No Arabic abstract
We study the importance of interband effects on the orbital susceptibility of three bands $alpha$-${cal T}_3$ tight-binding models. The particularity of these models is that the coupling between the three energy bands (which is encoded in the wavefunctions properties) can be tuned (by a parameter $alpha$) without any modification of the energy spectrum. Using the gauge-invariant perturbative formalism that we have recently developped, we obtain a generic formula of the orbital susceptibility of $alpha$-${cal T}_3$ tight-binding models. Considering then three characteristic examples that exhibit either Dirac, semi-Dirac or quadratic band touching, we show that by varying the parameter $alpha$ and thus the wavefunctions interband couplings, it is possible to drive a transition from a diamagnetic to a paramagnetic peak of the orbital susceptibility at the band touching. In the presence of a gap separating the dispersive bands, we show that the susceptibility inside the gap exhibits a similar dia to paramagnetic transition.
Tight-binding models for ultracold atoms in optical lattices can be properly defined by using the concept of maximally localized Wannier functions for composite bands. The basic principles of this approach are reviewed here, along with different applications to lattice potentials with two minima per unit cell, in one and two spatial dimensions. Two independent methods for computing the tight-binding coefficients - one ab initio, based on the maximally localized Wannier functions, the other through analytic expressions in terms of the energy spectrum - are considered. In the one dimensional case, where the tight-binding coefficients can be obtained by designing a specific gauge transformation, we consider both the case of quasi resonance between the two lowest bands, and that between s and p orbitals. In the latter case, the role of the Wannier functions in the derivation of an effective Dirac equation is also reviewed. Then, we consider the case of a two dimensional honeycomb potential, with particular emphasis on the Haldane model, its phase diagram, and the breakdown of the Peierls substitution. Tunable honeycomb lattices, characterized by movable Dirac points, are also considered. Finally, general considerations for dealing with the interaction terms are presented.
Quantum state transformations that are robust to experimental imperfections are important for applications in quantum information science and quantum sensing. Counterdiabatic (CD) approaches, which use knowledge of the underlying system Hamiltonian to actively correct for diabatic effects, are powerful tools for achieving simultaneously fast and stable state transformations. Protocols for CD driving have thus far been limited in their experimental implementation to discrete systems with just two or three levels, as well as bulk systems with scaling symmetries. Here, we extend the tool of CD control to a discrete synthetic lattice system composed of as many as nine sites. Although this system has a vanishing gap and thus no adiabatic support in the thermodynamic limit, we show that CD approaches can still give a substantial, several order-of-magnitude, improvement in fidelity over naive, fast adiabatic protocols.
If a localized quantum state in a tight-binding model with structural aperiodicity is subject to noisy evolution, then it is generally expected to result in diffusion and delocalization. In this work, it is shown that the localized phase of the kicked Aubry-Andre-Harper (AAH) model is robust to the effects of noisy evolution, for long times, provided that some kick is delivered once every time period. However, if strong noisy perturbations are applied by randomly missing kicks, a sharp dynamical transition from a ballistic growth phase at initial times to a diffusive growth phase for longer times is observed. Such sharp transitions are seen even in translationally invariant models. These transitions are related to the existence of flat bands, and using a 2-band model we obtain analytical support for these observations. The diffusive evolution at long times has a mechanism similar to that of a random walk. The time scale at which the sharp transition takes place is related to the characteristics of noise. Remarkably, the wavepacket evolution scales with the noise parameters. Further, using kick sequence modulated by a coin toss, it is argued that the correlations in the noise are crucial to the observed sharp transitions.
In this work we present a tight-binding model that allows to describe with a minimal amount of parameters the band structure of exciton-polariton lattices. This model based on $s$ and $p$ non-orthogonal photonic orbitals faithfully reproduces experimental results reported for polariton graphene ribbons. We analyze in particular the influence of the non-orthogonality, the inter-orbitals interaction and the photonic spin-orbit coupling on the polarization and dispersion of bulk bands and edge states.
We numerically analyze the distribution of scattering resonance widths in one- and quasi-one dimensional tight binding models, in the localized regime. We detect and discuss an algebraic decay of the distribution, similar, though not identical, to recent theoretical predictions.