Daniel Podolsky, Eugene Demler, Kedar Damle, B. I. Halperin
Motivated by the recent STM experiments of J.E. Hoffman et.al. and C. Howald et.al., we study the effects of weak translational symmetry breaking on the quasiparticle spectrum of a d-wave superconductor. We develop a general formalism to discuss periodic charge order, as well as quasiparticle scattering off localized defects. We argue that the STM experiments in $Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+δ}$ cannot be explained using a simple charge density wave order parameter, but are consistent with the presence of a periodic modulation in the electron hopping or pairing amplitude. We review the effects of randomness and pinning of the charge order and compare it to the impurity scattering of quasiparticles. We also discuss implications of weak translational symmetry breaking for ARPES experiments.
Eugene Demler, Chetan Nayak, Hae-Young Kee, Yong Baek Kim, T. Senthil
We discuss possible patterns of electron fractionalization in strongly interacting electron systems. A popular possibility is one in which the charge of the electron has been liberated from its Fermi statistics. Such a fractionalized phase contains in it the seed of superconductivity. Another possibility occurs when the spin of the electron, rather than its charge, is liberated from its Fermi statistics. Such a phase contains in it the seed of magnetism, rather than superconductivity. We consider models in which both of these phases occur and study possible phase transitions between them. We describe other fractionalized phases, distinct from these, in which fractions of the electron themselves fractionalize, and discuss the topological characterization of such phases. These ideas are illustrated with specific models of p-wave superconductors, Kondo lattices, and coexistence between d-wave superconductivity and antiferromagnetism.
Sankar Das Sarma, Eugene Demler
We discuss and review recent advances in our understaning of quantum Hall systems where additional quantum numbers associated with spin and/or layer (pseudospin) indices play crucial roles in creating exotic quantum phases. Among the novel quantum phases we discuss are the recently discovered canted antiferromagnetic phase, the spontaneous interlayer coherent phase, and various spin Bose glass phases. We describe the theoretical models used in studying these novel phases and the various experimental techniques being used to search for these phases. Both zero temperature quantum phase transitions and finite temperature phase transitions are discussed. Emphasis in this article is on the recent developments in novel quantum phases and quantum phase transitions in bilayer quantum Hall systems where nontrivial magnetic ground states associated with spontaneous spin symmetry breaking play central role.
Eugene Demler, Andrei Maltsev
We investigate theoretically soliton excitations and dynamics of their formation in strongly correlated systems of ultracold bosonic atoms in two and three dimensional optical lattices. We derive equations of nonlinear hydrodynamics in the regime of strong interactions and incommensurate fillings, when atoms can be treated as hard core bosons. When parameters change in one direction only we obtain Korteweg-de Vries type equation away from half-filling and modified KdV equation at half-filling. We apply this general analysis to a problem of the decay of the density step. We consider stability of one dimensional solutions to transverse fluctuations. Our results are also relevant for understanding nonequilibrium dynamics of lattice spin models.
Eugene Demler, Subir Sachdev, Ying Zhang
We argue that recent neutron scattering measurements by Lake et. al. (Science 291, 1759 (2001)) of the spin excitation spectrum of LSCO in a magnetic field can be understood in terms of proximity to a phase with co-existing superconductivity and spin density wave order. We present a general theory for such quantum transitions, and argue that their low energy spin fluctuations are controlled by a singular correction from the superflow kinetic energy, acting in the region outside the vortex cores. We propose numerous experimental tests of our theory.
James P. Sethna, Valerie R. Coffman, Eugene Demler
We develop a simple computational model for cell boundary evolution in plastic deformation. We study the cell boundary size distribution and cell boundary misorientation distribution that experimentally have been found to have scaling forms that are largely material independent. The cell division acts as a source term in the misorientation distribution which significantly alters the scaling form, giving it a linear slope at small misorientation angles as observed in the experiments. We compare the results of our simulation to two closely related exactly solvable models which exhibit scaling behavior at late times: (i) fragmentation theory and (ii) a random walk in rotation space with a source term. We find that the scaling exponents in our simulation agree with those of the theories, and that the scaling collapses obey the same equations, but that the shape of the scaling functions depend upon the methods used to measure sizes and to weight averages and histograms.
Eugene Demler, Daw-Wei Wang, S. Das Sarma, B. I. Halperin
We consider stripe formation in quantum Hall systems at integer filling factors. We use Hartree-Fock calculations to obtain the phase diagram of bilayer quantum Hall systems at $ν=4n+1$ in a tilted magnetic field. We derive and analyze an effective low energy theory for the stripe phases which may be present in such systems. We discuss the possibility of stripe formation in wide well systems in a tilted magnetic field and suggest that the resistance anisotropy, observed recently by W. Pan et.al. [phys. Rev. B 64 (2001) 121305], may be due to the existence of a skyrmion stripe phase.
Eugene Demler, Hiroshi Kohno, Shou-Cheng Zhang
In this paper, we present analytical and numerical calculations of the pi resonance in the t-J model. We show in detail how the pi resonance in the particle-particle channel couples to and appears in the dynamical spin correlation function in a superconducting state. The contribution of the pi resonance to the spin excitation spectrum can be estimated from general model-independent sum rules, and it agrees with our detailed calculations. The results are in overall agreement with the exact diagonalization studies of the t-J model. Earlier calculations predicted the correct doping dependence of the neutron resonance peak in the YBCO superconductor, and in this paper detailed energy and momentum dependence of the spin correlation function is presented. The microscopic equations of motion obtained within current formalism agree with that of the SO(5) nonlinear sigma model, where the pi resonance is interpreted as a pseudo Goldstone mode of the spontaneous SO(5) symmetry breaking.
Eugene Demler, Shou-Cheng Zhang
Within the t-J model of copper-oxides, the condensation energy can be related to the change in the dynamical spin structure factor between the superconducting and the normal states. By analyzing previous experimental data, we show that the change associated with the resonant neutron scattering peak found in $YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ can quantitatively account for the condensation energy. We argue that this analysis suggests a microscopic mechanism for high Tc superconductivity.
Silvio Rabello, Hiroshi Kohno, Eugene Demler, Shou-Cheng Zhang
We construct a class of microscopic electron models with exact SO(5) symmetry between antiferromagnetic and d-wave superconducting ground states. There is an exact one-to-one correspondence between both single-particle and collective excitations in both phases. SO(5) symmetry breaking terms can be introduced and classified according to irreducible representations of the exact SO(5) algebra. The resulting phase diagram and collective modes are identical to that of the SO(5) nonlinear sigma model.
Eugene Demler, Shou-Cheng Zhang, Stefan Meixner, Werner Hanke
Greiter claimed erroneously that the pi-excitation of the Hubbard model has an energy of the order of U. This mistake originates from a inconsistent treatment of the two particle Hartree energy and the Hartee correction to the chemical potential. In any self-consistent calculations, these two contributions cancel exactly, as shown by Kohn, Luttinger and Ward. We also show that his interpretation of the finite-size studies is inconsistent.
Eugene Demler, Shou-Cheng Zhang, Nejat Bulut, Douglas J. Scalapino
In this series of papers we present a detailed study of the particle--particle collective excitations of the Hubbard model, and their contribution to the density and spin excitation spectrum. In the first paper, we shall investigate the singlet particle--particle pair with momentum $(π,π)$, the $η$ particle, of the negative--$U$ Hubbard model. We review three previously obtained theorems about the $η$ particle and develop a self-consistent linear response theory which takes into account its contribution to the density excitation spectrum in the superconducting state. We show that this self--consistent theory agrees with the exact theorems as well as the results of numerical Monte Carlo simulations.
Eugene Demler, Shou-Cheng Zhang
Feb 15, 1995·cond-mat·PDF Recent polarized neutron scattering experiments on $YBa_2 Cu_3 O_7$ have revealed a sharp spectral peak at the $(π,π)$ in reciprocal lattice centered around the energy transfer of $41\ meV$. We offer a theoretical explanation of this remarkable experiment in terms of a new collective mode in the particle particle channel of the Hubbard model. This collective mode yields valuable information about the symmetry of the superconducting gap.
Eugene Demler, Shou-Cheng Zhang
In this work we investigate properties of fermions in the SO(5) theory of high Tc superconductivity. We show that the adiabatic time evolution of a SO(5) superspin vector leads to a non-Abelian SU(2) holonomy of the SO(5) spinor states. Physically, this non-trivial holonomy arises from the non-zero overlap between the SDW and BCS quasi-particle states. While the usual Berry's phase of a SO(3) spinor is described by a Dirac magnetic monopole at the degeneracy point, the non-Abelian holonomy of a SO(5) spinor is described by a Yang monopole at the degeneracy point, and is deeply related to the existence of the second Hopf map from $S^7$ to $S^4$. We conclude this work by extending the bosonic SO(5) nonlinear sigma model to include the fermionic states around the gap nodes as 4 component Dirac fermions coupled to SU(2) gauge fields in 2+1 dimensions.
E. Demler, A. Maltsev, A. Prokofiev
We study semiclassical dynamics of anisotropic Heisenberg models in two and three dimensions. Such models describe lattice spin systems and hard core bosons in optical lattices. We solve numerically Landau-Lifshitz type equations on a lattice and show that in the phase diagram of magnetization and interaction anisotropy, one can identify several distinct regimes of dynamics. These regions can be distinguished based on the character of one dimensional solitonic excitations, and stability of such solitons to transverse modulation. Small amplitude and long wavelength perturbations can be analyzed analytically using mapping of non-linear hydrodynamic equations to KdV type equations. Numerically we find that properties of solitons and dynamics in general remain similar to our analytical results even for large amplitude and short distance inhomogeneities, which allows us to obtain a universal dynamical phase diagram. As a concrete example we study dynamical evolution of the system starting from a state with magnetization step and show that formation of oscillatory regions and their stability to transverse modulation can be understood from the properties of solitons. In regimes unstable to transverse modulation we observe formation of lump type solutions with modulation in all directions. We discuss implications of our results for experiments with ultracold atoms.
Mehrtash Babadi, Eugene Demler
We theoretically analyze a quasi-two-dimensional system of fermionic polar molecules in a harmonic transverse confining potential. The renormalized energy bands are calculated by solving the Hartree-Fock equation numerically for various trap and dipolar interaction strengths. The inter-subband excitations of the system are studied in the conserving time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) approximation from the perspective of lattice modulation spectroscopy experiments. We find that the excitation spectrum consists of both inter-subband particle-hole excitation continuums and anti-bound excitons, arising from the anisotropic nature of dipolar interactions. The excitonic modes capture the majority of the spectral weight. We also evaluate the inter-subband transition rates in order to investigate the nature of the excitonic modes and find that they are anti-bound states formed from particle-hole excitations arising from several subbands. Our results indicate that the excitonic effects are present for interaction strengths and temperatures accessible in current experiments with polar molecules.
Emanuele G. Dalla Torre, Eugene Demler, Thierry Giamarchi, Ehud Altman
Equilibrium thermal noise is known to destroy any quantum phase transition. What are the effects of non-equilibrium noise? In two recent papers we have considered the specific case of a resistively-shunted Josephson junction driven by $1/f$ charge noise. At equilibrium, this system undergoes a sharp quantum phase transition at a critical value of the shunt resistance. By applying a real-time renormalization group (RG) approach, we found that the noise has three main effects: It shifts the phase transition, renormalizes the resistance, and generates an effective temperature. In this paper we explain how to understand these effects using simpler arguments, based on Kirchhoff laws and time-dependent perturbation theory. We also show how these effects modify physical observables and especially the current-voltage characteristic of the junction. In the appendix we describe two possible realizations of the model with ultracold atoms confined to one dimension.
Manuel Endres, Takeshi Fukuhara, David Pekker, Marc Cheneau, Peter Schauß, Christian Gross, Eugene Demler, Stefan Kuhr, Immanuel Bloch
Spontaneous symmetry breaking plays a key role in our understanding of nature. In a relativistic field theory, a broken continuous symmetry leads to the emergence of two types of fundamental excitations: massless Nambu-Goldstone modes and a massive `Higgs' amplitude mode. An excitation of Higgs type is of crucial importance in the standard model of elementary particles and also appears as a fundamental collective mode in quantum many-body systems. Whether such a mode exists in low-dimensional systems as a resonance-like feature or becomes over-damped through coupling to Nambu-Goldstone modes has been a subject of theoretical debate. Here we reveal and study a Higgs mode in a two-dimensional neutral superfluid close to the transition to a Mott insulating phase. We unambiguously identify the mode by observing the expected softening of the onset of spectral response when approaching the quantum critical point. In this regime, our system is described by an effective relativistic field theory with a two-component quantum-field, constituting a minimal model for spontaneous breaking of a continuous symmetry. Additionally, all microscopic parameters of our system are known from first principles and the resolution of our measurement allows us to detect excited states of the many-body system at the level of individual quasiparticles. This allows for an in-depth study of Higgs excitations, which also addresses the consequences of reduced dimensionality and confinement of the system. Our work constitutes a first step in exploring emergent relativistic models with ultracold atomic gases.
Kartiek Agarwal, Ivar Martin, Mikhail D. Lukin, Eugene Demler
While two levels systems (TLSs) are ubiqitous in solid state systems, microscopic understanding of their nature remains an outstanding problem. Conflicting phenomenological models are used to describe TLSs in seemingly similar materials when probed with different experimental techniques. Specifically, bulk measurements in amorphous solids have been interpreted using the model of a tunneling atom or group of atoms, whereas TLSs observed in the insulating barriers of Josephson junction qubits have been understood in terms of tunneling of individual electrons. Motivated by recent experiments studying TLSs in Josephson junctions, especially the effects of elastic strain on TLS properties, we analyze interaction of the electronic TLS with phonons. We demonstrate that strong polaronic effects lead to dramatic changes in TLS properties. Our model gives a quantitative understanding of the TLS relaxation and dephasing as probed in Josephson junction qubits, while providing an alternative interpretation of bulk experiments. We demonstrate that a model of polaron dressed electronic TLS leads to estimates for the density and distribution of parameters of TLSs consistent with bulk experiments in amorphous solids. This model explains such surprising observations of recent experiments as the existence of minima in the energy of some TLSs as a function of strain and makes concrete predictions for the character of TLS dephasing near such minima. We argue that better understanding of the microscopic nature of TLSs can be used to improve properties of quantum devices, from an enhancement of relaxation time of TLSs, to creating new types of strongly interacting optomechanical systems.
David Pekker, Eugene Demler
Tunability of effective two body interactions near Feshbach resonances is a powerful experimental tool in systems of ultracold atoms. It has been used to explore a variety of intriguing phenomena in recent experiments. However not all of the many-body properties of such systems can be understood in terms of effective models with contact interaction given by the scattering length of the two particles in vacuum. For example, when a two component Fermi mixture is quenched to the BEC side of the Feshbach resonance, a positive scattering length suggests that interactions are repulsive and thus collective dynamics should be dominated by the Stoner instability toward a spin polarized ferromagnetic state. On the other hand, existence of low energy two particle bound states suggests a competing instability driven by molecule formation. Compe- tition between spontaneous magnetization and pair formation is determined by the the interplay of two-particle and many-body phenomena. In these lecture notes we summarize our recent theoretical results, which analyzed this competition from the point of view of unstable collective modes. We also comment on the relevance of this theoretical analysis to recent experiments reported in Ref. (Jo, Lee, Choi, Christensen, Kim, Thywissen, Pritchard and Ketterle, 2009).