Entanglement in quantum many-body systems is the key concept for future technology and science, opening up a possibility to explore uncharted realms in an enormously large Hilbert space. The hybrid quantum-classical algorithms have been suggested to
control quantum entanglement of many-body systems, and yet their applicability is intrinsically limited by the numbers of qubits and quantum operations. Here we propose a theory which overcomes the limitations by combining advantages of the hybrid algorithms and the standard mean-field-theory in condensed matter physics, named as mean-operator-theory. We demonstrate that the number of quantum operations to prepare an entangled target many-body state such as symmetry-protected-topological states is significantly reduced by introducing a mean-operator. We also show that a class of mean-operators is expressed as time-evolution operators and our theory is directly applicable to quantum simulations with $^{87}$Rb neutral atoms or trapped $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ions.
Quantized transports of fermions are topological phenomena determined by the sum of the Chern numbers of all the energy bands below the Fermi energy. For bosonic excitations, e.g. phonons and magnons in a crystal, topological transport is dominated b
y the Chern number of the lowest energy band because the energy distribution of the bosons is limited below the thermal energy. Here, we demonstrate the existence of topological transport by bosonic magnons in a lattice of magnetic skyrmions - topological defects formed by a vortex-like texture of spins. We find a distinct thermal Hall signal when the ferromagnetic spins in an insulating polar magnet GaV4Se8 form magnetic skyrmions. Its origin is identified as the topological thermal Hall effect of magnons in which the trajectories of these magnons are bent by an emergent magnetic field produced by the magnetic skyrmions. Our theoretical simulations confirm that the thermal Hall effect is indeed governed by the Chern number of the lowest energy band of the magnons in a triangular lattice of magnetic skyrmions. Our findings lay a foundation for studying topological phenomena of other bosonic excitations.
Recent discovery of the half quantized thermal Hall conductivity in $alpha$-RuCl$_3$, a candidate material for the Kitaev spin liquid, suggests the presence of a highly entangled quantum state in external magnetic fields. This field induced phase app
ears between the low field zig-zag magnetic order and the high field polarized state. Motivated by this experiment, we study possible field induced quantum phases in theoretical models of the Kitaev magnets, using the two dimensional tensor network approach or infinite tensor product states. We find various quantum ground states in addition to the chiral Kitaev spin liquid occupying a small area in the phase diagram. They form a band of emergent quantum phases in an intermediate window of external magnetic fields, somewhat reminiscent of the experiment. We discuss the implications of these results in view of the experiment and previous theoretical studies.
We provide new insights into the Abelian and non-Abelian chiral Kitaev spin liquids on the star lattice using the recently proposed loop gas (LG) and string gas (SG) states [H.-Y. Lee, R. Kaneko, T. Okubo, N. Kawashima, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 087203 (
2019)]. Those are compactly represented in the language of tensor network. By optimizing only one or two variational parameters, accurate ansatze are found in the whole phase diagram of the Kitaev model on the star lattice. In particular, the variational energy of the LG state becomes exact(within machine precision) at two limits in the model, and the criticality at one of those is analytically derived from the LG feature. It reveals that the Abelian CSLs are well demonstrated by the short-ranged LG while the non-Abelian CSLs are adiabatically connected to the critical LG where the macroscopic loops appear. Furthermore, by constructing the minimally entangled states and exploiting their entanglement spectrum and entropy, we identify the nature of anyons and the chiral edge modes in the non-Abelian phase with the Ising conformal field theory.
There has been a great interest in magnetic field induced quantum spin liquids in Kitaev magnets after the discovery of neutron scattering continuum and half quantized thermal Hall conductivity in the material $alpha$-RuCl$_3$. In this work, we provi
de a semiclassical analysis of the relevant theoretical models on large system sizes, and compare the results to previous studies on quantum models with small system sizes. We find a series of competing magnetic orders with fairly large unit cells at intermediate magnetic fields, which are most likely missed by previous approaches. We show that quantum fluctuations are typically strong in these large unit cell orders, while their magnetic excitations may resemble a scattering continuum and give rise to a large thermal Hall conductivity. Our work provides an important basis for a thorough investigation of emergent spin liquids and competing phases in Kitaev magnets.
We provide a framework for understanding the gapless Kitaev spin liquid (KSL) in the language of tensor network(TN). Without introducing Majorana fermion, most of the features of the KSL including the symmetries, gauge structure, criticality and vort
ex-freeness are explained in a compact TN representation. Our construction reveals a hidden string gas structure of the KSL. With only two variational parameters to adjust, we obtain an accurate KSL ansatz with the bond dimension D = 8 in a compact form, where the energy is about 0.007% higher than the exact one. In addition, the opening of gap and non-Abelian phase driven by a magnetic field are naturally understood in our construction.
A clear thermal Hall signal ($kappa_{xy}$) was observed in the spin liquid phase of the $S=1/2$ kagome antiferromagnet Ca kapellasite (CaCu$_3$(OH)$_6$Cl$_2cdot 0.6$H$_2$O). We found that $kappa_{xy}$ is well reproduced, both qualitatively and quanti
tatively, using the Schwinger-boson mean-field theory with the Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya interaction of $D/J sim 0.1$. In particular, $kappa_{xy}$ values of Ca kapellasite and those of another kagome antiferromagnet, volborthite, converge to one single curve in simulations modeled using Schwinger bosons, indicating a common temperature dependence of $kappa_{xy}$ for the spins of a kagome antiferromagnet.
