Observation of universal Hall response in strongly interacting Fermions.

The Hall effect, which originates from the motion of charged particles in magnetic fields, has deep consequences for the description of materials, extending far beyond condensed matter. Understanding such an effect in interacting systems represents a fundamental challenge, even for small magnetic fields. In this work, we used an atomic quantum simulator in which we tracked the motion of ultracold fermions in two-leg ribbons threaded by artificial magnetic fields. Through controllable quench dynamics, we measured the Hall response for a range of synthetic tunneling and atomic interaction strengths. We unveil a universal interaction-independent behavior above an interaction threshold, in agreement with theoretical analyses. The ability to reach hard-to-compute regimes demonstrates the power of quantum simulation to describe strongly correlated topological states of matter.

Symmetry-Protected Transport through a Lattice with a Local Particle Loss.

We study particle transport through a chain of coupled sites connected to free-fermion reservoirs at both ends, subjected to a local particle loss. The transport is characterized by calculating the conductance and particle density in the steady state using the Keldysh formalism for open quantum systems. In addition to a reduction of conductance, we find that transport can remain (almost) unaffected by the loss for certain values of the chemical potential in the lattice. We show that this "protected" transport results from the spatial symmetry of single-particle eigenstates. At a finite voltage, the density profile develops a drop at the lossy site, connected to the onset of nonballistic transport.

Transconducting Transition for a Dynamic Boundary Coupled to Several Luttinger Liquids.

We study a dynamic boundary, e.g., a mobile impurity, coupled to N independent Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids (TLLs) each with interaction parameter K. We demonstrate that for N≥2 there is a quantum phase transition at K≥1/2, where the TLL phases lock together at the particle position, resulting in a nonzero transconductance equal to e^{2}/Nh. The transition line terminates for strong coupling at K=1-(1/N), consistent with results at large N. Another type of a dynamic boundary is a superconducting (or a Bose-Einstein condensate) grain coupled to N≥2 TLLs; here the transition signals also the onset of a relevant Josephson coupling.

Measurement of the Dynamical Structure Factor of a 1D Interacting Fermi Gas.

We present measurements of the dynamical structure factor S(q,ω) of an interacting one-dimensional Fermi gas for small excitation energies. We use the two lowest hyperfine levels of the ^{6}Li atom to form a pseudospin-1/2 system whose s-wave interactions are tunable via a Feshbach resonance. The atoms are confined to one dimension by a two-dimensional optical lattice. Bragg spectroscopy is used to measure a response of the gas to density ("charge") mode excitations at a momentum q and frequency ω, as a function of the interaction strength. The spectrum is obtained by varying ω, while the angle between two laser beams determines q, which is fixed to be less than the Fermi momentum k_{F}. The measurements agree well with Tomonaga-Luttinger theory.

Bound States and Field-Polarized Haldane Modes in a Quantum Spin Ladder.

The challenge of one-dimensional systems is to understand their physics beyond the level of known elementary excitations. By high-resolution neutron spectroscopy in a quantum spin-ladder material, we probe the leading multiparticle excitation by characterizing the two-magnon bound state at zero field. By applying high magnetic fields, we create and select the singlet (longitudinal) and triplet (transverse) excitations of the fully spin-polarized ladder, which have not been observed previously and are close analogs of the modes anticipated in a polarized Haldane chain. Theoretical modeling of the dynamical response demonstrates our complete quantitative understanding of these states.

Lattice-Assisted Spectroscopy: A Generalized Scanning Tunneling Microscope for Ultracold Atoms.

We propose a scheme to measure the frequency-resolved local particle and hole spectra of any optical lattice-confined system of correlated ultracold atoms that offers single-site addressing and imaging, which is now an experimental reality. Combining perturbation theory and time-dependent density matrix renormalization group simulations, we quantitatively test and validate this approach of lattice-assisted spectroscopy on several one-dimensional example systems, such as the superfluid and Mott insulator, with and without a parabolic trap, and finally on edge states of the bosonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. We highlight extensions of our basic scheme to obtain an even wider variety of interesting and important frequency resolved spectra.

Finite-temperature crossovers in periodic disordered systems.

We consider the static properties of periodic structures in weak random disorder. We apply a functional renormalization group approach (FRG) and a Gaussian variational method (GVM) to study their displacement correlations. We focus in particular on the effects of temperature and we compute explicitly the crossover length scales separating different regimes in the displacement correlation function. We compare the FRG and GVM results and find excellent agreement. We show that the FRG predicts, in addition, the existence of a third length scale associated with the screening of the disorder by thermal fluctuations and discuss a protocol to observe it.

Competing regimes of motion of 1D mobile impurities.

We show that a distinguishable mobile impurity inside a one-dimensional many-body state at zero temperature generally does not behave like a quasiparticle. Instead, both the impurity dynamics as well as the ground state of the bath are fundamentally transformed by a diverging number of zero-energy excitations being generated, leading to what we call infrared-dominated (ID) dynamics. Combining analytics and density matrix renormalization group numerics, we provide a general formula for the power law governing ID dynamics at zero momentum, discuss a threshold beyond which quasiparticle dynamics may occur again, and study the competition between the ID and quasiparticle universality classes at larger impurity momenta.

Pinning-dependent field-driven domain wall dynamics and thermal scaling in an ultrathin Pt/Co/Pt magnetic film.

Magnetic-field-driven domain wall motion in an ultrathin Pt/Co(0.45 nm)/Pt ferromagnetic film with perpendicular anisotropy is studied over a wide temperature range. Three different pinning dependent dynamical regimes are clearly identified: the creep, the thermally assisted flux flow, and the depinning, as well as their corresponding crossovers. The wall elastic energy and microscopic parameters characterizing the pinning are determined. Both the extracted thermal rounding exponent at the depinning transition, ψ=0.15, and the Larkin length crossover exponent, ϕ=0.24, fit well with the numerical predictions.

Phase diagram of a three-orbital model for high-Tc cuprate superconductors.

We study the phase diagram of an effective three-orbital model of the cuprates using variational Monte Carlo calculations on asymptotically large lattices and exact diagonalization on a 24-site cluster. States with ordered orbital current loops (LC), itinerant antiferromagnetism, d-wave superconductivity, and the Fermi liquid are investigated using appropriate Slater determinants refined by Jastrow functions for on-site and intersite correlations. We find an LC state stable in the thermodynamic limit for a range of parameters compatible with the Fermi surface of a typical hole doped superconductor provided the transfer integrals between the oxygen atoms have signs determined by the effects of indirect transfer through the Cu-4s orbitals as suggested by Andersen. The results of the calculations are that the LC phase gives way at lower dopings to an antiferromagnetism phase, and at larger dopings to superconductivity and Fermi liquid phases.

Spin ladders and quantum simulators for Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids.

Magnetic insulators have proven to be usable as quantum simulators for itinerant interacting quantum systems. In particular the compound (C(5)H(12)N)(2)CuBr(4) (for short: (Hpip)(2)CuBr(4)) was shown to be a remarkable realization of a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) and allowed us to quantitatively test the TLL theory. Substitution weakly disorders this class of compounds and thus allows us to use them to tackle questions pertaining to the effect of disorder in TLL as well, such as that of the formation of the Bose glass. In this paper we present, as a first step in this direction, a study of the properties of the related (Hpip)(2)CuCl(4) compound. We determine the exchange couplings and compute the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the specific heat, using a finite temperature density matrix renormalization group procedure. Comparison with the measured specific heat at zero magnetic field confirms the exchange parameters and Hamiltonian for the (Hpip)(2)CuCl(4) compound, giving the basis needed to begin studying the disorder effects.

Domain wall roughness in stripe phase BiFeO3 thin films.

Using the model system of ferroelectric domain walls, we explore the effects of long-range dipolar interactions and periodic ordering on the behavior of pinned elastic interfaces. In piezoresponse force microscopy studies of the characteristic roughening of intrinsic 71° stripe domains in BiFeO3 thin films, we find unexpectedly high values of the roughness exponent ζ=0.74±0.10, significantly different from those obtained for artificially written domain walls in this and other ferroelectric materials. The large value of the exponent suggests that a random field-dominated pinning, combined with stronger disorder and strain effects due to the step-bunching morphology of the samples, could be the dominant source of pinning in the system.

Spectrum of a magnetized strong-leg quantum spin ladder.

Inelastic neutron scattering is used to measure the spin excitation spectrum of the Heisenberg S=1/2 ladder material (C7H10N)2CuBr4 in its entirety, both in the gapped spin liquid and the magnetic field-induced Tomonaga-Luttinger spin liquid regimes. A fundamental change of the spin dynamics is observed between these two regimes. Density matrix renormalization group calculations quantitatively reproduce and help understand the observed commensurate and incommensurate excitations. The results validate long-standing quantum field-theoretical predictions but also test the limits of that approach.

Multiscaling analysis of ferroelectric domain wall roughness.

Using multiscaling analysis, we compare the characteristic roughening of ferroelectric domain walls in Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 thin films with numerical simulations of weakly pinned one-dimensional interfaces. Although at length scales up to L(MA)≥5 µm the ferroelectric domain walls behave similarly to the numerical interfaces, showing a simple monoaffine scaling (with a well-defined roughness exponent ζ), we demonstrate more complex scaling at higher length scales, making the walls globally multiaffine (varying ζ at different observation length scales). The dominant contributions to this multiaffine scaling appear to be very localized variations in the disorder potential, possibly related to dislocation defects present in the substrate.

Two-dimensional Fermi liquid with attractive interactions.

We realize and study an attractively interacting two-dimensional Fermi liquid. Using momentum-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we measure the self-energy, determine the contact parameter of the short-range interaction potential, and find their dependence on the interaction strength. We successfully compare the measurements to a theoretical analysis, properly taking into account the finite temperature, harmonic trap, and the averaging over several two-dimensional gases with different peak densities.

Spectral and thermodynamic properties of a strong-leg quantum spin ladder.

The strong-leg S=1/2 Heisenberg spin ladder system (C(7)H(10)N)(2)CuBr(4) is investigated using density matrix renormalization group calculations, inelastic neutron scattering, and bulk magnetothermodynamic measurements. Measurements showed qualitative differences compared to the strong-rung case. A long-lived two-triplon bound state is confirmed to persist across most of the Brillouin zone in a zero field. In applied fields, in the Tomonaga-Luttinger spin-liquid phase, elementary excitations are attractive, rather than repulsive. In the presence of weak interladder interactions, the strong-leg system is considerably more prone to three-dimensional ordering.

Thermal rounding exponent of the depinning transition of an elastic string in a random medium.

We study numerically thermal effects at the depinning transition of an elastic string driven in a two-dimensional uncorrelated disorder potential. The velocity of the string exactly at the sample critical force is shown to behave as V~T(ψ), with ψ the thermal rounding exponent. We show that the computed value of the thermal rounding exponent, ψ=0.15, is robust and accounts for the different scaling properties of several observables both in the steady state and in the transient relaxation to the steady state. In particular, we show the compatibility of the thermal rounding exponent with the scaling properties of the steady-state structure factor, the universal short-time dynamics of the transient velocity at the sample critical force, and the velocity scaling function describing the joint dependence of the steady-state velocity on the external drive and temperature.

Dynamical properties of the one-dimensional spin-1/2 Bose-Hubbard model near a Mott-insulator to ferromagnetic-liquid transition.

We investigate the dynamics of the one-dimensional strongly repulsive spin-1/2 Bose-Hubbard model for filling nu

Thermodynamics of the spin Luttinger liquid in a model ladder material.

The phase diagram in temperature and magnetic field of the metal-organic, two-leg, spin-ladder compound (C5H12N)2CuBr4 is studied by measurements of the specific heat and the magnetocaloric effect. We demonstrate the presence of an extended spin Luttinger-liquid phase between two field-induced quantum critical points and over a broad range of temperature. Based on an ideal spin-ladder Hamiltonian, comprehensive numerical modeling of the ladder specific heat yields excellent quantitative agreement with the experimental data across the entire phase diagram.

Controlling Luttinger liquid physics in spin ladders under a magnetic field.

We present a 14N nuclear magnetic resonance study of a single crystal of CuBr4(C5H12N)2 (BPCB) consisting of weakly coupled spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic ladders. Treating ladders in the gapless phase as Luttinger liquids, we are able to fully account for (i) the magnetic field dependence of the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate T1(-1) at 250 mK and for (ii) the phase transition to a 3D ordered phase occurring below 110 mK due to weak interladder exchange coupling. BPCB is thus an excellent model system where the possibility to control Luttinger liquid parameters in a continuous manner is demonstrated and the Luttinger liquid model tested in detail over the whole fermion band.