Majorana Quasi-Particles Protected by Z2\mathbb{Z}_2 Angular Momentum Conservation

We show how angular momentum conservation can stabilise a symmetry-protected quasi-topological phase of matter supporting Majorana quasi-particles as edge modes in one-dimensional cold atom gases. We investigate a number-conserving four-species Hubbard model in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. The latter reduces the global spin symmetry to an angular momentum parity symmetry, which provides an extremely robust protection mechanism that does not rely on any coupling to additional reservoirs. The emergence of Majorana edge modes is elucidated using field theory techniques, and corroborated by density-matrix-renormalization-group simulations. Our results pave the way toward the observation of Majorana edge modes with alkaline-earth-like fermions in optical lattices, where all basic ingredients for our recipe - spin-orbit coupling and strong inter-orbital interactions - have been experimentally realized over the last two years.Comment: 12 pages (6 + 6 supplementary material

Boundary time crystals

This work was supported in part by \Progetti Interni - Scuola Normale Superiore" (A.R.), EU- 691 QUIC (R.F. and A.R.), CRF Singapore Ministry of Education (CPR-QSYNC 692) (R.F.), EPSRC program TOPNES (EP/I031014/1) (J.K.).In this work we introduce boundary time crystals. Here continuous time-translation symmetry breaking occurs only in a macroscopic fraction of a many-body quantum system. After introducing their definition and properties, we analyze in detail a solvable model where an accurate scaling analysis can be performed. The existence of the boundary time crystals is intimately connected to the emergence of a time-periodic steady state in the thermodynamic limit of a many-body open quantum system. We also discuss connections to quantum synchronization.PostprintPeer reviewe

Floquet time crystal in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model

In this work we discuss the existence of time-translation symmetry breaking in a kicked infinite-range-interacting clean spin system described by the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model. This Floquet time crystal is robust under perturbations of the kicking protocol, its existence being intimately linked to the underlying Z2 symmetry breaking of the time-independent model. We show that the model being infinite range and having an extensive amount of symmetry-breaking eigenstates is essential for having the time-crystal behavior. In particular, we discuss the properties of the Floquet spectrum, and show the existence of doublets of Floquet states which are, respectively, even and odd superposition of symmetry-broken states and have quasienergies differing of half the driving frequencies, a key essence of Floquet time crystals. Remarkably, the stability of the time-crystal phase can be directly analyzed in the limit of infinite size, discussing the properties of the corresponding classical phase space. Through a detailed analysis of the robustness of the time crystal to various perturbations we are able to map the corresponding phase diagram. We finally discuss the possibility of an experimental implementation by means of trapped ions

Localized Majorana-Like Modes in a Number-Conserving Setting: An Exactly Solvable Model

In this Letter we present, in a number conserving framework, a model of interacting fermions in a two-wire geometry supporting nonlocal zero-energy Majorana-like edge excitations. The model has an exactly solvable line, on varying the density of fermions, described by a topologically nontrivial ground state wave function. Away from the exactly solvable line we study the system by means of the numerical density matrix renormalization group. We characterize its topological properties through the explicit calculation of a degenerate entanglement spectrum and of the braiding operators which are exponentially localized at the edges. Furthermore, we establish the presence of a gap in its single particle spectrum while the Hamiltonian is gapless, and compute the correlations between the edge modes as well as the superfluid correlations. The topological phase covers a sizable portion of the phase diagram, the solvable line being one of its boundaries

Signatures of many-body localization in the dynamics of two-site entanglement

We are able to detect clear signatures of dephasing - a distinct trait of many-body localization (MBL) - via the dynamics of two-site entanglement, quantified through the concurrence. Using the protocol implemented by M. Schreiber et al. [Science 349, 842 (2015)SCIEAS0036-807510.1126/science.aaa7432], we show that in the MBL phase the average two-site entanglement decays in time as a power law, while in the Anderson localized phase it tends to a plateau. The power-law exponent is not universal and displays a clear dependence on the interaction strength. This behavior is also qualitatively different from the ergodic phase, where the two-site entanglement decays exponentially. All the results are obtained by means of time-dependent density matrix renormalization-group simulations and further corroborated by analytical calculations on an effective model. Two-site entanglement has been measured in cold atoms: our analysis paves the way for the first direct experimental test of many-body dephasing in the MBL phase