No Arabic abstract
We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of Abelian anyons in a one-dimensional system. We find that the interplay of anyonic statistics and interactions gives rise to spatially asymmetric particle transport together with a novel dynamical symmetry that depends on the anyonic statistical angle and the sign of interactions. Moreover, we show that anyonic statistics induces asymmetric spreading of quantum information, characterized by asymmetric light cones of out-of-time-ordered correlators. Such asymmetric dynamics is in sharp contrast with the dynamics of conventional fermions or bosons, where both the transport and information dynamics are spatially symmetric. We further discuss experiments with cold atoms where the predicted phenomena can be observed using state-of-the-art technologies. Our results pave the way toward experimentally probing anyonic statistics through non-equilibrium dynamics.
Ring exchange is an elementary interaction for modeling unconventional topological matters which hold promise for efficient quantum information processing. We report the observation of four-body ring-exchange interactions and the topological properties of anyonic excitations within an ultracold atom system. A minimum toric code Hamiltonian in which the ring exchange is the dominant term, was implemented by engineering a Hubbard Hamiltonian that describes atomic spins in disconnected plaquette arrays formed by two orthogonal superlattices. The ring-exchange interactions were resolved from the dynamical evolutions in the spin orders, matching well with the predicted energy gaps between two anyonic excitations of the spin system. A braiding operation was applied to the spins in the plaquettes and an induced phase $1.00(3)pi$ in the four-spin state was observed, confirming $frac{1}{2}$-anynoic statistics. This work represents an essential step towards studying topological matters with many-body systems and the applications in quantum computation and simulation.
We point out that the momentum distribution is not a proper observable for a system of anyons in two-dimensions. In view of anyons as Wilczeks composite charged flux-tubes, this is a consequence of the fact that the orthogonal components of the kinetic momentum operator do not commute at the position of a flux tube, and thus cannot be diagonalized in the same basis. As a substitute for the momentum distribution of an anyonic (spatially localized) state, we propose to use the asymptotic single-particle density after expansion of anyons in free space from the state. This definition is identical with the standard one when the statistical parameter approaches that for bosons or fermions. Exact examples of expansion dynamics, which underpin our proposal, and observables that can be used to measure anyonic statistics, are shown.
We consider the non-equilibrium dynamics of two-component one dimensional quantum gases in the limit of extreme population imbalance where the minority species has but a single particle. We consider the situation where the gas is prepared in a state with a single spatially localized exciton: the single particle of the minority species is spatially localized while the density of the majority species in the vicinity of the minority particle sees a depression. Remarkably, we are able to consider cases where the gas contains on the order of $N=100$ particles, comparable to that studied in experiments on cold atomic gases. We are able to do by exploiting the integrability of the gas together with the observation that the excitonic state can be constructed through a simple superposition of exact eigenstates of the gas. The number of states in this superposition, rather than being exponentially large in the number of particles, scales linearly with $N$. We study the evolution of such spatially localized states in both strongly interacting Bose and Fermi gases. The behavior of the light cones when the interaction strength and density of the gas is varied can be understood from exact results for the spin excitation spectrum in these systems. We argue that the light cone in both cases exhibits scaling collapse. However unique to the Bose gas, we show that the presence of gapped finite-momentum roton-like excitations provide the Bose gas dynamics with secondary light cones.
Stimulated by the experimental realization of spin-dependent tunneling via gradient magnetic field [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 225301 (2013); Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 185301 (2013)], we investigate dynamics of Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener tunneling of single spin-half particles in a periodic potential under the influence of a spin-dependent constant force. In analogy to the Wannier-Stark system, we call our system as the Wannier-Zeeman system. If there is no coupling between the two spin states, the system can be described by two crossing Wannier-Stark ladders with opposite tilts. The spatial crossing between two Wannier-Stark ladders becomes a spatial anti-crossing if the two spin states are coupled by external fields. For a wave-packet away from the spatial anti-crossing, due to the spin-dependent constant force, it will undergo spatial Landau-Zener transitions assisted by the intrinsic intra-band Bloch oscillations, which we call the Bloch-Landau-Zener dynamics. If the inter-spin coupling is sufficiently strong, the system undergoes adiabatic Bloch-Landau-Zener dynamics, in which the spin dynamics follows the local dressed states. Otherwise, for non-strong inter-spin couplings, the system undergoes non-adiabatic Bloch-Landau-Zener dynamics.
We propose a standard time-of-flight experiment as a method for observing the anyonic statistics of quasiholes in a fractional quantum Hall state of ultracold atoms. The quasihole states can be stably prepared by pinning the quasiholes with localized potentials and a measurement of the mean square radius of the freely expanding cloud, which is related to the average total angular momentum of the initial state, offers direct signatures of the statistical phase. Our proposed method is validated by Monte Carlo calculations for $ u=1/2$ and $1/3$ fractional quantum Hall liquids containing a realistic number of particles. Extensions to quantum Hall liquids of light and to non-Abelian anyons are briefly discussed.