Topology induced anomalous defect production by crossing a quantum critical point

We study the influence of topology on the quench dynamics of a system driven across a quantum critical point. We show how the appearance of certain edge states, which fully characterise the topology of the system, dramatically modifies the process of defect production during the crossing of the critical point. Interestingly enough, the density of defects is no longer described by the Kibble-Zurek scaling, but determined instead by the non-universal topological features of the system. Edge states are shown to be robust against defect production, which highlights their topological nature.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. (to be published

Optimal correlations in many-body quantum systems

Information and correlations in a quantum system are closely related through the process of measurement. We explore such relation in a many-body quantum setting, effectively bridging between quantum metrology and condensed matter physics. To this aim we adopt the information-theory view of correlations, and study the amount of correlations after certain classes of Positive-Operator-Valued Measurements are locally performed. As many-body system we consider a one-dimensional array of interacting two-level systems (a spin chain) at zero temperature, where quantum effects are most pronounced. We demonstrate how the optimal strategy to extract the correlations depends on the quantum phase through a subtle interplay between local interactions and coherence.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures + supplementary material. To be published in PR

Topology induced anomalous defect production by crossing a quantum critical point

We study the influence of topology on the quench dynamics of a system driven across a quantum critical point. We show how the appearance of certain edge states, which fully characterise the topology of the system, dramatically modifies the process of defect production during the crossing of the critical point. Interestingly enough, the density of defects is no longer described by the Kibble-Zurek scaling, but determined instead by the non-universal topological features of the system. Edge states are shown to be robust against defect production, which highlights their topological nature.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. (to be published

Ground-state factorization and correlations with broken symmetry

We show how the phenomenon of factorization in a quantum many-body system is of collective nature. To this aim we study the quantum discord Q in the one-dimensional XY model in a transverse field. We analyze the behavior of Q at both the critical point and at the non-critical factorizing field. The factorization is found to be governed by an exponential scaling law for Q. We also address the thermal effects fanning out from the anomalies occurring at zero temperature. Close to the quantum phase transition, Q exhibits a finite-temperature crossover with universal scaling behavior, while the factorization phenomenon results in a non-trivial pattern of correlations present at low temperature. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2011 RI Rossini, Davide/A-8156-201

Bethe Ansatz solution of a new class of Hubbard-type models

We define one-dimensional particles with generalized exchange statistics. The exact solution of a Hubbard-type Hamiltonian constructed with such particles is achieved using the Coordinate Bethe Ansatz. The chosen deformation of the statistics is equivalent to the presence of a magnetic field produced by the particles themselves, which is present also in a ``free gas'' of these particles.Comment: 4 pages, revtex. Essentially modified versio

Out of equilibrium correlation functions of quantum anisotropic XY models: one-particle excitations

We calculate exactly matrix elements between states that are not eigenstates of the quantum XY model for general anisotropy. Such quantities therefore describe non equilibrium properties of the system; the Hamiltonian does not contain any time dependence. These matrix elements are expressed as a sum of Pfaffians. For single particle excitations on the ground state the Pfaffians in the sum simplify to determinants.Comment: 11 pages, no figures; revtex. Minor changes in the text; list of refs. modifie

Entanglement crossover close to a quantum critical point

We discuss the thermal entanglement close to a quantum phase transition by analyzing the concurrence for one dimensional models in the quantum Ising universality class. We demonstrate that the entanglement sensitivity to thermal and to quantum fluctuations obeys universal $T\neq 0$--scaling behaviour. We show that the entanglement, together with its criticality, exhibits a peculiar universal crossover behaviour.Comment: 12 pages; 5 figures (eps). References added; to be published in Europhysics Letter

Conserved Ising Model on the Human Connectome

Dynamical models implemented on the large scale architecture of the human brain may shed light on how function arises from the underlying structure. This is the case notably for simple abstract models, such as the Ising model. We compare the spin correlations of the Ising model and the empirical functional brain correlations, both at the single link level and at the modular level, and show that their match increases at the modular level in anesthesia, in line with recent results and theories. Moreover, we show that at the peak of the specific heat (the \it{critical state}) the spin correlations are minimally shaped by the underlying structural network, explaining how the best match between structure and function is obtained at the onset of criticality, as previously observed. These findings confirm that brain dynamics under anesthesia shows a departure from criticality and could open the way to novel perspectives when the conserved magnetization is interpreted in terms of an homeostatic principle imposed to neural activity

Bose-Einstein condensation and entanglement in magnetic systems

We present a study of magnetic field induced quantum phase transitions in insulating systems. A generalized scaling theory is used to obtain the temperature dependence of several physical quantities along the quantum critical trajectory ($H=H_{C}$, $T\to0$) where $H$ is a longitudinal external magnetic field and $H_{C}$ the critical value at which the transition occurs. We consider transitions from a spin liquid at a critical field $H_{C1}$ and from a fully polarized paramagnet, at $H_{C2}$, into phases with long range order in the transverse components. The transitions at $H_{C1}$ and $H_{C2}$ can be viewed as Bose-Einstein condensations of magnons which however belong to different universality classes since they have different values of the dynamic critical exponent $z$. Finally, we use that the magnetic susceptibility is an entanglement witness to discuss how this type of correlation sets in as the system approaches the quantum critical point along the critical trajectory, $H=H_{C2}$, $T\to0$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 Table; accepted version; changes in text and new reference