No Arabic abstract
We study the finite-size spectrum of the O($N$) symmetric Wilson-Fisher conformal field theory (CFT) on the $d=2$ spatial-dimension torus using the expansion in $epsilon=3-d$. This is done by deriving a set of universal effective Hamiltonians describing fluctuations of the zero momentum modes. The effective Hamiltonians take the form of $N$-dimensional quantum anharmonic oscillators, which are shown to be strongly coupled at the critical point for small $epsilon$. The low-energy spectrum is solved numerically for $N = 1,2,3,4$. Using exact diagonalization (ED), we also numerically study explicit lattice models known to be in the O($2$) and O($3$) universality class, obtaining estimates of the low-lying critical spectrum. The analytic and numerical results show excellent agreement and the critical low energy torus spectra are qualitatively different among the studied CFTs, identifying them as a useful fingerprint for detecting the universality class of a quantum critical point.
We compute the entanglement entropy of the Wilson-Fisher conformal field theory (CFT) in 2+1 dimensions with O($N$) symmetry in the limit of large $N$ for general entanglement geometries. We show that the leading large $N$ result can be obtained from the entanglement entropy of $N$ Gaussian scalar fields with their mass determined by the geometry. For a few geometries, the universal part of the entanglement entropy of the Wilson-Fisher CFT equals that of a CFT of $N$ massless scalar fields. However, in most cases, these CFTs have a distinct universal entanglement entropy even at $N=infty$. Notably, for a semi-infinite cylindrical region it scales as $N^0$, in stark contrast to the $N$-linear result of the Gaussian fixed point.
In one dimension, the area law and its implications for the approximability by Matrix Product States are the key to efficient numerical simulations involving quantum states. Similarly, in simulations involving quantum operators, the approximability by Matrix Product Operators (in Hilbert-Schmidt norm) is tied to an operator area law, namely the fact that the Operator Space Entanglement Entropy (OSEE)---the natural analog of entanglement entropy for operators, investigated by Zanardi [Phys. Rev. A 63, 040304(R) (2001)] and by Prosen and Pizorn [Phys. Rev. A 76, 032316 (2007)]---, is bounded. In the present paper, it is shown that the OSEE can be calculated in two-dimensional conformal field theory, in a number of situations that are relevant to questions of simulability of long-time dynamics in one spatial dimension. It is argued that: (i) thermal density matrices $rho propto e^{-beta H}$ and Generalized Gibbs Ensemble density matrices $rho propto e^{- H_{rm GGE}}$ with local $H_{rm GGE}$ generically obey the operator area law; (ii) after a global quench, the OSEE first grows linearly with time, then decreases back to its thermal or GGE saturation value, implying that, while the operator area law is satisfied both in the initial state and in the asymptotic stationary state at large time, it is strongly violated in the transient regime; (iii) the OSEE of the evolution operator $U(t) = e^{-i H t}$ increases linearly with $t$, unless the Hamiltonian is in a localized phase; (iv) local operators in Heisenberg picture, $phi(t) = e^{i H t} phi e^{-i H t}$, have an OSEE that grows sublinearly in time (perhaps logarithmically), however it is unclear whether this effect can be captured in a traditional CFT framework, as the free fermion case hints at an unexpected breakdown of conformal invariance.
We describe the quantum phase transition in the $N$-state chiral clock model in spatial dimension $d=1$. With couplings chosen to preserve time-reversal and spatial inversion symmetries, such a model is in the universality class of recent experimental studies of the ordering of pumped Rydberg states in a one-dimensional chain of trapped ultracold alkali atoms. For such couplings and $N=3$, the clock model is expected to have a direct phase transition from a gapped phase with a broken global $mathbb{Z}_N$ symmetry, to a gapped phase with the $mathbb{Z}_N$ symmetry restored. The transition has dynamical critical exponent $z eq 1$, and so cannot be described by a relativistic quantum field theory. We use a lattice duality transformation to map the transition onto that of a Bose gas in $d=1$, involving the onset of a single boson condensate in the background of a higher-dimensional $N$-boson condensate. We present a renormalization group analysis of the strongly coupled field theory for the Bose gas transition in an expansion in $2-d$, with $4-N$ chosen to be of order $2-d$. At two-loop order, we find a regime of parameters with a renormalization group fixed point which can describe a direct phase transition. We also present numerical density-matrix renormalization group studies of lattice chiral clock and Bose gas models for $N=3$, finding good evidence for a direct phase transition, and obtain estimates for $z$ and the correlation length exponent $ u$.
We study the energy and entanglement dynamics of $(1+1)$D conformal field theories (CFTs) under a Floquet drive with the sine-square deformed (SSD) Hamiltonian. Previous work has shown this model supports both a non-heating and a heating phase. Here we analytically establish several robust and `super-universal features of the heating phase which rely on conformal invariance but not on the details of the CFT involved. First, we show the energy density is concentrated in two peaks in real space, a chiral and anti-chiral peak, which leads to an exponential growth in the total energy. The peak locations are set by fixed points of the Mobius transformation. Second, all of the quantum entanglement is shared between these two peaks. In each driving period, a number of Bell pairs are generated, with one member pumped to the chiral peak, and the other member pumped to the anti-chiral peak. These Bell pairs are localized and accumulate at these two peaks, and can serve as a source of quantum entanglement. Third, in both the heating and non-heating phases we find that the total energy is related to the half system entanglement entropy by a simple relation $E(t)propto c exp left( frac{6}{c}S(t) right)$ with $c$ being the central charge. In addition, we show that the non-heating phase, in which the energy and entanglement oscillate in time, is unstable to small fluctuations of the driving frequency in contrast to the heating phase. Finally, we point out an analogy to the periodically driven harmonic oscillator which allows us to understand global features of the phases, and introduce a quasiparticle picture to explain the spatial structure, which can be generalized to setups beyond the SSD construction.
We study gapless quantum spin chains with spin 1/2 and 1: the Fredkin and Motzkin models. Their entangled groundstates are known exactly but not their excitation spectra. We first express the groundstates in the continuum which allows for the calculation of spin and entanglement properties in a unified fashion. Doing so, we uncover an emergent conformal-type symmetry, thus consolidating the connection to a widely studied family of Lifshitz quantum critical points in 2d. We then obtain the low lying excited states via large-scale DMRG simulations and find that the dynamical exponent is z = 3.2 in both cases. Other excited states show a different z, indicating that these models have multiple dynamics. Moreover, we modify the spin-1/2 model by adding a ferromagnetic Heisenberg term, which changes the entire spectrum. We track the resulting non-trivial evolution of the dynamical exponents using DMRG. Finally, we exploit an exact map from the quantum Hamiltonian to the non-equilibrium dynamics of a classical spin chain to shed light on the quantum dynamics.