Talks

The interplay between spontaneous symmetry breaking and topology can result in exotic quantum states of matter. A celebrated example is the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect, which exhibits an integer quantum Hall effect at zero magnetic field due to topologically nontrivial bands and intrinsic magnetism. In the presence of strong electron-electron interactions, fractional-QAH (FQAH) effect at zero magnetic field can emerge, which is a lattice analog of fractional quantum Hall effect without Landau level formation. In this talk, I will present experimental observation of FQAH effect in twisted MoTe 2 bilayer, using combined magneto- optical and -transport measurements. In addition, we find an anomalous Hall state near the filling factor -1/2, whose behavior resembles that of the composite Fermi liquid phase in the half-filled lowest Landau level of a two-dimensional electron gas at high magnetic field. Direct observation of the FQAH and associated effects paves the way for researching charge fractionalization and anyonic statistics at zero magnetic field.

Reference 1. Observation of Fractionally Quantized Anomalous Hall Effect, Heonjoon Park et al., Nature, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06536-0 (2023);
2. Signatures of Fractional Quantum Anomalous Hall States in Twisted MoTe2 Bilayer, Jiaqi Cai et al., Nature, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06289-w (2023);
3. Programming Correlated Magnetic States via Gate Controlled Moiré Geometry, Eric Anderson et al., Science, https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adg4268 (2023)

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We show that the Ryu-Takayanagi (RT) formula, originally introduced to compute the entropy of a holographic boundary CFT, can be interpreted as entropy of an algebra of bulk gravitational observables. In particular, we show that any Euclidean gravitational path integral satisfying a simple and familiar set of axioms defines type I von Neumann algebras of bulk observables acting on closed codimension-2 asymptotic boundaries. The entropies associated to these algebras, defined via the gravitational path integral, can be written in terms of standard density matrices and standard Hilbert space traces, and in appropriate semiclassical limits are computed by the RT formula with quantum corrections. Our work thus provides a bulk state-counting interpretation of the Ryu-Takayanagi entropy. Since our axioms do not severely constrain UV bulk structures, they may be expected to hold equally well for successful formulations of string field theory, spin-foam models, or any other approach to constructing a UV-complete theory of gravity.

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One way of constructing mirror partners to Fano varieties is via toric degenerations. The case in which this is best understood is the Grassmannian, using the well-known SAGBI basis of the Plucker coordinate ring indexed by semi-standard Young tableaux (SSYT). The mirror construction goes back to work of Eguchi—Hori—Xiong, however its geometry and combinatorics still plays an important role in current mirror constructions. In this talk, I will give an overview of this story, then turn to the question of what can be generalized for Kronecker moduli spaces. Like Grassmannians (which they generalize), Kronecker moduli spaces are high Fano index Picard rank 1 smooth Fano varieties. I will introduce linked SSYT pairs, which play the analogous role of SSYT for Grassmannians in understanding the coordinate ring of the Kronecker moduli space. This is joint work with Liana Heuberger.

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