No Arabic abstract
We present evidence of a direct, continuous quantum phase transition between a Bose superfluid and the $ u=1/2$ fractional Chern insulator in a microscopic lattice model. In the process, we develop a detailed field theoretic description of this transition in terms of the low energy vortex dynamics. The theory explicitly accounts for the structure of lattice symmetries and predicts a Landau forbidden transition that is protected by inversion. That the transition is continuous enables the quasi-adiabatic preparation of the fractional Chern insulator in non-equilibrium, quantum optical systems.
We report on the numerically exact simulation of the dissipative dynamics governed by quantum master equations that feature fractional quantum Hall states as unique steady states. In particular, for the paradigmatic Hofstadter model, we show how Laughlin states can be to good approximation prepared in a dissipative fashion from arbitrary initial states by simply pumping strongly interacting bosons into the lowest Chern band of the corresponding single-particle spectrum. While pure (up to topological degeneracy) steady states are only reached in the low-flux limit or for extended hopping range, we observe a certain robustness regarding the overlap of the steady state with fractional quantum Hall states for experimentally well-controlled flux densities. This may be seen as an encouraging step towards addressing the long-standing challenge of preparing strongly correlated topological phases in quantum simulators.
We investigate the fate of hardcore bosons in a Harper-Hofstadter model which was experimentally realized by Aidelsburger et al. [Nature Physics 11 , 162 (2015)] at half filling of the lowest band. We discuss the stability of an emergent fractional Chern insulator (FCI) state in a finite region of the phase diagram that is separated from a superfluid state by a first-order transition when tuning the band topology following the protocol used in the experiment. Since crossing a first-order transition is unfavorable for adiabatically preparing the FCI state, we extend the model to stabilize a featureless insulating state. The transition between this phase and the topological state proves to be continuous, providing a path in parameter space along which an FCI state could be adiabatically prepared. To further corroborate this statement, we perform time-dependent DMRG calculations which demonstrate that the FCI state may indeed be reached by adiabatically tuning a simple product state.
The Lieb-Liniger model describes one-dimensional bosons interacting through a repulsive contact potential. In this work, we introduce an extended version of this model by replacing the contact potential with a decaying exponential. Using the recently developed continuous matrix product states techniques, we explore the ground state phase diagram of this model by examining the superfluid and density correlation functions. At weak coupling superfluidity governs the ground state, in a similar way as in the Lieb-Liniger model. However, at strong coupling quasi-crystal and super-Tonks-Girardeau regimes are also found, which are not present in the original Lieb-Liniger case. Therefore the presence of the exponentially-decaying potential leads to a superfluid/super-Tonks-Girardeau/quasi-crystal crossover, when tuning the coupling strength from weak to strong interactions. This corresponds to a Luttinger liquid parameter in the range $K in (0, infty)$; in contrast with the Lieb-Liniger model, where $K in [1, infty)$, and the screened long-range potential, where $K in (0, 1]$.
We explore the non-equilibrium response of Chern insulators. Focusing on the Haldane model, we study the dynamics induced by quantum quenches between topological and non-topological phases. A notable feature is that the Chern number, calculated for an infinite system, is unchanged under the dynamics following such a quench. However, in finite geometries, the initial and final Hamiltonians are distinguished by the presence or absence of edge modes. We study the edge excitations and describe their impact on the experimentally-observable edge currents and magnetization. We show that, following a quantum quench, the edge currents relax towards new equilibrium values, and that there is light-cone spreading of the currents into the interior of the sample.
We formulate a Chern-Simons composite fermion theory for Fractional Chern Insulators (FCIs), whereby bare fermions are mapped into composite fermions coupled to a lattice Chern-Simons gauge theory. We apply this construction to a Chern insulator model on the kagome lattice and identify a rich structure of gapped topological phases characterized by fractionalized excitations including states with unequal filling and Hall conductance. Gapped states with the same Hall conductance at different filling fractions are characterized as realizing distinct symmetry fractionalization classes.