Quenching the Kitaev honeycomb model

This work was presented first in a seminar at the University of Toronto on 18 October 2017. The slides of this presentation can be downloaded here (pptx, 13 MB).

Title: Quenching the Kitaev honeycomb model

Abstract: I studied the non-equilibrium response of an initial Néel state under time evolution with the Kitaev honeycomb model. This time evolution can be computed using a random sampling over all relevant flux configurations. With isotropic interactions the system quickly equilibrates into a steady state valence bond solid. Anisotropy induces an exponentially long prethermal regime whose dynamics are governed by an effective toric code. Signatures of topology are absent, however, due to the high energy density nature of the initial state.

arXiv:1710.09761

Quantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds

I also presented this work in the form of a poster at the SPICE workshop ’Non-equilibrium Quantum Matter’, Mainz, Germany, from 30 May to 2 June 2017. The poster can be downloaded here (pdf, 1.3 MB).

Title: Quantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds

Abstract: The ultimate consequence of quantum many-body physics is that even the air we breathe is governed by strictly unitary time evolution. The reason that we perceive it nonetheless as a completely classical high temperature gas is due to the incapacity of our measurement machines to keep track of the dense many-body entanglement of the gas molecules. The question thus arises whether there are instances where the quantum time evolution of a macroscopic system is qualitatively different from the equivalent classical system? Here we study this question through the expansion of noninteracting atomic clouds. While in many cases the full quantum dynamics is indeed indistinguishable from classical ballistic motion, we do find a notable exception. The subtle quantum correlations in a Bose gas approaching the condensation temperature appear to affect the expansion of the cloud, as if the system has turned into a diffusive collision-full classical system.

arXiv:1703.02489

Phonon linewidth due to electron-phonon interactions with strong forward scattering in FeSe thin films on oxide substrates

Title: Phonon linewidth due to electron-phonon interactions with strong forward scattering in FeSe thin films on oxide substrates

Authors: Yan Wang, Louk Rademaker, Elbio Dagotto, Steven Johnston

Abstract: The discovery of an enhanced superconducting transition temperature Tc in monolayers of FeSe grown on several oxide substrates has opened a new route to high-Tc superconductivity through interface engineering. One proposal for the origin of the observed enhancement is an electron-phonon (e-ph) interaction across the interface that peaked at small momentum transfers. In this paper, we examine the implications of such a coupling on the phononic properties of the system. We show that a strong forward scattering leads to a sizable broadening of phonon lineshape, which may result in charge instabilities at long-wavelengths. However, we further find that the inclusion of Coulombic screening significantly reduces the phonon broadening. Our results show that one might not expect anomalously broad phonon linewidths in the FeSe interface systems, despite the fact that the e-ph interaction has a strong peak in the forward scattering (small q) direction.

ArXiv:1703.02013

Many-body localization and delocalization from the perspective of Integrals of Motion

Title: Many-body localization and delocalization from the perspective of Integrals of Motion
Louk Rademaker, Miguel Ortuno, Andres M. Somoza

Abstract: We study many-body localization (MBL) and delocalization from the perspective of integrals of motion (IOMs). MBL can be understood phenomenologically through the existence of macroscopically many localized IOMs. However, IOMs exist for all many-body systems, and non-localized IOMs determine properties on the ergodic side of the MBL transition too. Here we explore their properties using our method of displacement transformations. We show how different quantities can be calculated using the IOMs as an expansion in the number of operators. For all values of disorder the typical IOMs are localized, suggesting the importance of rare fluctuations in understanding the delocalization transition.

arXiv:1610.06238

Presentation: MBL-to-Ergodic Transition from the perspective of Integrals of Motion

At the 16th International Conference on Transport in Interacting Disordered Systems (TIDS16) in Granada, Spain I presented my work done with Miguel Ortuño and Andres Somoza on many-body localization (MBL). Specifically, these are the first large-system results using our method of displacement transformations to find the MBL integrals of motion.

A sneak peek: the accuracy of our method increases order by order and with increasing disorder. Download the full presentation as a pptx file (4.5 MB)

Absence of Marginal Stability in Self-Generated Coulomb Glasses

Title: Absence of Marginal Stability in Self-Generated Coulomb Glasses

Abstract: We investigate the structure of metastable states in self-generated Coulomb glasses. In dramatic contrast to disordered electron glasses, we find that these states lack marginal stability. Such absence of marginal stability is reflected by the suppression of the single-particle density of states into an exponentially soft gap of the form $g(\epsilon) \sim |\epsilon|^{-3/2} e^{-V / \xi |\epsilon|}$.