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Mitra, Aditi

Publications and source records attributed to Mitra, Aditi.

At least 19 records

Universal model of Floquet operator Krylov space

It is shown that the stroboscopic time evolution under a Floquet unitary, in any spatial dimension, and of any Hermitian operator, can be mapped to an operator Krylov space, which is identical to that generated by the edge operator of the noninteracting Floquet transverse-field Ising model (TFIM) in one-spatial dimension, and with inhomogeneous Ising and transverse field couplings. The latter has four topological phases reflected by the absence (topologically trivial) or presence (topologically nontrivial) of edge modes at 0 and/or π quasienergies. It is shown that the Floquet dynamics share certain universal features characterized by how the Krylov parameters vary in the topological phase diagram of the Floquet TFIM with homogeneous couplings. Furthermore, these results are highlighted through examples, all chosen for numerical convenience to be in one spatial dimension: nonintegrable Floquet spin 1/2 chains and Floquet Z 3 clock model where the latter hosts period-tripled edge modes.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Floquet product mode

Results are presented for the dynamics of edge modes in interacting Floquet Ising chains. It is shown that in addition to the quasistable 0 and π edge modes, a third long lived edge mode arising from the operator product of the 0 and π edge modes exists. Depending on the microscopic parameters, this Floquet product mode is shown to have a substantially longer lifetime than the individual 0 and π modes. This is triggered by a scattering process which converts a 0 mode into a π mode while scattering two bulk excitations. This process can lead to a rapid decay of both 0 and π mode without affecting the product mode.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Strong Zero Modes in Integrable Quantum Circuits

It is a classic result that certain interacting integrable spin chains host robust edge modes known as strong zero modes (SZMs). In this Letter, we extend this result to the Floquet setting of local quantum circuits, focusing on a prototypical model providing an integrable Trotterization for the evolution of the XXZ Heisenberg spin chain. By exploiting the algebraic structures of integrability, we show that an exact SZM operator can be constructed for these integrable quantum circuits in certain regions of parameter space. Our construction, which recovers a well-known result by Paul Fendley in the continuous-time limit, relies on a set of commuting transfer matrices known from integrability, and allows us to easily prove important properties of the SZM, including normalizabilty. Our approach is different from previous methods and could be of independent interest even in the Hamiltonian setting. Furthermore, our predictions, which are corroborated by numerical simulations of infinite-temperature autocorrelation functions, are potentially interesting for implementations of the XXZ quantum circuit on available quantum platforms.

1-dimensional spin chains↗

Disorder-induced topological phase transition in a driven Majorana chain

Here, we study a periodically driven one-dimensional Kitaev model in the presence of disorder. In the clean limit our model exhibits four topological phases corresponding to the existence or nonexistence of edge modes at zero and π quasienergy. When potential disorder is added, the system parameters get renormalized and the system may exhibit a topological phase transition. When starting from the Majorana π mode (MPM) phase, which hosts only edge Majoranas with quasienergy π, disorder induces a transition into a neighboring phase with both π and zero modes on the edges. We characterize the disordered system using (i) exact diagonalization, (ii) Arnoldi mapping onto an effective tight-binding chain, and (iii) topological entanglement entropy.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Slowly decaying zero mode in a weakly nonintegrable boundary impurity model

The transverse field Ising model (TFIM) on the half-infinite chain possesses an edge zero mode. This work considers an impurity model: TFIM perturbed by a boundary integrability-breaking interaction. For sufficiently large transverse field, but in the ordered phase of the TFIM, the zero mode is observed to decay. The decay is qualitatively different from zero modes where the integrability-breaking interactions are nonzero all along the chain. It is shown that for the impurity model, the zero mode decays by relaxing to a nonlocal quasiconserved operator, the latter being exactly conserved when the opposite edge of the chain has no noncommuting perturbations so as to ensure perfect degeneracy of the spectrum. In the thermodynamic limit, the quasiconserved operator vanishes, and a regime is identified where the decay of the zero mode obeys Fermi's golden rule. Furthermore, a toy model for the decay is constructed in Krylov space and it is highlighted how Fermi's golden rule may be recovered from this toy model.

1-dimensional systems↗

Decay rates of almost strong modes in Floquet spin chains beyond Fermi's Golden Rule

The stability and dynamics of almost strong zero and π modes in weakly nonintegrable Floquet spin chains are investigated. Such modes can also be viewed as localized Majorana modes at the edge of a topological superconductor. Perturbation theory in the strength of integrability breaking interaction J z is employed to estimate the decay rates of these modes, and compared to decay rates obtained from exact diagonalization. Here, the structure of the perturbation theory and thus the lifetime of the modes is governed by the conservation of quasienergy modulo 2π/T, where T is the period of the Floquet system. If there are 4n – 1 bulk excitations whose quasienergies add up to zero (or π/T for a π mode), one obtains a decay channel of the Majorana mode with a decay rate proportional to $J$$^{2n}_{z}$. Thus the lifetime is sensitively controlled by the width of the single-particle Floquet bands. For regimes where the decay rates are quadratic in J z , an analytic expression for the decay rate in terms of an infinite temperature autocorrelation function of the integrable model is derived, and shown to agree well with exact diagonalization.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Floquet topological systems with flat bands: Edge modes, Berry curvature, and orbital magnetization

Results are presented for Floquet systems in two spatial dimensions where the Floquet driving breaks an effective time reversal symmetry. The driving protocol also induces flat bands that correspond to anomalous Floquet phases where the Chern number is zero and yet chiral edge modes exist. Analytic expressions for the edge modes, Berry curvature, and the orbital magnetization are derived for the flat bands. Results are also presented for the static Haldane model for parameters when the bands are flat. Floquet driving of the same model is shown to give rise to Chern insulators as well as anomalous Floquet phases. As a result, the orbital magnetization for these different topological phases are presented and are found to be enhanced at half filling by the broken particle-hole symmetry of the Haldane model.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Orbital magnetization of Floquet topological systems

A general expression for the orbital magnetization of a Floquet system is derived. The expression holds for a clean system, and is valid for any driving protocol, and arbitrary occupation of the bands. The orbital magnetization is shown to be large not only for Chern insulators, but also for anomalous phases where the Chern number does not fully account for the topology. In addition, the orbital magnetization is shown to take significant values both for a thermal equilibrium occupation of the Floquet bands, and for occupations determined by a quantum quench from an initial state with zero orbital magnetization. For the latter case, the orbital magnetization is shown to be highly sensitive to van Hove singularities of the Floquet bands.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Long-lived period-doubled edge modes of interacting and disorder-free Floquet spin chains

Floquet spin chains have been a venue for understanding topological states of matter that are qualitatively different from their static counterparts by, for example, hosting π edge modes that show stable period-doubled dynamics. However the stability of these edge modes to interactions has traditionally required the system to be many-body localized in order to suppress heating. In contrast, here we show that even in the absence of disorder, and in the presence of bulk heating, π edge modes are long lived. Their lifetime is extracted from exact diagonalization and is found to be non-perturbative in the interaction strength. A tunneling estimate for the lifetime is obtained by mapping the stroboscopic time-evolution to dynamics of a single particle in Krylov subspace. In this subspace, the π edge mode manifests as the quasi-stable edge mode of an inhomogeneous Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model whose dimerization vanishes in the bulk of the Krylov chain.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Strong and almost strong modes of Floquet spin chains in Krylov subspaces

Integrable Floquet spin chains are known to host strong zero and π modes which are boundary operators that respectively commute and anticommute with the Floquet unitary generating stroboscopic time evolution, in addition to anticommuting with a discrete symmetry of the Floquet unitary. Thus the existence of strong modes implies a characteristic pairing structure of the full spectrum. Weak interactions modify the strong modes to almost strong modes that almost commute or anticommute with the Floquet unitary. Manifestations of strong and almost strong modes are presented in two different Krylov subspaces. One is a Krylov subspace obtained from a Lanczos iteration that maps the time evolution generated by the Floquet Hamiltonian onto dynamics of a single particle on a fictitious chain with nearest-neighbor hopping. The second is a Krylov subspace obtained from the Arnoldi iteration that maps the time evolution generated directly by the Floquet unitary onto dynamics of a single particle on a fictitious chain with longer-range hopping. While the former Krylov subspace is sensitive to the branch of the logarithm of the Floquet unitary, the latter obtained from the Arnoldi scheme is not. In this work, the effective single-particle models in the Krylov subspace are discussed, and the topological properties of the Krylov chain that ensure stable zero and π modes at the boundaries are highlighted. The role of interactions is discussed. Expressions for the lifetime of the almost strong modes are derived in terms of the parameters of the Krylov subspace, and are compared with exact diagonalization.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Dynamics of almost strong edge modes in spin chains away from integrability

Results are presented for the dynamics of an almost strong edge mode which is the quasistable Majorana edge mode occurring in nonintegrable spin chains. The dynamics of the edge mode is studied using exact diagonalization, and compared with time evolution with respect to an effective semi-infinite model in Krylov space obtained from the recursion method. The effective Krylov Hamiltonian is found to resemble a spatially inhomogeneous Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model where the hopping amplitude increases linearly with distance into the bulk, typical of thermalizing systems, but also has a staggered or dimerized structure superimposed on it. Here, the nonperturbatively long lifetime of the edge mode is shown to be due to this staggered structure which diminishes the effectiveness of the linearly growing hopping amplitude. On taking the continuum limit of the Krylov Hamiltonian, the edge mode is found to be equivalent to the quasistable mode of a Dirac Hamiltonian on a half line, with a mass which is nonzero over a finite distance, before terminating into a gapless metallic bulk. The analytic estimates are found to be in good agreement with the numerically obtained lifetimes of the edge mode.

1-dimensional systems↗

Lifetime of Almost Strong Edge-Mode Operators in One-Dimensional, Interacting, Symmetry Protected Topological Phases

Almost strong edge-mode operators arising at the boundaries of certain interacting one-dimensional symmetry protected topological phases with Z 2 symmetry have infinite temperature lifetimes that are nonperturbatively long in the integrability breaking terms, making them promising as bits for quantum information processing. We extract the lifetime of these edge-mode operators for small system sizes as well as in the thermodynamic limit. For the latter, a Lanczos scheme is employed to map the operator dynamics to a one-dimensional tight-binding model of a single particle in Krylov space. We suggest this model to be that of a spatially inhomogeneous Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with a hopping amplitude that increases away from the boundary, and a dimerization that decreases away from the boundary. We associate this dimerized or staggered structure with the existence of the almost strong mode. Thus, the short time dynamics of the almost strong mode is that of the edge mode of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, while the long time dynamics involves decay due to tunneling out of that mode, followed by chaotic operator spreading. Furthermore, we show that competing scattering processes can lead to interference effects that can significantly enhance the lifetime.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Almost strong ( 0 , π ) edge modes in clean interacting one-dimensional Floquet systems

We present that certain periodically driven quantum many-particle systems in one dimension are known to exhibit edge modes that are related to topological properties and lead to approximate degeneracies of the Floquet spectrum. A similar situation occurs in spin chains, where stable edge modes were shown to exist at all energies in certain integrable spin chains. Moreover, these edge modes were found to be remarkably stable to perturbations. Here we investigate the stability of edge modes in interacting, periodically driven, clean systems. Finally, we introduce a model that features edge modes that persist over times scales well in excess of the time needed for the bulk of the system to heat to infinite temperatures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Floquet Majorana zero and π modes in planar Josephson junctions

Here, we highlight how Floquet Majorana fermions may be experimentally realized by periodic driving of a solid-state platform. The system comprises a planar Josephson junction made of a proximitized heterostructure containing a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman field. We map the subgap Andreev bound states of the junction to an effective one-dimensional Kitaev model with long-range hopping and pairing terms. Using this effective model, we study the response of the system to periodic driving of the chemical potential, as applied via microwaves through a top gate. We use the bulk Floquet topological invariants to characterize the system in terms of the number of zero and π Majorana modes for experimentally realistic parameters. We present signatures of these modes on differential conductance and local density of states. A notable feature is subharmonic response to the drive when both Majorana zero and π modes are present, thus opening up the possibility of using this feature to clearly identify Majorana modes. Furthermore, we illustrate the robustness of these features to disorder, and show that despite hybridization due to long localization lengths, the main features of the subharmonic response are still identifiable in an experimental system that is readily accessible.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Dynamical generation of superconducting order of different symmetries in hexagonal lattices

The growth of superconducting order after an interaction quench in a hexagonal lattice is studied. The cases of both time-reversal (TR) preserving graphene, as well as the TR broken Haldane model are explored. Spin singlet superconducting order is studied where the s, d+id, and d-id wave orders are the irreducible representations of the hexagonal lattice. For small quenches, the d-wave order parameter grows the fastest, a result also expected when the system is in thermal equilibrium. For the TR symmetry preserving case, the growth rate of the two d-wave orders is identical, while the TR-broken case prefers one of the chiral d-wave orders over the other, leading to a TR broken topological superconductor. As the interaction quench becomes larger, a smooth crossover is found where eventually the growth rate of the s-wave becomes the largest. Therefore for large interaction quenches, the s-wave is preferred over the d-wave for both TR preserving and TR broken systems. Our result is explained in terms of the high energy quasi-particles responsible for the dynamics as the interaction quench amplitude grows. The results are relevant for time-resolved measurements that can probe the symmetry of the superconducting fluctuations in a transient regime.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗