable non-Markovian open quantum bit (qubit) system to achieve state-independent quantum control and construct high-fidelity quantum gates for moderate qubit decaying parameters. An important quantity, improvement $\mathcal{I}$, is proposed and defined to quantify the correction of gate errors due to the QOCT iteration when the environment effects are taken into account. With the help of the exact dynamics, we explore how the gate error is corrected in the open qubit system and determine the conditions for significant improvement. The model adopted in this paper can be implemented experimentally in realistic systems such as the circuit QED system.

An investigation of some quantum systems using modified quantization rule form

We propose a new simple quantization rule form: Jn=nπ+δ(n), for exactly solvable and nonsolvable quantum systems. Here, Jn is the momentum integral between two turning points, n the principal quantum number, and δ(n) is a function of potential parameters and n. This new quantization rule form is a generalization of the conventional one, already developed for exactly solvable quantum systems. We found that δ(n) is a constant independent of n for exactly solvable quantum systems. We carry out the expression of δ(n) for V-shape potential, and show that it takes this form δ(n)=(π/2)+(1/a+bn+cn2) for anharmonic oscillators potential V(x)=αxp+βx2.

The theory of contractions of 2D 2nd order quantum superintegrable systems and its relation to the Askey scheme for hypergeometric orthogonal polynomials

We describe a contraction theory for 2nd order superintegrable systems, showing that all such systems in 2 dimensions are limiting cases of a single system: the generic 3-parameter potential on the 2-sphere, S9 in our listing. Analogously, all of the quadratic symmetry algebras of these systems can be obtained by a sequence of contractions starting from S9. By contracting function space realizations of irreducible representations of the S9 algebra (which give the structure equations for Racah/Wilson polynomials) to the other superintegrable systems one obtains the full Askey scheme of orthogonal hypergeometric polynomials.This relates the scheme directly to explicitly solvable quantum mechanical systems. Amazingly, all of these contractions of superintegrable systems with potential are uniquely induced by Wigner Lie algebra contractions of so(3, C) and e(2, C). The present paper concentrates on describing this intimate link between Lie algebra and superintegrable system contractions, with the detailed calculations presented elsewhere. Joint work with E. Kalnins, S. Post, E. Subag and R. Heinonen.

Casoratian identities for the Wilson and Askey–Wilson polynomials

Infinitely many Casoratian identities are derived for the Wilson and Askey–Wilson polynomials in parallel to the Wronskian identities for the Hermite, Laguerre and Jacobi polynomials, which were reported recently by the present authors. These identities form the basis of the equivalence between eigenstate adding and deleting Darboux transformations for solvable (discrete) quantum mechanical systems. Similar identities hold for various reduced form polynomials of the Wilson and Askey–Wilson polynomials, e.g. the continuous q-Jacobi, continuous (dual) (q-)Hahn, Meixner–Pollaczek, Al-Salam–Chihara, continuous (big) q-Hermite, etc.

Exactly solvable two-state quantum model for a pulse of hyperbolic-tangent shape

We present an analytically exactly solvable two-state quantum model, in which the coupling has a hyperbolic-tangent temporal shape and the frequency detuning is constant. The exact solution is expressed in terms of associated Legendre functions. An interesting feature of this model is that the excitation probability does not vanish, except for zero pulse area or zero detuning; this feature is attributed to the asymmetric pulse shape. Two limiting cases are considered. When the coupling rises very slowly, it is nearly linear and the tanh model reduces to the shark model introduced earlier. When the coupling rises very quickly, the tanh model reduces to the Rabi model, which assumes a rectangular pulse shape and hence a sudden switch on. Because of its practical significance, we have elaborated the asymptotics of the solution in the Rabi limit, and we have derived the next terms in the asymptotic expansion, which deliver the corrections to the amplitude and the phase of the Rabi oscillations due to the finite rise time of the coupling.

Self-Dual Noncommutative $${\phi^4}$$ ϕ 4 -Theory in Four Dimensions is a Non-Perturbatively Solvable and Non-Trivial Quantum Field Theory

We study quartic matrix models with partition function Z[E,J]=\int dM \exp(trace(JM-EM^2-(\lambda/4)M^4)). The integral is over the space of Hermitean NxN-matrices, the external matrix E encodes the dynamics, \lambda>0 is a scalar coupling constant and the matrix J is used to generate correlation functions. For E not a multiple of the identity matrix, we prove a universal algebraic recursion formula which gives all higher correlation functions in terms of the 2-point function and the distinct eigenvalues of E. The 2-point function itself satisfies a closed non-linear equation which must be solved case by case for given E. These results imply that if the 2-point function of a quartic matrix model is renormalisable by mass and wavefunction renormalisation, then the entire model is renormalisable and has vanishing \beta-function. As main application we prove that Euclidean \phi^4-quantum field theory on four-dimensional Moyal space with harmonic propagation, taken at its self-duality point and in the infinite volume limit, is exactly solvable and non-trivial. This model is a quartic matrix model, where E has for N->\infty the same spectrum as the Laplace operator in 4 dimensions. Using the theory of singular integral equations of Carleman type we compute (for N->\infty and after renormalisation of E,\lambda) the free energy density (1/volume)\log(Z[E,J]/Z[E,0]) exactly in terms of the solution of a non-linear integral equation. Existence of a solution is proved via the Schauder fixed point theorem. The derivation of the non-linear integral equation relies on an assumption which we verified numerically for coupling constants 0<\lambda\leq (1/\pi).

Scattering amplitudes for multi-indexed extensions of solvable potentials

New solvable one-dimensional quantum mechanical scattering problems are presented. They are obtained from known solvable potentials by multiple Darboux transformations in terms of virtual and pseudo virtual wavefunctions. The same method applied to confining potentials, e.g. Pöschl–Teller and the radial oscillator potentials, has generated the multi-indexed Jacobi and Laguerre polynomials. Simple multi-indexed formulas are derived for the transmission and reflection amplitudes of several solvable potentials.

Ising nematic fluid phase of hard-core dimers on the square lattice

We present a model of classical hard-core dimers on the square lattice that contains an Ising nematic phase in its phase diagram. We consider a model with an attractive interaction for parallel dimers on a given plaquette of the square lattice and an attractive interaction for neighboring parallel dimers on the same row ({\it viz} column) of the lattice. By extensive Monte carlo simulations we find that with a finite density of holes the phase diagram has, with rising temperatures, a columnar crystalline phase, an Ising nematic liquid phase and a disordered fluid phase, separated by Ising continuous phase transitions. We present strong evidence for the Ising universality class of both transitions. The Ising nematic phase can be interpreted as either an intermediate classical thermodynamic phase (possibly of a strongly correlated antiferromagnet) or as a phase of a 2D quantum dimer model using the Rokhsar-Kivelson construction of exactly solvable quantum Hamiltonians.