No Arabic abstract
The spectrum of the quantum Ising chain can be found by expressing the spins in terms of free fermions. An analogous transformation exists for clock chains with $Z_n$ symmetry, but is of less use because the resulting parafermionic operators remain interacting. Nonetheless, Baxter showed that a certain non-hermitian (but PT-symmetric) clock Hamiltonian is free, in the sense that the entire spectrum is found in terms of independent energy levels, with the striking feature that there are $n$ possibilities for occupying each level. Here I show this directly explicitly finding shift operators obeying a $Z_n$ generalization of the Clifford algebra. I also find higher Hamiltonians that commute with Baxters and prove their spectrum comes from the same set of energy levels. This thus provides an explicit notion of a free parafermion. A byproduct is an elegant method for the solution of the Ising/Kitaev chain with spatially varying couplings.
We study charge transport and fluctuations of the (3+1)-dimensional massive free Dirac theory. In particular, we focus on the steady state that emerges following a local quench whereby two independently thermalized halves of the system are connected and let to evolve unitarily for a long time. Based on the two-time von Neumann measurement statistics and exact computations, the scaled cumulant generating function associated with the charge transport is derived. We find that it can be written as a generalization of Levitov-Lesovik formula to the case in three spatial dimensions. In the massless case, we note that only the first four scaled cumulants are nonzero. Our results provide also a direct confirmation for the validity of the extended fluctuation relation in higher dimensions. An application of our approach to Lifshitz fermions is also briefly discussed.
Free or integrable theories are usually considered to be too constrained to thermalize. For example, the retarded two-point function of a free field, even in a thermal state, does not decay to zero at long times. On the other hand, the magnetic susceptibility of the critical transverse field Ising is known to thermalize, even though that theory can be mapped by a Jordan-Wigner transformation to that of free fermions. We reconcile these two statements by clarifying under which conditions conserved charges can prevent relaxation at the level of linear response and how such obstruction can be overcome. In particular, we give a necessary condition for the decay of retarded Greens functions. We give explicit examples of composite operators in free theories that nevertheless satisfy that condition and therefore do thermalize. We call this phenomenon the Operator Thermalization Hypothesis as a converse to the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis.
Results are given for the ground state energy and excitation spectrum of a simple $N$-state $Z_N$ spin chain described by free parafermions. The model is non-Hermitian for $N ge 3$ with a real ground state energy and a complex excitation spectrum. Although having a simpler Hamiltonian than the superintegrable chiral Potts model, the model is seen to share some properties with it, e.g., the specific heat exponent $alpha=1-2/N$ and the anisotropic correlation length exponents $ u_parallel =1$ and $ u_perp=2/N$.
We consider the calculation of ground-state expectation values for the non-Hermitian Z(N) spin chain described by free parafermions. For N=2 the model reduces to the quantum Ising chain in a transverse field with open boundary conditions. Use is made of the Hellmann-Feynman theorem to obtain exact results for particular single site and nearest-neighbour ground-state expectation values for general N which are valid for sites deep inside the chain. These results are tested numerically for N=3, along with how they change as a function of distance from the boundary.
We show that holomorphic Parafermions exist in the eight vertex model. This is done by extending the definition from the six vertex model to the eight vertex model utilizing a parameter redefinition. These Parafermions exist on the critical plane and integrable cases of the eight vertex model. We show that for the case of staggered eight vertex model, these Parafermions correspond to those of the Ashkin-Teller model. Furthermore, the loop representation of the eight vertex model enabled us to show a connection with the O(n) model which is in agreement with the six vertex limit found as a special case of the O(n) model.