Time-dependent Density Matrix Renormalization Group Research Articles

Domain-wall melting as a probe of many-body localization

Motivated by a recent optical-lattice experiment by Choi et al.[Science 352, 1547 (2016)], we discuss how domain-wall melting can be used to investigate many-body localization. First, by considering noninteracting fermion models, we demonstrate that experimentally accessible measures are sensitive to localization and can thus be used to detect the delocalization-localization transition, including divergences of characteristic length scales. Second, using extensive time-dependent density matrix renormalization group simulations, we study fermions with repulsive interactions on a chain and a two-leg ladder. The extracted critical disorder strengths agree well with the ones found in existing literature.

Inertia effects in the real-time dynamics of a quantum spin coupled to a Fermi sea

Spin dynamics in the Kondo impurity model, initiated by suddenly switching the direction of a local magnetic field, is studied by means of the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group. Quantum effects are identified by systematic computations for different spin quantum numbers S and by comparing with tight-binding spin-dynamics theory for the classical-spin Kondo model. We demonstrate that, besides the conventional precessional motion and relaxation, the quantum-spin dynamics shows nutation, similar to a spinning top. Opposed to semiclassical theory, however, the nutation is efficiently damped on an extremely short time scale. The effect is explained in the large-S limit as quantum dephasing of the eigenmodes in an emergent two-spin model that is weakly entangled with the bulk of the system. We argue that, apart from the Kondo effect, the damping of nutational motion is essentially the only characteristics of the quantum nature of the spin. Qualitative agreement between quantum and semiclassical spin dynamics is found down to .

Increased coherence time in narrowed bath states in quantum dots

We study the influence of narrowed distributions of the nuclear Overhauser field on the decoherence of a central electron spin in quantum dots. We describe the spin dynamics in quantum dots by the central spin model. We use analytic solutions for uniform couplings and the time dependent density-matrix renormalization group (tDMRG) for nonuniform couplings. With these tools we calculate the dynamics of the central spin for large baths of nuclear spins with or without external magnetic field applied to the central spin. The focus of our study is the influence of initial mixtures with narrowed distributions of the Overhauser field and of applied magnetic fields on the decoherence of the central spin.

Non-Markovian dynamics in chiral quantum networks with spins and photons

We study the dynamics of chiral quantum networks consisting of nodes coupled by unidirectional or asymmetric bidirectional quantum channels. In contrast to familiar photonic networks where driven two-level atoms exchange photons via 1D photonic nanostructures, we propose and study a setup where interactions between the atoms are mediated by spin excitations (magnons) in 1D $XX$ spin chains representing spin waveguides. While Markovian quantum network theory eliminates quantum channels as structureless reservoirs in a Born-Markov approximation to obtain a master equation for the nodes, we are interested in non-Markovian dynamics. This arises from the nonlinear character of the dispersion with band-edge effects, and from finite spin propagation velocities leading to time delays in interactions. To account for the non-Markovian dynamics we treat the quantum degrees of freedom of the nodes and connecting channels as a composite spin system with the surrounding of the quantum network as a Markovian bath, allowing for an efficient solution with time-dependent density matrix renormalization group techniques. We illustrate our approach showing non-Markovian effects in the driven-dissipative formation of quantum dimers, and we present examples for quantum information protocols involving quantum state transfer with engineered elements as basic building blocks of quantum spintronic circuits.

Boundary versus bulk behavior of time-dependent correlation functions in one-dimensional quantum systems

We study the influence of reflective boundaries on time-dependent responses of one-dimensional quantum fluids at zero temperature beyond the low-energy approximation. Our analysis is based on an extension of effective mobile impurity models for nonlinear Luttinger liquids to the case of open boundary conditions. For integrable models, we show that boundary autocorrelations oscillate as a function of time with the same frequency as the corresponding bulk autocorrelations. This frequency can be identified as the band edge of elementary excitations. The amplitude of the oscillations decays as a power law with distinct exponents at the boundary and in the bulk, but boundary and bulk exponents are determined by the same coupling constant in the mobile impurity model. For nonintegrable models, we argue that the power-law decay of the oscillations is generic for autocorrelations in the bulk, but turns into an exponential decay at the boundary. Moreover, there is in general a nonuniversal shift of the boundary frequency in comparison with the band edge of bulk excitations. The predictions of our effective field theory are compared with numerical results obtained by time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (tDMRG) for both integrable and nonintegrable critical spin-$S$ chains with $S=1/2$, $1$ and $3/2$.

Ohmic two-state system from the perspective of the interacting resonant level model: Thermodynamics and transient dynamics

We investigate the thermodynamics and transient dynamics of the (unbiased) Ohmic two-state system by exploiting the equivalence of this model to the interacting resonant level model. For the thermodynamics, we show, by using the numerical renormalization group (NRG) method, how the universal specific heat and susceptibility curves evolve with increasing dissipation strength, $\alpha$, from those of an isolated two-level system at vanishingly small dissipation strength, with the characteristic activated-like behavior in this limit, to those of the isotropic Kondo model in the limit $\alpha\to 1^{-}$. For the transient dynamics of the two-level system, $P(t)=\langle \sigma_{z}(t)\rangle$, with initial-state preparation $P(t\leq0)=+1$, we apply the time-dependent extension of the NRG (TDNRG) to the interacting resonant level model, and compare the results obtained with those from the noninteracting-blip approximation (NIBA), the functional renormalization group (FRG), and the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (TD-DMRG). We demonstrate excellent agreement on short to intermediate time scales between TDNRG and TD-DMRG for $0\lesssim\alpha \lesssim 0.9$ for $P(t)$, and between TDNRG and FRG in the vicinity of $\alpha=1/2$. Furthermore, we quantify the error in the NIBA for a range of $\alpha$, finding significant errors in the latter even for $0.1\leq \alpha\leq 0.4$. We also briefly discuss why the long-time errors in the present formulation of the TDNRG prevents an investigation of the crossover between coherent and incoherent dynamics. Our results for $P(t)$ at short to intermediate times could act as useful benchmarks for the development of new techniques to simulate the transient dynamics of spin-boson problems.

Coherent dynamics of singlet fission controlled by nonlocal electron-phonon coupling

Based on the Frenkel-charge transfer (CT) mixing model of singlet fission (SF), we incorporate both the local and nonlocal phonon baths in the Hamiltonian and adopt the algorithm of time-dependent density matrix renormalization group to simulate the fission process in tetracene. The endergonic SF is found to be facilitated by the robust quantum coherence, which concurrently gives rise to a notable quantum beating effect. Controlled by the nonlocal electron-phonon coupling, the density of triplet yield manifests a nonlinear relationship with the singlet density. As a result, the fission rate in tetracene is explicitly obtained, which is in agreement with the experimental measurement.

Unveiling hidden structure of many-body wave functions of integrable systems via sudden-expansion experiments

In the theory of Bethe-ansatz integrable quantum systems, rapidities play an important role as they are used to specify many-body states, apart from phases. The physical interpretation of rapidities going back to Sutherland is that they are the asymptotic momenta after letting a quantum gas expand into a larger volume making it dilute and noninteracting. We exploit this picture to make a direct connection to quantities that are accessible in sudden-expansion experiments with ultracold quantum gases. By a direct comparison of Bethe-ansatz and time-dependent density matrix renormalization group results, we demonstrate that the expansion velocity of a one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model can be predicted from knowing the distribution of occupied rapidities defined by the initial state. Curiously, an approximate Bethe-ansatz solution works well also for the Bose-Hubbard model.

Numerical evidence of the double-Griffiths phase of the random quantum Ashkin-Teller chain

The random quantum Ashkin-Teller chain is studied numerically by means of time-dependent Density-Matrix Renormalization Group. The critical lines are estimated as the location of the peaks of the integrated autocorrelation times, computed from spin-spin and polarization-polarization autocorrelation functions. Disorder fluctuations of magnetization and polarization are observed to be maximum on these critical lines. Entanglement entropy leads to the same phase diagram, though with larger Finite-Size effects. The decay of spin-spin and polarization-polarization autocorrelation functions provides numerical evidence of the existence of a double Griffiths phase when taking into account finite-size effects. The two associated dynamical exponents z increase rapidly as the critical lines are approached, in agreement with the recent conjecture of a divergence at the two transitions in the thermodynamic limit.

Extending the range of real time density matrix renormalization group simulations

We discuss a few simple modifications to time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithms which allow to access larger time scales. We specifically aim at beginners and present practical aspects of how to implement these modifications within any standard matrix product state (MPS) based formulation of the method. Most importantly, we show how to ‘combine’ the Schrödinger and Heisenberg time evolutions of arbitrary pure states |ψ〉 and operators A in the evaluation of 〈A〉ψ(t)=〈ψ|A(t)|ψ〉. This includes quantum quenches. The generalization to (non-)thermal mixed state dynamics 〈A〉ρ(t)=Tr[ρA(t)] induced by an initial density matrix ρ is straightforward. In the context of linear response (ground state or finite temperature T>0) correlation functions, one can extend the simulation time by a factor of two by ‘exploiting time translation invariance’, which is efficiently implementable within MPS DMRG. We present a simple analytic argument for why a recently-introduced disentangler succeeds in reducing the effort of time-dependent simulations at T>0. Finally, we advocate the python programming language as an elegant option for beginners to set up a DMRG code.

Prethermalization and Thermalization in Models with Weak Integrability Breaking

We study the effects of integrability-breaking perturbations on the nonequilibrium evolution of many-particle quantum systems. We focus on a class of spinless fermion models with weak interactions. We employ equation of motion techniques that can be viewed as generalizations of quantum Boltzmann equations. We benchmark our method against time-dependent density matrix renormalization group computations and find it to be very accurate as long as interactions are weak. For small integrability breaking, we observe robust prethermalization plateaux for local observables on all accessible time scales. Increasing the strength of the integrability-breaking term induces a "drift" away from the prethermalization plateaux towards thermal behavior. We identify a time scale characterizing this crossover.

Lattice-Assisted Spectroscopy: A Generalized Scanning Tunneling Microscope for Ultracold Atoms.

We propose a scheme to measure the frequency-resolved local particle and hole spectra of any optical lattice-confined system of correlated ultracold atoms that offers single-site addressing and imaging, which is now an experimental reality. Combining perturbation theory and time-dependent density matrix renormalization group simulations, we quantitatively test and validate this approach of lattice-assisted spectroscopy on several one-dimensional example systems, such as the superfluid and Mott insulator, with and without a parabolic trap, and finally on edge states of the bosonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. We highlight extensions of our basic scheme to obtain an even wider variety of interesting and important frequency resolved spectra.

Adiabatic cooling of bosons in lattices to magnetically ordered quantum states

We suggest and analyze a new scheme to adiabatically cool bosonic atoms to picokelvin temperatures which should allow the observation of magnetic ordering via superexchange in optical lattices. The starting point is a gapped phase called the spin Mott phase where each site is occupied by one spin-up and one spin-down atom. An adiabatic ramp leads to an xy-ferromagnetic phase. We show that the combination of time-dependent density matrix renormalization group methods with quantum trajectories can be used to fully address possible experimental limitations due to decoherence, and demonstrate that the magnetic correlations are robust for experimentally realizable ramp speeds. Using a microscopic master equation treatment of light scattering in the many-particle system, we test the robustness of adiabatic state preparation against decoherence. Due to different ground-state symmetries, we also find a metastable state with xy-ferromagnetic order if the ramp crosses to regimes where the ground state is a z-ferromagnet. The bosonic spin Mott phase as the initial gapped state for adiabatic cooling has many features in common with a fermionic band insulator, but the use of bosons should enable experiments with substantially lower initial entropies.

Expansion dynamics in a one-dimensional hard-core boson model with three-body interactions.

Using the adaptive time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method, we numerically investigate the expansion dynamics of bosons in a one-dimensional hard-core boson model with three-body interactions. It is found that the bosons expand ballistically with weak interaction, which are obtained by local density and the radius Rn. It is shown that the expansion velocity V, obtained from Rn = Vt, is dependent on the number of bosons. As a prominent result, the expansion velocity decreases with the enhancement of three-body interaction. We further study the dynamics of the system, which quenches from the ground state with two-thirds filling, the results indicate the expansion is also ballistic in the gapless phase regime. It could help us detect the phase transition in the system.

Dynamical symmetry and pair tunneling in a one-dimensional Bose gas colliding with a mobile impurity

Using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (TDMRG) we theoretically study the collision of a one-dimensional gas of interacting bosons with an impurity trapped in a shallow box potential. We study the dynamic response of both the impurity and the bosonic gas and find an approximate independence of the sign of the interaction (attractive or repulsive) between the impurity and the bosons. This sign-independence breaks down when the interaction energy is of the same order as the box potential depth, leading to resonant pair tunneling. Our predictions can be tested using contemporary techniques with ultracold atoms.

Computational investigation on tunable optical band gap in armchair polyacenes.

Polyacenes in their armchair geometry (phenacenes) have recently been found to possess appealing electronic and optical properties with higher chemical stability and comparatively larger band gap as compared to linear polyacenes. They also behave as high-temperature superconductors upon alkali metal doping. Moreover, the optical properties of crystalline picene can be finely tuned by applying external pressure. We investigated the variation of optical gap as a function of altering the interplanar distances between parallel cofacial phenacene dimers. We employed both time-dependent density functional theory and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique to investigate the lowest singlet excitations in phenacene dimer. Our study showed that the lowest singlet excitation in these systems evolved as a function of interplanar separation. The optical excitation energy gap decreases as a function of inverse interplanar separation of the phenacene dimer. The distant dependent variation of optical absorption at the dimer level may be comparable with experimental observation in picene crystal under pressure. DMRG study also demonstrates that besides picene, electronic properties of higher phenacenes can also be tunable by altering interplanar separation.

Drag dynamics in one-dimensional Fermi systems

We study drag dynamics of several fermions in a fermion cloud in one-dimensional continuous systems, with particular emphasis on the non-trivial quantum many-body effects in systems whose parameters change gradually in real time. We adopt the Fermi--Hubbard model and the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method to calculate the drag force on a trapped fermion cluster in a cloud of another fermion species with contact interaction. The simulation result shows that a non-trivial peak in the resistance force is observed in the high cloud density region, which implies a criterion of effective ways in diffusive transport in a fermion cloud. We compare the DMRG simulation result with a mean-field result, and it is suggested that some internal degrees of freedom have a crucial role in the excitation process when the cloud density is high. This work emphasizes the difference between the full-quantum calculation and the semiclassical calculation, which is the quantum effects, in slow dynamics of many-body systems bound in a fermion cloud.

Quench of non-Markovian coherence in the deep sub-Ohmic spin–boson model: A unitary equilibration scheme

The deep sub-Ohmic spin–boson model shows a longstanding non-Markovian coherence at low temperature. Motivating to quench this robust coherence, the thermal effect is unitarily incorporated into the time evolution of the model, which is calculated by the adaptive time-dependent density matrix renormalization group algorithm combined with the orthogonal polynomials theory. Via introducing a unitary heating operator to the bosonic bath, the bath is heated up so that a majority portion of the bosonic excited states is occupied. It is found in this situation the coherence of the spin is quickly quenched even in the coherent regime, in which the non-Markovian feature dominates. With this finding we come up with a novel way to implement the unitary equilibration, the essential term of the eigenstate-thermalization hypothesis, through a short-time evolution of the model.

Interaction quantum quenches in the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model with spin imbalance

Using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method and exact diagonalization, we study the non-equilibrium dynamics of the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model following a quantum quench or a ramp of the onsite interaction strength. For quenches from the non-interacting to the attractive regime, we investigate the dynamical emergence of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) correlations, which at finite spin polarizations are the dominant two-body correlations in the ground state, and their signatures in the pair quasi-momentum distribution function. We observe that the post-quench double occupancy exhibits a maximum as the interaction strength becomes of the order of the bandwidth. Finally, we study quenches and ramps from attractive to repulsive interactions, which imprint FFLO correlations onto repulsively bound pairs. We show that a quite short ramp time is sufficient to wipe out the characteristic FFLO features in the post-quench pair momentum distribution functions.

Spin and energy currents in integrable and nonintegrable spin-12chains: A typicality approach to real-time autocorrelations

We use the concept of typicality to study the real-time dynamics of spin and energy currents in spin-1/2 models in one dimension and at nonzero temperatures. These chains are the integrable XXZ chain and a nonintegrable modification due to the presence of a staggered magnetic field oriented in z direction. In the framework of linear response theory, we numerically calculate autocorrelation functions by propagating a single pure state, drawn at random as a typical representative of the full statistical ensemble. By comparing to small-system data from exact diagonalization (ED) and existing short-time data from time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (tDMRG), we show that typicality is satisfied in finite systems over a wide range of temperature and is fulfilled in both, integrable and nonintegrable systems. For the integrable case, we calculate the long-time dynamics of the spin current and extract the spin Drude weight for large systems outside the range of ED. We particularly provide strong evidence that the high-temperature Drude weight vanishes at the isotropic point. For the nonintegrable case, we obtain the full relaxation curve of the energy current and determine the heat conductivity as a function of magnetic field, exchange anisotropy, and temperature.