Spin-incoherent Luttinger Liquid Research Articles

Imaging tunable Luttinger liquid systems in van der Waals heterostructures.

One-dimensional (1D) interacting electrons are often described as a Luttinger liquid1-4 having properties that are intrinsically different from those of Fermi liquids in higher dimensions5,6. In materials systems, 1D electrons exhibit exotic quantum phenomena that can be tuned by both intra- and inter-1D-chain electronic interactions, but their experimental characterization can be challenging. Here we demonstrate that layer-stacking domain walls (DWs) in van der Waals heterostructures form a broadly tunable Luttinger liquid system, including both isolated and coupled arrays. We have imaged the evolution of DW Luttinger liquids under different interaction regimes tuned by electron density using scanning tunnelling microscopy. Single DWs at low carrier density are highly susceptible to Wigner crystallization consistent with a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid, whereas at intermediate densities dimerized Wigner crystals form because of an enhanced magneto-elastic coupling. Periodic arrays of DWs exhibit an interplay between intra- and inter-chain interactions that gives rise to new quantum phases. At low electron densities, inter-chain interactions are dominant and induce a 2D electron crystal composed of phased-locked 1D Wigner crystal in a staggered configuration. Increased electron density causes intra-chain fluctuation potentials to dominate, leading to an electronic smectic liquid crystal phase in which electrons are ordered with algebraical correlation decay along the chain direction but disordered between chains. Our work shows that layer-stacking DWs in 2D heterostructures provides opportunities to explore Luttinger liquid physics.

Thermal disruption of a Luttinger liquid

The Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid (TLL) theory describes the low-energy excitations of strongly correlated one-dimensional (1D) fermions. In the past years, a number of studies have provided a detailed understanding of this universality class. More recently, theoretical investigations that go beyond the standard low-temperature, linear-response TLL regime have been developed. While these provide a basis for understanding the dynamics of the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid, there are few experimental investigations in this regime. Here we report the observation of a thermally induced, spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid in a 6Li atomic Fermi gas confined to 1D. We use Bragg spectroscopy to measure the suppression of spin-charge separation and the decay of correlations as the temperature is increased. Our results probe the crossover between the coherent and incoherent regimes of the Luttinger liquid and elucidate the roles of the charge and the spin degrees of freedom in this regime.

Spin-incoherent liquid and interaction-driven criticality in the one-dimensional Hubbard model

Although the one dimensional (1D) repulsive Fermi-Hubbard model has been intensively studied over many decades, a rigorous understanding of many aspects of the model is still lacking. In this work, based on the solutions to the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations, we provide a rigorous study on the following: (1) We calculate the fractional excitations of the system in various phases, from which we identify the parameter regime featuring the spin incoherent Luttinger liquid (SILL). We investigate the universal properties and the asymprotic of correlation functions of the SILL. (2) We study the interaction-driven phase transition and the associated criticality, and build up an essential connection between the Contact susceptibilities and the variations of density, magnetization and entropy with respect to the interaction strength. As an application of these concepts, which hold true for higher dimensional systems, we propose a quantum cooling scheme based on the interaction-driven refrigeration cycle.

Spin crossovers and superdiffusion in the one-dimensional Hubbard model

We use tools from integrability and generalized hydrodynamics to study finite-temperature dynamics in the one-dimensional Hubbard model. First, we examine charge, spin, and energy transport away from half-filling and zero magnetization, focusing on the strong coupling regime where we identify a rich interplay of temperature and energy scales, with crossovers between distinct dynamical regimes. We identify an intermediate-temperature regime analogous to the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid, where spin degrees of freedom are hot but charge degrees of freedom are at low temperature. We demonstrate that the spin Drude weight exhibits sharp features at the crossover between this regime and the low-temperature Luttinger liquid regime, that are absent in the charge and energy response, and rationalize this behavior in terms of the properties of Bethe ansatz quasiparticles. We then turn to the dynamics along special lines in the phase diagram corresponding to half-filling and/or zero magnetization where on general grounds we anticipate that the transport is sub-ballistic but superdiffusive. We provide analytical and numerical evidence for Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) dynamical scaling (with length and time scales related via $x\sim t^{2/3}$) along both lines and at the $SO(4)$-symmetric point where they intersect. Our results suggest that both spin-coherence crossovers and KPZ scaling may be accessed in near-term experiments with optical lattice Hubbard emulators.

Fractional exclusion statistics and thermodynamics of the Hubbard chain in the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid regime

Bethe ansatz and bosonization procedures are used to describe the thermodynamics of the strong-coupled Hubbard chain in the \textit{spin-incoherent} Luttinger liquid (LL) regime: $J(\equiv 4t^2/U)\ll k_B T\ll E_F$, where $t$ is the hopping amplitude, $U(\gg t)$ is the repulsive on-site Coulomb interaction, and $k_B T (E_F\sim t)$ is the thermal (Fermi) energy. We introduce a fractional Landau LL approach, whose $U=\infty$ fixed point is exactly mapped onto an ideal gas with two species obeying the Haldane-Wu \textit{exclusion} fractional statistics. This phenomenological approach sheds light on the behavior of several thermodynamic properties in the spin-incoherent LL regime: specific heat, charge compressibility, magnetic susceptibility, and Drude weight. In fact, besides the hopping (mass) renormalization, the fractional Landau LL parameters, due to quasiparticle interaction, are determined and relationships with velocities of holons and spinons are unveiled. The specific heat thus obtained is in very good agreement with previous density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations of the $t$-$J$ model in the spin-incoherent regime. A phase diagram is provided and two thermodynamic paths to access this regime clarifies both the numerical and analytical procedures. Further, we show that the high-$T$ limit of the fractional Landau LL entropy and chemical potential exhibit the expected results of the $t$-$J$ model, under the condition $U\gg k_B T$. Lastly, finite-temperature Lanczos simulations of the single-particle distribution function confirm the characteristics of the spin-incoherent regime and the high-$T$ limit observed in previous DMRG studies.

Spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid of one-dimensional SU( κ ) fermions

We theoretically investigate one-dimensional (1D) SU($\kappa$) fermions in the regime of spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid. We specifically focus on the Tonks-Girardeau gas limit where its density is sufficiently low that effective repulsions between atoms become infinite. In such case, spin exchange energy of 1D SU($\kappa$) fermions vanishes and all spin configurations are degenerate, which automatically puts them into spin-incoherent regime. In this limit, we are able to express the single-particle density matrices in terms of those of anyons. This allows us to numerically simulate the number of particles up to $N=32$. We numerically calculate single-particle density matrices in two cases: (1) equal populations for each spin components (balanced) and (2) all $S_z$ manifolds included. In contrast to noninteracting multi-component fermions, the momentum distributions are broadened due to strong interactions. As $\kappa$ increases, the momentum distributions are less broadened for fixed $N$, while they are more broadened for fixed number of particle per spin component. We then compare numerically calculated high momentum tails with analytical predictions which are proportional to $1/p^4$, in good agreement. Thus, our theoretical study provides a comparison with the experiments of repulsive multicomponent alkaline-earth fermions with a tunable SU($\kappa$) spin-symmetry in the spin-incoherent regime.

Universality and Quantum Criticality of the One-Dimensional Spinor Bose Gas.

We investigate the universal thermodynamics of the two-component one-dimensional Bose gas with contact interactions in the vicinity of the quantum critical point separating the vacuum and the ferromagnetic liquid regime. We find that the quantum critical region belongs to the universality class of the spin-degenerate impenetrable particle gas which, surprisingly, is very different from the single-component case and identify its boundaries with the peaks of the specific heat. In addition, we show that the compressibility Wilson ratio, which quantifies the relative strength of thermal and quantum fluctuations, serves as a good discriminator of the quantum regimes near the quantum critical point. Remarkably, in the Tonks-Girardeau regime, the universal contact develops a pronounced minimum, reflected in a counterintuitive narrowing of the momentum distribution as we increase the temperature. This momentum reconstruction, also present at low and intermediate momenta, signals the transition from the ferromagnetic to the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid phase and can be detected in current experiments with ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices.

Finite-temperature dynamics of the Mott insulating Hubbard chain

We study the dynamical response of the half-filled one-dimensional(1d) Hubbard model for a range of interaction strengths $U$ and temperatures $T$ by a combination of numerical and analytical techniques. Using time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (tDMRG) computations we find that the single-particle spectral function undergoes a crossover to a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid regime at temperatures $T \sim J=4t^2/U$ for sufficiently large $U > 4t$. At smaller values of $U$ and elevated temperatures the spectral function is found to exhibit two thermally broadened bands of excitations, reminiscent of what is found in the Hubbard-I approximation. The dynamical density-density response function is shown to exhibit a finite temperature resonance at low frequencies inside the Mott gap, with a physical origin similar to the Villain mode in gapped quantum spin chains. We complement our numerical computations by developing an analytic strong-coupling approach to the low-temperature dynamics in the spin-incoherent regime.

Spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid of one-dimensional spin-1 Tonks-Girardeau Bose gases: Spin-dependent properties

Spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid (SILL) is a different universal class from the Luttinger liquid. This difference results from the spin incoherence of the system when the thermal energy of the system is higher than the spin excitation energy. We consider one-dimensional spin-1 Bose gas in the SILL regime and investigate its spin-dependent many-body properties. In Tonks-Girardeau limit, we are able to write down the general wave functions in a harmonic trap. We numerically calculate the spin-dependent (spin-plus, minus, and zero) momentum distributions in the sector of zero magnetization which allows us to demonstrate the most significant spin-incoherent feature compared to the spinless or spin-polarized case. In contrast to the spinless Bose gas, the momentum distributions are broadened and in the large momentum limit follow the same asymptotic $1/{p}^{4}$ dependence but with reduced coefficients. While the density matrices and momentum distributions differ between different spin components for small $N$, at large $N$ they approach each other. We show these by analytic arguments and numerical calculations up to $N=16$.

Spin-catalyzed hopping conductivity in disordered strongly interacting quantum wires

In one-dimensional electronic systems with strong repulsive interactions, charge excitations propagate much faster than spin excitations. Such systems therefore have an intermediate temperature range [termed the "spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid'" (SILL) regime] where charge excitations are "cold" (i.e., have low entropy) whereas spin excitations are "hot." We explore the effects of charge-sector disorder in the SILL regime in the absence of external sources of equilibration. We argue that the disorder localizes all charge-sector excitations; however, spin excitations are protected against full localization, and act as a heat bath facilitating charge and energy transport on asymptotically long timescales. The charge, spin, and energy conductivities are widely separated from one another. The dominant carriers of energy are neither charge nor spin excitations, but neutral "phonon" modes, which undergo an unconventional form of hopping transport that we discuss. We comment on the applicability of these ideas to experiments and numerical simulations.

Spin-incoherent one-dimensional spin-1 Bose Luttinger liquid

We investigate spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid of a one-dimensional spin-1 Bose gas in a harmonic trap. In this regime highly degenerate spin configurations emerge since the spin exchange energy is much less than the thermal energy of the system, while the temperature is low enough that the lowest energetic orbitals are occupied. As an example we numerically study the momentum distribution of a one-dimensional spin-1 Bose gas in Tonks- Girardeau gas limit and in the sector of zero magnetization.We find that the momentum distributions broaden as the number of atoms increase due to the averaging of spin function overlaps. Large momentum ($p$) asymptotic is analytically derived, showing the universal $1/p^4$ dependence. We demonstrate that the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid has a momentum distribution also distinct from spinless bosons at finite temperature.

Dimensional confinement and Yang-Baxter integrability in cold-atom systems via optical lattices

Using two-dimensional optical lattices, it has recently become possible to split up clouds of ultra cold atoms into collections of parallel one-dimensional tubes in which the dynamics is restricted to the direction along their axis. Since the Feshbach-resonance interactions among atoms are short ranged, they can be approximated as contact interactions. It is thus possible to realize optical-trap versions of some classic integrable systems first studied by Lieb, Gaudin, Yang and others. Such systems can display exotic physics like spin-charge separation and unusual paired states. We focus on the study of systems of fermions in one-dimension. At finite temperatures, regimes such as the spin-coherent and the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquids can be realized by tuning the inter-atomic interaction strength and trap parameters. We identify the noise correlation of density fluctuations as a robust observable to discriminate between these two regimes. We also address the effects of spin imbalance for the case of attractive interactions, and study the one-dimensional analog of spatially modulated (FFLO) superconducting states. Our focus is on how the temperature affects the density profiles that are being measured in the experiments. The theoretical study of temperature effects in these systems is of experimental relevance for the problem of thermometry.

Class of variational Ansätze for the spin-incoherent ground state of a Luttinger liquid coupled to a spin bath

Interacting one-dimensional electron systems are generally referred to as ``Luttinger liquids,'' after the effective low-energy theory in which spin and charge behave as separate degrees of freedom with independent energy scales. The ``spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid'' describes a finite-temperature regime that is realized when the temperature is very small relative to the Fermi energy, but larger than the characteristic spin energy scale. Similar physics can take place in the ground state, when a Luttinger liquid is coupled to a spin bath, which effectively introduces a ``spin temperature'' through its entanglement with the spin degree of freedom. We show that the spin-incoherent state can be written as a factorized wave function, with a spin wave function that can be described within a valence bond formalism. This enables us to calculate exact expressions for the momentum distribution function and the entanglement entropy. This picture holds not only for two antiferromagnetically coupled $t\ensuremath{-}J$ chains, but also for the $t\ensuremath{-}J$-Kondo chain with strongly interacting conduction electrons. We argue that this theory is quite universal and may describe a family of problems that could be dubbed ``spin incoherent.''

Spectral properties of a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid

We present time-dependent density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) results for strongly interacting one-dimensional fermionic systems at finite temperature. When interactions are strong the characteristic spin energy can be greatly suppressed relative to the characteristic charge energy, allowing for the possibility of spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid physics when the temperature is high compared to the spin energy, but small compared to the charge energy. Using DMRG we compute the spectral properties of the $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J$ model at arbitrary temperatures with respect to both spin and charge energies. We study the full crossover from the Luttinger liquid regime to the spin-incoherent regime, focusing on small $J/t$, where the signatures of spin-incoherent behavior are more manifest. Our method allows us to access the analytically intractable regime where temperature is on the order of the spin energy, $T\ensuremath{\sim}J$. Our results should be helpful in the interpretation of experiments that may be in the crossover regime, $T\ensuremath{\sim}J$, and apply to one-dimensional cold atomic gases where finite-temperature effects are appreciable. The technique may also be used to guide the development of analytical approximations for the crossover regime.

Junctions of spin-incoherent Luttinger liquids with ferromagnets and superconductors

We discuss the properties of a strongly interacting spin-charge separated one-dimensional system coupled to ferromagnets and/or superconductors. Our results are valid for arbitrary temperatures with respect to the spin energy, but require that temperature be small compared to the charge energy. We focus mainly on the spinincoherent regime where temperature is large compared to the spin energy, but small compared to the charge energy. In the case of a ferromagnet we study spin pumping and the renormalized dynamics of a precessing magnetic order parameter. We find that the interaction-dependent temperature dependence of the spin pumping can be qualitatively different in the spin-incoherent regime from the Luttinger liquid regime, allowing an identification of the former. Likewise, the temperature dependence of the renormalized magnetization dynamics can be used to identify spin-incoherent physics. For the case of a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid coupled to two superconductors, we compute the ac and dc Josephson currents for a wire geometry in the limit of tunnel coupled superconductors. Both the ac and dc responses contain “smoking gun” signatures that can be used to identify spin-incoherent behavior. Experimental requirements for the observation of these effects are laid out.

Signatures of strong correlations in one-dimensional ultracold atomic Fermi gases

Recent success in manipulating ultracold atomic systems allows one to probe different strongly correlated regimes in one dimension. Regimes such as the (spin-coherent) Luttinger liquid and the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid can be realized by tuning the interatomic interaction strength and trap parameters. We identify the noise correlations of density fluctuations as a robust observable (uniquely suitable in the context of trapped atomic gases) to discriminate between these two regimes. Finally, we address the prospects of realizing and probing these phenomena experimentally using optical lattices.

Tunneling density of states, pair correlation, and Josephson current in spin-incoherent Luttinger-liquid/superconductor hybrid systems

We study a hybrid system consisting of a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid adjoined at one or both ends to a superconductor. We find that the tunneling density of states diverges at low energies and exhibits a universal frequency dependence independent of the strength of the interactions in the system. We show that in spite of exponentially decaying pair correlations with distance into the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid, the Josephson current remains robust. Compared to the zero temperature Luttinger-liquid case, there is a factor of 2 reduction in the critical current and a halving of the period in the phase difference between the superconductors. We hope these results motivate a class of experiments in the spin-incoherent regime of one-dimensional systems.

Colloquium: The spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid

In contrast to the well known Fermi liquid theory of three dimensions, interacting one-dimensional and quasi one-dimensional systems of fermions are described at low energy by an effective theory known as Luttinger liquid theory. This theory is expressed in terms of collective many-body excitations that show exotic behavior such as spin-charge separation. Luttinger liquid theory is commonly applied on the premise that "low energy" describes both the spin and charge sectors. However, when the interactions in the system are very strong, as they typically are at low particle densities, the ratio of spin to charge energy may become exponentially small. It is then possible at very low temperatures for the energy to be low compared to the characteristic charge energy, but still high compared to the characteristic spin energy. This energy window of near ground-state charge degrees of freedom, but highly thermally excited spin degrees of freedom is called a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid. The spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid exhibits a higher degree universality than the Luttinger liquid and its properties are qualitatively distinct. In this colloquium I detail some of the recent theoretical developments in the field and describe experimental indications of such a regime in gated semiconductor quantum wires.

Nonequilibrium charge noise and dephasing from a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid

We theoretically investigate the charge noise and dephasing in a metallic device in close proximity to a spin incoherent Luttinger liquid with a small but finite current. The frequency dependence of the charge noise exhibits a loss of frequency peaks corresponding to the $2k_F$ part of the density correlations in the electron liquid when the temperature $T$ is increased from values below the magnetic exchange energy $J$ of the electron gas to values above it. The dephasing rate in a nearby metallic nanostructure also shows a cross-over for $T \sim J$ and may exhibit a non-monotonic temperature dependence. For a range of temperatures the dephasing rate {\em decreases} with increasing temperatures. The proposed experiments provide a convenient approach to probe the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid and should be implementable in a wide variety of systems.

Fermi-Edge Singularity in a Spin-Incoherent Luttinger Liquid

We theoretically investigate the Fermi-edge singularity in a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid. Both cases of finite and infinite core hole mass are explored, as well as the effect of a static external magnetic field of arbitrary strength. For a finite mass core hole the absorption edge behaves as (omega-omega th)alpha/square root of absolute value (ln(omega-omega th)) for frequencies omega just above the threshold frequency omega th. The exponent alpha depends on the interaction parameter g of the interacting one dimensional system, the electron-hole coupling, and is independent of the magnetic field strength, the momentum, and the mass of the excited core hole (in contrast to the spin-coherent case). In the infinite mass limit, the spin-incoherent problem can be mapped onto an equivalent problem in a spinless Luttinger liquid for which the logarithmic factor is absent, and backscattering from the core hole leads to a universal contribution to the exponent alpha.