We introduce a family of spin-1/2 quantum chains, and show that their exact ground states break the rotational and translational symmetries of the original Hamiltonian. We also show how one can use projection to construct a spin-3/2 quantum chain with nearest neighbor interaction, whose exact ground states break the rotational symmetry of the Hamiltonian. Correlation functions of both models are determined in closed form. Although we confine ourselves to examples, the method can easily be adapted to encompass more general models.
Despite tremendous theoretical efforts to understand subtleties of the many-body localization (MBL) transition, many questions remain open, in particular concerning its critical properties. Here we make the key observation that MBL in one dimension is accompanied by a spin freezing mechanism which causes chain breakings in the thermodynamic limit. Using analytical and numerical approaches, we show that such chain breakings directly probe the typical localization length, and that their scaling properties at the MBL transition agree with the Kosterlitz-Thouless scenario predicted by phenomenolog…
There has been interest in the spin transport properties of the Aubry-Andre-Harper model at high temperatures under weak integrability breaking, in particular for small interactions or small fields. We present old unpublished and new results that show that the model is diffusive, meaning that the claimed superdiffusion [1,2] is a finite-size effect.
We study disorder-induced ergodicity breaking transition in high-energy eigenstates of interacting spin-1/2 chains. Using exact diagonalization we introduce a cost function approach to quantitatively compare different scenarios for the eigenstate transition. We study ergodicity indicators such as the eigenstate entanglement entropy and the spectral level spacing ratio, and we consistently find that an (infinite-order) Kosterlitz-Thouless transition yields a lower cost function when compared to a finite-order transition. Interestingly, we observe that the transition point in finite systems exhi…
We study a chain of ferromagnetic nano-particles or ferromagnetic molecule/atoms on a substrate of fully gapped superconductors. We find that under quite realistic conditions, the fermion-number-parity symmetry $Z_2^f$ can spontaneously break. In other words, such a chain can realize a 1+1D fermionic topologically ordered state and the corresponding two-fold topological degeneracy on an open chain. Such a topological degeneracy becomes the so called Majorana zero mode in the non-interacting limit. More specifically, we find that $Z_2^f$ symmetry breaking or fermionic 1+1D topological order can…
The ground state phases of a one-dimensional SU(4) spin-orbital Hamiltonian in a generalized external field are studied on the basis of Bethe-ansatz solution. Introducing three Landé $g$ factors for spin, orbital and their products in the SU(4) Zeeman term, we discuss systematically the various symmetry breaking. The magnetization versus external field are obtained by solving Bethe-ansatz equations numerically. The phase diagrams corresponding to distinct residual symmetries are given by means of both numerical and analytical methods.
We consider the calculation of ground-state expectation values for the non-Hermitian Z(N) spin chain described by free parafermions. For N=2 the model reduces to the quantum Ising chain in a transverse field with open boundary conditions. Use is made of the Hellmann-Feynman theorem to obtain exact results for particular single site and nearest-neighbour ground-state expectation values for general N which are valid for sites deep inside the chain. These results are tested numerically for N=3, along with how they change as a function of distance from the boundary.
The one-dimensional (1D) model system Au/Ge(001), consisting of linear chains of single atoms on a surface, is scrutinized for lattice instabilities predicted in the Peierls paradigm. By scanning tunneling microscopy and electron diffraction we reveal a second-order phase transition at 585 K. It leads to charge ordering with transversal and vertical displacements and complex interchain correlations. However, the structural phase transition is not accompanied by the electronic signatures of a charge density wave, thus precluding a Peierls instability as origin. Instead, this symmetry-breaking t…
We study a XXZ spin-chain in a gapless Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) phase with time dependent anisotropy of spin exchange interactions. To begin we focus on a linear ramp of $J_z$, starting at XX point and slowly increasing towards the anti-ferromagnetic Heisenberg point. Although the problem of a linear ramp in the TLL has been recently under intense scrutiny in a perturbative \emph{g-ology} framework, an aspect that has been overlooked so far is the role of the Galilean invariance breaking. We find that, although the differential equation that needs to be solved to find time evolution of …
We investigate the phase diagram of a quantum spin-1 chain whose Hamiltonian is invariant under a global onsite $A_4$, translation and lattice inversion symmetries. We detect different gapped phases characterized by SPT order and symmetry breaking using matrix product state order parameters. We observe a rich variety of phases of matter characterized by a combination of symmetry breaking and symmetry fractionalization and also the interplay between the onsite and spatial symmetries. Examples of continuous phase transitions directly between topologically nontrivial SPT phases are also observed.
We introduce and study a lattice fermion model in one dimension with explicit $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetry (SUSY). The Hamiltonian of the model is defined by the square of a supercharge built from Majorana fermion operators. The model describes interacting Majorana fermions and its properties depend only on a single parameter $g$. When $g=1$, we find that SUSY is unbroken and the ground states are identical to those of the frustration-free Kitaev chains. We also find a parameter regime in which SUSY is restored in the infinite volume limit. For sufficiently large $g$, we prove that SUSY is sp…
Parafermions are the simplest generalizations of Majorana fermions that realize topological order. We propose a less restrictive notion of topological order in 1D open chains, which generalizes the seminal work by Fendley [J. Stat. Mech., P11020 (2012)]. The first essential property is that the groundstates are mutually indistinguishable by local, symmetric probes, and the second is a generalized notion of zero edge modes which cyclically permute the groundstates. These two properties are shown to be topologically robust, and applicable to a wider family of topologically-ordered Hamiltonians t…
The emergence of superconductivity in doped Mott insulators has been debated for decades. In this paper, we report the theoretical discovery of a time-reversal symmetry breaking superconducting ground state in the doped Mott insulator (described by the well known t-J model) on honeycomb lattice, based on a recently developed variational method: the Grassmann tensor product state approach. As a benchmark, we use exact diagonalization and density-matrix renormalization methods to check our results on small clusters. We find systematic consistency for the ground-state energy as well as other phys…
We address spin transport in the easy-axis Heisenberg spin chain subject to integrability-breaking perturbations. We find that spin transport is subdiffusive with dynamical exponent $z=4$ up to a timescale that is parametrically long in the anisotropy. In the limit of infinite anisotropy, transport is subdiffusive at all times; for large finite anisotropy, one eventually recovers diffusion at late times, but with a diffusion constant independent of the strength of the integrability breaking perturbation. We provide numerical evidence for these findings, and explain them by adapting the general…
Spontaneous continuous-symmetry breaking and tower of states in a comb chain
Fudan University（复旦大学）；Westlake University（西湖大学）；Westlake Institute for Advanced Study（西湖高等研究院）；University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences（健康与康复科学大学）；Chongqing Normal University（重庆师范大学）
We investigate the ground-state Riemannian metric and the cyclic quantum distance of an inhomogeneous quantum Ising spin-1/2 chain in a transverse field. This model can be diagonalized by using a general canonical transformation to the fermionic Hamiltonian mapped from the spin system. The ground-state Riemannian metric is derived exactly on a parameter manifold ring $S^1$, which is introduced by performing a gauge transformation to the spin Hamiltonian through a twist operator. The ground-state cyclic quantum distance and the second derivative of the ground-state energy are studied in differe…
A minimal Kitaev-Gamma model has been recently investigated to understand various Kitaev systems. In the one-dimensional Kitaev-Gamma chain, an emergent SU(2)$_1$ phase and a rank-1 spin ordered phase with $O_h\rightarrow D_4$ symmetry breaking were identified using non-Abelian bosonization and numerical techniques. However, puzzles near the antiferromagnetic Kitaev region with finite Gamma interaction remained unresolved. Here we focus on this parameter region and find that there are two new phases, namely, a rank-1 ordered phase with an $O_h\rightarrow D_3$ symmetry breaking, and a peculiar …
States of matter that break time-reversal symmetry are invariably associated with magnetism or circulating currents. Recently, one of us proposed a phase, the directional scalar spin chiral order (DSSCO), as an exception: it breaks time-reversal symmetry via chiral ordering of spins along a particular direction, but is spin-rotation symmetric. In this work, we prove the existence of this state via state-of-the-art density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) analysis on a spin-1 chain with nearest-neighbor bilinear-biquadratic interactions and additional third-neighbor ferromagnetic Heisenberg …
Given a gapped Hamiltonian of a spin chain, we give a polynomial-time algorithm for finding the degenerate ground space projector. The output is an orthonormal set of matrix product states that approximate the true ground space projector up to an inverse polynomial error in any Schatten norm, with a runtime exponential in the degeneracy. Our algorithm is an extension of the recent algorithm of Landau, Vazirani, and Vidick for the nondegenerate case, and it includes the recent improvements due to Huang. The main new idea is to incorporate the local distinguishability of ground states on the hal…
We investigate the influence of an inter-chain coupling on the spiral ground state correlations of a spin-1/2 Heisenberg model consisting of a two-dimensional array of coupled chains with nearest (J1) and frustrating next-nearest neighbor (J2) in-chain exchange couplings. Using the coupled-cluster method we calculate the transition point between the commensurate and the incommensurate (spiral) ground state as well as the quantum pitch angle of the spiral ground state. In addition, we provide a simple empirical formula which describes the relation between the quantum pitch angle and the frustra…
We study the occurrence of ground-state factorization in dimerized $XY$ spin chains in a transverse field. Together with the usual ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic regimes, a third case emerges, with no analogous in translationally-invariant systems, consisting of an antiferromagnetic Neél-type ground state where pairs of spins represent the unitary cell. Then, we calculate the exact solution of the model and show that the factorizing field represent an accidental degeneracy point of the Hamiltonian. Finally, we extend the study of the existence of ground-state factorization to a more gener…
The two degenerate ground states of the anisotropic Heisenberg (XY) spin model of a chain of qubits (pseudo-spins) can encode quantum information, but their degree of protection against local perturbations is known to be only partial. We examine the properties of the system in the presence of non-local spin-spin interactions, possibly emerging from the quantum electrodynamics of the device. We find a phase distinct from the XY phase admitting two ground states which are highly protected against all local field perturbations, persisting across a range of parameters. In the context of the XY cha…
We construct a new spin-1 model on a chain. Its ground state is determined exactly which is three-fold degenerate by breaking translational invariance. Thus we have trimerization. Excited states cannot be obtained exactly, but we determine a few low-lying ones by using trial states, among them solitons.
Spontaneously Broken Non-Invertible Symmetries in Transverse-Field Ising Qudit Chains
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems（马克斯·普朗克复杂系统物理研究所）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University（莱斯大学物理与天文系）；Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics（马克斯·普朗克量子光学研究所）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）；Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem（耶路撒冷希伯来大学拉卡物理研究所）；Rice Center for Quantum Materials and Advanced Materials Institute, Rice University（莱斯大学量子材料中心及先进材料研究所）；Division of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, Brookhaven National Laboratory（布鲁克海文国家实验室凝聚态物理与材料科学部）；Department of Engineering and Physics, Karlstad University（卡尔斯特德大学工程与物理系）；Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University（诺尔迪塔，皇家理工学院与斯德哥尔摩大学）
Exact ground states of interacting electrons on the diamond Hubbard chain in a magnetic field are constructed which exhibit a wide range of properties such as flat-band ferromagnetism and correlation induced metallic, half-metallic or insulating behavior. The properties of these ground states can be tuned by changing the magnetic flux, local potentials, or electron density.
Finite-size effects are studied in ground states of antiferromagnetic (AF) ANNNI chains in a field. It is shown that field can induce a variety of inhomogeneous states in finite chains. They are composed of two shifted AF states with the kink at their junction and are highly degenerate with respect to the kink position. The phase diagram field-exchange ratio for finite chains is presented.
By means of density functional theory, we investigate the magnetic ground state of edge-sharing CuO_2 spin-chains, as found in the (La,Ca,Sr)_14Cu_24O_41system, for instance. Our data rely on spin-polarized electronic structure calculations including onsite interaction (LDA+U) and an effective model for the interchain coupling. Strong doping dependence of the magnetic order is characteristic for edge-sharing CuO_2 spin-chains. We determine the ground state magnetic structure as function of the spin-chain filling and quantify the competing exchange interactions.
We present a condition in which the dimer-monomer state is exactly the ground state of an extended diamond chain with spin magnitude 1/2. The Hamiltonian of the extended diamond chain includes next-nearest-neighbor exchange interactions and distortions, where the spin magnitude of the spin pair on a singlet dimer is not generally conserved. The method of deriving the condition is based on representing the Hamiltonian in a complete square form. The dimer-monomer ground state is found even if the Hamiltonian has no space-reflection symmetries.
We investigate the ground-state phase diagram of a spin-1 diamond chain. Owing to a series of conservation laws, any eigenstate of this system can be expressed using the eigenstates of finite odd-length chains or infinite chains with spins 1 and 2. The ground state undergoes quantum phase transitions with varying $λ$, a parameter that controls frustration. Exact upper and lower bounds for the phase boundaries between these phases are obtained. The phase boundaries are determined numerically in the region not explored in the previous work [Takano et al. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 8 (1996) 6405].
We introduce a new set of one dimensional quantum lattice models which we refer to as The quantum torus chain. These models have discrete global symmetry, and projective on-site representations. They possess an integer-valued parameter which controls the presence or absence of frustration. Depending on whether this parameter is even or odd these models either exhibit gapped symmetry breaking phases with isolated critical points, or gapped symmetry breaking phases separated by gapless phases. We discuss the property of these phases and phase transitions for two special values of the parameter a…
The ground state phase diagram of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg frustrated $Δ$-chain with a ferromagnetic main chain is investigated. In addition to the ferromagnetic phase, various nonmagnetic ground states are found. If the ferromagnetic coupling between apical spins and the main chain is strong, this model is approximated by a spin-1 bilinear-biquadratic chain and the spin quadrupolar phase with spin-2 gapless excitation is realized in addition to the Haldane and ferromagnetic phases. In the regime where the coupling between the apical spins and the main chain is weak, the numerical results which…
Spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs in a system when its Hamiltonian possesses a certain symmetry, whereas the ground state wave functions do not preserve it. This provides such a scenario that a bifurcation, which breaks the symmetry, occurs when some control parameter crosses its critical value. It is unveiled that the ground state fidelity per lattice site exhibits such a bifurcation for quantum lattice systems undergoing quantum phase transitions. The significance of this result lies in the fact that the ground state fidelity per lattice site is \textit{universal}, in the sense that it is…
We study a frustrated mixed spin chain with side chains, where the spin species and the exchange interactions are spatially varied. A nonlinear sigma model method is formulated for this model, and a phase diagram with two disordered spin-gap phases is obtained for typical cases. Among them we examine the case with a main chain consisting of an alternating array of spin-1 and spin-1/2 sites and side chains each of a single spin-1/2 site in great detail. Based on numerical, perturbational, and variational approaches, we propose a singlet cluster solid picture for each phase, where the ground sta…
We consider a mechanism for competing interactions in alternating Heisenberg spin chains due to the formation of local spin-singlet pairs. The competition of spin-1 and spin-0 states reveals hidden Ising symmetry of such alternating chains.
We use the matrix product approach to construct all optimum ground states of general anisotropic spin-2 chains with nearest neighbour interactions and common symmetries. These states are exact ground states of the model and their properties depend on up to three parameters. We find three different antiferromagnetic Haldane phases, one weak antiferromagnetic and one weak ferromagnetic phase. The antiferromagnetic phases can be described as spin liquids with exponentially decaying correlation functions. The variety of phases found with the matrix product ansatz also gives insight into the behavi…
The spin-1/2 zig-zag Heisenberg ladder (J_1 - J_2 model) is considered. A new representation for the model is found and a saddle point approximation over the spin-liquid order parameter < \vec σ_{n-1}(\vec σ_{n}\times \vec σ_{n+1}) > is performed. Corresponding effective action is derived and analytically analyzed. We observe the presence of phase transitions at values J_2/J_1=0.231 and J_2/J_1=1/2.
We investigate the ground state magnetization plateaus appearing in spin 1/2 polymerized Heisenberg chains under external magnetic fields. The associated fractional quantization scenario and the exponents which characterize the opening of gapful excitations are analyzed by means of abelian bosonization methods. Our conclusions are fully supported by the extrapolated results obtained from Lanczos diagonalizations of finite systems.
Ground state properties, dispersion relations and scaling behaviour of spin gap of a bond alternating spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ anisotropic Heisenberg chain have been studied where the exchange interactions on alternate bonds are ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) in two separate cases. The resulting models separately represent nearest neighbour (NN) AFM-AFM and AFM-FM bond alternating chains. Ground state energy has been estimated analytically by using both bond operator and Jordan-Wigner representations and numerically by using exact diagonalization. Dispersion relations, spin gap and s…
The mixed diamond chain is a frustrated Heisenberg chain composed of successive diamond-shaped units with two kinds of spins of magnitudes S and S/2 (S: integer). Ratio $lambda$ of two exchange parameters controls the strength of frustration. With varying $lambda$, the Haldane state and several spin cluster states appear as the ground state. A spin cluster state is a tensor product of exact local eigenstates of cluster spins. We prove that a spin cluster state is the ground state in a finite interval of $lambda$. For S=1, we numerically determine the total phase diagram consisting of five phas…
By removing one empty site between two occupied sites, we map the ground states of chains of hardcore bosons and spinless fermions with infinite nearest-neighbor repulsion to ground states of chains of hardcore bosons and spinless fermions without nearest-neighbor repulsion respectively, and ultimately in terms of the one-dimensional Fermi sea. We then introduce the intervening-particle expansion, where we write correlation functions in such ground states as a systematic sum over conditional expectations, each of which can be ultimately mapped to a one-dimensional Fermi-sea expectation. Variou…
Strong correlations within a symmetry-unbroken ground-state wavefunction can show up in approximate density functional theory as symmetry-broken spin-densities or total densities, which are sometimes observable. They can arise from soft modes of fluctuations (sometimes collective excitations) such as spin-density or charge-density waves at non-zero wavevector. In this sense, an approximate density functional for exchange and correlation that breaks symmetry can be more revealing (albeit less accurate) than an exact functional that does not. The examples discussed here include the stretched H$_…
The one-dimensional quantum spin-1/2 model with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic and next-nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic interaction is considered. The Hamiltonian is first bosonized by using the linear spin wave approximation, and then is treated by using the Green's function approach. An integral expression of the quantum correction to the classical ground state energy is derived. The critical behavior of the ground state energy in the vicinity of the transition point from the ferromagnetic to the singlet ground state is analyzed by numerical calculation, and the result is $-8γ^2$.
We introduce a class of exactly solvable SO(n) symmetric Hamiltonians with matrix product ground states. For an odd $n\geq 3$ case, the ground state is a translational invariant Haldane gap spin liquid state; while for an even $n\geq 4$ case, the ground state is a spontaneously dimerized state with twofold degeneracy. In the matrix product ground states for both cases, we identify a hidden antiferromagnetic order, which is characterized by nonlocal string order parameters. The ground-state phase diagram of a generalized SO(n) symmetric bilinear-biquadratic model is discussed.
A continuum limit treatment of planar spin chains with arbitrary S is presented. The difference between integer and half-integer spins is emphasised. While isotropic half-integer spin chains are gapless,and have power-law decay of correlations at T = 0 with exponent eta = 1, integer spin systems have a singlet ground state with a gap for S=1 excitations and exponential decay of correlations. The easy-plane to easy-axis transition is described. Note: this is a verbatim transcription of ILL preprint SP-81/95, which is cited in a number of places, but was rejected for publication in 1981, and rem…
The ground-state phases of alternating-bond spin-1 diamond chains are investigated. Each ground state consists of an array of spin clusters separated by singlet dimers owing to an infinite number of local conservation laws. If no singlet dimers are present, the ground state is equivalent to that of a spin chain with infinite length.For strong frustration, we find a series of quantum phase transitions as in the case of alternating-bond mixed diamond chains with spins 1 and 1/2. For intermediate frustration, we find the nonmagnetic Haldane or dimer phases according to whether the bond alternatio…
The Majorana lattice gauge theory purely composed of Majorana fermions on square lattice is studied throughly. The ground state is obtained exactly and exhibits the coexistence of symmetry breaking and topological order. The $Z_2$ symmetry breaking of matter fields leads to the intertwined antiferromagnetic spin order and $η$-pairing order. The topological order is reflected in the $Z_2$ quantum spin liquid ground state of gauge fields. The Majorana lattice gauge theory, alternatively can be viewed as interacting Majorana fermion model, is possibly realized on a Majorana-zero-mode lattice.
