Quantum phase transitions about parity breaking in matrix product systems

According to our scheme to construct quantum phase transitions (QPTs) in spin chain systems with matrix product ground states, we first successfully combine matrix product state (MPS) QPTs with spontaneous symmetry breaking. For a concrete model, we take into account a kind of MPS QPTs accompanied by spontaneous parity breaking, though for either side of the critical point the GS is typically unique, and show that the kind of MPS QPTs occur only in the thermodynamic limit and are accompanied by the appearance of singularities, diverging correlation length, vanishing energy gap and the entanglement entropy of a half-infinite chain not only staying finite but also whose first derivative discontinuous.     

Quantum phase transitions about parity breaking in matrix product systems

According to our scheme to construct quantum phase transitions (QPTs) in spin chain systems with matrix product ground states, we first successfully combine matrix product state (MPS) QPTs with spontaneous symmetry breaking. For a concrete model, we take into account a kind of MPS QPTs accompanied by spontaneous parity breaking, though for either side of the critical point the GS is typically unique, and show that the kind of MPS QPTs occur only in the thermodynamic limit and are accompanied by the appearance of singularities, diverging correlation length, vanishing energy gap and the entanglement entropy of a half-infinite chain not only staying finite but also whose first derivative discontinuous.     

Quantum phase transitions and bipartite entanglement

We develop a general theory of the relation between quantum phase transitions (QPTs) characterized by nonanalyticities in the energy and bipartite entanglement. We derive a functional relation between the matrix elements of two-particle reduced density matrices and the eigenvalues of general two-body Hamiltonians of d-level systems. The ground state energy eigenvalue and its derivatives, whose nonanalyticity characterizes a QPT, are directly tied to bipartite entanglement measures. We show that first-order QPTs are signaled by density matrix elements themselves and second-order QPTs by the first derivative of density matrix elements. Our general conclusions are illustrated via several quantum spin models.     

Spectroscopy of soft modes and quantum phase transitions in coupled electron bilayers

Strongly correlated two-dimensional electrons in coupled semiconductor bilayers display remarkable broken symmetry many-body states under accessible and controllable experimental conditions. In the case of continuous quantum phase transitions (QPTs), soft collective modes drive the transformations that link distinct ground states of the electron double layers. In this paper we consider results showing that resonant inelastic light scattering methods detect soft collective modes of the double layers and probe their evolution with temperature and magnetic field. The light scattering experiments offer venues of research of fundamental interactions and continuous QPTs in low-dimensional electron liquids.     

Bell-CHSH function approach to quantum phase transitions in matrix product systems

Recently, nonlocality and Bell inequalities have been used to investigate quantum phase transitions (QPTs) in low-dimensional quantum systems. Nonlocality can be detected by the Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (Bell-CHSH) function. In this work, we extend the study of the Bell-CHSH function (BCF) to QPTs in matrix product systems (MPSs). In these kinds of QPTs, the ground-state energy remains analytical in the vicinity of the QPT points, and they are usually called MPS-QPTs. For several typical models, our results show that the BCF can signal MPS-QPTs very well. In addition, we find the BCF can capture signal of QPTs in unentangled states and classical states, for which other measures of quantum correlation (quantum entanglement and quantum discord) fail. Furthermore, we find that in these MPSs, there exists some kind of quantum correlation which cannot be characterized by entanglement, or by nonlocality.     

Geometric phase and quantum phase transition in the one-dimensional compass model

We study the geometric phase of the ground state of the one-dimensional compass model in a transverse field. The critical properties of the system in terms of the geometric phase are calculated and discussed. The results show that the general character of quantum phase transitions (QPTs) in the model can be revealed by the Berry phase of the ground state. This study extends the relations between geometric phases and QPTs.     

Quantum Phase Transitions in Matrix Product States

We present a new general and much simpler scheme to construct various quantum phase transitions （Q, PTs） in spin chain systems with matrix product ground states. By use of the scheme we take into account one kind of matrix product state （MPS） OPT and provide a concrete model. We also study the properties of the concrete example and show that a kind of Q, PT appears, accompanied by the appearance of the discontinuity of the parity absent block physical observable, diverging correlation length only for the parity absent block operator, and other properties which are that the fixed point of the transition point is an isolated intermediate-coupling fixed point of renormalization flow and the entanglement entropy of a half-infinite chain is discontinuous.     

Geometric phases and quantum phase transitions in inhomogeneous XY spin-chains:Effect of the Dzyaloshinski-Moriya interaction

We study geometric phases of the ground states of inhomogeneous XY spin chains in transverse fields with Dzyaloshinski--Moriya (DM) interaction, and investigate the effect of the DM interaction on the quantum phase transition (QPT) of such spin chains. The results show that the DM interaction could influence the distribution of the regions of QPTs but could not produce new critical points for the spin-chain. This study extends the relation between geometric phases and QPTs.     

New duality relations for classical ground states

We derive new duality relations that link the energy of configurations associated with a class of soft pair potentials to the corresponding energy of the dual (Fourier-transformed) potential. We apply them by showing how information about the classical ground states of short-ranged potentials can be used to draw new conclusions about the nature of the ground states of long-ranged potentials and vice versa. They also lead to bounds on the T=0 system energies in density intervals of phase coexistence, the identification of a one-dimensional system that exhibits an infinite number of "phase transitions," and a conjecture regarding the ground states of purely repulsive monotonic potentials.     

Entanglement spectrum and magnetization plateaus in an S = 1 bond-alternative Heisenberg chain with single-ion anisotropy and magnetic field

Entanglement spectrum and quantum phase transitions (QPTs) in S = 1 bond-alternative antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with single-ion anisotropy and magnetic field are investigated by the infinite time-evolving block decimation (iTEBD) method. The combined effects of the single-ion anisotropy and magnetic field have been discussed, and a rich ground-state phase diagram is obtained. We find that the single-ion anisotropy is advantageous to the stability of the 1/2 magnetization plateau. Both entanglement entropy and entanglement spectrum, as two model-independent measures, are capable of describing all the QPTs. Especially, doubly degenerate entanglement spectrum on even bond is observed in the 1/2 plateau phase. Besides constant spontaneous magnetization, three magnetization plateaus (M ^z = 0, 1/2, and 1) are found to have constant entanglement entropy, entanglement spectrum, and nearest-neighbor correlation. In addition, all the QPTs in such a model have been determined to belong to the second-order category.     

Role of dipole image forces in molecular adsorption

The transverse-field XY model in one dimension is a well-known spin model for which the ground state properties and excitation spectrum are known exactly. The model has an interesting phase diagram describing quantum phase transitions (QPTs) belonging to two different universality classes. These are the transverse-field Ising model and the XX model universality classes with both the models being special cases of the transverse-field XY model. In recent years, quantities related to quantum information theoretic measures like entanglement, quantum discord (QD) and fidelity have been shown to provide signatures of QPTs. Another interesting issue is that of decoherence to which a quantum system is subjected due to its interaction, represented by a quantum channel, with an environment. In this paper, we determine the dynamics of different types of correlations present in a quantum system, namely, the mutual information I(?? _AB ), the classical correlations C(?? _AB ) and the quantum correlations Q(?? _AB ), as measured by the quantum discord, in a two-qubit state. The density matrix of this state is given by the nearest-neighbour reduced density matrix obtained from the ground state of the transverse-field XY model in 1d. We assume Markovian dynamics for the time-evolution due to system-environment interactions. The quantum channels considered include the bit-flip, bit-phase-flip and phase-flip channels. Two different types of dynamics are identified for the channels in one of which the quantum correlations are greater in magnitude than the classical correlations in a finite time interval. The origins of the different types of dynamics are further explained. For the different channels, appropriate quantities associated with the dynamics of the correlations are identified which provide signatures of QPTs. We also report results for further-neighbour two-qubit states and finite temperatures.     

Simple glass models and their quantum annealing

We study first-order quantum phase transitions in mean-field spin glasses. We solve the quantum random energy model using elementary methods and show that at the transition the eigenstate suddenly projects onto the unperturbed ground state and that the gap between the lowest states is exponentially small in the system size. We argue that this is a generic feature of all "random first-order" models, which includes benchmarks such as random satisfiability. We introduce a two-time instanton to calculate this gap in general, and discuss the consequences for quantum annealing.     

Shape dependent electronic structure and exciton dynamics in small In(Ga)As quantum dots

We present a study of the primary optical transitions and recombination dynamics in InGaAs self-assembled quantum nanostructures with different shape. Starting from the same quantum dot seeding layer, and depending on the overgrowth conditions, these new nanostructures can be tailored in shape and are characterized by heights lower than 2 nm and base lengths around 100 nm. The geometrical shape strongly influences the electronic and optical properties of these nanostructuctures. We measure for them ground state optical transitions in the range 1.25–1.35 eV and varying energy splitting between their excited states. The temperature dependence of the exciton recombination dynamics is reported focusing on the intermediate temperature regime (before thermal escape begins to be important). In this range, an important increase of the effective photoluminescence decay time is observed and attributed to the state filling and exciton thermalization between excited and ground states. A rate equation model is also developed reproducing quite well the observed exciton dynamics.     

Impurity photoconductivity in strained <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-InGaAs/GaAsP heterostructures

The impurity-photoconductivity spectrum is observed for strained quantum wells of the p-InGaAs/GaAs solid solution at T= 4.2 K. In addition to the broad photoconductivity band attributed to the transitions from the acceptor ground state to the continuum of the first size-quantization subband, the spectrum exhibits a peak due to the transitions from the ground state to the excited localized acceptor state, a band corresponding to the transitions to the resonance states associated with the second heavy-hole size-quantization subband, and a narrow photoconductivity peak (Fano resonance) in the spectral range corresponding to the optical-phonon energy.     

Ionization of deep quantum wells: Optical trampoline effect

A new mechanism of transitions of an electronic system from the ground state to states with excitation energies exceeding many times the energy of a light photon initiating the transitions has been considered. This mechanism is based on the so-called optical “trampoline” effect: one of the interacting electrons receives energy from another electron and, simultaneously absorbing a photon ?ω, overcomes the energy gap significantly exceeding ?ω. Ionization of deep quantum wells by low-frequency light of moderate intensity due to the optical trampoline effect was calculated.     

Computational study of energy transfer in two-dimensional J-aggregates

We perform a computational analysis of the intra- and interband energy transfer in two-dimensional J-aggregates. Each aggregate is represented as a two-dimensional array (LB-film or self-assembled film) of two kinds of cyanine dyes. We consider the J-aggregate whose J-band is located at a shorter wavelength to be a donor and an aggregate or a small impurity with longer wavelength to be an acceptor. Light absorption in the blue wing of the donor aggregate gives rise to the population of its excitonic states. The depopulation of these states is possible by (a) radiative transfer to the ground state, (b) intraband energy transfer, and (c) interband energy transfer to the acceptor. We study the dependence of energy transfer on properties such as the energy gap, the diagonal disorder, and the exciton–phonon interaction strength. Experimentally observable parameters, such as the position and form of luminescence spectrum, and results of the kinetic spectroscopy measurements strongly depend upon the density of states in excitonic bands, rates of energy exchange between states and oscillator strengths for luminescent transitions originating from these states.