Phase transitions and adiabatic preparation of a fractional Chern insulator in a boson cold atom model

We investigate the fate of hardcore bosons in a Harper-Hofstadter model which was experimentally realized by Aidelsburger et al. [Nature Physics 11 , 162 (2015)] at half filling of the lowest band. We discuss the stability of an emergent fractional Chern insulator (FCI) state in a finite region of the phase diagram that is separated from a superfluid state by a first-order transition when tuning the band topology following the protocol used in the experiment. Since crossing a first-order transition is unfavorable for adiabatically preparing the FCI state, we extend the model to stabilize a featureless insulating state. The transition between this phase and the topological state proves to be continuous, providing a path in parameter space along which an FCI state could be adiabatically prepared. To further corroborate this statement, we perform time-dependent DMRG calculations which demonstrate that the FCI state may indeed be reached by adiabatically tuning a simple product state.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, published versio

Exotic Ising dynamics in a Bose-Hubbard model

We explore the dynamical properties of a one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model, where two bosonic species interact via Feshbach resonance. We focus on the region in the phase diagram which is described by an effective, low-energy ferromagnetic Ising model in both transverse and longitudinal fields. In this regime, we numerically calculate the dynamical structure factor of the Bose-Hubbard model using the time-evolving block decimation method. In the ferromagnetic phase, we observe both the continuum of excitations and the bound states in the presence of a longitudinal field. Near the Ising critical point, we observe the celebrated E8 mass spectrum in the excited states. We also point out possible measurements which could be used to detect these excitations in an optical lattice experiment.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, as publishe

Isometric Tensor Network States in Two Dimensions

Tensor network states (TNS) are a promising but numerically challenging tool for simulating two-dimensional (2D) quantum many-body problems. We introduce an isometric restriction of the TNS ansatz that allows for highly efficient contraction of the network. We consider two concrete applications using this ansatz. First, we show that a matrix-product state representation of a 2D quantum state can be iteratively transformed into an isometric 2D TNS. Second, we introduce a 2D version of the time-evolving block decimation algorithm (TEBD$^2$) for approximating the ground state of a Hamiltonian as an isometric TNS, which we demonstrate for the 2D transverse field Ising model.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Full counting statistics in the Haldane-Shastry chain

We present analytical and numerical results regarding the magnetization full counting statistics (FCS) of a subsystem in the ground-state of the Haldane-Shastry chain. Exact Pfaffian expressions are derived for the cumulant generating function, as well as any observable diagonal in the spin basis. In the limit of large systems, the scaling of the FCS is found to be in agreement with the Luttinger liquid theory. The same techniques are also applied to inhomogeneous deformations of the chain. This introduces a certain amount of disorder in the system; however we show numerically that this is not sufficient to flow to the random singlet phase, that corresponds to $XXZ$ chains with uncorrelated bond disorder.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

One-Dimensional Symmetry Protected Topological Phases and their Transitions

We present a unified perspective on symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases in one dimension and address the open question of what characterizes their phase transitions. In the first part of this work we use symmetry as a guide to map various well-known fermionic and spin SPTs to a Kitaev chain with coupling of range $\alpha \in \mathbb Z$. This unified picture uncovers new properties of old models --such as how the cluster state is the fixed point limit of the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki state in disguise-- and elucidates the connection between fermionic and bosonic phases --with the Hubbard chain interpolating between four Kitaev chains and a spin chain in the Haldane phase. In the second part, we study the topological phase transitions between these models in the presence of interactions. This leads us to conjecture that the critical point between any SPT with $d$-dimensional edge modes and the trivial phase has a central charge $c \geq \log_2 d$. We analytically verify this for many known transitions. This agrees with the intuitive notion that the phase transition is described by a delocalized edge mode, and that the central charge of a conformal field theory is a measure of the gapless degrees of freedom.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, 3 page appendi

Dynamical and Topological Properties of the Kitaev Model in a [111] Magnetic Field

The Kitaev model exhibits a Quantum Spin Liquid hosting emergent fractionalized excitations. We study the Kitaev model on the honeycomb lattice coupled to a magnetic field along the [111] axis. Utilizing large scale matrix product based numerical models, we confirm three phases with transitions at different field strengths depending on the sign of the Kitaev exchange: a non-abelian topological phase at low fields, an enigmatic intermediate regime only present for antiferromagnetic Kitaev exchange, and a field-polarized phase. For the topological phase, we numerically observe the expected cubic scaling of the gap and extract the quantum dimension of the non-Abelian anyons. Furthermore, we investigate dynamical signatures of the topological and the field-polarized phase using a matrix product operator based time evolution method.Comment: Changed convention to be in accordance with published articl

Distinct trivial phases protected by a point-group symmetry in quantum spin chains

The ground state of the $S=1$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain belongs to the Haldane phase -- a well known example of symmetry-protected topological phase. A staggered field applied to the $S=1$ antiferromagnetic chain breaks all the symmetries that protect the Haldane phase as a topological phase, reducing it to a trivial phase. That is, the Haldane phase is then connected adiabatically to an antiferromagnetic product state. Nevertheless, as long as the symmetry under site-centered inversion combined with a spin rotation is preserved, the phase is still distinct from another trivial phase. We demonstrate the existence of such distinct symmetry-protected trivial phases using a field-theoretical approach and numerical calculations. Furthermore, a general proof and a non-local order parameter are given in terms of an matrix-product state formulation.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, with 3 pages supplemental materia

Distilling momentum-space entanglement in Luttinger liquids at finite temperature

While much is known about the entanglement characteristics of ground states, the properties of reduced thermal density matrices have received significantly less attention. Here we investigate the entanglement content of reduced thermal density matrices for momentum-space bipartitioning in Luttinger liquids using analytical and numerical methods. The low lying part of its spectrum contains an "entanglement gap", which persists up to temperatures comparable to the level spacing. With increasing temperature, the low energy modes acquire dispersion and resemble to those in the physical Hamiltonian with an enhanced effective temperature. The momentum-space entanglement is carried by high energy modes (compared to temperature), featuring a completely flat spectrum. The von-Neumann entropy increases with temperature with a universal Sommerfeld coefficient. The momentum-space entanglement Hamiltonian turns out to be as universal as the physical Hamiltonian.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Supersolid phase and magnetization plateaus observed in anisotropic spin-3/2 Heisenberg model on bipartite lattices

We study the spin-3/2 Heisenberg model including easy-plane and exchange anisotropies in one and two dimensions. In the Ising limit, when the off-diagonal exchange interaction J is zero, the phase diagram in magnetic field is characterized by magnetization plateaus that are either translationally invariant or have a two-sublattice order, with phase boundaries that are macroscopically degenerate. Using a site factorized variational wave function and perturbational expansion around the Ising limit, we find that superfluid and supersolid phases emerge between the plateaus for small finite values of J. The variational approach is complemented by a Density Matrix Renormalization Group study of a one-dimensional chain and exact diagonalization calculations on small clusters of a square lattice. The studied model may serve as a minimal model for the layered Ba2CoGe2O7 material compound, and we believe that the vicinity of the uniform 1/3 plateau in the model parameter space can be observed as an anomaly in the measured magnetization curve.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figure