Tight-binding Chain Research Articles

Dephasing-assisted transport in a tight-binding chain with a linear potential

An environment interacting with a quantum system can enhance transport through the suppression of quantum effects responsible for localization. In this paper, we study the interplay between bulk dephasing and a linear potential in a boundary-driven tight-binding chain. A linear potential induces Wannier-Stark localization in the absence of noise, while dephasing induces diffusive transport in the absence of a tilt. We derive an approximate expression for the steady-state current as a function of both dephasing and tilt which closely matches the exact solution for a wide range of parameters. From it, we find that the maximum current occurs for a dephasing rate equal to the period of Bloch oscillations in the Wannier-Stark localized system. We also find that the current displays a maximum as a function of the system size, provided that the total potential tilt across the chain remains constant. Our results can be verified in current experimental platforms and represents a step forward in analytical studies of environment-assisted transport.

Effects of internal and external decoherence on the resonant transport and Anderson localization of fermionic particles in disordered tight-binding chains

Effects of internal and external decoherence on the resonant transport and Anderson localization of fermionic particles in disordered tight-binding chains

Circuit realization of a two-orbital non-Hermitian tight-binding chain

Circuit realization of a two-orbital non-Hermitian tight-binding chain

Non-Markovian master equation for quantum transport of fermionic carriers.

We propose a simple, yet feasible, model for quantum transport of fermionic carriers across tight-binding chain connecting two reservoirs maintained at arbitrary temperatures and chemical potentials. The model allows for elementary derivation of the master equation for the reduced single particle density matrix in a closed form in both Markov and Born approximations. In the Markov approximation the master equation is solved analytically, whereas in the Born approximation the problem is reduced to an algebraic equation for the single particle density matrix in the Redfield form. The non-Markovian equation is shown to lead to resonant transport similar to Landauer's conductance. It is shown that in the deep non-Markovian regime the transport current can be matched with that obtained by the non-equilibrium Green's function method.

On symmetric Tetranacci polynomials in mathematics and physics

In this manuscript, we introduce (symmetric) Tetranacci polynomials ξ j as a twofold generalization of ordinary Tetranacci numbers, considering both non unity coefficients and generic initial values. We derive a complete closed form expression for any ξ j with the key feature of a decomposition in terms of generalized Fibonacci polynomials. For suitable conditions, ξ j can be understood as the superposition of standing waves. The issue of Tetranacci polynomials originated from their application in condensed matter physics. We explicitly demonstrate the approach for the spectrum, eigenvectors, Green’s functions and transmission probability for an atomic tight binding chain exhibiting both nearest and next nearest neighbor processes. We demonstrate that in topological trivial models, complex wavevectors can form bulk states as a result of the open boundary conditions. We describe how effective next nearest neighbor bonding is engineered in state of the art theory/experiment exploiting onsite degrees of freedom and close range hopping. We argue about experimental tune ability and on-demand complex wavevectors.

Logarithmic negativity in out-of-equilibrium open free-fermion chains: An exactly solvable case

We derive the quasiparticle picture for the fermionic logarithmic negativity in a tight-binding chain subject to gain and loss dissipation. We focus on the dynamics after the quantum quench from the fermionic Néel state. We consider the negativity between both adjacent and disjoint intervals embedded in an infinite chain. Our result holds in the standard hydrodynamic limit of large subsystems and long times, with their ratio fixed. Additionally, we consider the weakly-dissipative limit, in which the dissipation rates are inversely proportional to the size of the intervals. We show that the negativity is proportional to the number of entangled pairs of quasiparticles that are shared between the two intervals, as is the case for the mutual information. Crucially, in contrast with the unitary case, the negativity content of quasiparticles is not given by the Rényi entropy with Rényi index 1/21/2, and it is in general not easily related to thermodynamic quantities.

Spectral function distributions in the correlated Anderson model

We report numerical calculations of the probability distribution of a single-particle spectral function of a non-interacting one-dimensional tight-binding chain with power-law correlated disorder. For the numerical computations of the spectral function, we employ a highly efficient and very stable algorithm—Kernel Polynomial Method— which has O(N) numerical complexity. We find a universal and highly asymmetric distribution of the spectral function in the vicinity of the metal–insulator transition at the band center. Moreover, the distributions show a Gaussian nature deeply in the localized regime and a log-normal behavior in the delocalized regime.

Universal Subdiffusive Behavior at Band Edges from Transfer Matrix Exceptional Points.

We discover a deep connection between parity-time symmetric optical systems and quantum transport in one-dimensional fermionic chains in a two-terminal open system setting. The spectrum of one dimensional tight-binding chain with periodic on-site potential can be obtained by casting the problem in terms of 2×2 transfer matrices. We find that these non-Hermitian matrices have a symmetry exactly analogous to the parity-time symmetry of balanced-gain-loss optical systems, and hence show analogous transitions across exceptional points. We show that the exceptional points of the transfer matrix of a unit cell correspond to the band edges of the spectrum. When connected to two zero temperature baths at two ends, this consequently leads to subdiffusive scaling of conductance with system size, with an exponent 2, if the chemical potential of the baths are equal to the band edges. We further demonstrate the existence of a dissipative quantum phase transition as the chemical potential is tuned across any band edge. Remarkably, this feature is analogous to transition across a mobility edge in quasiperiodic systems. This behavior is universal, irrespective of the details of the periodic potential and the number of bands of the underlying lattice. It, however, has no analog in absence of the baths.

Chiral numerical renormalization group

The interplay between the Kondo screening of quantum impurities (by the electronic channels to which they couple) and the interimpurity RKKY interactions (mediated by the same channels) has been extensively studied. However, the effect of unidirectional channels (e.g., chiral or helical edge modes of 2D topological materials) which greatly restrict the mediated interimpurity interactions, has only more recently come under scrutiny, and it can drastically alter the physics. Here we take Wilson's numerical renormalization group (NRG), the most established numerical method for treating quantum impurity models, and extend it to systems consisting of two impurities coupled at different locations to unidirectional channel(s). This is challenging due to the incompatibility of unidirectionality with one of the main ingredients in NRG -- the mapping of the channel(s) to a Wilson chain -- a tight-binding chain with the impurity at one end and hopping amplitudes which decay exponentially with the distance. We bridge this gap by introducing a "Wilson ladder" consisting of two coupled Wilson chains, and demonstrate that this construction successfully captures the unidirectionality of the channel(s), as well as the distance between the two impurities. We use this mapping in order to study two Kondo impurities coupled to a single chiral channel, showing that all local properties and thermodynamic quantities are indifferent to the interimpurity distance, and correspond to two separate single-impurity models. Extensions to more impurities and/or helical channels are possible.

Generalized deep thermalization for free fermions

In noninteracting isolated quantum systems out of equilibrium, local subsystems typically relax to nonthermal stationary states. In the standard framework, information on the rest of the system is discarded, and such states are described by a generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE), maximizing the entropy while respecting the constraints imposed by the local conservation laws. Here we show that the latter also completely characterize a recently introduced projected ensemble (PE), constructed by performing projective measurements on the rest of the system and recording the outcomes. By focusing on the time evolution of fermionic Gaussian states in a tight-binding chain, we put forward a random ensemble constructed out of the local conservation laws, which we call deep GGE (dGGE). For infinite-temperature initial states, we show that the dGGE coincides with a universal Haar random ensemble on the manifold of Gaussian states. For both infinite and finite temperatures, we use a Monte Carlo approach to test numerically the predictions of the dGGE against the PE. We study, in particular, the $k$ moments of the state covariance matrix and the entanglement entropy, finding excellent agreement. Our work provides a first step towards a systematic characterization of projected ensembles beyond the case of chaotic systems and infinite temperatures.

PT -symmetry phase transition in a Bose-Hubbard model with localized gain and loss

We study the dissipative dynamics of a one-dimensional bosonic system described in terms of the bipartite Bose-Hubbard model with alternating gain and loss. This model exhibits the $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry under some specific conditions and features a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry phase transition. It is characterized by an order parameter corresponding to the population imbalance between even and odd sites, similar to the continuous phase transitions in the Hermitian realm. In the noninteracting limit, we solve the problem exactly and compute the parameter dependence of the order parameter. The interacting limit is addressed at the mean-field level, which allows us to construct the phase diagram for the model. We find that both the interaction and dissipation rates induce a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry breaking. On the other hand, periodic modulation of the dissipative coupling in time stabilizes the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric regime. Our findings are corroborated numerically on a tight-binding chain with gain and loss.

Driven Andreev molecule

We study the voltage-biased S-QD-S-QD-S Josephson junction, composed of three superconductors (S) and two quantum dots (QDs). In the absence of an applied voltage, the Andreev bound states on each quantum dot hybridize, forming an ``Andreev molecule.'' However, understanding of this system in a nonequilibrium setup is lacking. Applying commensurate dc voltages on the bijunction makes the system time periodic, and the equilibrium Andreev bound states evolve into a ladder of resonances with a finite lifetime due to multiple Andreev reflections (MARs). Starting from the time-periodic Bogoliubov--de Gennes equations we map the problem to a tight-binding chain in Floquet space. The resolvent of this non-Hermitian block matrix is obtained via a continued fraction method. We numerically calculate the Floquet-Andreev spectra which could be probed by local tunneling spectroscopy on the dots. We also consider the subgap current, and show that the Floquet resonances determine the position of the MAR steps. Proximity of the two dots causes splitting of the steps, while at large distances we observe interference effects which cause oscillations in the current-voltage curves. The latter effect should persist at very long distances.

Emergence of quasiperiodic behavior in transport and hybridization properties of clean lattice systems

Quasiperiodic behaviour is known to occur in systems with enforced quasiperiodicity or randomness, in either the lattice structure or the potential, as well as in periodically driven systems. Here, we present instead a setting where quasiperiodic behaviour emerges in clean, non-driven lattice systems. We illustrate this through two examples of experimental relevance, namely an infinite tight-binding chain with a gated segment, and a hopping particle coupled to static Ising degrees of freedom. We show how the quasiperiodic behaviour manifests in the number of states that are localised by the geometry of the system, with corresponding effects on transport and hybridisation properties.

Logarithmic entanglement scaling in dissipative free-fermion systems

We study the quantum information spreading in one-dimensional free-fermion systems in the presence of localized thermal baths. We employ a nonlocal Lindblad master equation to describe the system-bath interaction, in the sense that the Lindblad operators are written in terms of the Bogoliubov operators of the closed system, and hence are nonlocal in space. The statistical ensemble describing the steady state is written in terms of a convex combination of the Fermi-Dirac distributions of the baths. Due to the singularity of the free-fermion dispersion, the steady-state mutual information exhibits singularities as a function of the system parameters. While the mutual information generically satisfies an area law, at the singular points it exhibits logarithmic scaling as a function of subsystem size. By employing the Fisher-Hartwig theorem, we derive the prefactor of the logarithmic scaling, which depends on the parameters of the baths and plays the role of an effective "central charge". This is upper bounded by the central charge governing ground-state entanglement scaling. We provide numerical checks of our results in the paradigmatic tight-binding chain and the Kitaev chain.

Entangled multiplets and spreading of quantum correlations in a continuously monitored tight-binding chain

We analyze the dynamics of entanglement in a paradigmatic noninteracting system subject to continuous monitoring of the local excitation densities. Recently, it was conjectured that the evolution of quantum correlations in such system is described by a semi-classical theory, based on entangled pairs of ballistically propagating quasiparticles and inspired by the hydrodynamic approach to unitary (integrable) quantum systems. Here, however, we show that this conjecture does not fully capture the complex behavior of quantum correlations emerging from the interplay between coherent dynamics and continuous monitoring. We unveil the existence of multipartite quantum correlations which are inconsistent with an entangled-pair structure and which, within a quasiparticle picture, would require the presence of larger multiplets. We also observe that quantum information is highly delocalized, as it is shared in a collective {\it nonredundant} way among adjacent regions of the many-body system. Our results shed new light onto the behavior of correlations in quantum stochastic dynamics and further show that these may be enhanced by a (weak) continuous monitoring process.

Ballistic transport of interacting Bose particles in a tight-binding chain.

It is known that the quantum transport of noninteracting Bose particles across a tight-binding chain is ballistic in the sense that the current does not depend on the chain length. We address the question whether the transport of strongly interacting bosons can be ballistic as well. We find such a regime and show that, classically, it corresponds to the synchronized motion of local nonlinear oscillators. It is also argued that, unlike the case of noninteracting bosons, the transporting state responsible for the ballistic transport of interacting bosons is metastable, i.e., the current decays in the course of time. An estimate for the decay time is obtained.

Stochastic resets in the context of a tight-binding chain driven by an oscillating field

In this work, we study in the framework of the so-called driven tight-binding chain (TBC) the issue of quantum unitary dynamics interspersed at random times with stochastic resets mimicking non-unitary evolution due to interactions with the external environment, the driven TBC involves a quantum particle hopping between the nearest-neighbour sites of a one-dimensional lattice and subject to an external forcing field that is periodic in time. We consider the resets to be taking place at exponentially-distributed random times. Using the method of stochastic Liouville equation, we derive exact results for the probability at a given time for the particle to be found on different sites and averaged with respect to different realizations of the dynamics. We establish the remarkable effect of localization of the TBC particle on the sites of the underlying lattice at long times. The system in the absence of stochastic resets exhibits delocalization of the particle, whereby the particle does not have a time-independent probability distribution of being found on different sites even at long times, and, consequently, the mean-squared displacement of the particle about its initial location has an unbounded growth in time. One may induce localization in the bare model only through tuning the ratio of the strength to the frequency of the field to have a special value, namely, equal to one of the zeros of the zeroth order Bessel function of the first kind. We show here that localization may be induced by a far simpler procedure of subjecting the system to stochastic resets.

Current rectification in a correlated disordered 1D chain in presence of periodically driven electric field

The current rectification phenomenon is investigated at nanoscale level considering a one-dimensional tight-binding chain whose site energies are modulated in a cosine form following the well established Aubry-Andre-Harper (AAH) form in presence of a periodically driving field. The appearance of an electric field along the chain due to voltage bias leads to an asymmetry in the system, resulting in different currents in two bias polarities. The degree of current rectification can be monitored selectively by means of external light irradiation, which is included into the system by means of a minimal coupling scheme. Our analysis may provide a new direction of designing tunable currents rectifiers using AAH systems and other similar kinds of fascinating correlated disordered ones.

Stationary scattering solution and logic operations in X-coupled tight-binding chains

The realization of logical operations on X-shaped structures consisting of two discrete input chains, which are linearly connected to two output chains through a central coupling region, is investigated. We provide the exact stationary scattering solution for the harmonic waves propagating in the proposed structure and report the full transmission spectrum. We show that a number of Boolean logic operations can be implemented using a digitization scheme of the output signal based on the amplitude modulation of the transmission coefficients. In particular, we show that the relative phase between input harmonics can be used as a control parameter to select the desired logic operation. A detailed study of the contrast ratio is used to identify optimal regions in the parameter space for the operation of each logical function.

Quantum Floquet engineering with an exactly solvable tight-binding chain in a cavity

Recent experimental advances enable the manipulation of quantum matter by exploiting the quantum nature of light. However, paradigmatic exactly solvable models, such as the Dicke, Rabi or Jaynes-Cummings models for quantum-optical systems, are scarce in the corresponding solid-state, quantum materials context. Focusing on the long-wavelength limit for the light, here, we provide such an exactly solvable model given by a tight-binding chain coupled to a single cavity mode via a quantized version of the Peierls substitution. We show that perturbative expansions in the light-matter coupling have to be taken with care and can easily lead to a false superradiant phase. Furthermore, we provide an analytical expression for the groundstate in the thermodynamic limit, in which the cavity photons are squeezed by the light-matter coupling. In addition, we derive analytical expressions for the electronic single-particle spectral function and optical conductivity. We unveil quantum Floquet engineering signatures in these dynamical response functions, such as analogs to dynamical localization and replica side bands, complementing paradigmatic classical Floquet engineering results. Strikingly, the Drude weight in the optical conductivity of the electrons is partially suppressed by the presence of a single cavity mode through an induced electron-electron interaction.