Classical correlations of defects in lattices with geometrical frustration in the motion of a particle

We map certain highly correlated electron systems on lattices with geometrical frustration in the motion of added particles or holes to the spatial defect-defect correlations of dimer models in different geometries. These models are studied analytically and numerically. We consider different coverings for four different lattices: square, honeycomb, triangular, and diamond. In the case of hard-core dimer covering, we verify the existed results for the square and triangular lattice and obtain new ones for the honeycomb and the diamond lattices while in the case of loop covering we obtain new numerical results for all the lattices and use the existing analytical Liouville field theory for the case of square lattice.The results show power-law correlations for the square and honeycomb lattice, while exponential decay with distance is found for the triangular and exponential decay with the inverse distance on the diamond lattice. We relate this fact with the lack of bipartiteness of the triangular lattice and in the latter case with the three-dimensionality of the diamond. The connection of our findings to the problem of fractionalized charge in such lattices is pointed out.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Unbounded growth of entanglement in models of many-body localization

An important and incompletely answered question is whether a closed quantum system of many interacting particles can be localized by disorder. The time evolution of simple (unentangled) initial states is studied numerically for a system of interacting spinless fermions in one dimension described by the random-field XXZ Hamiltonian. Interactions induce a dramatic change in the propagation of entanglement and a smaller change in the propagation of particles. For even weak interactions, when the system is thought to be in a many-body localized phase, entanglement shows neither localized nor diffusive behavior but grows without limit in an infinite system: interactions act as a singular perturbation on the localized state with no interactions. The significance for proposed atomic experiments is that local measurements will show a large but nonthermal entropy in the many-body localized state. This entropy develops slowly (approximately logarithmically) over a diverging time scale as in glassy systems.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, v2. added more dat

Charge degrees in the quarter-filled checkerboard lattice

For a systematic study of charge degrees of freedom in lattices with geometric frustration, we consider spinless fermions on the checkerboard lattice with nearest-neighbor hopping $t$ and nearest-neighbor repulsion $V$ at quarter-filling. An effective Hamiltonian for the limit $|t|\ll V$ is given to lowest non-vanishing order by the ring exchange ($\sim t^{3}/V^{2}$). We show that the system can equivalently be described by hard-core bosons and map the model to a confining U(1) lattice gauge theory.Comment: Proceedings of ICM200

Spectral functions and optical conductivity of spinless fermions on a checkerboard lattice

We study the dynamical properties of spinless fermions on the checkerboard lattice. Our main interest is the limit of large nearest-neighbor repulsion $V$ as compared with hopping $|t|$. The spectral functions show broad low-energy excitation which are due to the dynamics of fractionally charged excitations. Furthermore, it is shown that the fractional charges contribute to the electrical current density.Comment: 9 Pages, 9 Figure

Bound states and E_8 symmetry effects in perturbed quantum Ising chains

In a recent experiment on CoNb_2O_6, Coldea et al. [Science 327, 177 (2010)] found for the first time experimental evidence of the exceptional Lie algebra E_8. The emergence of this symmetry was theoretically predicted long ago for the transverse quantum Ising chain in the presence of a weak longitudinal field. We consider an accurate microscopic model of CoNb_2O_6 incorporating additional couplings and calculate numerically the dynamical structure function using a recently developed matrix-product-state method. The excitation spectra show bound states characteristic of the weakly broken E_8 symmetry. We compare the observed bound state signatures in this model to those found in the transverse Ising chain in a longitudinal field and to experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Dynamics after a sweep through a quantum critical point

The coherent quantum evolution of a one-dimensional many-particle system after sweeping the Hamiltonian through a critical point is studied using a generalized quantum Ising model containing both integrable and non-integrable regimes. It is known from previous work that universal power laws appear in such quantities as the mean number of excitations created by the sweep. Several other phenomena are found that are not reflected by such averages: there are two scaling regimes of the entanglement entropy and a relaxation that is power-law rather than exponential. The final state of evolution after the quench is not well characterized by any effective temperature, and the Loschmidt echo converges algebraically to a constant for long times, with cusplike singularities in the integrable case that are dynamically broadened by nonintegrable perturbations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

A quantum liquid with deconfined fractional excitations in three dimensions

Excitations which carry "fractional" quantum numbers are known to exist in one dimension in polyacetylene, and in two dimensions, in the fractional quantum Hall effect. Fractional excitations have also been invoked to explain the breakdown of the conventional theory of metals in a wide range of three-dimensional materials. However the existence of fractional excitations in three dimensions remains highly controversial. In this Letter we report direct numerical evidence for the existence of a quantum liquid phase supporting fractional excitations in a concrete, three-dimensional microscopic model - the quantum dimer model on a diamond lattice. We demonstrate explicitly that the energy cost of separating fractional monomer excitations vanishes in this liquid phase, and that its energy spectrum matches that of the Coulomb phase in (3+1) dimensional quantum electrodynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; revised version, new figures; accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Time-evolving a matrix product state with long-ranged interactions

We introduce a numerical algorithm to simulate the time evolution of a matrix product state under a long-ranged Hamiltonian. In the effectively one-dimensional representation of a system by matrix product states, long-ranged interactions are necessary to simulate not just many physical interactions but also higher-dimensional problems with short-ranged interactions. Since our method overcomes the restriction to short-ranged Hamiltonians of most existing methods, it proves particularly useful for studying the dynamics of both power-law interacting one-dimensional systems, such as Coulombic and dipolar systems, and quasi two-dimensional systems, such as strips or cylinders. First, we benchmark the method by verifying a long-standing theoretical prediction for the dynamical correlation functions of the Haldane-Shastry model. Second, we simulate the time evolution of an expanding cloud of particles in the two-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model, a subject of several recent experiments.Comment: 5 pages + 3 pages appendices, 4 figure

Fermionic quantum dimer and fully-packed loop models on the square lattice

We consider fermionic fully-packed loop and quantum dimer models which serve as effective low-energy models for strongly correlated fermions on a checkerboard lattice at half and quarter filling, respectively. We identify a large number of fluctuationless states specific to each case, due to the fermionic statistics. We discuss the symmetries and conserved quantities of the system and show that for a class of fluctuating states in the half-filling case, the fermionic sign problem can be gauged away. This claim is supported by numerical evaluation of the low-lying states and can be understood by means of an algebraic construction. The elimination of the sign problem then allows us to analyze excitations at the Rokhsar-Kivelson point of the models using the relation to the height model and its excitations, within the single-mode approximation. We then discuss a mapping to a U(1) lattice gauge theory which relates the considered low-energy model to the compact quantum electrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions. Furthermore, we point out consequences and open questions in the light of these results.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure