Logarithmically Slow Relaxation in Quasi-Periodically Driven Random Spin Chains

We simulate the dynamics of a disordered interacting spin chain subject to a quasi-periodic time-dependent drive, corresponding to a stroboscopic Fibonacci sequence of two distinct Hamiltonians. Exploiting the recursive drive structure, we can efficiently simulate exponentially long times. After an initial transient, the system exhibits a long-lived glassy regime characterized by a logarithmically slow growth of entanglement and decay of correlations analogous to the dynamics at the many-body delocalization transition. Ultimately, at long time-scales, which diverge exponentially for weak or rapid drives, the system thermalizes to infinite temperature. The slow relaxation enables metastable dynamical phases, exemplified by a "time quasi-crystal" in which spins exhibit persistent oscillations with a distinct quasi-periodic pattern from that of the drive. We show that in contrast with Floquet systems, a high-frequency expansion strictly breaks down above fourth order, and fails to produce an effective static Hamiltonian that would capture the pre-thermal glassy relaxation.Comment: 6+3 pages, 4+4 figures; v2. minor improvements; as publishe

Kosterlitz-Thouless scaling at many-body localization phase transitions

We propose a scaling theory for the many-body localization (MBL) phase transition in one dimension, building on the idea that it proceeds via a 'quantum avalanche'. We argue that the critical properties can be captured at a coarse-grained level by a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) renormalization group (RG) flow. On phenomenological grounds, we identify the scaling variables as the density of thermal regions and the lengthscale that controls the decay of typical matrix elements. Within this KT picture, the MBL phase is a line of fixed points that terminates at the delocalization transition. We discuss two possible scenarios distinguished by the distribution of rare, fractal thermal inclusions within the MBL phase. In the first scenario, these regions have a stretched exponential distribution in the MBL phase. In the second scenario, the near-critical MBL phase hosts rare thermal regions that are power-law distributed in size. This points to the existence of a second transition within the MBL phase, at which these power-laws change to the stretched exponential form expected at strong disorder. We numerically simulate two different phenomenological RGs previously proposed to describe the MBL transition. Both RGs display a universal power-law length distribution of thermal regions at the transition with a critical exponent $\alpha_c=2$, and continuously varying exponents in the MBL phase consistent with the KT picture.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures; v3. minor changes, as published; v2. added section and appendix with new numerical simulations, expanded discussio

Thermodynamic signatures for the existence of Dirac electrons in ZrTe5

We combine transport, magnetization, and torque magnetometry measurements to investigate the electronic structure of ZrTe5 and its evolution with temperature. At fields beyond the quantum limit, we observe a magnetization reversal from paramagnetic to diamagnetic response, which is characteristic of a Dirac semi-metal. We also observe a strong non-linearity in the magnetization that suggests the presence of additional low-lying carriers from other low-energy bands. Finally, we observe a striking sensitivity of the magnetic reversal to temperature that is not readily explained by simple band-structure models, but may be connected to a temperature dependent Lifshitz transition proposed to exist in this material.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Long-lived interacting phases of matter protected by multiple time-translation symmetries in quasiperiodically-driven systems

We show how a large family of interacting nonequilibrium phases of matter can arise from the presence of multiple time-translation symmetries, which occur by quasiperiodically driving an isolated quantum many-body system with two or more incommensurate frequencies. These phases are fundamentally different from those realizable in time-independent or periodically-driven (Floquet) settings. Focusing on high-frequency drives with smooth time-dependence, we rigorously establish general conditions for which these phases are stable in a parametrically long-lived `preheating' regime. We develop a formalism to analyze the effect of the multiple time-translation symmetries on the dynamics of the system, which we use to classify and construct explicit examples of the emergent phases. In particular, we discuss time quasi-crystals which spontaneously break the time-translation symmetries, as well as time-translation symmetry protected topological phases.Comment: 27 pages + 11 pages appendices. v3 Published version, with expanded discussion on a few point

Quantum Quasi-Monte Carlo algorithm for out-of-equilibrium Green functions at long times

We extend the recently developed Quantum Quasi-Monte Carlo (QQMC) approach to obtain the full frequency dependence of Green functions in a single calculation. QQMC is a general approach for calculating high-order perturbative expansions in power of the electron-electron interaction strength. In contrast to conventional Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling, QQMC uses low-discrepancy sequences for a more uniform sampling of the multi-dimensional integrals involved and can potentially outperform Monte Carlo by several orders of magnitudes. A core concept of QQMC is the a priori construction of a "model function" that approximates the integrand and is used to optimize the sampling distribution. In this paper, we show that the model function concept extends to a kernel approach for the computation of Green functions. We illustrate the approach on the Anderson impurity model and show that the scaling of the error with the number of integrand evaluations $N$ is $\sim 1/N^{0.86}$ in the best cases, and comparable to Monte Carlo scaling $\sim 1/N^{0.5}$ in the worst cases. We find a systematic improvement over Monte Carlo sampling by at least two orders of magnitude while using a basic form of model function. Finally, we compare QQMC results with calculations performed with the Fork Tensor Product State (FTPS) method, a recently developed tensor network approach for solving impurity problems. Applying a simple Pad\'e approximant for the series resummation, we find that QQMC matches the FTPS results beyond the perturbative regime.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figure

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms