Spinless Fermions Research Articles

Slow dynamics and strong finite-size effects in many-body localization with random and quasiperiodic potentials

We investigate charge relaxation in disordered and quasi-periodic quantum-wires of spin-less fermions ($t{-}V$-model) at different inhomogeneity strength $W$ in the localized and nearly-localized regime. Our observable is the time-dependent density correlation function, $\Phi(x,t)$, at infinite temperature. We find that disordered and quasi-periodic models behave qualitatively similar: Although even at longest observation times the width $\Delta x(t)$ of $\Phi(x,t)$ does not exceed significantly the non-interacting localization length, $\xi_0$, strong finite-size effects are encountered. Our findings appear difficult to reconcile with the rare-region physics (Griffiths effects) that often is invoked as an explanation for the slow dynamics observed by us and earlier computational studies. As a relatively reliable indicator for the boundary towards the many-body localized (MBL) regime even under these conditions, we consider the exponent function $\beta(t) {=} d\ln \Delta x(t) / d\ln t$. Motivated by our numerical data for $\beta$, we discuss a scenario in which the MBL-phase splits into two subphases: in MBL$_\text{A}$ $\Delta x(t)$ diverges slower than any power, while it converges towards a finite value in MBL$_\text{B}$. Within the scenario the transition between MBL$_\text{A}$ and the ergodic phase is characterized by a length scale, $\xi$, that exhibits an essential singularity $\ln \xi \sim 1/|W-W_\text{c}|$. Relations to earlier numerics and proposals of two-phase scenarios will be discussed.

Quantum phase transition and criticality in quasi-one-dimensional spinless Dirac fermions

We study quantum criticality of spinless fermions on the quasi one dimensional $\pi$-flux square lattice in cylinder geometry, by using the infinite density matrix renormalization group and abelian bosonization. For a series of the cylinder circumferences $L_y=4n+2=2, 6, \cdots$ with the periodic boundary condition, there are quantum phase transitions from gapped Dirac fermion states to charge density wave (CDW) states. We find that the quantum phase transitions for such circumferences are continuous and belong to the (1+1)-dimensional Ising universality class. On the other hand, when $L_y=4n=4, 8, \cdots$, there are gapless Dirac fermions at the non-interacting point and the phase transition to the CDW state is Gaussian. Both of these two criticalities are described in a unified way by the bosonization. We clarify their intimate relationship and demonstrate that a central charge $c=1/2$ Ising transition line arises as a critical state of an emergent Majorana fermion from the $c=2$ Gaussian transition point.

Where are the particles when the box is hot?

We consider the known problem of a particle in a one-dimensional box, i.e. in an infinite potential well. Specifically, we evaluate the probability density for finding a particle in a certain position when the system is in contact with a reservoir at a temperature T ≠ 0. We observe that, when the T is increased, the density tends to become uniform in the box, except in a ‘boundary layer’ close to the walls. Then, we consider two particles in the box, discriminating between bosons and fermions. The particles are first analyzed without accounting for the spin. Evaluating the thermalized probability density in this way, results in a clear difference between bosons and spinless fermions. Next, we consider the complete wave function for spin-½fermions, and the probability density changes significantly with respect to the spinless case. This shows that disregarding the electron spin for the sake of simplicity may lead to misleading results.

Density-matrix renormalization group study of the linear conductance in quantum wires coupled to interacting leads or phonons

In a previous paper [J.-M. Bischoff and E. Jeckelmann, Phys. Rev. B 96, 195111 (2017)] we introduced a density-matrix renormalization group method for calculating the linear conductance of one-dimensional correlated quantum systems and demonstrated it on homogeneous spinless fermion chains with impurities. Here we present extensions of this method to inhomogeneous systems, models with phonons, and the spin conductance of electronic models. The method is applied to a spinless fermion wire-lead model, the homogeneous spinless Holstein model, and the Hubbard model. Its capabilities are demonstrated by comparison with the predictions of Luttinger liquid theory combined with Bethe Ansatz solutions and other numerical methods. We find a complex behavior for quantum wires coupled to interacting leads when the sign of the interaction (repulsive/attractive) differs in wire and leads. The renormalization of the conductance given by the Luttinger parameter in purely fermionic systems is shown to remain valid in the Luttinger liquid phase of the Holstein model with phononic degrees of freedom.

Operationally accessible entanglement of one-dimensional spinless fermions

For indistinguishable itinerant particles subject to a superselection rule fixing their total number, a portion of the entanglement entropy under a spatial bipartition of the ground state is due to particle fluctuations between subsystems and thus is inaccessible as a resource for quantum information processing. We quantify the remaining operationally accessible entanglement in a model of interacting spinless fermions on a one dimensional lattice via exact diagonalization and the density matrix renormalization group. We find that the accessible entanglement exactly vanishes at the first order phase transition between a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid and phase separated solid for attractive interactions and is maximal at the transition to the charge density wave for repulsive interactions. Throughout the phase diagram, we discuss the connection between the accessible entanglement entropy and the variance of the probability distribution describing intra-subregion particle number fluctuations.

Mobility of spin polarons with vertex corrections

The mobility of holes in the spin polaron theory is discussed in this paper using a representation where holes are described as spinless fermions and spins as normal bosons. The hard-core bosonic operator is introduced through the Holstein–Primakoff transformation. Mathematically, the theory is implemented in the finite temperature (Matsubara) Green’s function method. The expressions for the zeroth-order term of the hole mobility is determined explicitly for hole occupation factor taking the form of Fermi–Dirac distribution and the classical Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution function. These are proportional to the relaxation time and the square of the renormalization factor. In the Ising limit, we showed that the mobility is zero and the holes are localized. The calculation of the hole mobility is generalized by considering the vertex corrections, which included the ladder diagrams. One of the vertex functions in the hole mobility can be evaluated using the Ward identity for hole-spin wave weak interaction. We also derived an expression for the hole mobility with vertex corrections in the low-temperature limit and vanishing self-energy effects. Our calculation is made up to second-order correction in the case where the hole occupation factor follows the Fermi–Dirac distribution.

Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid Spin Dynamics in the Quasi-One-Dimensional Ising-Like Antiferromagnet BaCo_{2}V_{2}O_{8}.

Combining inelastic neutron scattering and numerical simulations, we study the quasi-one-dimensional Ising anisotropic quantum antiferromagnet BaCo_{2}V_{2}O_{8} in a longitudinal magnetic field. This material shows a quantum phase transition from a Néel ordered phase at zero field to a longitudinal incommensurate spin density wave at a critical magnetic field of 3.8T. Concomitantly, the excitation gap almost closes and a fundamental reconfiguration of the spin dynamics occurs. These experimental results are well described by the universal Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory developed for interacting spinless fermions in one dimension. We especially observe the rise of mainly longitudinal excitations, a hallmark of the unconventional low-field regime in Ising-like quantum antiferromagnetic chains.

Interaction-driven topological switch in a P -band honeycomb lattice

The non-interacting band structure of spinless fermions in a two-dimensional ($d=2$) $p$-band honeycomb lattice exhibits two quadratic band touching points (QBTPs), which lie at the Fermi levels of filling $\nu=1/4$ and its particle-hole conjugated filling $\nu=3/4$. A weak Hubbard interaction $U$ spontaneously breaks the time-reversal symmetry and removes the QBTP, rendering the system into a quantum anomalous Hall insulator (QAHI). The first-order topological nature of QAHI is characterized by a nontrivial Chern number and supports ($d-1$)-dimensional chiral edge modes. With increasing the interaction $U$, the system is driven into a Dirac semimetal by breaking the crystal symmetry through a discontinuous quantum phase transition. The emergent Dirac points each with Berry flux $\pi$ are generated in pairs, originating from the $2\pi$ Berry flux of QBTP. A sufficiently large $U$ ultimately drives the system into a dimerized insulator (DI) by simultaneously annihilating the Dirac points at the Brillouin zone boundary. The second-order topological nature of DI is characterized by the quantized polarizations and supports ($d-2$)-dimensional corner states. Our study provides a unique setting for exploring the topological switch between the first-order and second-order topological insulators.

How to Directly Measure Floquet Topological Invariants in Optical Lattices.

The classification of topological Floquet systems with time-periodic Hamiltonians transcends that of static systems. For example, spinless fermions in periodically driven two-dimensional lattices are not completely characterized by the Chern numbers of the quasienergy bands, but rather by a set of winding numbers associated with the gaps. We propose a feasible scheme for measuring these winding numbers in a periodically driven optical lattice efficiently and directly. It is based on the construction of a one-parameter family of drives, continuously connecting the Floquet system of interest to a trivial reference system. The winding numbers are then determined by the identification and the tomography of the band-touching singularities occurring on the way. As a by-product, we also propose a method for probing spectral properties of time evolution operators via a time analog of crystallography.

Many-body localization in the presence of long-range interactions and long-range hopping

We study many-body localization (MBL) in a one-dimensional system of spinless fermions with a deterministic aperiodic potential in the presence of long-range interactions or long-range hopping. Based on perturbative arguments there is a common belief that MBL can exist only in systems with short-range interactions and short-range hopping. We analyze effects of power-law interactions and power-law hopping, separately, on a system which has all the single particle states localized in the absence of interactions. Since delocalization is driven by proliferation of resonances in the Fock space, we mapped this model to an effective Anderson model on a complex graph in the Fock space, and calculated the probability distribution of the number of resonances up to third order. Though the most-probable value of the number of resonances diverge for the system with long-range hopping ($t(r) \sim t_0/r^\alpha$ with $\alpha < 2$), there is no enhancement of the number of resonances as the range of power-law interactions increases. This indicates that the long-range hopping delocalizes the many-body localized system but in contrast to this, there is no signature of delocalization in the presence of long-range interactions. We further provide support in favor of this analysis based on dynamics of the system after a quench starting from a charge density wave ordered state, level spacing statistics, return probability, participation ratio and Shannon entropy in the Fock space. We demonstrate that MBL persists in the presence of long-range interactions though long-range hopping with $1<\alpha <2$ delocalizes the system partially, with all the states extended for $\alpha <1$. Even in a system which has single-particle mobility edges in the non-interacting limit, turning on long-range interactions does not cause delocalization.

Describing many-body localized systems in thermal environments

In this work we formulate an efficient method for the description of fully many-body localized systems in weak contact with thermal environments at temperature T. The key idea is to exploit the representation of the system in terms of quasi-local integrals of motion (l-bits) to efficiently derive the generator for the quantum master equation in Born–Markov approximation. We, moreover, show how to compute the steady state of this equation efficiently by using quantum-jump Monte-Carlo techniques as well as by deriving approximate kinetic equations of motion. As an example, we consider a one-dimensional disordered extended Hubbard model for spinless fermions, for which we derive the l-bit representation approximately by employing a recently proposed method valid in the limit of strong disorder and weak interactions. Coupling the system to a global thermal bath, we study the transport between two leads with different chemical potentials at both of its ends. We find that the temperature-dependent current is captured by an interaction-dependent version of Mott’s law for variable range hopping, where transport is enhanced/lowered depending on whether the interactions are attractive or repulsive, respectively. We interpret these results in terms of spatio-energetic correlations between the l-bits.

Gradient optimization of fermionic projected entangled pair states on directed lattices

The recently developed stochastic gradient method combined with Monte Carlo sampling techniques [PRB {\bf 95}, 195154 (2017)] offers a low scaling and accurate method to optimize the projected entangled pair states (PEPS). We extended this method to the fermionic PEPS (fPEPS). To simplify the implementation, we introduce a fermi arrow notation to specify the order of the fermion operators in the virtual entangled EPR pairs. By defining some local operation rules associated with the fermi arrows, one can implement fPEPS algorithms very similar to that of standard PEPS. We benchmark the method for the interacting spinless fermion models, and the t-J models. The numerical calculations show that the gradient optimization greatly improves the results of simple update method. Furthermore, much larger virtual bond dimensions ($D$) and truncation dimensions ($D_c$) than those of boson and spin systems are necessary to converge the results. The method therefore offer a powerful tool to simulate fermion systems because it has much lower scaling than the direct contraction methods.

Finite-temperature properties of interacting bosons on a two-leg flux ladder

Quasi-one-dimensional lattice systems such as flux ladders with artificial gauge fields host rich quantum-phase diagrams that have attracted great interest. However, so far, most of the work on these systems has concentrated on zero-temperature phases while the corresponding finite-temperature regime remains largely unexplored. The question if and up to which temperature characteristic features of the zero-temperature phases persist is relevant in experimental realizations. We investigate a two-leg ladder lattice in a uniform magnetic field and concentrate our study on chiral edge currents and momentum-distribution functions, which are key observables in ultracold quantum-gas experiments. These quantities are computed for hard-core bosons as well as noninteracting bosons and spinless fermions at zero and finite temperatures. We employ a matrix-product-state based purification approach for the simulation of strongly interacting bosons at finite temperatures and analyze finite-size effects. Our main results concern the vortex-fluid-to-Meissner crossover of strongly interacting bosons. We demonstrate that signatures of the vortex-fluid phase can still be detected at elevated temperatures from characteristic finite-momentum maxima in the momentum-distribution functions, while the vortex-fluid phase leaves weaker fingerprints in the local rung currents and the chiral edge current. In order to determine the range of temperatures over which these signatures can be observed, we introduce a suitable measure for the contrast of these maxima. The results are condensed into a finite-temperature crossover diagram for hard-core bosons.

Investigating many-body mobility edges in isolated quantum systems

The existence of many-body mobility edges in closed quantum systems has been the focus of intense debate after the emergence of the description of the many-body localization phenomenon. Here we propose that this issue can be settled in experiments by investigating the time evolution of local degrees of freedom, tailored for specific energies and initial states. An interacting model of spinless fermions with exponentially long-ranged tunneling amplitudes, whose non-interacting version known to display single-particle mobility edges, is used as the starting point upon which nearest-neighbor interactions are included. We verify the manifestation of many-body mobility edges by using numerous probes, suggesting that one cannot explain their appearance as merely being a result of finite-size effects.

Many-body localization due to correlated disorder in Fock space

In presence of strong enough disorder one dimensional systems of interacting spinless fermions at non-zero filling factor are known to be in a many body localized phase. When represented in Fock space, the Hamiltonian of such a system looks like that of a single particle hopping on a Fock lattice in the presence of a random disordered potential. The coordination number of the Fock lattice increases linearly with the system size L in 1D. Thus in the thermodynamic limit, the disordered interacting problem in 1D maps on to an Anderson model with infinite coordination number. Despite this, this system displays localization which appears counterintuitive. A close observation of the on-site disorders on the Fock lattice reveals a large degree of correlation among them as they are derived from an exponentially smaller number of on-site disorders in real space. This indicates that the correlations between the on-site disorders on a Fock lattice has a strong effect on the localization properties of the corresponding many-body system. In this work we perform a systematic quantitative exploration of the nature of correlations of the Fock space potential required for localization. Without changing the typical strength of the on-site disorders in Fock lattice we show that changing the correlation strength can induce thermalization or localization in systems. From among the various functional forms of correlations we study through exact diagonalization, we find that only the linear variation of correlations with Hamming distance in Fock space is able to drive a thermal-MBL phase transition where the transition is driven by the correlation strength. Systems with the other forms of correlations we study are found to be ergodic.

Entanglement entropy distribution in the strongly disordered one-dimensional Anderson mode

The entanglement entropy (EE) distribution of strongly disordered one dimensional spin chains, which are equivalent to spinless fermions at half-filling on a bond (hopping) disordered one-dimensional Anderson model, has been shown to exhibit very distinct features such as peaks at integer multiplications of , essentially counting the number of singlets traversing the boundary. Here we show that for a canonical Anderson model with box distribution on-site disorder and repulsive nearest-neighbor interactions the EE distribution also exhibits interesting features, albeit different than the distribution seen for the bond disordered Anderson model. The canonical Anderson model shows a broad peak at low entanglement values and one narrower peak at . Density matrix renormalization group calculations reveal this structure and the influence of the disorder strength and the interaction strength on its shape. A modified real space renormalization group method was used to get a better understanding of this behavior. As might be expected the peak centered at low values of EE has a tendency to shift to lower values as disorder is enhanced. A second peak appears around the EE value of , this peak is broadened and no additional peaks at higher integer multiplications of are seen. We attribute the differences in the distribution between the canonical model and the broad hopping disorder to the influence of the on-site disorder which breaks the symmetry across the boundary.

Linked cluster theory in the spin polaron problem

The Linked Cluster Theory in the spin polaron formulation is investigated in this paper using the finite temperature (Matsubara) Green’s function method. We use a representation where holes and spins are described as spinless fermions and normal bosons, respectively. An analytic expression of the thermodynamic potential of high-temperature superconductors in the superconducting state was obtained using the Linked Cluster theory and an expression for its normal state by setting the energy gap to zero. The expression of the thermodynamic potential enabled us to calculate two bulk thermodynamic properties of high-temperature superconductors, entropy and specific heat, both in the normal and superconducting states.

Topological Monopoles in Quantum Antiferromagnets

While the observation of magnetic monopoles has defied all experimental attempts in high-energy physics and astrophysics, sound theoretical approaches predict that they should exist, and they have indeed been observed as quasiparticle excitations in certain condensed-matter systems. This indicates that, even though they are not ubiquitous contrary to electrons, it is possible to get them as excitations above a background. In this report, we show that phonons or lattice shear strain generate topological monopoles in some low-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets. For the Heisenberg ladder, phonons are found to generate topological monopoles with nonzero density due to quantum spin fluctuations. For the four-leg Heisenberg tube, longitudinal shear stress generates topological monopoles with density proportional to the strain deformation. The present theory is based on mapping the spin degrees of freedom onto spinless fermions using the generalized Jordan–Wigner transformation in dimensions higher than one. The effective magnetic field generated by the motion of the spinless fermions has nonzero divergence when phonons or shear stress are present. A possible material where the present kind of monopoles could be observed is BiCu&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; 2&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; PO&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; 6&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; .

Quantum quenches, sonic horizons, and the Hawking radiation in a class of exactly solvable models

Taking advantage of the known exact mapping of the one-dimensional hard core Bose (HCB) fluid onto a non-interacting spinless fermion gas, we examine in full detail a thought experiment on cold atoms confined in a quasi-one-dimensional trap, in order to investigate the emergence of the analogue Hawking radiation. The dynamics of a gas of interacting bosons impinging on an external potential is exactly tracked up to the reach of a stationary state. Under few strict conditions on the experimental parameters, the stationary state is shown to be described asymptotically by a thermal distribution, precisely at the expected (analogue) Hawking temperature. However, we find that in most experimental conditions the emerging ``Hawking-like radiation'' is not thermal. This analysis provides a novel many-body microscopic interpretation of the Hawking mechanism, together with useful limits and conditions for the design of future experiments in Bose-Einstein condensates.

Quantum phase transitions from analysis of the polarization amplitude

In the modern theory of polarization, polarization itself is given by a geometric phase. In calculations for interacting systems the polarization and its variance are obtained from the polarization amplitude. We interpret this quantity as a discretized characteristic function and derive formulas for its cumulants and moments. In the case of a non-interacting system, our scheme leads to the gauge-invariant cumulants known from polarization theory. We study the behavior of such cumulants for several interacting models. In a one-dimensional system of spinless fermions with nearest neighbor interaction the transition at which gap closure occurs can be clearly identified from the finite size scaling exponent of the variance. When next nearest neighbor interactions are turned on a model with a richer phase diagram emerges, but the finite size scaling exponent is still an effective way to identify the localization transition.