We consider the spectrum of a $U(1)$ quantum link model where gauge fields are realized as $S=1/2$ spins and demonstrate a new mechanism for generating quantum many-body scars (high-energy eigenstates that violate the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis) in a constrained Hilbert space. Many-body dynamics with local constraints has attracted much attention due to the recent discovery of non-ergodic behavior in quantum simulators based on Rydberg atoms. Lattice gauge theories provide natural examples of constrained systems since physical states must be gauge-invariant. In our case, the Hamiltonian $H={\cal O}_{\rm kin}+λ{\cal O}_{\rm pot}$, where ${\cal O}_{\rm pot}$ (${\cal O}_{\rm kin}$) is diagonal (off-diagonal) in the electric flux basis, contains exact mid-spectrum zero modes at $λ=0$ whose number grows exponentially with system size. This massive degeneracy is lifted at any non-zero $λ$ but some special linear combinations that simultaneously diagonalize ${\cal O}_{\rm kin}$ and ${\cal O}_{\rm pot}$ survive as quantum many-body scars, suggesting an ``order-by-disorder'' mechanism in the Hilbert space. We give evidence for such scars and show their dynamical consequences on two-leg ladders with up to $56$ spins, which may be tested using available proposals of quantum simulators. Results on wider ladders point towards their presence in two dimensions as well.
We study a string-net ladder in the presence of a string tension. Focusing on the simplest non-Abelian anyon theory with a quantum dimension larger than two, we determine the phase diagram and find a Russian doll spectrum featuring size-independent energy levels as well as highly degenerate zero-energy eigenstates. At the self-dual points, we compute the gap exactly by using a mapping onto the Temperley-Lieb chain. These results are in stark constrast with the ones obtained for Fibonacci or Ising theories.
Quantum ladder models, consisting of coupled chains, form intriguing systems bridging one and two dimensions and have been well studied in the context of quantum magnets and fermionic systems. Here we consider ladder systems made of more exotic quantum mechanical degrees of freedom, so-called non-Abelian anyons, which can be thought of as certain quantum deformations of ordinary SU(2) spins. Such non-Abelian anyons occur as quasiparticle excitations in topological quantum fluids, including p_x + i p_y superconductors, certain fractional quantum Hall states, and rotating Bose-Einstein condensat…
We identify quantum many-body scars in the transverse field quantum Ising model on a ladder. We make explicit how the corresponding (mid spectrum, low entanglement) many-body eigenstates can be approximated by injecting quasi-particle excitations into an exact, zero-energy eigenstate, which is of valence bond solid type. Next, we present a systematic construction of product states characterized, in the limit of a weak transverse field, by a sharply peaked local density of states. We describe how the construction of these "peak states" generalizes to arbitrary dimension and show that on the lad…
We construct a two-dimensional (2D) lattice model that is argued to realize a gapped chiral spin liquid with (Ising) non-Abelian topological order. The building blocks are spin-1/2 two-leg ladders with $SU(2)$-symmetric spin-spin interactions. The two-leg ladders are then arranged on rows and coupled through SU(2)-symmetric interactions between consecutive ladders. The intra-ladder interactions are tuned so as to realize the c = 1/2 Ising conformal field theory, a fact that we establish numerically via Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) studies. Time-reversal breaking inter-ladder int…
Quantum spin models have been studied extensively in one and higher dimensions. Furthermore, these systems have been doped with holes to study $t$--$J$ models of $SU(2)$ spin-1/2. Their anyonic counterparts can be built from non-Abelian anyons, such as Fibonacci anyons described by $SU(2)_3$ theories, which are quantum deformations of the $SU(2)$ algebra. Inspired by the physics of $SU(2)$ spins, several works have explored ladders of Fibonacci anyons and also one-dimensional (1D) $t$--$J$ models. Here we aim to explore the combined effects of extended dimensionality and doping by studying lad…
Non-Abelian anyons can exist as point-like particles in two-dimensional systems, and have particle exchange statistics which are neither bosonic nor fermionic. Like in spin systems, the role of fusion (Heisenberg-like) interactions between anyons has been well studied. However, unlike our understanding of the role of bosonic and fermionic statistics in the formation of different quantum phases of matter, little is known concerning the effect of non-Abelian anyonic statistics. We explore this physics using an anyonic Hubbard model on a two-legged ladder which includes braiding and nearest neigh…
Using Abelian bosonization with a careful treatment of the Klein factors, we show that a certain phase of the half-filled two-leg ladder, previously identified as having spin-Peierls order, instead exhibits staggered orbital currents with no dimerization.
Quantum many-body scar states are many-body states with finite energy density in non-integrable models that do not obey the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. Recent works have revealed "towers" of scar states that are exactly known and are equally spaced in energy, specifically in the AKLT model, the spin-1 XY model, and a spin-1/2 model that conserves number of domain walls. We provide a common framework to understand and prove known exact towers of scars in these systems, by evaluating the commutator of the Hamiltonian and a ladder operator. In particular we provide a simple proof of the…
We study a system of two Tomonaga-Luttinger models coupled by a small transverse hopping (a two-chain ladder). We use Abelian and non-Abelian bosonisation to show that the strong coupling regime at low energies can be described by an SO(5)$_1$ WZW model (or equivalently 5 massless Majorana fermions) deformed by symmetry breaking terms that nonetheless leave the theory critical at T=0. The SO(5) currents of the theory comprise the charge and spin currents and linear combinations of the so-called pi operators (S.C. Zhang, Science 275, 1089 (1997)) which are local in terms both of the original fe…
Condensed matter physics of gauge theories coupled to fermions can exhibit a rich phase structure, but are nevertheless very difficult to study in Monte Carlo simulations when they are afflicted by a sign problem. As an alternate approach, we use tensor network methods to explore the finite density physics of Abelian gauge theories without dynamical matter. As a concrete example, we consider the U(1) gauge invariant quantum link ladder with spin-1/2 gauge fields in an external electric field which cause the winding electric fluxes to condense in the ground state. We demonstrate how the electri…
Pure gauge theories are rather different from theories with pure scalar and fermionic matter, especially in terms of the nature of excitations. For example, in scalar and fermionic theories, one can create ultra-local excitations. For a gauge theory, such excitations need to be closed loops that do not violate gauge invariance. In this proceedings, we present a study on the condensation phenomenon associated with the string-like excitations of an Abelian lattice gauge theory. These phenomena are studied through numerical simulations of a $U(1)$ quantum link model in 2+1 dimensions in a ladder …
We suggest a class of two-dimensional lattice spin Hamiltonians describing non-Abelian SU(2) chiral spin liquids - spin-analogues of fractional non-Abelian quantum Hall states- with gapped bulk and gapless chiral edge excitations described by the SU(2)$_n$ Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten conformal field theory. The models are constructed from an array of a generalized spin-$n/2$ ladders with multi-spin exchange interaction which are coupled by isolated spins. Such models allow a controllable analytic treatment starting from the one-dimensional limit and are characterized by a bulk gap and non-Abeli…
We derive general results relating revivals in the dynamics of quantum many-body systems to the entanglement properties of energy eigenstates. For a D-dimensional lattice system of N sites initialized in a low-entangled and short-range correlated state, our results show that a perfect revival of the state after a time at most poly(N) implies the existence of "quantum many-body scars", whose number grows at least as the square root of N up to poly-logarithmic factors. These are energy eigenstates with energies placed in an equally-spaced ladder and with Rényi entanglement entropy scaling as log…
We study the spectral properties of $D$-dimensional $N=2$ supersymmetric lattice models. We find systematic departures from the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) in the form of a degenerate set of ETH-violating supersymmetric (SUSY) doublets, also referred to as many-body scars, that we construct analytically. These states are stable against arbitrary SUSY-preserving perturbations, including inhomogeneous couplings. For the specific case of two-leg ladders, we provide extensive numerical evidence that shows how those states are the only ones violating the ETH, and discuss their robust…
We present a general symmetry-based framework for obtaining many-body Hamiltonians with scarred eigenstates that do not obey the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. Our models are derived from parent Hamiltonians with a non-Abelian (or q-deformed) symmetry, whose eigenspectra are organized as degenerate multiplets that transform as irreducible representations of the symmetry (`tunnels'). We show that large classes of perturbations break the symmetry, but in a manner that preserves a particular low-entanglement multiplet of states -- thereby giving generic, thermal spectra with a `shadow' of …
Topological frustration (or topological mechanics) is the existence of classical zero modes that are robust to many but not all distortions of the Hamiltonian. It arises naturally from locality in systems whose interactions form a set of constraints such as in geometrically frustrated magnets and balls and springs metamaterials. For a magnet whose classical limit exhibits topological frustration, an important question is what happens to this topology when the degrees of freedom are quantized and whether such frustration could lead to exotic quantum phases of matter like a spin liquid. We answe…
We construct a family of three-body spin-1/2 Hamiltonians with a super-extensive set of infinitely long-lived multi-magnon states. A magnon in each such state carries either quasi-momentum zero or fixed $p_0\neq$ 0, and energy $Ω$ . These multi-magnon states provide an archetypal example of quantum many-body scars: they are eigenstates at finite energy density that violate the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, and lead to persistent oscillations in local observables in certain quench experiments. On the technical side, we demonstrate the systematic derivation of scarred Hamiltonians that s…
One-dimensional systems with topological order are intimately related to the appearance of zero-energy modes localized on their boundaries. The most common example is the Kitaev chain, which displays Majorana zero-energy modes and it is characterized by a two-fold ground state degeneracy related to the global $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry associated with fermionic parity. By extending the symmetry to the $\mathbb{Z}_N$ group, it is possible to engineer systems hosting topological parafermionic modes. In this work, we address one-dimensional systems with a generic discrete symmetry group $G$. We defi…
