Lukasz Cincio

Characterizing topological order by studying the ground States on an infinite cylinder.

Given a microscopic lattice Hamiltonian for a topologically ordered phase, we propose a numerical approach to characterize its emergent anyon model and, in a chiral phase, also its gapless edge theory. First, a tensor network representation of a complete, orthonormal set of ground states on a cylinder of infinite length and finite width is obtained through numerical optimization. Each of these ground states is argued to have a different anyonic flux threading through the cylinder. Then a quasiorthogonal basis on the torus is produced by chopping off and reconnecting the tensor network representation on the cylinder. From these two bases, and by using a number of previous results, most notably the recent proposal of Y. Zhang et al. [Phys. Rev. B 85, 235151 (2012)] to extract the modular U and S matrices, we obtain (i) a complete list of anyon types i, together with (ii) their quantum dimensions d(i) and total quantum dimension D, (iii) their fusion rules N(ij)(k), (iv) their mutual statistics, as encoded in the off-diagonal entries S(ij) of S, (v) their self-statistics or topological spins θ(i), (vi) the topological central charge c of the anyon model, and, in a chiral phase (vii) the low energy spectrum of each sector of the boundary conformal field theory. As a concrete application, we study the hard-core boson Haldane model by using the two-dimensional density matrix renormalization group. A thorough characterization of its universal bulk and edge properties unambiguously shows that it realizes a ν=1/2 bosonic fractional quantum Hall state.

Chiral spin liquid and emergent anyons in a Kagome lattice Mott insulator

Topological phases in frustrated quantum spin systems have fascinated researchers for decades. One of the earliest proposals for such a phase was the chiral spin liquid, a bosonic analogue of the fractional quantum Hall effect, put forward by Kalmeyer and Laughlin in 1987. Elusive for many years, recent times have finally seen this phase realized in various models, which, however, remain somewhat artificial. Here we take an important step towards the goal of finding a chiral spin liquid in nature by examining a physically motivated model for a Mott insulator on the Kagome lattice with broken time-reversal symmetry. We discuss the emergent phase from a network model perspective and present an unambiguous numerical identification and characterization of its universal topological properties, including ground-state degeneracy, edge physics and anyonic bulk excitations, by using a variety of powerful numerical probes, including the entanglement spectrum and modular transformations.

Multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz in two dimensions: quantum Ising model.

We propose a symmetric version of the multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz in two spatial dimensions (2D) and use this ansatz to find an unknown ground state of a 2D quantum system. Results in the simple 2D quantum Ising model on the 8x8 square lattice are found to be very accurate even with the smallest nontrivial truncation parameter.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in a generalized orbital compass model

We introduce a generalized two-dimensional orbital compass model, which interpolates continuously from the classical Ising model to the orbital compass model with frustrated quantum interactions, and investigate it using the multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA). The results demonstrate that increasing frustration of exchange interactions triggers a second order quantum phase transition to a degenerate symmetry broken state which minimizes one of the interactions in the orbital compass model. Using boson expansion within the spin-wave theory we unravel the physical mechanism of the symmetry breaking transition as promoted by weak quantum fluctuations and explain why this transition occurs only surprisingly close to the maximally frustrated interactions of the orbital compass model. The spin waves remain gapful at the critical point, and both the boson expansion and MERA do not find any algebraically decaying spin-spin correlations in the critical ground state.

Dynamics of a quantum phase transition with decoherence : Quantum Ising chain in a static spin environment

We consider a linear quench from the paramagnetic to ferromagnetic phase in the quantum Ising chain interacting with a static spin environment. Both decoherence from the environment and non-adiabaticity of the evolution near a critical point excite the system from the final ferromagnetic ground state. For weak decoherence and relatively fast quenches the excitation energy, proportional to the number of kinks in the final state, decays like an inverse square root of a quench time, but slow transitions or strong decoherence make it decay in a much slower logarithmic way. We also find that fidelity between the final ferromagnetic ground state and a final state after a quench decays exponentially with a size of a chain, with a decay rate proportional to average density of excited kinks, and a proportionality factor evolving from 1.3 for weak decoherence and fast quenches to approximately 1 for slow transitions or strong decoherence. Simultaneously, correlations between kinks randomly distributed along the chain evolve from a near-crystalline anti-bunching to a Poissonian distribution of kinks in a number of isolated Anderson localization centers randomly scattered along the chain.

Haldane-Hubbard Mott Insulator: From Tetrahedral Spin Crystal to Chiral Spin Liquid

Motivated by cold atom experiments on Chern insulators, we study the honeycomb lattice Haldane-Hubbard Mott insulator of spin-1/2 fermions using exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods. We show that this model exhibits various chiral magnetic orders including a wide regime of triple-Q tetrahedral order. Incorporating third-neighbor hopping frustrates and ultimately melts this tetrahedral spin crystal. From analyzing the low energy spectrum, many-body Chern numbers, entanglement spectra, and modular matrices, we identify the molten state as a chiral spin liquid (CSL) with gapped semion excitations. We formulate and study the Chern-Simons-Higgs field theory of the exotic CSL-to-tetrahedral spin crystallization transition.

Local response of topological order to an external perturbation.

We study the behavior of the Rényi entropies for the toric code subject to a variety of different perturbations, by means of 2D density matrix renormalization group and analytical methods. We find that Rényi entropies of different index α display derivatives with opposite sign, as opposed to typical symmetry breaking states, and can be detected on a very small subsystem regardless of the correlation length. This phenomenon is due to the presence in the phase of a point with flat entanglement spectrum, zero correlation length, and area law for the entanglement entropy. We argue that this kind of splitting is common to all the phases with a certain group theoretic structure, including quantum double models, cluster states, and other quantum spin liquids. The fact that the size of the subsystem does not need to scale with the correlation length makes it possible for this effect to be accessed experimentally.

Projected entangled pair states at finite temperature: Imaginary time evolution with ancillas

A projected entangled pair state (PEPS) with ancillas is evolved in imaginary time. This tensor network represents a thermal state of a 2D lattice quantum system. A finite temperature phase diagram of the 2D quantum Ising model in a transverse field is obtained as a benchmark application.

Edge-entanglement spectrum correspondence in a nonchiral topological phase and Kramers-Wannier duality

In a system with chiral topological order, there is a remarkable correspondence between the edge and entanglement spectra: the low-energy spectrum of the system in the presence of a physical edge coincides with the lowest part of the entanglement spectrum (ES) across a virtual cut of the system, up to rescaling and shifting. In this paper, we explore whether the edge-ES correspondence extends to nonchiral topological phases. Specifically, we consider the Wen-plaquette model which has Z_2 topological order. The unperturbed model displays an exact correspondence: both the edge and entanglement spectra within each topological sector a (a = 1,...,4) are flat and equally degenerate. Here, we show, through a detailed microscopic calculation, that in the presence of generic local perturbations: (i) the effective degrees of freedom for both the physical edge and the entanglement cut consist of a spin-1/2 chain, with effective Hamiltonians H_edge^a and H_ent.^a, respectively, both of which have a Z_2 symmetry enforced by the bulk topological order; (ii) there is in general no match between their low energy spectra, that is, there is no edge-ES correspondence. However, if supplement the Z_2 topological order with a global symmetry (translational invariance along the edge/cut), i.e. by considering the Wen-plaquette model as a symmetry enriched topological phase (SET), then there is a finite domain in Hamiltonian space in which both H_edge^a and H_ent.^a realize the critical Ising model, whose low-energy effective theory is the c = 1/2 Ising CFT. This is achieved because the presence of the global symmetry implies that both Hamiltonians, in addition to being Z_2 symmetric, are Kramers-Wannier self-dual. Thus, the bulk topological order and the global translational symmetry of the Wen-plaquette model as a SET imply an edge-ES correspondence at least in some finite domain in Hamiltonian space.

Local convertibility of the ground state of the perturbed Toric code

We present analytical and numerical studies of the behavior of the