Transport coefficients from the Boson Uehling-Uhlenbeck Equation

We derive microscopic expressions for the bulk viscosity, shear viscosity and thermal conductivity of a quantum degenerate Bose gas above $T_C$, the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation. The gas interacts via a contact potential and is described by the Uehling-Uhlenbeck equation. To derive the transport coefficients, we use Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation theory rather than the Chapman-Enskog approach. This approach illuminates the link between transport coefficients and eigenvalues of the collision operator. We find that a method of summing the second order contributions using the fact that the relaxation rates have a known limit improves the accuracy of the computations. We numerically compute the shear viscosity and thermal conductivity for any boson gas that interacts via a contact potential. We find that the bulk viscosity remains identically zero as it is for the classical case.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Quantum Phase Transitions and Bipartite Entanglement

We develop a general theory of the relation between quantum phase transitions (QPTs) characterized by nonanalyticities in the energy and bipartite entanglement. We derive a functional relation between the matrix elements of two-particle reduced density matrices and the eigenvalues of general two-body Hamiltonians of $d$-level systems. The ground state energy eigenvalue and its derivatives, whose non-analyticity characterizes a QPT, are directly tied to bipartite entanglement measures. We show that first-order QPTs are signalled by density matrix elements themselves and second-order QPTs by the first derivative of density matrix elements. Our general conclusions are illustrated via several quantum spin models.Comment: 5 pages, incl. 2 figures. v3: The version published in PRL, including a few extra comments and clarifications for which there was no space in the PR

Imaging the lateral shift of a quantum-point contact using scanning-gate microscopy

We perform scanning-gate microscopy on a quantum-point contact. It is defined in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas of an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure, giving rise to a weak disorder potential. The lever arm of the scanning tip is significantly smaller than that of the split gates defining the conducting channel of the quantum-point contact. We are able to observe that the conducting channel is shifted in real space when asymmetric gate voltages are applied. The observed shifts are consistent with transport data and numerical estimations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Photoluminescence and the gallium problem for highest-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs-based 2d electron gases

The quest for extremely high mobilities of 2d electron gases in MBE-grown heterostructures is hampered by the available purity of the starting materials, particularly of the gallium. Here we compare the role of different Ga lots having nominally the highest possible quality on the mobility and the photoluminescence (PL) of modulation doped single interface structures and find significant differences. A weak exciton PL reveals that the purity of the Ga is insufficient. No high mobility can be reached with such a lot with a reasonable effort. On the other hand, a strong exciton PL indicates a high initial Ga purity, allowing to reach mobilities of 15 million (single interface) or 28 million $cm^2/Vsec$ (doped quantum wells) in our MBE systems. We discuss possible origins of the inconsistent Ga quality. Furthermore, we compare samples grown in different MBE systems over a period of several years and find that mobility and PL is correlated if similar structures and growth procedures are used

Entanglement and dynamics of spin-chains in periodically-pulsed magnetic fields: accelerator modes

We study the dynamics of a single excitation in a Heisenberg spin-chain subjected to a sequence of periodic pulses from an external, parabolic, magnetic field. We show that, for experimentally reasonable parameters, a pair of counter-propagating coherent states are ejected from the centre of the chain. We find an illuminating correspondence with the quantum time evolution of the well-known paradigm of quantum chaos, the Quantum Kicked Rotor (QKR). From this we can analyse the entanglement production and interpret the ejected coherent states as a manifestation of so-called `accelerator modes' of a classically chaotic system.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; minor corrections, tidied presentatio

Nonequilibrium transport in density-modulated phases of the second Landau level

We investigate non-equilibrium transport in the reentrant integer quantum Hall phases of the second Landau level. At high currents, we observe a transition from the reentrant integer quantum Hall phases to classical Hall-conduction. Surprisingly, this transition is markedly different for the hole- and electron sides of each spin-branch. While the hole bubble phases exhibit a sharp transition to an isotropic compressible phase, the transition for the electron side occurs via an intermediate phase. This might indicate a more complex structure of the bubble phases than currently anticipated, or a breaking of the particle-hole symmetry. Such a symmetry breaking in the second Landau level might also have consequences for the physics at filling factor $\nu$=5/2.Comment: 11 pages Supplemental Material available at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.19541

Impact of Quantum Phase Transitions on Excited Level Dynamics

The influence of quantum phase transitions on the evolution of excited levels in the critical parameter region is discussed. The analysis is performed for 1D and 2D systems with first- and second-order ground-state transitions. Examples include the cusp and nuclear collective Hamiltonians.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Linear magnetoresistance in a quasi-free two dimensional electron gas in an ultra-high mobility GaAs quantum well

We report a magnetotransport study of an ultra-high mobility ($\bar{\mu}\approx 25\times 10^6$\,cm$^2$\,V$^{-1}$\,s$^{-1}$) $n$-type GaAs quantum well up to 33 T. A strong linear magnetoresistance (LMR) of the order of 10$^5$ % is observed in a wide temperature range between 0.3 K and 60 K. The simplicity of our material system with a single sub-band occupation and free electron dispersion rules out most complicated mechanisms that could give rise to the observed LMR. At low temperature, quantum oscillations are superimposed onto the LMR. Both, the featureless LMR at high $T$ and the quantum oscillations at low $T$ follow the empirical resistance rule which states that the longitudinal conductance is directly related to the derivative of the transversal (Hall) conductance multiplied by the magnetic field and a constant factor $\alpha$ that remains unchanged over the entire temperature range. Only at low temperatures, small deviations from this resistance rule are observed beyond $\nu=1$ that likely originate from a different transport mechanism for the composite fermions

Nonequilibrium quantum-impurities: from entropy production to information theory

Nonequilibrium steady-state currents, unlike their equilibrium counterparts, continuously dissipate energy into their physical surroundings leading to entropy production and time-reversal symmetry breaking. This letter discusses these issues in the context of quantum impurity models driven out of equilibrium by attaching the impurity to leads at different chemical potentials and temperatures. We start by pointing out that entropy production is often hidden in traditional treatments of quantum-impurity models. We then use simple thermodynamic arguments to define the rate of entropy production. Using the scattering framework recently developed by the authors we show that the rate of entropy production has a simple information theoretic interpretation in terms of the Shannon entropy and Kullback-Leibler divergence of nonequilibrium distribution function. This allows us to show that the entropy production is strictly positive for any nonequilibrium steady-state. We conclude by applying these ideas to the Resonance Level Model and the Kondo model.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure new version with minor clarification