Full characterization of a spin liquid phase: from topological entropy to robustness and braid statistics

We use the topological entanglement entropy (TEE) as an efficient tool to fully characterize the Abelian phase of a $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquid emerging as the ground state of topological color code (TCC), which is a class of stabilizer states on the honeycomb lattice. We provide the fusion rules of the quasiparticle (QP) excitations of the model by introducing single- or two-body operators on physical spins for each fusion process which justify the corresponding fusion outcome. Beside, we extract the TEE from Renyi entanglement entropy (EE) of the TCC, analytically and numerically by finite size exact diagonalization on the disk shape regions with contractible boundaries. We obtain that the EE has a local contribution, which scales linearly with the boundary length in addition to a topological term, i.e. the TEE, arising from the condensation of closed strings in the ground state. We further investigate the ground state dependence of the TEE on regions with non-contractible boundaries, i.e. by cutting the torus to half cylinders, from which we further identify multiple independent minimum entropy states (MES) of the TCC and then extract the U and S modular matrices of the system, which contain the self and mutual statistics of the anyonic QPs and fully characterize the topological phase of the TCC. Eventually, we show that, in spite of the lack of a local order parameter, TEE and other physical quantities obtained from ground state wave function such as entanglement spectrum (ES) and ground state fidelity are sensitive probes to study the robustness of a topological phase. We find that the topological order in the presence of a magnetic field persists until the vicinity of the transition point, where the TEE and fidelity drops to zero and the ES splits severely, signaling breakdown of the topological phase of the TCC

Thermal bosons in 3d optical lattices via tensor networks

Ultracold atoms in optical lattices are one of the most promising experimental setups to simulate strongly correlated systems. However, efficient numerical algorithms able to benchmark experiments at low-temperatures in interesting 3d lattices are lacking. To this aim, here we introduce an efficient tensor network algorithm to accurately simulate thermal states of local Hamiltonians in any infinite lattice, and in any dimension. We apply the method to simulate thermal bosons in optical lattices. In particular, we study the physics of the (soft-core and hard-core) Bose-Hubbard model on the infinite pyrochlore and cubic lattices with unprecedented accuracy. Our technique is therefore an ideal tool to benchmark realistic and interesting optical-lattice experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures + Appendi

One directional Polarized Neutron Reflectometry with optimized reference layer method

In the past decade, several neutron reflectometry methods for determining the modulus and phase of the complex reflection coefficient of an unknown multilayer thin film have been worked out among which the method of variation of surroundings and reference layers are of highest interest. These methods were later modified for measurement of the polarization of the reflected beam instead of the measurement of the intensities. In their new architecture, these methods not only suffered from the necessity of change of experimental setup, but also another difficulty was added to their experimental implementations. This deficiency was related to the limitations of the technology of the neutron reflectometers that could only measure the polarization of the reflected neutrons in the same direction as the polarization of the incident beam. As the instruments are limited, the theory has to be optimized so that the experiment could be performed. In a recent work, we developed the method of variation of surroundings for one directional polarization analysis. In this new work, the method of reference layer with polarization analysis has been optimized to determine the phase and modulus of the unknown film with measurement of the polarization of the reflected neutrons in the same direction as the polarization of the incident beam

Quantum phase transition in the Z3Z_3 Kitaev-Potts model

The stability of the topological order phase induced by the $Z_3$ Kitaev model, which is a candidate for fault-tolerant quantum computation, against the local order phase induced by the 3-State Potts model is studied. We show that the low energy sector of the Kitaev-Potts model is mapped to the Potts model in the presence of transverse magnetic field. Our study relies on two high-order series expansion based on continuous unitary transformations in the limits of small- and large-Potts couplings as well as mean-field approximation. Our analysis reveals that the topological phase of the $Z_3$ Kitaev model breaks down to the Potts model through a first order phase transition. We capture the phase transition by analysis of the ground state energy, one-quasiparticle gap and geometric measure of entanglement.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Infinite Projected Entangled-Pair State algorithm for ruby and triangle-honeycomb lattices

The infinite Projected Entangled-Pair State (iPEPS) algorithm is one of the most efficient techniques for studying the ground-state properties of two-dimensional quantum lattice Hamiltonians in the thermodynamic limit. Here, we show how the algorithm can be adapted to explore nearest-neighbor local Hamiltonians on the ruby and triangle-honeycomb lattices, using the Corner Transfer Matrix (CTM) renormalization group for 2D tensor network contraction. Additionally, we show how the CTM method can be used to calculate the ground state fidelity per lattice site and the boundary density operator and entanglement entropy (EE) on an infinite cylinder. As a benchmark, we apply the iPEPS method to the ruby model with anisotropic interactions and explore the ground-state properties of the system. We further extract the phase diagram of the model in different regimes of the couplings by measuring two-point correlators, ground state fidelity and EE on an infinite cylinder. Our phase diagram is in agreement with previous studies of the model by exact diagonalization.Comment: 12 pages, 18 figur

Topological Z2\mathbb{Z}_2 RVB quantum spin liquid on the ruby lattice

We construct a short-range resonating valence-bond state (RVB) on the ruby lattice, using projected entangled-pair states (PEPS) with bond dimension $D=3$. By introducing non-local moves to the dimer patterns on the torus, we distinguish four distinct sectors in the space of dimer coverings, which is a signature of the topological nature of the RVB wave function. Furthermore, by calculating the reduced density matrix of a bipartition of the RVB state on an infinite cylinder and exploring its entanglement entropy, we confirm the topological nature of the RVB wave function by obtaining non-zero topological contribution, $\gamma=-\rm{ln}\ 2$, consistent with that of a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological quantum spin liquid. We also calculate the ground-state energy of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the ruby lattice and compare it with the RVB energy. Finally, we construct a quantum-dimer model for the ruby lattice and discuss it as a possible parent Hamiltonian for the RVB wave function.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

Thin film growth by using random shape cluster deposition

The growth of a rough and porous thin surface by deposition of randomly shaped clusters with different sizes over an initially flat linear substrate is simulated, using Monte Carlo technique. Unlike the ordinary Random Deposition, our approach results in aggregation of clusters which produces a porous bulk with correlation along the surface and the surface saturation occurs in long enough deposition times. The scaling exponents; the growth, roughness, and dynamic exponents are calculated based on the time scale. Moreover, the porosity and its dependency to the time and clusters size are also calculated. We also study the influence of clusters size on the scaling exponent, as well as on the global porosity

Spin-12\frac{1}{2} Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the star lattice: Competing valence-bond-solid phases studied by means of tensor networks

Using the infinite Projected Entangled Pair States (iPEPS) algorithm, we study the ground-state properties of the spin-$1/2$ quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the star lattice in the thermodynamic limit. By analyzing the ground-state energy of the two inequivalent bonds of the lattice in different unit-cell structures, we identify two competing Valence-Bond-Solid (VBS) phases for different antiferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange couplings. More precisely, we observe (i) a VBS state which respects the full symmetries of the Hamiltonian, and (ii) a resonating VBS state which, in contrast to previous predictions, has a six-site unit-cell order and breaks $C_3$ symmetry. We also studied the ground-state phase diagram by measuring the ground-state fidelity and energy derivatives, and further confirmed the continuous nature of the quantum phase transition in the system. Moreover, an analysis of the isotropic point shows that its ground state is also a VBS as in (i), which is as well in contrast with previous predictions.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figure

Robustness of a topological phase: Topological color code in parallel magnetic field

The robustness of the topological color code, which is a class of error correcting quantum codes, is investigated under the influence of an uniform magnetic field on the honeycomb lattice. Our study relies on two high-order series expansions using perturbative continuous unitary transformations in the limit of low and high fields, exact diagonalization and a classical approximation. We show that the topological color code in a single parallel field is isospectral to the Baxter-Wu model in a transverse field on the triangular lattice. It is found that the topological phase is stable up to a critical field beyond which it breaks down to the polarized phase by a first-order phase transition. The results also suggest that the topological color code is more robust than the toric code, in the parallel magnetic field.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Quantum phase transitions out of a Z2 x Z2 topological phase

We investigate the low-energy spectral properties and robustness of the topological phase of color code, which is a quantum spin model for the aim of fault-tolerant quantum computation, in the presence of a uniform magnetic field or Ising interactions, using high-order series expansion and exact diagonalization. In a uniform magnetic field, we find 1st-order phase transitions in all field directions. In contrast, our results for the Ising interactions unveil that for strong enough Ising couplings, the Z2 x Z2 topological phase of color code breaks down to symmetry broken phases by 1st- or 2nd-order phase transitions.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure