Topological Band Theory for Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians

We develop the topological band theory for systems described by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, whose energy spectra are generally complex. After generalizing the notion of gapped band structures to the non-Hermitian case, we classify "gapped" bands in one and two dimensions by explicitly finding their topological invariants. We find nontrivial generalizations of the Chern number in two dimensions, and a new classification in one dimension, whose topology is determined by the energy dispersion rather than the energy eigenstates. We then study the bulk-edge correspondence and the topological phase transition in two dimensions. Different from the Hermitian case, the transition generically involves an extended intermediate phase with complex-energy band degeneracies at isolated "exceptional points" in momentum space. We also systematically classify all types of band degeneracies.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures + 6 pages of supplemental materia

Machine Learning Topological Invariants with Neural Networks

In this Letter we supervisedly train neural networks to distinguish different topological phases in the context of topological band insulators. After training with Hamiltonians of one-dimensional insulators with chiral symmetry, the neural network can predict their topological winding numbers with nearly 100% accuracy, even for Hamiltonians with larger winding numbers that are not included in the training data. These results show a remarkable success that the neural network can capture the global and nonlinear topological features of quantum phases from local inputs. By opening up the neural network, we confirm that the network does learn the discrete version of the winding number formula. We also make a couple of remarks regarding the role of the symmetry and the opposite effect of regularization techniques when applying machine learning to physical systems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures and 1 table + 2 pages of supplemental materia

Out-of-Time-Order Correlation at a Quantum Phase Transition

In this paper we numerically calculate the out-of-time-order correlation functions in the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model. Our study is motivated by the conjecture that a system with Lyapunov exponent saturating the upper bound $2\pi/\beta$ will have a holographic dual to a black hole at finite temperature. We further conjecture that for a many-body quantum system with a quantum phase transition, the Lyapunov exponent will have a peak in the quantum critical region where there exists an emergent conformal symmetry and is absent of well-defined quasi-particles. With the help of a relation between the R\'enyi entropy and the out-of-time-order correlation function, we argue that the out-of-time-order correlation function of the Bose-Hubbard model will also exhibit an exponential behavior at the scrambling time. By fitting the numerical results with an exponential function, we extract the Lyapunov exponents in the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model across the quantum critical regime at finite temperature. Our results on the Bose-Hubbard model support the conjecture. We also compute the butterfly velocity and propose how the echo type measurement of this correlator in the cold atom realizations of the Bose-Hubbard model without inverting the Hamiltonian.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, published versio

Out-of-Time-Order Correlation for Many-Body Localization

In this paper we first compute the out-of-time-order correlators (OTOC) for both a phenomenological model and a random-field XXZ model in the many-body localized phase. We show that the OTOC decreases in power law in a many-body localized system at the scrambling time. We also find that the OTOC can also be used to distinguish a many-body localized phase from an Anderson localized phase, while a normal correlator cannot. Furthermore, we prove an exact theorem that relates the growth of the second R\'enyi entropy in the quench dynamics to the decay of the OTOC in equilibrium. This theorem works for a generic quantum system. We discuss various implications of this theorem.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, published versio

Quantum Oscillation from In-Gap States and a Non-Hermitian Landau Level Problem

Motivated by recent experiments on Kondo insulators, we theoretically study quantum oscillations from disorder-induced in-gap states in small-gap insulators. By solving a non-Hermitian Landau level problem that incorporates the imaginary part of electron’s self-energy, we show that the oscillation period is determined by the Fermi surface area in the absence of the hybridization gap, and we derive an analytical formula for the oscillation amplitude as a function of the indirect band gap, scattering rates, and temperature. Over a wide parameter range, we find that the effective mass is controlled by scattering rates, while the Dingle factor is controlled by the indirect band gap. We also show the important effect of scattering rates in reshaping the quasiparticle dispersion in connection with angle-resolved photoemission measurements on heavy fermion materials.United States. Department of Energy. Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering (Award No. DE-SC0010526)David & Lucile Packard Foundatio

Information Scrambling in Quantum Neural Networks

The quantum neural network is one of the promising applications for near-term noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers. A quantum neural network distills the information from the input wave function into the output qubits. In this Letter, we show that this process can also be viewed from the opposite direction: the quantum information in the output qubits is scrambled into the input. This observation motivates us to use the tripartite information—a quantity recently developed to characterize information scrambling—to diagnose the training dynamics of quantum neural networks. We empirically find strong correlation between the dynamical behavior of the tripartite information and the loss function in the training process, from which we identify that the training process has two stages for randomly initialized networks. In the early stage, the network performance improves rapidly and the tripartite information increases linearly with a universal slope, meaning that the neural network becomes less scrambled than the random unitary. In the latter stage, the network performance improves slowly while the tripartite information decreases. We present evidences that the network constructs local correlations in the early stage and learns large-scale structures in the latter stage. We believe this two-stage training dynamics is universal and is applicable to a wide range of problems. Our work builds bridges between two research subjects of quantum neural networks and information scrambling, which opens up a new perspective to understand quantum neural networks

Deep Learning Topological Invariants of Band Insulators

In this work we design and train deep neural networks to predict topological invariants for one-dimensional four-band insulators in AIII class whose topological invariant is the winding number, and two-dimensional two-band insulators in A class whose topological invariant is the Chern number. Given Hamiltonians in the momentum space as the input, neural networks can predict topological invariants for both classes with accuracy close to or higher than 90%, even for Hamiltonians whose invariants are beyond the training data set. Despite the complexity of the neural network, we find that the output of certain intermediate hidden layers resembles either the winding angle for models in AIII class or the solid angle (Berry curvature) for models in A class, indicating that neural networks essentially capture the mathematical formula of topological invariants. Our work demonstrates the ability of neural networks to predict topological invariants for complicated models with local Hamiltonians as the only input, and offers an example that even a deep neural network is understandable.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure