Discriminative Cooperative Networks for Detecting Phase Transitions

The classification of states of matter and their corresponding phase transitions is a special kind of machine-learning task, where physical data allow for the analysis of new algorithms, which have not been considered in the general computer-science setting so far. Here we introduce an unsupervised machine-learning scheme for detecting phase transitions with a pair of discriminative cooperative networks (DCN). In this scheme, a guesser network and a learner network cooperate to detect phase transitions from fully unlabeled data. The new scheme is efficient enough for dealing with phase diagrams in two-dimensional parameter spaces, where we can utilize an active contour model -- the snake -- from computer vision to host the two networks. The snake, with a DCN "brain", moves and learns actively in the parameter space, and locates phase boundaries automatically

Renormalization group approach to symmetry protected topological phases

A defining feature of a symmetry protected topological phase (SPT) in one-dimension is the degeneracy of the Schmidt values for any given bipartition. For the system to go through a topological phase transition separating two SPTs, the Schmidt values must either split or cross at the critical point in order to change their degeneracies. A renormalization group (RG) approach based on this splitting or crossing is proposed, through which we obtain an RG flow that identifies the topological phase transitions in the parameter space. Our approach can be implemented numerically in an efficient manner, for example, using the matrix product state formalism, since only the largest first few Schmidt values need to be calculated with sufficient accuracy. Using several concrete models, we demonstrate that the critical points and fixed points of the RG flow coincide with the maxima and minima of the entanglement entropy, respectively, and the method can serve as a numerically efficient tool to analyze interacting SPTs in the parameter space.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Single spin probe of Many-Body Localization

We use an external spin as a dynamical probe of many body localization. The probe spin is coupled to an interacting and disordered environment described by a Heisenberg spin chain in a random field. The spin-chain environment can be tuned between a thermalizing delocalized phase and non-thermalizing localized phase, both in its ground- and high-energy states. We study the decoherence of the probe spin when it couples to the environment prepared in three states: the ground state, the infinite temperature state and a high energy N\'eel state. In the non-thermalizing many body localized regime, the coherence shows scaling behaviour in the disorder strength. The long-time dynamics of the probe spin shows a logarithmic dephasing in analogy with the logarithmic growth of entanglement entropy for a bi-partition of a many-body localized system. In summary, we show that decoherence of the probe spin provides clear signatures of many-body localization.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

XMM-Newton reveals ~100 new LMXBs in M31 from variability studies

We have conducted a survey of X-ray sources in XMM-Newton observations of M31, examining their power density spectra (PDS) and spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Our automated source detection yielded 535 good X-ray sources; to date, we have studied 225 of them. In particular, we examined the PDS because low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) exhibit two distinctive types of PDS. At low accretion rates, the PDS is characterised by a broken power law, with the spectral index changing from ~0 to ~1 at some frequency in the range \~0.01--1 Hz; we refer to such PDS as Type A. At higher accretion rates, the PDS is described by a simple power law; we call these PDS Type B. Of the 225 sources studied to date, 75 exhibit Type A variability, and are almost certainly LMXBs, while 6 show Type B but not Type A, and are likely LMXBs. Of these 81 candidate LMXBs, 71 are newly identified in this survey; furthermore, they are mostly found near the centre of M31. Furthermore, most of the X-ray population in the disc are associated with the spiral arms, making them likely high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). In general these HMXBs do not exhibit Type A variability, while many central X-ray sources (LMXBs) in the same luminosity range do. Hence the PDS may distinguish between LMXBs and HMXBs in this luminosity range.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in proceedings of IAUS230: "Populations of High Energy Sources in Galaxies", 14-19 August 2005, Dublin, Eds E.J.A. Meurs and G. Fabbian

From Dynamical Localization to Bunching in interacting Floquet Systems

We show that a quantum many-body system may be controlled by means of Floquet engineering, i.e., their properties may be controlled and manipulated by employing periodic driving. We present a concrete driving scheme that allows control over the nature of mobile units and the amount of diffusion in generic many-body systems. We demonstrate these ideas for the Fermi-Hubbard model, where the drive renders doubly occupied sites (doublons) the mobile excitations in the system. In particular, we show that the amount of diffusion in the system and the level of fermion-pairing may be controlled and understood solely in terms of the doublon dynamics. We find that under certain circumstances the diffusion in the system may be eliminated completely. We conclude our work by generalizing these ideas to generic many-body systems.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure