Condensed Matter

I will describe our recent work from 1709.07460, where we introduce a new renormalization group algorithm for tensor networks. The algorithm is based on a novel understanding of local correlations in a tensor network, and a simple method to remove such correlations from any network. It performs comparably with the best competing algorithms on 2D/(1+1)D systems, but is significantly simpler to implement, and easier to generalize to different lattices and graphs, including to higher dimensions. I will begin the talk by discussing renormalization group methods for tensor networks in general, then describe our algorithm and its advantages, show some benchmark results, and finally comment on the status of implementing real-space renormalization for 3D tensor networks.

We study 't Hooft anomalies of discrete groups in the framework of (1+1)-dimensional multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz states on the lattice. Using matrix product operators, general topological restrictions on conformal data are derived. An ansatz class allowing for optimization of MERA with an anomalous symmetry is introduced. We utilize this class to numerically study a family of Hamiltonians with a symmetric critical line. Conformal data is obtained for all irreducible projective representations of each anomalous symmetry twist, corresponding to definite topological sectors. It is numerically demonstrated that this line is a protected gapless phase. Finally, we implement a duality transformation between a pair of critical lines using our subclass of MERA.

arXiv:1703.07782

Two seemingly different quantum field theories may secretly describe the same underlying physics — a phenomenon known as “duality". I will review some recent developments in field theory dualities in (2+1) dimensions and some of their applications in condensed matter physics, in particular in quantum Hall effect and quantum phase transitions.

Clean and interacting periodically driven quantum systems are believed to exhibit a single, trivial “infinite-temperature” Floquet-ergodic phase. By contrast, I will show that their disordered Floquet many-body localized counterparts can exhibit distinct ordered phases with spontaneously broken symmetries delineated by sharp transitions. Some of these are analogs of equilibrium states, while others are genuinely new to the Floquet setting. I will show that a subset of these novel phases are "time-crystals" in that they spontaneously break the underlying time-translation symmetry of the Floquet drive. Strikingly, the time-crystal phase is remarkably stable to all weak local deformations of the underlying Floquet drives, and the phase simultaneously also spontaneously breaks Hamiltonian dependent emergent spatial symmetries. Thus, the time-crystallinity goes hand in hand with spatial symmetry breaking and, altogether, these phases exhibit a novel form of simultaneous long-range order in space and time. I will describe how this spatiotemporal order can be detected in experiments involving quenches from a broad class of initial states. 

The Kovtun-Son-Starinets conjecture that the ratio of the viscosity to the entropy density was bounded from below by fundamental constants has inspired over a decade of conjectures about fundamental bounds on the hydrodynamic and transport coefficients of strongly interacting quantum systems.  I will present two complementary and (relatively) rigorous approaches to proving bounds on the transport coefficients of strongly interacting systems.   Firstly, I will discuss lower bounds on the conductivities (and thus, diffusion constants) of inhomogeneous fluids, based around the principle that transport minimizes the production of entropy.   I will show explicitly how to use this principle in classical theories, and in theories with a holographic dual. Secondly, I will derive lower bounds on sound velocities and diffusion constants arising from the consistency of hydrodynamics with quantum decoherence and chaos, in large N theories.   I will discuss the possible tension of such bounds with (some) holographic theories, and discuss resolutions to some existing puzzles.

Entanglement and entropy are key concepts standing at the foundations of quantum and statistical mechanics, respectively. In the last decade the study of quantum quenches revealed that these two concepts are intricately intertwined. Although the unitary time evolution ensuing from a pure initial state maintains the system globally at zero entropy, at long time after the quench local properties are captured by an appropriate statistical ensemble with non zero thermodynamic entropy, which can be interpreted as the entanglement accumulated during the dynamics. Therefore, understanding the post-quench entanglement evolution unveils how thermodynamics emerges in isolated quantum systems. An exact computation of the entanglement dynamics has been provided only for non-interacting systems, and it was believed to be unfeasible for genuinely interacting models. Conversely, here we show that the standard quasiparticle picture of the entanglement evolution, complemented with integrability-based knowledge of the asymptotic state, leads to a complete analytical understanding of the entanglement dynamics in the space-time scaling limit. Our framework requires only knowledge about the steady state, and the velocities of the low-lying excitations around it. We provide a thorough check of our result focusing on the spin-1/2 Heisenberg XXZ chain, and considering quenches from several initial states. We compare our results with numerical simulations using both tDMRG and iTEBD, finding always perfect agreement.

Branch point twist fields play an important role in the study of measures of entanglement such as the Rényi entropies and the Negativity. In 1+1 dimensions such measures can be written in terms of multi-point functions of branch point twist fields. For 1+1-dimensional integrable quantum field theories and also in conformal field theory much is known about how to compute correlation functions and, with the help of the twist field, this knowledge can be exploited in order to gain new insights into the properties of various entanglement measures. In this talk I will review some of our main results in this context.

I will then go on to introduce a new (related) class of fields we have recently named conical twist fields. These are fields whose two-point functions have (surprisingly) been found to describe gluon amplitudes in the strong coupling limit of super Yang-Mills theories and therefore have featured in a completely different context from that of entanglement measures. Interestingly, at critical points, branch point and conical twist fields have the same conformal dimension and beyond criticality they also have very similar form factors, however they are different in many other respects.  In my talk I will discuss and justify some of their similarities and differences.