SciPost Physics

SciPost Physics Vol. 2 issue 1 (January - February 2017)

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• Non-gaussianity of the critical 3d Ising model

  Slava Rychkov, David Simmons-Duffin, Bernardo Zan

  SciPost Phys. 2, 001 (2017) · published 10 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss the 4pt function of the critical 3d Ising model, extracted from recent conformal bootstrap results. We focus on the non-gaussianity Q - the ratio of the 4pt function to its gaussian part given by three Wick contractions. This ratio reveals significant non-gaussianity of the critical fluctuations. The bootstrap results are consistent with a rigorous inequality due to Lebowitz and Aizenman, which limits Q to lie between 1/3 and 1.

• Conformal field theory for inhomogeneous one-dimensional quantum systems: the example of non-interacting Fermi gases

  Jérôme Dubail, Jean-Marie Stéphan, Jacopo Viti, Pasquale Calabrese

  SciPost Phys. 2, 002 (2017) · published 13 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Conformal field theory (CFT) has been extremely successful in describing large-scale universal effects in one-dimensional (1D) systems at quantum critical points. Unfortunately, its applicability in condensed matter physics has been limited to situations in which the bulk is uniform because CFT describes low-energy excitations around some energy scale, taken to be constant throughout the system. However, in many experimental contexts, such as quantum gases in trapping potentials and in several out-of-equilibrium situations, systems are strongly inhomogeneous. We show here that the powerful CFT methods can be extended to deal with such 1D situations, providing a few concrete examples for non-interacting Fermi gases. The system's inhomogeneity enters the field theory action through parameters that vary with position; in particular, the metric itself varies, resulting in a CFT in curved space. This approach allows us to derive exact formulas for entanglement entropies which were not known by other means.

• QuSpin: a Python package for dynamics and exact diagonalisation of quantum many body systems part I: spin chains

  Phillip Weinberg, Marin Bukov

  SciPost Phys. 2, 003 (2017) · published 13 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a new open-source Python package for exact diagonalization and quantum dynamics of spin(-photon) chains, called QuSpin, supporting the use of various symmetries in 1-dimension and (imaginary) time evolution for chains up to 32 sites in length. The package is well-suited to study, among others, quantum quenches at finite and infinite times, the Eigenstate Thermalisation hypothesis, many-body localisation and other dynamical phase transitions, periodically-driven (Floquet) systems, adiabatic and counter-diabatic ramps, and spin-photon interactions. Moreover, QuSpin's user-friendly interface can easily be used in combination with other Python packages which makes it amenable to a high-level customisation. We explain how to use QuSpin using four detailed examples: (i) Standard exact diagonalisation of XXZ chain (ii) adiabatic ramping of parameters in the many-body localised XXZ model, (iii) heating in the periodically-driven transverse-field Ising model in a parallel field, and (iv) quantised light-atom interactions: recovering the periodically-driven atom in the semi-classical limit of a static Hamiltonian.

• Elaborating the phase diagram of spin-1 anyonic chains

  Eric Vernier, Jesper Lykke Jacobsen, Hubert Saleur

  SciPost Phys. 2, 004 (2017) · published 21 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We revisit the phase diagram of spin-1 $su(2)_k$ anyonic chains, originally studied by Gils {\it et. al.} [Phys. Rev. B, {\bf 87} (23) (2013)]. These chains possess several integrable points, which were overlooked (or only briefly considered) so far. Exploiting integrability through a combination of algebraic techniques and exact Bethe ansatz results, we establish in particular the presence of new first order phase transitions, a new critical point described by a $Z_k$ parafermionic CFT, and of even more phases than originally conjectured. Our results leave room for yet more progress in the understanding of spin-1 anyonic chains.

• Nonlinear Luttinger liquid: Exact result for the Green function in terms of the fourth Painlevé transcendent

  Tom Price, Dmitry L. Kovrizhin, Austen Lamacraft

  SciPost Phys. 2, 005 (2017) · published 21 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that exact time dependent single particle Green function in the Imambekov-Glazman theory of nonlinear Luttinger liquids can be written, for any value of the Luttinger parameter, in terms of a particular solution of the Painlev\'e IV equation. Our expression for the Green function has a form analogous to the celebrated Tracy-Widom result connecting the Airy kernel with Painlev\'e II. The asymptotic power law of the exact solution as a function of a single scaling variable $x/\sqrt{t}$ agrees with the mobile impurity results. The full shape of the Green function in the thermodynamic limit is recovered with arbitrary precision via a simple numerical integration of a nonlinear ODE.

• Analytical results for a coagulation/decoagulation model on an inhomogeneous lattice

  Nicolas Crampé

  SciPost Phys. 2, 006 (2017) · published 24 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that an inhomogeneous coagulation/decoagulation model can be mapped to a quadratic fermionic model via a Jordan-Wigner transformation. The spectrum for this inhomogeneous model is computed exactly and the spectral gap is described for some examples. We construct our inhomogeneous model from two different homogeneous models joined by one special bond (impurity). The homogeneous models we started with are the coagulation/decoagulation models studied previously using the Jordan-Wigner transformation.

• Transient Features in Charge Fractionalization, Local Equilibration and Non-equilibrium Bosonization

  Alexander Schneider, Mirco Milletari, Bernd Rosenow

  SciPost Phys. 2, 007 (2017) · published 25 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In quantum Hall edge states and in other one-dimensional interacting systems, charge fractionalization can occur due to the fact that an injected charge pulse decomposes into eigenmodes propagating at different velocities. If the original charge pulse has some spatial width due to injection with a given source-drain voltage, a finite time is needed until the separation between the fractionalized pulses is larger than their width. In the formalism of non-equilibrium bosonization, the above physics is reflected in the separation of initially overlapping square pulses in the effective scattering phase. When expressing the single particle Green's function as a functional determinant of counting operators containing the scattering phase, the time evolution of charge fractionalization is mathematically described by functional determinants with overlapping pulses. We develop a framework for the evaluation of such determinants, describe the system's equilibration dynamics, and compare our theoretical results with recent experimental findings.

• Massive Corrections to Entanglement in Minimal E8 Toda Field Theory

  Olalla A. Castro-Alvaredo

  SciPost Phys. 2, 008 (2017) · published 28 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this letter we study the exponentially decaying corrections to saturation of the second R\'enyi entropy of one interval of length L in minimal E8 Toda field theory. It has been known for some time that the entanglement entropy of a massive quantum field theory in 1+1 dimensions saturates to a constant value for m1 L <<1 where m1 is the mass of the lightest particle in the spectrum. Subsequently, results by Cardy, Castro-Alvaredo and Doyon have shown that there are exponentially decaying corrections to this behaviour which are characterised by Bessel functions with arguments proportional to m1 L. For the von Neumann entropy the leading correction to saturation takes the precise universal form -K0(2m1 L)/8 whereas for the R\'enyi entropies leading corrections which are proportional to K0(m1 L) are expected. Recent numerical work by P\'almai for the second R\'enyi entropy of minimal E8 Toda has found next-to-leading order corrections decaying as exp(-2m1 L) rather than the expected exp(-m1 L). In this paper we investigate the origin of this result and show that it is incorrect. An exact form factor computation of correlators of branch point twist fields reveals that the leading corrections are proportional to K0(m1 L) as expected.

• Transfer matrix spectrum for cyclic representations of the 6-vertex reflection algebra I

  Jean Michel Maillet, Giuliano Niccoli, Baptiste Pezelier

  SciPost Phys. 2, 009 (2017) · published 28 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the transfer matrix spectral problem for the cyclic representations of the trigonometric 6-vertex reflection algebra associated to the Bazhanov-Stroganov Lax operator. The results apply as well to the spectral analysis of the lattice sine-Gordon model with integrable open boundary conditions. This spectral analysis is developed by implementing the method of separation of variables (SoV). The transfer matrix spectrum (both eigenvalues and eigenstates) is completely characterized in terms of the set of solutions to a discrete system of polynomial equations in a given class of functions. Moreover, we prove an equivalent characterization as the set of solutions to a Baxter's like T-Q functional equation and rewrite the transfer matrix eigenstates in an algebraic Bethe ansatz form. In order to explain our method in a simple case, the present paper is restricted to representations containing one constraint on the boundary parameters and on the parameters of the Bazhanov-Stroganov Lax operator. In a next article, some more technical tools (like Baxter's gauge transformations) will be introduced to extend our approach to general integrable boundary conditions.