Victor Gurarie

Logarithmic operators in conformal field theory

Conformal field theories with correlation functions which have logarithmic singularities are considered. It is shown that those singularities imply the existence of additional operators in the theory which together with ordinary primary operators form the basis of the Jordan cell for the operator L0. An example of the field theory possessing such correlation functions is given.

Instantons in the Burgers equation.

The instanton solution for the forced Burgers equation is found. This solution describes the exponential tail of the probability distribution function of velocity differences in the region where shock waves are absent; that is, for large positive velocity differences. The results agree with the one found recently by Polyakov, who used the operator product conjecture. If this conjecture is true, then our WKB asymptotics of the Wyld functional integral should be exact to all orders of perturbation expansion around the instanton solution. We also generalized our solution for the arbitrary dimension of the Burgers (KPZ) equation. As a result we found the asymptotics of the angular dependence of the velocity difference probability distribution function. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

Mott Insulators of Ultracold Fermionic Alkaline Earth Atoms: Underconstrained Magnetism and Chiral Spin Liquid

We study Mott insulators of fermionic alkaline earth atoms, described by Heisenberg spin models with enhanced SU(N) symmetry. In dramatic contrast to SU(2) magnetism, more than two spins are required to form a singlet. On the square lattice, the classical ground state is highly degenerate and magnetic order is thus unlikely. In a large-N limit, we find a chiral spin liquid ground state with topological order and Abelian fractional statistics. We discuss its experimental detection. Chiral spin liquids with non-Abelian anyons may also be realizable with alkaline earth atoms.

Conformal algebras of two-dimensional disordered systems

We discuss the structure of two-dimensional conformal field theories at a central charge c = 0 describing critical disordered systems, polymers and percolation. We construct a novel extension of the c = 0 Virasoro algebra, characterized by a number b measuring the effective number of massless degrees of freedom, and by a logarithmic partner of the stress tensor. It is argued to be present at a generic random critical point, lacking super Kac–Moody, or other higher symmetries, and is a tool to describe and classify such theories. Interestingly, this algebra is not only consistent with, but indeed naturally accommodates in general an underlying global supersymmetry. Polymers and percolation realize this algebra. Unexpectedly, we find that the c = 0 Kac table of the degenerate fields contains two distinct theories with b = 5/6 and b = −5/8 which we conjecture to correspond to percolation and polymers, respectively. A given Kac-table field can be degenerate only in one of them. Remarkably, we also find this algebra, and thereby an ensuing hidden supersymmetry, realized at general replica-averaged critical points, for which we derive an explicit formula for b.

The Haldane-Rezayi quantum Hall state and conformal field theory

We propose field theories for the bulk and edge of a quantum Hall state in the universality class of the Haldane-Rezayi wavefunction. The bulk theory is associated with the c = −2 conformal field theory. The topological properties of the state, such as the quasiparticle braiding statistics and ground state degeneracy on a torus, may be deduced from this conformal field theory. The 10-fold degeneracy on a torus is explained by the existence of a logarithmic operator in the c = −2 theory; this operator corresponds to a novel bulk excitation in the quantum Hall state. We argue that the edge theory is the c = 1 chiral Dirac fermion, which is related in a simple way to the c = −2 theory of the bulk. This theory is reformulated as a truncated version of a doublet of Dirac fermions in which the SU(2) symmetry - which corresponds to the spin-rotational symmetry of the quantum Hall system - is manifest and non-local. We make predictions for the current-voltage characteristics for transport through point contacts.

Bulk-boundary correspondence of topological insulators from their respective Green’s functions

Topological insulators are noninteracting, gapped fermionic systems which have gapless boundary excitations. They are characterized by topological invariants, which can be written in many different ways, including in terms of Greens functions. Here we show that the existence of the edge states directly follows from the existence of the topological invariant written in terms of the Greens functions, for all ten classes of topological insulators in all spatial dimensions. We also show that the resulting edge states are characterized by their own topological invariant, whose value is equal to the topological invariant of the bulk insulator. This can be used to test whether a given model Hamiltonian can describe an edge of a topological insulator. Finally, we observe that the results discussed here apply equally well to interacting topological insulators, with certain modifications.

Single-particle Green’s functions and interacting topological insulators

We study topological insulators characterized by the integer topological invariant Z, in even and odd spacial dimensions. These are well understood in case when there are no interactions. We extend the earlier work on this subject to construct their topological invariants in terms of their Greens functions. In this form, they can be used even if there are interactions. Specializing to one and two spacial dimensions, we further show that if two topologically distinct topological insulators border each other, the difference of their topological invariants is equal to the difference between the number of zero energy boundary excitations and the number of zeroes of the Greens function at the boundary. In the absence of interactions Greens functions have no zeroes thus there are always edge states at the boundary, as is well known. In the presence of interactions, in principle Greens functions could have zeroes. In that case, there could be no edge states at the boundary of two topological insulators with different topological invariants. This may provide an alternative explanation to the recent results on one dimensional interacting topological insulators.

c-Theorem for disordered systems

Abstract We find an analog of Zamolodchikovs c -theorem for disordered two-dimensional non-interacting systems in their supersymmetric field theory representation. We show that the energy momentum tensor of such field theories must be a part of a supermultiplet, and that a new parameter b can be introduced with the help of that multiplet. b flows along the renormalization group trajectories much like the central charge for unitary two-dimensional field theories. While it has not been established if this flow is irreversible, that is, if b always flows down to lower values, it does so for all the cases worked out so far. b gives a new way to label different conformal field theories for disordered systems whose central charge is always 0. b turns out to be related to the central extension of a certain algebra, a generalization of the Virasoro algebra, which we show may be present at the critical points of these theories. b is also related to the finite size corrections of the physical free energy of disordered systems. We discuss possible applications by computing b for two-dimensional Dirac fermions with random gauge potential, in other words, for U(1∣1) Kac-Moody algebra.

Nonequilibrium Dynamics and Thermodynamics of a Degenerate Fermi Gas Across a Feshbach Resonance

We consider a two-species degenerate Fermi gas coupled by a diatomic Feshbach resonance. We show that the resulting superfluid can exhibit a form of coherent BEC-to-BCS oscillations in response to a nonadiabatic change in the systems parameters, such as, for example, a sudden shift in the position of the Feshbach resonance. In the narrow resonance limit, the resulting solitonlike collisionless dynamics can be calculated analytically. In equilibrium, the thermodynamics can be accurately computed across the full range of BCS-BEC crossover, with corrections controlled by the ratio of the resonance width to the Fermi energy.

Plasma analogy and non-Abelian statistics for Ising-type quantum Hall states

We study the non-Abelian statistics of quasiparticles in the Ising-type quantum Hall states which are likely candidates to explain the observed Hall conductivity plateaus in the second Landau level, most notably the one at filling fraction {nu}=5/2. We complete the program started in V. Gurarie and C. Nayak, [Nucl. Phys. B 506, 685 (1997)]. and show that the degenerate four-quasihole and six-quasihole wave functions of the Moore-Read Pfaffian state are orthogonal with equal constant norms in the basis given by conformal blocks in a c=1+(1/2) conformal field theory. As a consequence, this proves that the non-Abelian statistics of the excitations in this state are given by the explicit analytic continuation of these wave functions. Our proof is based on a plasma analogy derived from the Coulomb gas construction of Ising model correlation functions involving both order and (at most two) disorder operators. We show how this computation also determines the non-Abelian statistics of collections of more than six quasiholes and give an explicit expression for the corresponding conformal block-derived wave functions for an arbitrary number of quasiholes. Our method also applies to the anti-Pfaffian wave function and to Bonderson-Slingerland hierarchy states constructed over the Moore-Read and anti-Pfaffian states.