Two-component Fermi Research Articles

RF dressing with two-component fermions in optical lattices

RF dressing with two-component fermions in optical lattices

Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering Spectra of Cuprate Superconductors Predicted by Model of Fractionalized Fermions

We theoretically analyze the intensity of the resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) based on Ansatz that the electron is fractionalized into two components. By fitting the angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data of a cuprate high-$T_{\rm c}$ superconductor Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ and the accompanied machine learning results obtained before by Yamaji {\it et al.} (arXiv:1903.08060), we determine the paprameters of the two-component fermion model which describes the electron fractionalization. The RIXS spectra are predicted by using this description. We find that the intensity is enhanced in the superconducting phase relative to the normal or pseudogap phase. Since the enhancement is unusual, we propose this can be used as a critical test whether the unconventional electron fractionalization captures the essence of the cuprate superconductivity. This type of combined analyses using multiple independent spectroscopy data, with the help of theoretical and machine learning insights, regarded as {\it integrated spectroscopy} opens a new route to study difficult open issues in strongly correlated electron systems.

Microscopic derivation of the Boltzmann equation for transport coefficients of resonating fermions at high temperature

Motivated by the recently observed failure of the kinetic theory for the bulk viscosity, we in turn revisit the shear viscosity and the thermal conductivity of two-component fermions with a zero-range interaction both in two and three dimensions. In particular, we show that their Kubo formula evaluated exactly in the high-temperature limit to the lowest order in fugacity is reduced to the linearized Boltzmann equation. Previously, such a microscopic derivation of the latter was achieved only incompletely corresponding to the relaxation-time approximation. Here, we complete it by resuming all contributions that are naively higher orders in fugacity but become comparable in the zero-frequency limit due to the pinch singularity, leading to a self-consistent equation for a vertex function identical to the linearized Boltzmann equation. We then compute the shear viscosity and the thermal conductivity in the high-temperature limit for an arbitrary scattering length and find that the Prandtl number exhibits a nonmonotonic behavior slightly below the constant value in the relaxation-time approximation.

Fractionalized quantum criticality in spin-orbital liquids from field theory beyond the leading order

Two-dimensional spin-orbital magnets with strong exchange frustration have recently been predicted to facilitate the realization of a quantum critical point in the Gross-Neveu-SO(3) universality class. In contrast to previously known Gross-Neveu-type universality classes, this quantum critical point separates a Dirac semimetal and a long-range-ordered phase, in which the fermion spectrum is only partially gapped out. Here, we characterize the quantum critical behavior of the Gross-Neveu-SO(3) universality class by employing three complementary field-theoretical techniques beyond their leading orders. We compute the correlation-length exponent $\nu$, the order-parameter anomalous dimension $\eta_\phi$, and the fermion anomalous dimension $\eta_\psi$ using a three-loop $\epsilon$ expansion around the upper critical space-time dimension of four, a second-order large-$N$ expansion (with the fermion anomalous dimension obtained even at the third order), as well as a functional renormalization group approach in the improved local potential approximation. For the physically relevant case of $N=3$ flavors of two-component Dirac fermions in 2+1 space-time dimensions, we obtain the estimates $1/\nu = 1.03(15)$, $\eta_\phi = 0.42(7)$, and $\eta_\psi = 0.180(10)$ from averaging over the results of the different techniques, with the displayed uncertainty representing the degree of consistency among the three methods.

Effective interactions between nuclear clusters

The effective interactions between two nuclear clusters, $d+d$, $t+t$, and $\alpha+\alpha$, are investigated within a cluster model using local nucleon-nucleon~($NN$) forces. It is shown that the interaction in the spin-aligned $d+d$ system is repulsive for all inter-cluster distances, whereas the $\alpha+\alpha$ and spin-aligned $t+t$ systems are attractive at intermediate distances. The Pauli blocking between identical-nucleon pairs is responsible for the cluster-cluster repulsion and becomes dominant in the shallow binding limit. We demonstrate that two $d$-clusters could be bound if the $NN$ force has nonzero range and is strong enough to form a deeply bound $d$-cluster, or if the $NN$ force has both even-parity and odd-parity attraction. Effective dimer-dimer interactions for general quantum systems of two-component fermions are also discussed in heavy-light mass limit, where one component is much heavier than the other, and their relation to inter-cluster interactions in nuclear systems are discussed. Our findings provide a conceptual foundation for conclusions obtained numerically in the literature, that increasing the range or strength of the local part of the attractive nucleon-nucleon interaction results in a more attractive cluster-cluster interaction.

Non-Hermitian topological Mott insulators in one-dimensional fermionic superlattices

We study interaction-induced Mott insulators, and their topological properties in a 1D non-Hermitian strongly-correlated spinful fermionic superlattice system with either nonreciprocal hopping or complex-valued interaction. For the nonreciprocal hopping case, the low-energy neutral excitation spectrum is sensitive to boundary conditions, which is a manifestation of the non-Hermitian skin effect. However, unlike the single-particle case, particle density of strongly correlated system does not suffer from the non-Hermitian skin effect due to the Pauli exclusion principle and repulsive interactions. Moreover, the anomalous boundary effect occurs due to the interplay of nonreciprocal hopping, superlattice potential, and strong correlations, where some in-gap modes, for both the neutral and charge excitation spectra, show no edge excitations defined via only the right eigenvectors. We show that these edge excitations of the in-gap states can be correctly characterized by only biorthogonal eigenvectors. Furthermore, the topological Mott phase, with gapless particle excitations around boundaries, exists even for the purely imaginary-valued interaction, where the continuous quantum Zeno effect leads to the effective on-site repulsion between two-component fermions.

QED_{3}-Inspired Three-Dimensional Conformal Lattice Gauge Theory without Fine-Tuning.

We construct a conformal lattice theory with only gauge degrees of freedom based on the induced nonlocal gauge action in QED_{3} coupled to large number of flavors N of massless two-component Dirac fermions. This lattice system displays signatures of criticality in gauge observables, without any fine-tuning of couplings and can be studied without MonteCarlo critical slowdown. By coupling exactly massless fermion sources to the lattice gauge model, we demonstrate that nontrivial anomalous dimensions are induced in fermion bilinears depending on the dimensionless electric charge of the fermion. We present a proof-of-principle lattice computation of the Wilson-coefficients of various fermion bilinear three-point functions. Finally, by mapping the charge q of fermion in the model to a flavor N in massless QED_{3}, we point to a universality in low-lying Dirac spectrum and an evidence of self-duality of N=2 QED_{3}.

Quench dynamics of two-component dipolar fermions subject to a quasiperiodic potential

Motivated by recent experiments in fermionic polar gases, we study the non-equilibrium dynamics of two-component dipolar fermions subject to a quasiperiodic potential. We investigate the localization of charge and spin degrees of freedom time evolving with a long-range spin-SU(2) symmetric fermionic Hamiltonian, by calculating experimentally accessible dynamical observables. To study the non-equilibrium dynamics, we start the time evolution with two initial states at half-filling: (i) product state with doublons $|\uparrow \downarrow 0 \uparrow \downarrow 0 \uparrow \downarrow 0 \uparrow \downarrow 0 \uparrow \downarrow \rangle$ and (ii) product state with singlons $|\uparrow \ \downarrow \ \uparrow \ \downarrow \ \uparrow \ \downarrow \ \uparrow \ \downarrow \ \uparrow \ \downarrow \ \rangle$. We carried out the real-time evolution via the fermionic Hamiltonian using exact diagonalization(ED) and the time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) for finite Matrix product states(MPSs), within experimentally relevant time scales. For the product state with doublons, we observe a delocalized to localized phase transition varying disorder strengths, by monitoring the decay of charge imbalance with time. For the long-range interacting Hamiltonian of our focus, and in the presence of strong enough disorder, starting the time evolution with singlons we find a strong reduction in the spin delocalization, contrary to results of previous studies using the disordered short-range (on-site) Hubbard model with SU(2) symmetry. Our predictions for localization of both charge and spin should be observable in ultra-cold experiments with fermionic dipolar atoms subject to a quasiperiodic potential.

Bulk viscosity of resonating fermions revisited: Kubo formula, sum rule, and the dimer and high-temperature limits

The bulk viscosity of two-component fermions with a zero-range interaction is revisited both in two and three dimensions. We first point out that the "standard" Kubo formula employed in recent studies has flaws to give rise to an unphysical divergent bulk viscosity even in a limit where it is supposed to vanish. The corrected Kubo formula as well as the sum rule is then carefully rederived so as to confirm that the bulk viscosity indeed vanishes in the free, unitarity, and dimer limits. We also discuss that the recently found discrepancy between the Kubo formalism and the kinetic theory for the bulk viscosity is attributed to the fact that the quasiparticle approximation assumed by the latter breaks down even in the high-temperature limit.

Superfluid condensate fraction and pairing wave function of the unitary Fermi gas

The unitary Fermi gas is a many-body system of two-component fermions with zero-range interactions tuned to infinite scattering length. Despite much activity and interest in unitary Fermi gases and its universal properties, there have been great difficulties in performing accurate calculations of the superfluid condensate fraction and pairing wave function. In this work we present auxiliary-field lattice Monte Carlo simulations using a novel lattice interaction which accelerates the approach to the continuum limit, thereby allowing for robust calculations of these difficult observables. As a benchmark test we compute the ground state energy of 33 spin-up and 33 spin-down particles. As a fraction of the free Fermi gas energy $E_{FG}$, we find $E_0/E_{FG}= 0.369(2), 0.372(2)$, using two different definitions of the finite-system energy ratio, in agreement with the latest theoretical and experimental results. We then determine the condensate fraction by measuring off-diagonal long-range order in the two-body density matrix. We find that the fraction of condensed pairs is $\alpha = 0.43(2)$. We also extract the pairing wave function and find the pair correlation length to be $\zeta_pk_F = 1.8(3) \hbar$, where $k_F$ is the Fermi momentum. Provided that the simulations can be performed without severe sign oscillations, the methods we present here can be applied to superfluid neutron matter as well as more exotic P-wave and D-wave superfluids.

Quantum Hall effects of exciton condensate in topological flat bands

Tunable exciton condensates in two dimensional electron gas systems under strong magnetic field exhibits anomalous Hall transport owing to mutual Coulomb coupling, and have attracted a lot of research activity. Here, we explore another framework using topological flat band models in the absence of Landau levels, for realizing the many-body exciton phases of two-component fermions under strong intercomponent interactions. By developing new diagnosis based on the state-of-the-art density-matrix renormalization group and exact diagonalization, we show the theoretical discovery of the emergence of Halperin (111) quantum Hall effect at a total filling factor $\nu=1$ in the lowest Chern band under strong Hubbard repulsion, which is classified by the unique ground state with bulk charge insulation and spin superfluidity, The topological nature is further characterized by one edge branch of chiral propagating Luttinger modes with level counting $1,1,2,3,5,7$ in consistent with the conformal field theory description. Moreover, with nearest-neighbor repulsions, we propose the Halperin (333) fractional quantum Hall effect at a total filling factor $\nu=1/3$ in the lowest Chern band.

Dynamical properties of a few mass-imbalanced ultra-cold fermions confined in a double-well potential

A comprehensive analysis of the exact unitary dynamics of two-component mass-imbalanced fermions in a one-dimensional double-well potential is accomplished by considering the total number of particles maximum up to six. The simultaneous effect of mass imbalance between the flavors and their mutual interactions on the dynamics is scrutinized through the exact diagonalization. In particular, we investigate the occupation dynamics of such systems being initially prepared in experimentally accessible states in which opposite components occupy opposite wells. Moreover, to capture the role of interactions, we also inspect situations in which initial states contain an opposite-spin pair localized in a chosen well. Finally, to assess the amount of quantum correlations produced during the evolution, we analyze the behavior of the von Neumann entanglement entropy between components.

Observation of an unpaired photonic Dirac point

At photonic Dirac points, electromagnetic waves are governed by the same equations as two-component massless relativistic fermions. However, photonic Dirac points are known to occur in pairs in “photonic graphene” and other similar photonic crystals, which necessitates special precautions to excite only one valley state. Systems hosting unpaired photonic Dirac points are significantly harder to realize, as they require broken time-reversal symmetry. Here, we report on the observation of an unpaired Dirac point in a planar two-dimensional photonic crystal. The structure incorporates gyromagnetic materials, which break time-reversal symmetry; the unpaired Dirac point occurs when a parity-breaking parameter is fine-tuned to a topological transition between a photonic Chern insulator and a conventional photonic insulator phase. Evidence for the unpaired Dirac point is provided by transmission and field-mapping experiments, including a demonstration of strongly non-reciprocal reflection. This unpaired Dirac point may have applications in valley filters and angular selective photonic devices.

Order-Disorder Transition in the Half-Filled Two-Component Lattice Fermion Model with Nearest-Neighbor Repulsion

In this work, we study a model of asymmetric two-component lattice fermion system at half-filling, where particles of both species (distinguishable by, e.g., spin) can interact only via nearest-neighbor repulsion W. The analysis is performed on the Bethe lattice using the Hartree-Fock-type mean-field approximation, which is rigorous in the limit of high dimensions. At sufficiently low temperatures, both antiferromagnetic and charge orders (related to inhomogeneous distribution of particles with both spins) coexist in the system. We find that an order-disorder continuous transition occurs with increasing temperature. The transition temperature depends on the ratio t↑/t↓ of the hopping amplitudes of both fermion species (i.e., the asymmetry of the model). For fixed W, it is the biggest if one component is localized (e.g., t↑ = 0), and it decreases to its minimal value for the same hopping amplitudes (t↑ = t↓). Moreover, it increases with W for fixed t↑/t↓. Dependencies of order parameters with model parameters and temperature are also presented.

Theoretical phase diagram of two-component composite fermions in double-layer graphene

Theory predicts that double layer systems realize "two-component composite fermions," which are formed when electrons capture both intra- and inter-layer vortices, to produce a wide variety of new strongly correlated liquid and crystal states as a function of the layer separation. Recent experiments in double layer graphene have revealed a large number of layer-correlated fractional quantum Hall states in the lowest Landau level, many of which have not been studied quantitatively in previous theoretical works. We consider the competition between various liquid and crystal states at several of these filling factors (specifically, the states at total filling factors $\nu=3/7$, $4/9$, $6/11$, $4/7$, $3/5$, $2/3$, and $4/5$) to determine the theoretical phase diagram as a function of the layer separation. We compare our results with experiments and identify various observed states. In particular, we show that at small layer separations the states at total fillings $\nu=3/7$ and $\nu=3/5$ are partially pseudospin polarized, where pseudospin refers to the layer index. For certain fractions, such as $\nu=3/7$, interlayer correlations are predicted to survive to surprisingly large interlayer separations.

Virial expansion for a three-component Fermi gas in one dimension: The quantum anomaly correspondence

In this paper we explore the transport properties of three-component Fermi gases confined to one spatial dimension, interacting via a three-body interaction, in the high temperature limit. At the classical level, the three-body interaction is scale invariant in one dimension. However, upon quantization, an anomaly appears which breaks the scale invariance. This is very similar to the physics of two-component fermions in two spatial dimensions, where the two-body interaction is also anomalous. Previous studies have already hinted that the physics of these two systems are intimately related. Here we expand upon those studies by examining the thermodynamic properties of this anomalous one dimensional system in the high temperature limit. We show there is an exact mapping between the traditional two-body anomalous interaction in two dimensions, to that of three-body interaction in one dimension. This result is valid in the high temperature limit, where the thermodynamics can be understood in terms of few-body correlations.

Superfluid Phase Transitions and Effects of Thermal Pairing Fluctuations in Asymmetric Nuclear Matter

We investigate superfluid phase transitions of asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperature (T) and density (ρ) with a low proton fraction (Yp ≤ 0.2), which is relevant to the inner crust and outer core of neutron stars. A strong-coupling theory developed for two-component atomic Fermi gases is generalized to the four-component case, and is applied to the system of spin-1/2 neutrons and protons. The phase shifts of neutron-neutron (nn), proton-proton (pp) and neutron-proton (np) interactions up to k = 2 fm−1 are described by multi-rank separable potentials. We show that the critical temperature {{boldsymbol{T}}}_{{bf{c}}}^{{bf{n}}{bf{n}}} of the neutron superfluidity at Yp = 0 agrees well with Monte Carlo data at low densities and takes a maximum value {{boldsymbol{T}}}_{{bf{c}}}^{{bf{n}}{bf{n}}}= 1.68 MeV at {boldsymbol{rho }}{boldsymbol{/}}{{boldsymbol{rho }}}_{{bf{0}}}{boldsymbol{=}}{bf{0.14}} with ρ0 = 0.17 fm−3. Also, the critical temperature {{boldsymbol{T}}}_{{bf{c}}}^{{bf{n}}{bf{n}}} of the proton superconductivity for Yp ≤ 0.2 is substantially suppressed at low densities due to np-pairing fluctuations, and starts to dominate over {{boldsymbol{T}}}_{{bf{c}}}^{{bf{n}}{bf{n}}} only above {boldsymbol{rho }}{boldsymbol{/}}{{boldsymbol{rho }}}_{{bf{0}}}{boldsymbol{=}}{bf{0.70}}(0.77) for Yp = 0.1(0.2), and (iii) the deuteron condensation temperature {{boldsymbol{T}}}_{{bf{c}}}^{{bf{d}}} is suppressed at Yp ≤ 0.2 due to a large mismatch of the two Fermi surfaces.

Leading order corrections to the free energy and phase separation in two-component Fermion systems

We study phase separation in a dilute two-component Fermi system with attractive interactions as a function of the coupling strength and the polarization or number density asymmetry between the two components. In weak and strong couplings with a finite number density asymmetry, phase separation is energetically more favorable. A heterogeneous phase containing a symmetric superfluid component and an asymmetric normal phase has lower energy than a homogeneous normal phase. We show that for a small number density asymmetry, taking into consideration the leading order corrections at order of the interaction parameter, phase separation is stable against the normal phase in the whole BCS range. We investigate the consequences of the consideration of the leading order corrections to the thermodynamic potentials of the normal and BCS phase on the Chandrasekhar–Clogston limit. We have also investigated the stability of a Bose–Fermi mixture in the far-BEC limit. We find that the molecular BEC is locally stable against an external magnetic field h, provided is smaller than the pairing gap .

Numerical determination of monopole scaling dimension in parity-invariant three-dimensional noncompact QED

We present a direct Monte-Carlo determination of the scaling dimension of a topological defect operator in the infrared fixed point of a three-dimensional interacting quantum field theory. For this, we compute the free energy to introduce the background gauge field of the $Q=1$ monopole-antimonopole pair in three-dimensional non-compact QED with $N=2,4$ and $12$ flavors of massless two-component fermions, and study its asymptotic logarithmic dependence on the monopole-antimonopole separation. We estimate the scaling dimension in the $N=12$ case to be consistent with the large-$N$ (free fermion) value. We find the deviations from this large-$N$ value for $N=2$ and $4$ are positive but small, implying that the higher order corrections in the large-$N$ expansion become mildly important for $N=2,4$.

Viscosity spectral functions of resonating fermions in the quantum virial expansion

We consider two-component fermions with a zero-range interaction both in two and three dimensions and study their spectral functions of bulk and shear viscosities for an arbitrary scattering length. Here the Kubo formulas are systematically evaluated up to the second order in the quantum virial expansion applicable to the high-temperature regime. In particular, our computation of the bulk viscosity spectral function is facilitated by expressing it with the contact–contact response function, which can be measured experimentally under the periodic modulation of the scattering length. The obtained formulas are fully consistent with the known constraints on high-frequency tail and sum rule. Although our static shear viscosity agrees with that derived from the kinetic theory, our static bulk viscosity disagrees. Furthermore, the latter for three dimensions exhibits an unexpected non-analyticity of ζ∼(lna2)∕a2 in the unitarity limit a→∞, which thus challenges the “crossover” hypothesis.