Chiral Basis for Qubits and Spin-Helix Decay.

We propose a qubit basis composed of transverse spin helices with kinks. Unlike the usual computational basis, this chiral basis is well-suited for describing quantum states with nontrivial topology. Choosing appropriate parameters the operators of the transverse spin components, σ_{n}^{x} and σ_{n}^{y}, become diagonal in the chiral basis, which facilitates the study of problems focused on transverse spin components. As an application, we study the temporal decay of the transverse polarization of a spin helix in the XX model that has been measured in recent cold atom experiments. We obtain an explicit universal function describing the relaxation of helices of arbitrary wavelength.

Nonlinear Transport by Bethe Bound States.

We consider nonlinear ballistic spin transport in the XXZ spin chain and derive an analytical result for the nonlinear Drude weight D^{(3)} at infinite temperatures. In contrast to the linear Drude weight D^{(1)}, we find that the result not only depends on anisotropy but also on the string length of the quasiparticles transporting the spin current. Our result provides further insights into transport by quasiparticles and raises questions about Luttinger liquid universality.

Universality and Quantum Criticality of the One-Dimensional Spinor Bose Gas.

We investigate the universal thermodynamics of the two-component one-dimensional Bose gas with contact interactions in the vicinity of the quantum critical point separating the vacuum and the ferromagnetic liquid regime. We find that the quantum critical region belongs to the universality class of the spin-degenerate impenetrable particle gas which, surprisingly, is very different from the single-component case and identify its boundaries with the peaks of the specific heat. In addition, we show that the compressibility Wilson ratio, which quantifies the relative strength of thermal and quantum fluctuations, serves as a good discriminator of the quantum regimes near the quantum critical point. Remarkably, in the Tonks-Girardeau regime, the universal contact develops a pronounced minimum, reflected in a counterintuitive narrowing of the momentum distribution as we increase the temperature. This momentum reconstruction, also present at low and intermediate momenta, signals the transition from the ferromagnetic to the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid phase and can be detected in current experiments with ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices.

Exact solution of a ratchet with switching sawtooth potential.

We consider the flashing potential ratchet model with general asymmetric potential. Using Bloch functions, we derive equations which allow for the calculation of both the ratchet's flux and higher moments of distribution for rather general potentials. We indicate how to derive the optimal transition rates for maximal velocity of the ratchet. We calculate explicitly the exact velocity of a ratchet with simple sawtooth potential from the solution of a system of 8 linear algebraic equations. Using Bloch functions, we derive the equations for the ratchet with potentials changing periodically with time. We also consider the case of the ratchet with evolution with two different potentials acting for some random periods of time.

Quantum criticality in the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain system copper pyrazine dinitrate.

Low-dimensional quantum magnets promote strong correlations between magnetic moments that lead to fascinating quantum phenomena. A particularly interesting system is the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain because it is exactly solvable by the Bethe-Ansatz method. It is approximately realized in the magnetic insulator copper pyrazine dinitrate, providing a unique opportunity for a quantitative comparison between theory and experiment. We investigate its thermodynamic properties with a particular focus on the field-induced quantum phase transition. Thermal expansion, magnetostriction, specific heat, magnetization, and magnetocaloric measurements are found to be in excellent agreement with exact Bethe-Ansatz predictions. Close to the critical field, thermodynamics obeys the expected quantum critical scaling behavior, and in particular, the magnetocaloric effect and the Grüneisen parameters diverge in a characteristic manner. Beyond its importance for quantum magnetism, our study establishes a paradigm of a quantum phase transition, which illustrates fundamental principles of quantum critical thermodynamics.

Exact probability distribution functions for Parrondo's games.

We study the discrete time dynamics of Brownian ratchet models and Parrondo's games. Using the Fourier transform, we calculate the exact probability distribution functions for both the capital dependent and history dependent Parrondo's games. In certain cases we find strong oscillations near the maximum of the probability distribution with two limiting distributions for odd and even number of rounds of the game. Indications of such oscillations first appeared in the analysis of real financial data, but now we have found this phenomenon in model systems and a theoretical understanding of the phenomenon. The method of our work can be applied to Brownian ratchets, molecular motors, and portfolio optimization.

Theory of microwave absorption by the spin-1/2 Heisenberg-Ising magnet.

We analyze the problem of microwave absorption by the Heisenberg-Ising magnet in terms of shifted moments of the imaginary part of the dynamical susceptibility. When both the Zeeman field and the wave vector of the incident microwave are parallel to the anisotropy axis, the first four moments determine the shift of the resonance frequency and the linewidth in a situation where the frequency is varied for fixed Zeeman field. For the one-dimensional model we can calculate the moments exactly. This provides exact data for the resonance shift and the linewidth at arbitrary temperatures and magnetic fields. In current ESR experiments the Zeeman field is varied for fixed frequency. We show how in this situation the moments give perturbative results for the resonance shift and for the integrated intensity at small anisotropy as well as an explicit formula connecting the linewidth with the anisotropy parameter in the high-temperature limit.

Computation of static Heisenberg-chain correlators: control over length and temperature dependence.

We communicate results on correlation functions for the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain in two particularly important cases: (a) for the infinite chain at arbitrary finite temperature T, and (b) for finite chains of arbitrary length L in the ground state. In both cases we present explicit formulas expressing the short-range correlators in a range of up to seven lattice sites in terms of a single function ω encoding the dependence of the correlators on T (L). These formulas allow us to obtain accurate numerical values for the correlators and derived quantities like the entanglement entropy. By calculating the low T (large L) asymptotics of ω we show that the asymptotics of the static correlation functions at any finite distance are T(2) (1/L(2)) terms. We obtain exact and explicit formulas for the coefficients for up to eight sites.