Spin Variables Research Articles

Ghost-spin chains, entanglement, and bc -ghost CFTs

We study 1-dimensional chains of ghost-spins with nearest neighbour interactions amongst them, developing further the study of ghost-spins in previous work, defined as 2-state spin variables with indefinite norm. First we study finite ghost-spin chains with Ising-like nearest neighbour interactions: this helps organize and clarify the study of entanglement earlier and we develop this further. Then we study a family of infinite ghost-spin chains with a different Hamiltonian containing nearest neighbour hopping-type interactions. By defining fermionic ghost-spin variables through a Jordan-Wigner transformation, we argue that these ghost-spin chains lead in the continuum limit to the $bc$-ghost CFTs.

Boltzmann sampling for an XY model using a non-degenerate optical parametric oscillator network

We present an experimental scheme of implementing multiple spins in a classical XY model using a non-degenerate optical parametric oscillator (NOPO) network. We built an NOPO network to simulate a one-dimensional XY Hamiltonian with 5000 spins and externally controllable effective temperatures. The XY spin variables in our scheme are mapped onto the phases of multiple NOPO pulses in a single ring cavity and interactions between XY spins are implemented by mutual injections between NOPOs. We show the steady-state distribution of optical phases of such NOPO pulses is equivalent to the Boltzmann distribution of the corresponding XY model. Estimated effective temperatures converged to the setting values, and the estimated temperatures and the mean energy exhibited good agreement with the numerical simulations of the Langevin dynamics of NOPO phases.

Obtaining highly excited eigenstates of the localized XX chain via DMRG-X.

We benchmark a variant of the recently introduced density matrix renormalization group (DMRG)-X algorithm against exact results for the localized random field XX chain. We find that the eigenstates obtained via DMRG-X exhibit a highly accurate l-bit description for system sizes much bigger than the direct, many-body, exact diagonalization in the spin variables is able to access. We take advantage of the underlying free fermion description of the XX model to accurately test the strengths and limitations of this algorithm for large system sizes. We discuss the theoretical constraints on the performance of the algorithm from the entanglement properties of the eigenstates, and its actual performance at different values of disorder. A small but significant improvement to the algorithm is also presented, which helps significantly with convergence. We find that, at high entanglement, DMRG-X shows a bias towards eigenstates with low entanglement, but can be improved with increased bond dimension. This result suggests that one must be careful when applying the algorithm for interacting many-body localized spin models near a transition.This article is part of the themed issue 'Breakdown of ergodicity in quantum systems: from solids to synthetic matter'.

Sequentially generated entanglement, macroscopicity, and squeezing in a spin chain

We study quantum states generated by a sequence of nearest neighbor bipartite entangling operations along a one-dimensional chain of spin qubits. After a single sweep of such a set of operations, the system is effectively described by a matrix product state (MPS) with the same virtual dimension as the spin qubits. We employ the explicit form of the MPS to calculate expectation values and two-site correlation functions of local observables, and we use the results to study fluctuations of collective observables. Through the so-called macroscopicity and the squeezing properties of the collective spin variables they witness the quantum correlations and multi-particle entanglement within the chain. Macroscopicity only occurs over the entire chain if the nearest neighbor interaction is maximally entangling, while a finite, sequential interaction between nearest neighbor particles leads to squeezing of the collective spin.

Quantum Monte Carlo with variable spins: Fixed-phase and fixed-node approximations.

We study several aspects of the recently introduced fixed-phase spinor diffusion Monte Carlo method, in particular, its relation to the fixed-node method and its potential use as a general approach for electronic structure calculations. We illustrate constructions of spinor-based wave functions with the full space-spin symmetry without assigning up or down spin labels to particular electrons, effectively "complexifying" even ordinary real-valued wave functions for Hamiltonians without spin terms. Interestingly, with proper choice of the simulation parameters and spin variables, such fixed-phase calculations enable one to reach also the fixed-node limit. The fixed-phase approximation has several desirable properties when compared to the fixed-node approximation. The fixed-phase solution provides a straightforward interpretation as the lowest bosonic state in a given effective potential generated by the many-body approximate phase, whereas nodal boundary conditions are defined through less intuitive and complicated hypersurfaces with one dimension less than the original configuration space. In addition, the divergences of the local energy and drift at real wave function nodes are smoothed out to lower dimensionality when the wave function is complexified, thus decreasing the variation of sampled quantities and eliminating artificial nodal domain issues that can occur in the fixed-node formalism. We illustrate some of these properties on calculations of selected first-row systems that recover the fixed-node results with quantitatively similar levels of the corresponding biases. At the same time, the fixed-phase approach opens new possibilities for more general trial wave functions with further opportunities for increasing accuracy in practical calculations.

Calogero–Sutherland system with two types interacting spins

We consider the classical Calogero-Sutherland system with two types of interacting spin variables. It can be reduced to the standard Calogero-Sutherland system, when one of the spin variables vanishes. We describe the model in the Hitchin approach and prove complete integrability of the system by constructing the Lax pair and the classical $r$-matrix with the spectral parameter on a singular curve.

Relation between discrete Frenet frames and the bi-Hamiltonian structure of the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation

The discrete Frenet equation entails a local framing of a discrete, piecewise linear polygonal chain in terms of its bond and torsion angles. In particular, the tangent vector of a segment is akin the classical O(3) spin variable. Thus there is a relation to the lattice Heisenberg model, that can be used to model physical properties of the chain. On the other hand, the Heisenberg model is closely related to the discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger (DNLS) equation. Here we apply these interrelations to develop a perspective on discrete chains dynamics: We employ the properties of a discrete chain in terms of a spinorial representation of the discrete Frenet equation, to introduce a bi-hamiltonian structure for the discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation (DNLSE), which we then use to produce integrable chain dynamics.

Orientable Objects in Relativistic Quantum Theory

An approach to the quantum description of the orientation of relativistic particles, generalizing the approach to nonrelativistic objects possessing orientation (in particular, a rotator) is proposed, based on the self-consistent use of two reference frames. The realization of such an approach is connected with the introduction of wave functions f (x, z) on the Poincare group M(3,1), which depend on the coordinates x μ of the Minkowski space M(3,1)/Spin(3,1) and orientational variables assigned by the elements z β α of the matrix Z ∈Spin(3,1).The field f (x, z) is the generating function for ordinary spin-tensor fields and admits a number of symmetries. Besides the Lorentz transformations (corresponding to the action of the Poincare group from the left and interpretable as external symmetries), transformations of a reference frame associated with an orientable object (corresponding to the action of the Poincare group from the right and interpretable as internal symmetries) are applicable to orientable objects. In addition to the six quantum numbers assigned by the Casimir operators and the left generators, quantum numbers arise here that are assigned by the right generators and are associated with internal symmetries. The assumption that the internal symmetries of the theory of orientable objects are local leads to gauge theories describing the electroweak and gravitational interactions.

The star-triangle relation, lens partition function, and hypergeometric sum/integrals

The aim of the present paper is to consider the hyperbolic limit of an elliptic hypergeometric sum/integral identity, and associated lattice model of statistical mechanics previously obtained by the second author. The hyperbolic sum/integral identity obtained from this limit, has two important physical applications in the context of the so-called gauge/YBE correspondence. For statistical mechanics, this identity is equivalent to a new solution of the star-triangle relation form of the Yang-Baxter equation, that directly generalises the Faddeev-Volkov models to the case of discrete and continuous spin variables. On the gauge theory side, this identity represents the duality of lens left({S}_b^3/{mathrm{mathbb{Z}}}_rright) partition functions, for certain three-dimensional mathcal{N}=2 supersymmetric gauge theories.

State density formalism of the Iwamoto-Harada model: A suitable tool to treat cluster emission from heavy-ion collisions with account for spin variables

We study the possibility to include the cluster emission into the statistical pre-equilibrium (exciton) model suitable also for heavy ion collisions. The direct motivation of this paper is a possibility of producing superdeformed nuclei, which are easier to be detected in heavy-ion reactions than in those induced by light projectiles (nucleons, deuterons, α-particles).

SNS potential with exchange field in quantum dusty plasmas

The shielding potential of a static test charge is studied in quantum dusty plasmas. The plasma system consisting upon electrons, ions and negatively static charged dust species, is embedded in an ambient magnetic field. The modified equation of dispersion is derived using quantum hydrodynamic model (QHD) for magnetized plasmas. The quantum effects are inculcated through Fermi degenerate pressure, tunneling effect and exchange-correlation effects. The study of shielding is important to know the existence of the silence zones in space and astrophysical objects as well as crystal formation. The graphical description of the normalized potential depict the significance of the exchange and correlation effects arising through spin and other variables on the shielding potential.

On CFT and quantum chaos

We make three observations that help clarify the relation between CFT and quantum chaos. We show that any 1+1-D system in which conformal symmetry is non-linearly realized exhibits two main characteristics of chaos: maximal Lyapunov behavior and a spectrum of Ruelle resonances. We use this insight to identify a lattice model for quantum chaos, built from parafermionic spin variables with an equation of motion given by a Y-system. Finally we point to a relation between the spectrum of Ruelle resonances of a CFT and the analytic properties of OPE coefficients between light and heavy operators. In our model, this spectrum agrees with the quasi-normal modes of the BTZ black hole.

Exact solutions to plaquette Ising models with free and periodic boundaries

An anisotropic limit of the 3d plaquette Ising model, in which the plaquette couplings in one direction were set to zero, was solved for free boundary conditions by Suzuki (1972) [1], who later dubbed it the fuki-nuke, or “no-ceiling”, model. Defining new spin variables as the product of nearest-neighbour spins transforms the Hamiltonian into that of a stack of (standard) 2d Ising models and reveals the planar nature of the magnetic order, which is also present in the fully isotropic 3d plaquette model. More recently, the solution of the fuki-nuke model was discussed for periodic boundary conditions, which require a different approach to defining the product spin transformation, by Castelnovo et al. (2010) [2].We clarify the exact relation between partition functions with free and periodic boundary conditions expressed in terms of original and product spin variables for the 2d plaquette and 3d fuki-nuke models, noting that the differences are already present in the 1d Ising model. In addition, we solve the 2d plaquette Ising model with helical boundary conditions. The various exactly solved examples illustrate how correlations can be induced in finite systems as a consequence of the choice of boundary conditions.

Exactly solvable spin chain models corresponding to BDI class of topological superconductors.

We present an exactly solvable extension of the quantum XY chain with longer range multi-spin interactions. Topological phase transitions of the model are classified in terms of the number of Majorana zero modes, nM which are in turn related to an integer winding number, nW. The present class of exactly solvable models belong to the BDI class in the Altland-Zirnbauer classification of topological superconductors. We show that time reversal symmetry of the spin variables translates into a sliding particle-hole (PH) transformation in the language of Jordan-Wigner fermions – a PH transformation followed by a π shift in the wave vector which we call it the πPH. Presence of πPH symmetry restricts the nW (nM) of time-reversal symmetric extensions of XY to odd (even) integers. The πPH operator may serve in further detailed classification of topological superconductors in higher dimensions as well.

Topological hardcore bosons on the honeycomb lattice

This paper presents a connection between the topological properties of hardcore bosons and that of magnons in quantum spin magnets. We utilize the Haldane-like hardcore bosons on the honeycomb lattice as an example. We show that this system maps to a spin-1/2 quantum XY model with a next-nearest-neighbour Dzyaloshinsky–Moriya interaction. We obtain the magnon excitations of the quantum spin model and compute the edge states, Berry curvature, and thermal and spin Nernst conductivities. Because of the mapping from spin variables to bosons, the hardcore bosons possess the same nontrivial topological properties as those in quantum spin systems. These results are important in the study of magnetic excitations in quantum magnets and they are also useful for understanding the control of ultracold bosonic quantum gases in honeycomb optical lattices, which is experimentally accessible.

Simulated-quantum-annealing comparison between all-to-all connectivity schemes

Quantum annealing aims to exploit quantum mechanics to speed up the search for the solution to optimization problems. Most problems exhibit complete connectivity between the logical spin variables after they are mapped to the Ising spin Hamiltonian of quantum annealing. To account for hardware constraints of current and future physical quantum annealers, methods enabling the embedding of fully connected graphs of logical spins into a constant-degree graph of physical spins are therefore essential. Here, we compare the recently proposed embedding scheme for quantum annealing with all-to-all connectivity due to Lechner, Hauke and Zoller (LHZ) [Science Advances 1 (2015)] to the commonly used minor embedding (ME) scheme. Using both simulated quantum annealing and parallel tempering simulations, we find that for a set of instances randomly chosen from a class of fully connected, random Ising problems, the ME scheme outperforms the LHZ scheme when using identical simulation parameters, despite the fault tolerance of the latter to weakly correlated spin-flip noise. This result persists even after we introduce several decoding strategies for the LHZ scheme, including a minimum-weight decoding algorithm that results in substantially improved performance over the original LHZ scheme. We explain the better performance of the ME scheme in terms of more efficient spin updates, which allows it to better tolerate the correlated spin-flip errors that arise in our model of quantum annealing. Our results leave open the question of whether the performance of the two embedding schemes can be improved using scheme-specific parameters and new error correction approaches.

One-dimensional Ising model with multispin interactions

We study the spin-1/2 Ising chain with multispin interactions K involving the product of m successive spins, for general values of m. Using a change of spin variables the zero-field partition function of a finite chain is obtained for free and periodic boundary conditions and we calculate the two-spin correlation function. When placed in an external field H the system is shown to be self-dual. Using another change of spin variables the one-dimensional Ising model with multispin interactions in a field is mapped onto a zero-field rectangular Ising model with first-neighbour interactions K and H. The 2D system, with size m × N/m, has the topology of a cylinder with helical BC. In the thermodynamic limit , , a 2D critical singularity develops on the self-duality line, .

An Anderson-like model of the QCD chiral transition

We study the problems of chiral symmetry breaking and eigenmode localisation in finite-temperature QCD by looking at the lattice Dirac operator as a random Hamiltonian. We recast the staggered Dirac operator into an unconventional three-dimensional Anderson Hamiltonian ("Dirac-Anderson Hamiltonian") carrying internal degrees of freedom, with disorder provided by the fluctuations of the gauge links. In this framework, we identify the features relevant to chiral symmetry restoration and localisation of the low-lying Dirac eigenmodes in the ordering of the local Polyakov lines, and in the related correlation between spatial links across time slices, thus tying the two phenomena to the deconfinement transition. We then build a toy model based on QCD and on the Dirac-Anderson approach, replacing the Polyakov lines with spin variables and simplifying the dynamics of the spatial gauge links, but preserving the above-mentioned relevant dynamical features. Our toy model successfully reproduces the main features of the QCD spectrum and of the Dirac eigenmodes concerning chiral symmetry breaking and localisation, both in the ordered (deconfined) and disordered (confined) phases. Moreover, it allows us to study separately the roles played in the two phenomena by the diagonal and the off-diagonal terms of the Dirac-Anderson Hamiltonian. Our results support our expectation that chiral symmetry restoration and localisation of the low modes are closely related, and that both are triggered by the deconfinement transition.

Canonical Hamiltonian for an extended test body in curved spacetime: To quadratic order in spin

We derive a Hamiltonian for an extended spinning test body in a curved background spacetime, to quadratic order in the spin, in terms of three-dimensional position, momentum, and spin variables having canonical Poisson brackets. This requires a careful analysis of how changes of the spin supplementary condition are related to shifts of the body's representative worldline and transformations of the body's multipole moments, and we employ bitensor calculus for a precise framing of this analysis. We apply the result to the case of the Kerr spacetime and thereby compute an explicit canonical Hamiltonian for the test-body limit of the spinning two-body problem in general relativity, valid for generic orbits and spin orientations, to quadratic order in the test spin. This fully relativistic Hamiltonian is then expanded in post-Newtonian orders and in powers of the Kerr spin parameter, allowing comparisons with the test-mass limits of available post-Newtonian results. Both the fully relativistic Hamiltonian and the results of its expansion can inform the construction of waveform models, especially effective-one-body models, for the analysis of gravitational waves from compact binaries.

Magnetic properties of a classical XY spin dimer in a “planar” magnetic field

Single-molecule magnetism originates from the strong intra-molecular magnetic coupling of a small number of interacting spins. Such spins generally interact very weakly with the neighboring spins in the other molecules of the compound, therefore, inter-molecular spin couplings are negligible. In certain cases the number of magnetically coupled spins is as small as a dimer, a system that can be considered the smallest nanomagnet capable of storing non-trivial magnetic information on the molecular level. Additional interesting patterns arise if the spin motion is confined to a two-dimensional space. In such a scenario, clusters consisting of spins with large-spin values are particularly attractive since their magnetic interactions can be described well in terms of classical Heisenberg XY spins. In this work we calculate exactly the magnetic properties of a nanomagnetic dimer of classical XY spins in a “planar” external magnetic field. The problem is solved by employing a mathematical approach whose idea is the introduction of auxiliary spin variables into the starting expression of the partition function. Results for the total internal energy, total magnetic moment, spin–spin correlation function and zero-field magnetic susceptibility can serve as a basis to understand the magnetic properties of large-spin dimer building blocks.