No Arabic abstract
Gapped periodic quantum systems exhibit an interesting Localization Dichotomy, which emerges when one looks at the localization of the optimally localized Wannier functions associated to the Bloch bands below the gap. As recently proved, either these Wannier functions are exponentially localized, as it happens whenever the Hamiltonian operator is time-reversal symmetric, or they are delocalized in the sense that the expectation value of $|mathbf{x}|^2$ diverges. Intermediate regimes are forbidden. Following the lesson of our Maestro, to whom this contribution is gratefully dedicated, we find useful to explain this subtle mathematical phenomenon in the simplest possible model, namely the discrete model proposed by Haldane (Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2017 (1988)). We include a pedagogical introduction to the model and we explain its Localization Dichotomy by explicit analytical arguments. We then introduce the reader to the more general, model-independent version of the dichotomy proved in (Commun. Math. Phys. 359, 61-100 (2018)), and finally we announce further generalizations to non-periodic models.
We study the open version of the su$(m|n)$ supersymmetric Haldane-Shastry spin chain associated to the $BC_N$ extended root system. We first evaluate the models partition function by modding out the dynamical degrees of freedom of the su$(m|n)$ supersymmetric spin Sutherland model of $BC_N$ type, whose spectrum we fully determine. We then construct a generalized partition function depending polynomially on two sets of variables, which yields the standard one when evaluated at a suitable point. We show that this generalized partition function can be written in terms of two variants of the classical skew super Schur polynomials, which admit a combinatorial definition in terms of a new type of skew Young tableaux and border strips (or, equivalently, extended motifs). In this way we derive a remarkable description of the spectrum in terms of this new class of extended motifs, reminiscent of the analogous one for the closed Haldane-Shastry chain. We provide several concretes examples of this description, and in particular study in detail the su$(1|1)$ model finding an analytic expression for its Helmholtz free energy in the thermodynamic limit.
The Holstein model describes the motion of a tight-binding tracer particle interacting with a field of quantum harmonic oscillators. We consider this model with an on-site random potential. Provided the hopping amplitude for the particle is small, we prove localization for matrix elements of the resolvent, in particle position and in the field Fock space. These bounds imply a form of dynamical localization for the particle position that leaves open the possibility of resonant tunneling in Fock space between equivalent field configurations.
We present an explicit solution of the eigen-spectrum Toeplitz matrix $C_{ij}= e^{- kappa |i-j|}$ with $0leq i,j leq N$ and apply it to find analytically the plasma modes of a layered assembly of 2-dimensional electron gas. The solution is found by elementary means that bypass the Wiener-Hopf technique usually used for this class of problems. It rests on the observation that the inverse of $C_{ij}$ is effectively a nearest neighbor hopping model with a specific onsite energies which can in turn be diagonalized easily. Extensions to a combination of a Toeplitz and Hankel matrix, and to a generalization of $C_{ij}$, are discussed at the end of the paper.
We prove localization and probabilistic bounds on the minimum level spacing for the Anderson tight-binding model on the lattice in any dimension, with single-site potential having a discrete distribution taking N values, with N large.
We describe some applications of group- and bundle-theoretic methods in solid state physics, showing how symmetries lead to a proof of the localization of electrons in gapped crystalline solids, as e.g. insulators and semiconductors. We shortly review the Bloch-Floquet decomposition of periodic operators, and the related concepts of Bloch frames and composite Wannier functions. We show that the latter are almost-exponentially localized if and only if there exists a smooth periodic Bloch frame, and that the obstruction to the latter condition is the triviality of a Hermitian vector bundle, called the Bloch bundle. The role of additional $mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetries, as time-reversal and space-reflection symmetry, is discussed, showing how time-reversal symmetry implies the triviality of the Bloch bundle, both in the bosonic and in the fermionic case. Moreover, the same $mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetry allows to define a finer notion of isomorphism and, consequently, to define new topological invariants, which agree with the indices introduced by Fu, Kane and Mele in the context of topological insulators.