No Arabic abstract
A common challenge faced in quantum physics is finding the extremal eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a Hamiltonian matrix in a vector space so large that linear algebra operations on general vectors are not possible. There are numerous efficient methods developed for this task, but they generally fail when some control parameter in the Hamiltonian matrix exceeds some threshold value. In this work we present a new technique called eigenvector continuation that can extend the reach of these methods. The key insight is that while an eigenvector resides in a linear space with enormous dimensions, the eigenvector trajectory generated by smooth changes of the Hamiltonian matrix is well approximated by a very low-dimensional manifold. We prove this statement using analytic function theory and propose an algorithm to solve for the extremal eigenvectors. We benchmark the method using several examples from quantum many-body theory.
Eigenvector continuation has recently attracted a lot attention in nuclear structure and reactions as a variational resummation tool for many-body expansions. While previous applications focused on ground-state energies, excited states can be accessed on equal footing. This work is dedicated to a detailed understanding of the emergence of excited states from the eigenvector continuation approach. For numerical applications the one-dimensional quartic anharmonic oscillator is investigated, which represents a strongly non-perturbative quantum system where the use of standard perturbation techniques break down. We discuss how different choices for the construction of the EC manifold affect the quality of the EC resummation and investigate in detail the results from EC for excited states compared to results from a full diagonalization as a function of the basis space size.
We construct an efficient emulator for two-body scattering observables using the general (complex) Kohn variational principle and trial wave functions derived from eigenvector continuation. The emulator simultaneously evaluates an array of Kohn variational principles associated with different boundary conditions, which allows for the detection and removal of spurious singularities known as Kohn anomalies. When applied to the $K$-matrix only, our emulator resembles the one constructed by Furnstahl et al. [Phys. Lett. B 809, 135719] although with reduced numerical noise. After a few applications to real potentials, we emulate differential cross sections for $^{40}$Ca$(n,n)$ scattering based on a realistic optical potential and quantify the model uncertainties using Bayesian methods. These calculations serve as a proof of principle for future studies aimed at improving optical models.
The configuration interaction method, which is well-known as the shell-model calculation in the nuclear physics community, plays a key role in elucidating various properties of nuclei. In general, these studies require a huge number of shell-model calculations to be repeated for parameter calibration and quantifying uncertainties. To reduce these computational costs, we propose a new workflow of shell-model calculations using a method called eigenvector continuation (EC). It enables us to efficiently approximate the eigenpairs under a given Hamiltonian by previously sampled eigenvectors. We demonstrate the validity of EC as an emulator of the shell-model calculations for a valence space, where the dimension of parameters is relatively large compared to the previous studies using EC. We also discuss its possible applications to the quantification of theoretical uncertainty, using an example of Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling for a simplified problem. Furthermore, we propose a new usage of EC: preprocessing, in which we start the Lanczos iterations from the approximate eigenvectors, and demonstrate that this can accelerate the shell-model calculations and the subsequent research cycles. With the aid of the eigenvector continuation, the eigenvectors obtained during the parameter optimization are not necessarily to be discarded, even if their eigenvalues are far from the experimental data. Those eigenvectors can become accumulated knowledge. In order to enable efficient sampling of shell-model results and to demonstrate the usefulness of the methodology described above, we developed a new shell-model code, ShellModel.jl. This code is written in Julia language and therefore flexible to add extensions for the users purposes.
Nuclear structure models built from phenomenological mean fields, the effective nucleon-nucleon interactions (or Lagrangians), and the realistic bare nucleon-nucleon interactions are reviewed. The success of covariant density functional theory (CDFT) to describe nuclear properties and its influence on Brueckner theory within the relativistic framework are focused upon. The challenges and ambiguities of predictions for unstable nuclei without data or for high-density nuclear matter, arising from relativistic density functionals, are discussed. The basic ideas in building an ab initio relativistic density functional for nuclear structure from ab initio calculations with realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions for both nuclear matter and finite nuclei are presented. The current status of fully self-consistent relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) calculations for finite nuclei or neutron drops (ideal systems composed of a finite number of neutrons and confined within an external field) is reviewed. The guidance and perspectives towards an ab initio covariant density functional theory for nuclear structure derived from the RBHF results are provided.
We study a four-dimensional $U(1)$ gauge theory with the $theta$ angle, which was originally proposed by Cardy and Rabinovici. It is known that the model has the rich phase diagram thanks to the presence of both electrically and magnetically charged particles. We discuss the topological nature of the oblique confinement phase of the model at $theta=pi$, and show how its appearance can be consistent with the anomaly constraint. We also construct the $SL(2,mathbb{Z})$ self-dual theory out of the Cardy-Rabinovici model by gauging a part of its one-form symmetry. This self-duality has a mixed t Hooft anomaly with gravity, and its implications on the phase diagram is uncovered. As the model shares the same global symmetry and t Hooft anomaly with those of $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills theory, studying its topological aspects would provide us more hints to explore possible dynamics of non-Abelian gauge theories with nonzero $theta$ angles.