Translation-invariant Hamiltonian Research Articles

Random translation-invariant Hamiltonians and their spectral gaps

We consider random translation-invariant frustration-free quantum spin Hamiltonians on ZD in which the nearest-neighbor interaction in every direction is randomly sampled and then distributed across the lattice. Our main result is that, under a small rank constraint, the Hamiltonians are automatically frustration-free and they are gapped with a positive probability. This extends previous results on 1D spin chains to all dimensions. The argument additionally controls the local gap. As an application, we obtain a 2D area law for a cut-dependent ground state via recent AGSP methods of Anshu-Arad-Gosset.

Asymptotic reversibility of thermal operations for interacting quantum spin systems via generalized quantum Stein’s lemma

For quantum spin systems in any spatial dimension with a local, translation-invariant Hamiltonian, we prove that asymptotic state convertibility from a quantum state to another one by a thermodynamically feasible class of quantum dynamics, called thermal operations, is completely characterized by the Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence rate, if the state is translation-invariant and spatially ergodic. Our proof consists of two parts and is phrased in terms of a branch of the quantum information theory called the resource theory. First, we prove that any states, for which the min and max Rényi divergences collapse approximately to a single value, can be approximately reversibly converted into one another by thermal operations with the aid of a small source of quantum coherence. Second, we prove that these divergences collapse asymptotically to the KL divergence rate for any translation-invariant ergodic state. We show this via a generalization of the quantum Stein’s lemma for quantum hypothesis testing beyond independent and identically distributed situations. Our result implies that the KL divergence rate serves as a thermodynamic potential that provides a complete characterization of thermodynamic convertibility of ergodic states of quantum many-body systems in the thermodynamic limit, including out-of-equilibrium and fully quantum situations.

Phonon-induced disorder in dynamics of optically pumped metals from nonlinear electron-phonon coupling

The non-equilibrium dynamics of matter excited by light may produce electronic phases, such as laser-induced high-transition-temperature superconductivity, that do not exist in equilibrium. Here we simulate the dynamics of a metal driven at initial time by a spatially uniform pump that excites dipole-active vibrational modes which couple nonlinearly to electrons. We provide evidence for rapid loss of spatial coherence, leading to emergent effective disorder in the dynamics, which arises in a system unitarily evolving under a translation-invariant Hamiltonian, and dominates the electronic behavior as the system evolves towards a correlated electron-phonon long-time state, possibly explaining why transient superconductivity is not observed. Our framework provides a basis within which to understand correlation dynamics in current pump-probe experiments of vibrationally coupled electrons, highlight the importance of the evolution of phase coherence, and demonstrate that pumped electron-phonon systems provide a means of realizing dynamically induced disorder in translation-invariant systems.

Jordan-Wigner dualities for translation-invariant Hamiltonians in any dimension: Emergent fermions in fracton topological order

Inspired by recent developments generalizing Jordan-Wigner dualities to higher dimensions, we develop a framework of such dualities using an algebraic formalism for translation-invariant Hamiltonians proposed by Haah. We prove that given a translation-invariant fermionic system with general $q$-body interactions, where $q$ is even, a local mapping preserving global fermion parity to a dual Pauli spin model exists and is unique up to a choice of basis. Furthermore, the dual spin model is constructive, and we present various examples of these dualities. As an application, we bosonize fermionic systems where free-fermion hopping terms are absent ($q \ge 4$) and fermion parity is conserved on submanifolds such as higher-form, line, planar or fractal symmetry. For some cases in 3+1D, bosonizing such a system can give rise to fracton models where the emergent particles are immobile but yet can behave in certain ways like fermions. These models may be examples of new nonrelativistic 't Hooft anomalies. Furthermore, fermionic subsystem symmetries are also present in various Majorana stabilizer codes, such as the color code or the checkerboard model, and we give examples where their duals are cluster states or new fracton models distinct from their doubled CSS codes.

Generalization of Bloch's theorem for arbitrary boundary conditions: Theory

We present a generalization of Bloch's theorem to finite-range lattice systems of independent fermions, in which translation symmetry is broken only by arbitrary boundary conditions, by providing exact, analytic expressions for all energy eigenvalues and eigenstates. By transforming the single-particle Hamiltonian into a corner-modified banded block-Toeplitz matrix, a key step is a bipartition of the lattice, which splits the eigenvalue problem into a system of bulk and boundary equations. The eigensystem inherits most of its solutions from an auxiliary, infinite translation-invariant Hamiltonian that allows for non-unitary representations of translation symmetry. A reformulation of the boundary equation in terms of a boundary matrix ensures compatibility with the boundary conditions, and determines the allowed energy eigenstates. We show how the boundary matrix captures the interplay between bulk and boundary properties, leading to efficient indicators of bulk-boundary correspondence. Remarkable consequences of our generalized Bloch theorem are the engineering of Hamiltonians that host perfectly localized, robust zero-energy edge modes, and the predicted emergence, e.g. in Kitaev's chain, of localized excitations whose amplitudes decay exponentially with a power-law prefactor. We further show how the theorem yields diagonalization algorithms for the class of Hamiltonians under consideration, and use the proposed bulk-boundary indicator to characterize the topological response of a multi-band time-reversal invariant s-wave superconductor under twisted boundary conditions, showing how a fractional Josephson effect can occur without a fermionic parity switch. Finally, we establish connections to the transfer matrix method and demonstrate, using the paradigmatic Kitaev's chain example, that a non-diagonalizable transfer matrix signals the presence of solutions with a power-law prefactor.

Many-body self-localization in a translation-invariant Hamiltonian

We study the statistical and dynamical aspects of a translation-invariant Hamiltonian, without quench disorder, as an example of the manifestation of the phenomenon of many-body localization. This is characterized by the breakdown of thermalization and by information preservation of initial preparations at long times. To realize this, we use quasi-periodic long-range interactions, which are now achievable in high-finesse cavity experiments, to find evidence suggestive of a divergent time-scale in which charge inhomogeneities in the initial state survive asymptotically. This is reminiscent of a glassy behavior, which appears in the ground-state of this system, being also present at infinite temperatures.

Dynamics in many-body localized quantum systems without disorder

We study the relaxation dynamics of strongly interacting quantum systems that display a kind of many-body localization in spite of their translation-invariant Hamiltonian. We show that dynamics starting from a random initial configuration is nonperturbatively slow in the hopping strength, and potentially genuinely nonergodic in the thermodynamic limit. In finite systems with periodic boundary conditions, density relaxation takes place in two stages, which are separated by a long out-of-equilibrium plateau whose duration diverges exponentially with the system size. We estimate the phase boundary of this quantum glass phase, and discuss the role of local resonant configurations. We suggest experimental realizations and methods to observe the discussed nonergodic dynamics.

Identifying quantum phases from the injectivity of symmetric matrix product states

Given a local gapped Hamiltonian with a global symmetry on a one dimensional lattice we describe a method to identify if the Hamiltonian belongs to a quantum phase in which the symmetry is spontaneously broken in the ground states or to a specific symmetry protected phase, without using local or string order parameters. We obtain different matrix product state (MPS) descriptions of the symmetric ground state(s) of the Hamiltonian by restricting the MPS matrices to transform under different projective representations of the symmetry. The phase of the Hamiltonian is identified by examining which MPS descriptions, if any, are injective, namely, whether the largest eigenvalue of the "transfer matrix" obtained from the MPS is unique. We demonstrate the method for translation invariant Hamiltonians with a global SO(3), Z_2 and Z_2 x Z_2 symmetry on an infinite chain.

Stationary states in a free fermionic chain from the quench action method

We employ the quench action method for a recently considered geometrical quantum quench: two free fermionic chains initially at different temperatures are joined together in the middle and let evolve unitarily with a translation invariant Hamiltonian. We show that two different stationary regimes are reached at long times, depending on the interplay between the observation time scale $T$ and the total length $L$ of the system. We show the emergence of a nonequilibrium steady state supporting an energy current for observation time $T$ much smaller than the system size $L$. We then identify a longer time scale for which thermalization occurs in a generalized Gibbs ensemble.

Entanglement of several blocks in fermionic chains

In this paper we propose an expression for the entanglement entropy of several intervals in a stationary state of a free, translational invariant Hamiltonian in a fermionic chain. We check numerically the accuracy of our proposal and conjecture a formula for the asymptotic behavior of principal submatrices of a Toeplitz matrix.

Excited state entanglement in homogeneous fermionic chains

We study the Rényi entanglement entropy of an interval in a periodic fermionic chain for a general eigenstate of a free, translational invariant Hamiltonian. In order to analytically compute the entropy we use two technical tools. The first is used to logarithmically reduce the complexity of the problem and the second to compute the Rényi entropy of the chosen subsystem. We introduce new strategies to perform the computations, derive new expressions for the entropy of these general states and show the perfect agreement of the analytical computations and the numerical outcome. Finally we discuss the physical interpretation of our results and generalize them to compute the entanglement entropy for a fragment of a fermionic ladder.

Derivation of Some Translation-Invariant Lindblad Equations for a Quantum Brownian Particle

We study the dynamics of a Brownian quantum particle hopping on an infinite lattice with a spin degree of freedom. This particle is coupled to free boson gases via a translation-invariant Hamiltonian which is linear in the creation and annihilation operators of the bosons. We derive the time evolution of the reduced density matrix of the particle in the van Hove limit in which we also rescale the hopping rate. This corresponds to a situation in which both the system-bath interactions and the hopping between neighboring sites are small and they are effective on the same time scale. The reduced evolution is given by a translation-invariant Lindblad master equation which is derived explicitly.

Homogeneous binary trees as ground states of quantum critical Hamiltonians

Many-body states whose wave-function admits a representation in terms of a uniform binary-tree tensor decomposition are shown to obey to power-law two-body correlations functions. Any such state can be associated with the ground state of a translational invariant Hamiltonian which, depending on the dimension of the systems sites, involve at most couplings between third-neighboring sites. A detailed analysis of their spectra shows that they admit an exponentially large ground space.

Electric dipole strength distribution below the E1 giant resonance in N = 82 nuclei

AbstractIn this study quasiparticle random-phase approximation with the translational invariant Hamiltonian using deformed mean field potential has been conducted to describe electric dipole excitations in 136Xe, 138Ba, 140Ce, 142Nd, 144Sm and 146Gd isotones. The distribution of the calculated E1 strength shows a resonance like structure at energies between 6–8 MeV exhausting up to 1% of the isovector electric dipole Energy Weighted Sum Rule and in some aspects nicely confirms the experimental data. It has been shown that the main part of E1 strength, observed below the threshold in these nuclei may be interpreted as main fragments of the Pygmy Dipole resonance. The agreement between calculated mean excitation energies as well as summed B(E1) value of the 1− excitations and the available experimental data is quite good. The calculations indicate the presence of a few prominent positive parity 1+ States in heavy N = 82 isotones in the energy interval 6–8 MeV which shows not all dipole excitations were of electric character in this energy range.

Optimal matrix product states for the Heisenberg spin chain

We present some exact results for the optimal matrix product state (MPS) approximation to the ground state of the infinite isotropic Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain. Our approach is based on the systematic use of Schmidt decompositions to reduce the problem of approximating for the ground state of a spin chain to an analytical minimization. This allows one to show that results of standard simulations, e.g. density matrix renormalization group and infinite time evolving block decimation, do correspond to the result obtained by this minimization strategy and, thus, both methods deliver optimal MPS with the same energy but, otherwise, different properties. We also find that translational and rotational symmetries cannot be maintained simultaneously by the MPS ansatz of minimum energy and present explicit constructions for each case. Furthermore, we analyze symmetry restoration and quantify it to uncover new scaling relations. The method we propose can be extended to any translational invariant Hamiltonian.

General technique to produce isochronous Hamiltonians

We introduce a new technique—characterized by an arbitrary positive constant Ω, with which we associate the period T = 2π/Ω—to ‘Ω-modify’ a Hamiltonian so that the new Hamiltonian thereby obtained is entirely isochronous, namely it yields motions all of which (except possibly for a lower dimensional set of singular motions) are periodic with the same fixed period T in all their degrees of freedom. This technique transforms real autonomous Hamiltonians into Ω-modified Hamiltonians which are also real and autonomous, and it is widely applicable, for instance, to the most general many-body problem characterized by Newtonian equations of motion (‘acceleration equal force’) provided it is translation invariant. The Ω-modified Hamiltonians are of course not translation invariant, but for Ω = 0 they reduce (up to marginal changes) to the unmodified Hamiltonians they were obtained from. Hence, when this technique is applied to translation-invariant Hamiltonians yielding, in their center-of-mass systems, chaotic motions with a natural time scale much smaller than T, the corresponding Ω-modified Hamiltonians shall display a chaotic behavior for quite some time before the isochronous character of the motions takes over. We moreover show that the quantized versions of these Ω-modified Hamiltonians feature equispaced spectra.

Coherence of the lattice polarization in large-polaron motion

Main problems of the large polaron theory are considered. We demonstrate that the problem of searching the ground stationary state of a system of coupled fields with translation-invariant Hamiltonian can have a solution of the form $f(\mathbf{r}\ensuremath{-}\mathbf{v}t)$, $\mathbf{v}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, i.e., the solution with the spontaneously broken translational symmetry. Such a state can be a ground state of a large polaron in case of strong electron-phonon coupling when the spontaneous break of the translational symmetry results from the phonon vacuum deformation by the electric field of the charge carrier. The correctness of the classical representation of the polarization field in the theory of a strongly coupled large polaron is proved on the base of the theory of the quantum-coherent states of the phonon field. The use of this representation has enabled us to show that extremely high losses of the electron energy in dielectric parts of cold cathodes occurring when the carrier velocity is lower than the threshold for the single-phonon radiation are due to coherent phonon radiation by polarons like Cherenkov effect. It is this radiation that results in the predicted Thornber and Feynman dependence of the carrier steady-state velocity on the applied electric field strength. The coherent phonon radiation generated by polaron current can be detected in experiments on the neutrons scattering. The primary directions of the neutrons scattering depend on the polarons steady-state velocity and, hence, on the applied field strength. The coherent phonon radiation stemming from supersonic thermal motion of polarons causes a giant increase of the resistance in a corresponding temperature interval.

Long-range quantum entanglement in noisy cluster states

We describe a phase transition for long-range entanglement in a three-dimensional cluster state affected by noise. The partially decohered state is modeled by the thermal state of a short-range translation-invariant Hamiltonian. We find that the temperature at which the entanglement length changes from infinite to finite is nonzero. We give an upper and lower bound to this transition temperature.

PATH INTEGRAL REPRESENTATION FOR INTERFACE STATES OF THE ANISOTROPIC HEISENBERG MODEL

We develop a geometric representation for the ground state of the spin-1/2 quantum XXZ ferromagnetic chain in terms of suitably weighted random walks in a two-dimensional lattice. The path integral model so obtained admits a genuine classical statistical mechanics interpretation with a translation invariant Hamiltonian. This new representation is used to study the interface ground states of the XXZ model. We prove that the probability of having a number of down spins in the up phase decays exponentially with the sum of their distances to the interface plus the square of the number of down spins. As an application of this bound, we prove that the total third component of the spin in a large interval of even length centered on the interface does not fluctuate, i.e. has zero variance. We also show how to construct a path integral representation in higher dimensions and obtain a reduction formula for the partition functions in two dimensions in terms of the partition function of the one-dimensional model.

Twist Positivity

We study a heat kernel e−βH defined by a self-adjoint Hamiltonian H acting on a Hilbert space H, and a unitary representation U(g) of a symmetry group G of H, normalized so that the ground vector of H is invariant under U(g). The triple {H, U(g), H} defines a twisted partition function Zg and a twisted Gibbs expectation 〈·〉g, Zg=TrH(U(g−1)e−βH) and 〈·〉g=TrH(U(g−1)·e−βH)/TrH(U(g−1)e−βH). We say that {H, U(g), H} is twist positive if Zg>0. We say that {H, U(g), H} has a Feynman–Kac representation with a twist U(g), if one can construct a function space and a probability measure dμg on that space yielding (in the usual sense on products of coordinates) 〈·〉g=∫·dμg. Bosonic quantum mechanics provides a class of specific examples that we discuss. We also consider a complex bosonic quantum field ϕ(x) defined on a spatial s-torus Ts and with a translation-invariant Hamiltonian. This system has an (s+1)-parameter abelian twist group Ts×R that is twist positive and that has a Feynman–Kac representation. Given τ∈Ts and θ∈R, the corresponding paths are random fields Φ(x, t) that satisfy the twist relationΦ(x, t+β)=eiΩθΦ(x−τ, t). We also utilize the twist symmetry to understand some properties of “zero-mass” limits, when the twist τ, θ lies in the complement of a set ϒsing of singular twists.