Lightcone renormalization and quantum quenches in one-dimensional Hubbard models

The Lieb-Robinson bound implies that the unitary time evolution of an operator can be restricted to an effective light cone for any Hamiltonian with short-range interactions. Here we present a very efficient renormalization group algorithm based on this light cone structure to study the time evolution of prepared initial states in the thermodynamic limit in one-dimensional quantum systems. The algorithm does not require translational invariance and allows for an easy implementation of local conservation laws. We use the algorithm to investigate the relaxation dynamics of double occupancies in fermionic Hubbard models as well as a possible thermalization. For the integrable Hubbard model we find a pure power-law decay of the number of doubly occupied sites towards the value in the long-time limit while the decay becomes exponential when adding a nearest neighbor interaction. In accordance with the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, the long-time limit is reasonably well described by a thermal average. We point out though that such a description naturally requires the use of negative temperatures. Finally, we study a doublon impurity in a N\'eel background and find that the excess charge and spin spread at different velocities, providing an example of spin-charge separation in a highly excited state.Comment: published versio

On the theory of resonant susceptibility of dielectric glasses in magnetic field

The anomalous magnetic field dependence of dielectric properties of insulating glasses in the temperature interval $10mK<T<50mK$ is considered. In this temperature range, the dielectric permittivity is defined by the resonant contribution of tunneling systems. The external magnetic field regulates nuclear spins of tunneling atoms. This regulation suppresses a nuclear quadrupole interaction of these spins with lattice and, thus, affects the dielectric response of tunneling systems. It is demonstrated that in the absence of an external magnetic field the nuclear quadrupole interaction $b$ results in the correction to the permittivity $\delta\chi\sim| b| /T$ in the temperature range of interest. An application of a magnetic field results in a sharp increase of this correction approximately by a factor of two when the Zeeman splitting $m$ approaches the order of $| b|$. Further increase of the magnetic field results in a relatively smooth decrease in the correction until the Zeeman splitting approaches the temperature. This smooth dependence results from tunneling accompanied by a change of the nuclear spin projection. As the magnetic field surpasses the temperature, the correction vanishes. The results obtained in this paper are compared with experiment. A new mechanism of the low temperature nuclear spin-lattice relaxation in glasses is considered.Comment: 9 Pages, 5 Figures, To be submitted to the Physical Review B, please send comment

Evidence for Magnetic Field Induced Changes of the Phase of Tunneling States: Spontaneous Echoes in (KBr)1−x_{1-x}(KCN)x_x in Magnetic Fields

Recently, it has been discovered that in contrast to expectations the low-temperature dielectric properties of some multi-component glasses depend strongly on magnetic fields. In particular, the low-frequency dielectric susceptibility and the amplitude of coherent polarization echoes show striking non-monotonic magnetic field dependencies. The low-temperature dielectric response of these materials is governed by atomic tunneling systems. We now have investigated the coherent properties of tunneling states in a crystalline host in magnetic fields up to 230$$mT. Two-pulse echo experiments have been performed on a KBr crystal containing about 7.5% CN$^-$. Like in glasses, but perhaps even more surprising in the case of a crystalline system, we observe a very strong magnetic field dependence of the echo amplitude. Moreover, for the first time we have direct evidence that magnetic fields change the phase of coherent tunneling systems in a well-defined way. We present the data and discuss the possible origin of this intriguing effect.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR

Excitation spectra and rf-response near the polaron-to-molecule transition from the functional renormalization group

A light impurity in a Fermi sea undergoes a transition from a polaron to a molecule for increasing interaction. We develop a new method to compute the spectral functions of the polaron and molecule in a unified framework based on the functional renormalization group with full self-energy feedback. We discuss the energy spectra and decay widths of the attractive and repulsive polaron branches as well as the molecular bound state and confirm the scaling of the excited state decay rate near the transition. The quasi-particle weight of the polaron shifts from the attractive to the repulsive branch across the transition, while the molecular bound state has a very small residue characteristic for a composite particle. We propose an experimental procedure to measure the repulsive branch in a Li6 Fermi gas using rf-spectroscopy and calculate the corresponding spectra.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures; v2: version published in Phys. Rev.

Cryogenic micro-calorimeters for mass spectrometric identification of neutral molecules and molecular fragments

We have systematically investigated the energy resolution of a magnetic micro-calorimeter (MMC) for atomic and molecular projectiles at impact energies ranging from $E\approx13$ to 150 keV. For atoms we obtained absolute energy resolutions down to $\Delta E \approx 120$ eV and relative energy resolutions down to $\Delta E/E\approx10^{-3}$. We also studied in detail the MMC energy-response function to molecular projectiles of up to mass 56 u. We have demonstrated the capability of identifying neutral fragmentation products of these molecules by calorimetric mass spectrometry. We have modeled the MMC energy-response function for molecular projectiles and conclude that backscattering is the dominant source of the energy spread at the impact energies investigated. We have successfully demonstrated the use of a detector absorber coating to suppress such spreads. We briefly outline the use of MMC detectors in experiments on gas-phase collision reactions with neutral products. Our findings are of general interest for mass spectrometric techniques, particularly for those desiring to make neutral-particle mass measurements

Magnetic Field Dependent Tunneling in Glasses

We report on experiments giving evidence for quantum effects of electromagnetic flux in barium alumosilicate glass. In contrast to expectation, below 100 mK the dielectric response becomes sensitive to magnetic fields. The experimental findings include both, the complete lifting of the dielectric saturation by weak magnetic fields and oscillations of the dielectric response in the low temperature resonant regime. As origin of these effects we suggest that the magnetic induction field violates the time reversal invariance leading to a flux periodicity in the energy levels of tunneling systems. At low temperatures, this effect is strongly enhanced by the interaction between tunneling systems and thus becomes measurable.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The effect of Aharanov-Bohm phase on the magnetic-field dependence of two-pulse echos in glasses at low temperatures

The anomalous response of glasses in the echo amplitude experiment is explained in the presence of a magnetic field. We have considered the low energy excitations in terms of an effective two level system. The effective model is constructed on the flip-flop configuration of two interacting two level systems. The magnetic field affects the tunneling amplitude through the Aharanov-Bohm effect. The effective model has a lower scale of energy in addition to the new distribution of tunneling parameters which depend on the interaction. We are able to explain some features of echo amplitude versus a magnetic field, namely, the dephasing effect at low magnetic fields, dependence on the strength of the electric field, pulse separation effect and the influence of temperature. However this model fails to explain the isotope effects which essentially can be explained by the nuclear quadrupole moment. We will finally discuss the features of our results.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Is local scale invariance a generic property of ageing phenomena ?

In contrast to recent claims by Enss, Henkel, Picone, and Schollwoeck [J. Phys. A 37, 10479] it is shown that the critical autoresponse function of the 1+1-dimensional contact process is not in agreement with the predictions of local scale invariance.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, final form, c++ source code on reques

Liquid-induced damping of mechanical feedback effects in single electron tunneling through a suspended carbon nanotube

In single electron tunneling through clean, suspended carbon nanotube devices at low temperature, distinct switching phenomena have regularly been observed. These can be explained via strong interaction of single electron tunneling and vibrational motion of the nanotube. We present measurements on a highly stable nanotube device, subsequently recorded in the vacuum chamber of a dilution refrigerator and immersed in the 3He/4He mixture of a second dilution refrigerator. The switching phenomena are absent when the sample is kept in the viscous liquid, additionally supporting the interpretation of dc-driven vibration. Transport measurements in liquid helium can thus be used for finite bias spectroscopy where otherwise the mechanical effects would dominate the current.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure