No Arabic abstract
I explicitly construct a strong zero mode in the XYZ chain or, equivalently, Majorana wires coupled via a four-fermion interaction. The strong zero mode is an operator that pairs states in different symmetry sectors, resulting in identical spectra up to exponentially small finite-size corrections. Such pairing occurs in the Ising/Majorana fermion chain and possibly in parafermionic systems and strongly disordered many-body localized phases. The proof here shows that the strong zero mode occurs in a clean interacting system, and that it possesses some remarkable structure -- despite being a rather elaborate operator, it squares to the identity. Eigenstate phase transitions separate regions with different types of pairing.
We prove that quantum information encoded in some topological excitations, including certain Majorana zero modes, is protected in closed systems for a time scale exponentially long in system parameters. This protection holds even at infinite temperature. At lower temperatures the decay time becomes even longer, with a temperature dependence controlled by an effective gap that is parametrically larger than the actual energy gap of the system. This non-equilibrium dynamical phenomenon is a form of prethermalization, and occurs because of obstructions to the equilibriation of edge or defect degrees of freedom with the bulk. We analyze the ramifications for ordered and topological phases in one, two, and three dimensions, with examples including Majorana and parafermionic zero modes in interacting spin chains. Our results are based on a non-perturbative analysis valid in any dimension, and they are illustrated by numerical simulations in one dimension. We discuss the implications for experiments on quantum-dot chains tuned into a regime supporting end Majorana zero modes, and on trapped ion chains.
We study the emergence of exact Majorana zero modes (EMZMs) in a one-dimensional quantum transverse compass model with both the nearest-neighbor interactions and transverse fields varying over space. By transforming the spin system into a quadratic Majorana-fermion model, we derive an exact formula for the number of the emergent EMZMs, which is found to depend on the partition nature of the lattice sites on which the magnetic fields vanish. We also derive explicit expressions for the wavefunctions of these EMZMs and show that they indeed depend on fine features of the foregoing partition of site indices. Based on the above rigorous results about the EMZMs, we provide an interpretation for the interesting dependence of the eigenstate-degeneracy on the transverse fields observed in prior literatures. As a special case, we employ a plane-wave ansatz to exactly solve an open compass chain with alternating nearest-neighbor interactions and staggered magnetic fields. Explicit forms of the canonical Majorana modes diagonalizing the model are given even for finite chains. We show that besides the possibly existing EMZMs, no almost Majorana zero modes exist unless the fields on both the two sublattices are turned off. Our results might shed light on the control of ground-state degeneracies by solely tuning the external fields in related systems.
We propose an alternative route to engineer Majorana zero modes (MZMs), which relies on inducing shift or spin vortex defects in magnetic textures which microscopically coexist or are in proximity to a superconductor. The present idea applies to a variety of superconducting materials and hybrid structures, irrespectively of their spin-singlet, -triplet, or mixed type of pairing, as long as their bulk energy spectrum contains robust point nodes. Our mechanism provides a new framework to understand the recent observations of pairs of MZMs in superconductor - magnetic adatom systems. Moreover, it can inspire the experimental development of new platforms, consisting of nanowires in proximity to conventional superconductors with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling.
By using a dual vortex method, we study phases such as superfluid, solids, supersolids and quantum phase transitions in a unified scheme in extended boson Hubbard models at and slightly away from half filling on bipartite optical lattices such as honeycomb and square lattice. We also map out its global phase diagram at $ T=0 $ of chemical potential versus the ratio of kinetic energy over the interaction. We stress the importance of the self-consistence condition on the saddle point structure of the dual gauge fields in the translational symmetry breaking insulating sides, especially in the charge density wave side. We find that in the translational symmetry breaking side, different kinds of supersolids are generic possible states slightly away from half filling. We propose a new kind of supersolid: valence bond supersolid (VB-SS). In this VB-SS, the density fluctuation at any site is very large indicating its superfluid nature, but the boson kinetic energies on bonds between two sites are given and break the lattice translational symmetries indicating its valence bound nature. Implications on possible future QMC simulations in both bipartite lattices are given. All these phases and phase transitions can be potentially realized in ultra-cold atoms loaded on optical bipartite lattices.
We discuss eigenstate correlations for ergodic, spatially extended many-body quantum systems, in terms of the statistical properties of matrix elements of local observables. While the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) is known to give an excellent description of these quantities, the butterfly effect implies structure beyond ETH. We determine the universal form of this structure at long distances and small eigenvalue separations for Floquet systems. We use numerical studies of a Floquet quantum circuit to illustrate both the accuracy of ETH and the existence of our predicted additional correlations.