Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Hamiltonian principles”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 73 records · Page 4

Band structures and Z 2 invariants of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers from fully relativistic Dirac-Kohn-Sham theory using Gaussian-type orbitals

Two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit a wide range of remarkable phenomena, many of which owe their existence to the relativistic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effects. To understand and predict properties of materials containing heavy elements, such as the transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), relativistic effects must be taken into account in first-principles calculations. We present an all-electron method based on the four-component Dirac Hamiltonian and Gaussian-type orbitals (GTOs) that overcomes complications associated with linear dependencies and ill-conditioned matrices that arise when diffuse functions are included in the basis. Until now, there has been no systematic study of the convergence of GTO basis sets for periodic solids either at the nonrelativistic or the relativistic level. Here, in this study, we provide such a study of relativistic band structures of the 2D TMDs in the hexagonal (2H), tetragonal (1T), and distorted tetragonal (1T') structures, along with a discussion of their SOC-driven properties (Rashba splitting and Z 2 topological invariants). We demonstrate the viability of our approach even when large basis sets with multiple basis functions involving various valence orbitals (denoted triple- and quadruple-ζ) are used in the relativistic regime. Our method does not require the use of pseudopotentials and provides access to all electronic states within the same framework. Our study paves the way for direct studies of material properties, such as the parameters in spin Hamiltonians, that depend heavily on the electron density near atomic nuclei where relativistic and SOC effects are the strongest.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Sensing at the Nanoscale Using Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond: A Model for a Quantum Pressure Sensor

The sensing of stress under harsh environmental conditions with high resolution has critical importance for a range of applications including earth’s subsurface scanning, geological CO2 storage monitoring, and mineral and resource recovery. Using a first-principles density functional theory (DFT) approach combined with the theoretical modelling of the low-energy Hamiltonian, here, we investigate a novel approach to detect unprecedented levels of pressure by taking advantage of the solid-state electronic spin of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. We computationally explore the effect of strain on the defect band edges and band gaps by varying the lattice parameters of a diamond supercell hosting a single NV center. A low-energy Hamiltonian is developed that includes the effect of stress on the energy level of a ±1 spin manifold at the ground state. By quantifying the energy level shift and split, we predict pressure sensing of up to 0.3 MPa/Hz using the experimentally measured spin dephasing time. We show the superiority of the quantum sensing approach over traditional optical sensing techniques by discussing our results from DFT and theoretical modelling for the frequency shift per unit pressure. Importantly, we propose a quantum manometer that could be useful to measure earth’s subsurface vibrations as well as for pressure detection and monitoring in high-temperature superconductivity studies and in material sciences. Our results open avenues for the development of a sensing technology with high sensitivity and resolution under extreme pressure limits that potentially has a wider applicability than the existing pressure sensing technologies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Machine Learning for First Principles Calculations of Material Properties for Ferromagnetic Materials

The investigation of finite temperature properties using Monte-Carlo (MC) methods requires a large number of evaluations of the system’s Hamiltonian to sample the phase space needed to obtain physical observables as function of temperature. DFT calculations can provide accurate evaluations of the energies, but they are too computationally expensive for routine simulations. To circumvent this problem, machine-learning (ML) based surrogate models have been developed and implemented on high-performance computing (HPC) architectures. In this paper, we describe two ML methods (linear mixing model and HydraGNN) as surrogates for first principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations with classical MC simulations. These two surrogate models are used to learn the dependence of target physical properties from complex compositions and interactions of their constituents. We present the predictive performance of these two surrogate models with respect to their complexity while avoiding the danger of overfitting the model. An important aspect of our approach is the periodic retraining with newly generated first principles data based on the progressive exploration of the system’s phase space by the MC simulation. The numerical results show that HydraGNN model attains superior predictive performance compared to the linear mixing model for magnetic alloy materials.

Eisenbach, Markus↗

PyCDFT: A Python package for constrained density functional theory

In this paper, we present PyCDFT, a Python package to compute diabatic states using constrained density functional theory (CDFT). PyCDFT provides an object-oriented, customizable implementation of CDFT, and allows for both single-point self-consistent-field calculations and geometry optimizations. PyCDFT is designed to interface with existing density functional theory (DFT) codes to perform CDFT calculations where constraint potentials are added to the Kohn–Sham Hamiltonian. Here, we demonstrate the use of PyCDFT by performing calculations with a massively parallel first-principles molecular dynamics code, Qbox, and we benchmark its accuracy by computing the electronic coupling between diabatic states for a set of organic molecules. We show that PyCDFT yields results in agreement with existing implementations and is a robust and flexible package for performing CDFT calculations. The program is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3821097.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Light-front puzzles

Abstract Light-front formulations of quantum field theories have many advantages for computing electroweak matrix elements of strongly interacting systems and other quantities that are used to study hadronic structure. The theory can be formulated in Hamiltonian form so non-perturbative calculations of the strongly interacting initial and final states are in principle reduced to linear algebra. These states are needed for calculating parton distribution functions and other types of distribution amplitudes that are used to understand the structure of hadrons. Light-front boosts are kinematic transformations so the strongly interacting states can be computed in any frame. This is useful for computing current matrix elements involving electroweak probes where the initial and final hadronic states are in different frames related by the momentum transferred by the probe. Finally in many calculations the vacuum is trivial so the calculations can be formulated in Fock space. The advantages of light front-field theory would not be interesting if the light-front formulation was not equivalent to the covariant or canonical formulations of quantum field theory. Many of the distinguishing properties of light-front quantum field theory are difficult to reconcile with canonical or covariant formulations of quantum field theory. This paper discusses the resolution of some of the apparent inconsistencies in canonical, covariant and light-front formulations of quantum field theory. The puzzles that will be discussed are (1) the problem of inequivalent representations (2) the problem of the trivial vacuum (3) the problem of ill-posed initial value problems (4) the problem of rotational covariance (5) the problem of zero modes and (6) the problem of spontaneously broken symmetries.

Physics↗

Unconventional Spintronics from Chiral Perovskites

Spintronic devices typically employ heterostructures with ferromagnets which break time-reversal symmetry and have non-vanishing magnetization. With the growing class of materials that support spin-polarized carriers, current, and excitations, it is possible to envision emerging spintronic applications that are not limited to magnetoresistance. Here, chiral perovskites with no net magnetization are considered, where the space-inversion and mirror symmetries are broken to induce chiral structure. The known importance of these perovskites is further expanded by the demonstration of the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS). However, the generation of the spin-polarized carriers across the interface with these chiral perovskites remains to be fully understood. These first-principles studies for 2D PbBr4-based chiral perovskites provide their electronic structure and an orbital-based symmetry analysis, which allows to establish an effective Hamiltonian to elucidate the underlying origin of their chirality. The same analysis is used for the Edelstein effect, responsible for electrical generation of the nonequilibrium spin polarization in many materials, which in chiral perovskites can be a mechanism contributing to CISS. Furthermore, by examining optical properties of chiral perovskites and the opportunity to use them to realize tunable altermagnets, another class of zero-magnetization spintronic materials, a versatile materials platform is put forth for unconventional spintronics.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Is solid copper oxalate a spin chain or a mixture of entangled spin pairs?

Macroscopic assemblies of interacting spins give rise to a broad spectrum of behaviors determined by the spatial arrangement of the magnetic sites and the electronic interactions between them. Compounds of copper (II), in which each copper carries spin 1/2, exhibit a vast variety of physical properties. For antiferromagnetically coupled spin sites, there are two limiting scenarios: spin chains in which the spins can exhibit a long-range order or a mixture of dimers in which the spins within each pair are entangled but do not communicate with the spins from other dimers. In principle, the two types can be distinguished on the basis of experimental observations and modeling using empirically parameterized effective Hamiltonians, but in practice, ambiguity may persist for decades, as is the case for copper oxalate. Here we use high-level ab initio calculations to establish the validity of the nearest-site Heisenberg model and to predict the interaction strength between the magnetic sites. Finally, the computed magnetic susceptibility provides an unambiguous interpretation of magnetic experiments performed throughout half a century, clearly supporting the infinite spin-chain behavior of solid copper oxalate.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Partons as unique ground states of quantum Hall parent Hamiltonians: The case of Fibonacci anyons

We present microscopic, multiple Landau level, (frustration-free and positive semi-definite) parent Hamiltonians whose ground states, realizing different quantum Hall fluids, are parton-like and whose excitations display either Abelian or non-Abelian braiding statistics. We prove ground state energy monotonicity theorems for systems with different particle numbers in multiple Landau levels, demonstrate S-duality in the case of toroidal geometry, and establish complete sets of zero modes of special Hamiltonians stabilizing parton-like states, specifically at filling factor \nu=2/3 ν = 2 / 3 . The emergent Entangled Pauli Principle (EPP), introduced in [Phys. Rev. B 98, 161118(R) (2018)] and which defines the “DNA” of the quantum Hall fluid, is behind the exact determination of the topological characteristics of the fluid, including charge and braiding statistics of excitations, and effective edge theory descriptions. When the closed-shell condition is satisfied, the densest (i.e., the highest density and lowest total angular momentum) zero-energy mode is a unique parton state. We conjecture that parton-like states generally span the subspace of many-body wave functions with the two-body M M -clustering property within any given number of Landau levels, that is, wave functions with M M th-order coincidence plane zeroes and both holomorphic and anti-holomorphic dependence on variables. General arguments are supplemented by rigorous considerations for the M=3 M = 3 case of fermions in four Landau levels. For this case, we establish that the zero mode counting can be done by enumerating certain patterns consistent with an underlying EPP. We apply the coherent state approach of [Phys. Rev. X 1, 021015 (2011)] to show that the elementary (localized) bulk excitations are Fibonacci anyons. This demonstrates that the DNA associated with fractional quantum Hall states encodes all universal properties. Specifically, for parton-like states, we establish a link with tensor network structures of finite bond dimension that emerge via root level entanglement.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Self-consistent interaction of linear gravitational and electromagnetic waves in non-magnetized plasma

Here, this paper explores the hybridization of linear metric perturbations with linear electromagnetic (EM) perturbations in non-magnetized plasma for a general background metric. The local wave properties are derived from first principles for inhomogeneous plasma, without assuming any symmetries of the background metric. First, we derive the effective (“oscillation-center”) Hamiltonian that governs the average dynamics of plasma particles in a prescribed quasimonochromatic wave that involves metric perturbations and EM fields simultaneously. Then, using this Hamiltonian, we derive the backreaction of plasma particles on the wave itself and obtain gauge-invariant equations that describe the resulting self-consistent gravito-electromagnetic (GEM) waves in a plasma. The transverse tensor modes of gravitational waves are found to have no interaction with the plasma and the EM modes in the geometrical-optics limit. However, for $longitudinal$ GEM modes with large values of the refraction index, the interplay between gravitational and EM interactions in plasma can have a strong effect. In particular, the dispersion relation of the Jeans mode is significantly affected by electrostatic interactions. As a spin-off, our calculation also provides an alternative resolution of the so-called Jeans swindle.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Microscopic optical potentials for medium-mass isotopes derived at the first order of Watson multiple-scattering theory

We perform a first-principles calculation of optical potentials for nucleon elastic scattering off medium-mass isotopes. Fully based on a saturating chiral Hamiltonian, the optical potentials are derived by folding nuclear density distributions computed with self-consistent Green's function theory with a nucleon-nucleon t matrix computed with a consistent chiral interaction. The dependence on the folding interaction as well as the convergence of the target densities are investigated. Numerical results are presented and discussed for differential cross sections and analyzing powers, with focus on elastic proton scattering off calcium and nickel isotopes. Our optical potentials generally show a remarkable agreement with the available experimental data for laboratory energies in the range 65–200 MeV. We study the evolution of the scattering observables with increasing proton-neutron asymmetry by computing theoretical predictions of the cross section and analyzing power over the calcium and nickel isotopic chains. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physics↗

Floating Block Method for Quantum Monte Carlo Simulations

Quantum Monte Carlo simulations are powerful and versatile tools for the quantum many-body problem. In addition to the usual calculations of energies and eigenstate observables, quantum Monte Carlo simulations can in principle be used to build fast and accurate many-body emulators using eigenvector continuation or design time-dependent Hamiltonians for adiabatic quantum computing. Furthermore, these new applications require something that is missing from the published literature, an efficient quantum Monte Carlo scheme for computing the inner product of ground state eigenvectors corresponding to different Hamiltonians. In this work, we introduce an algorithm called the floating block method, which solves the problem by performing Euclidean time evolution with two different Hamiltonians and interleaving the corresponding time blocks. We use the floating block method and nuclear lattice simulations to build eigenvector continuation emulators for energies of 4 He, 8 Be, 12 C, and 16 O nuclei over a range of local and nonlocal interaction couplings. From the emulator data, we identify the quantum phase transition line from a Bose gas of alpha particles to a nuclear liquid.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Learning thermodynamic master equations for open quantum systems

The characterization of Hamiltonians and other components of open quantum dynamical systems plays a crucial role in quantum computing and other applications. Scientific machine learning techniques have been applied to this problem in a variety of ways, including by modeling with deep neural networks. However, the majority of mathematical models describing open quantum systems are linear, and the natural nonlinearities in learnable models have not been incorporated using physical principles. We present a data-driven model for open quantum systems that includes learnable, thermodynamically consistent terms. The trained model is interpretable, as it directly estimates the system Hamiltonian and linear components of coupling to the environment. We validate the model on synthetic two and three-level data, as well as experimental two-level data collected from a quantum device at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Mathematics and Computing↗

Thermal fluctuations and carrier localization induced by dynamic disorder in MAPbI 3 described by first-principles based tight-binding model

Halide perovskites are strongly influenced by large amplitude anharmonic lattice fluctuations at room temperature. We develop a tight binding model for dynamically disordered MAPbI$_3$ based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations to calculate electronic structure for finite temperature crystal structures at the length scale of thermal disorder and carrier localization. The model predicts individual Hamiltonian matrix elements and band structures with high accuracy, owing to the inclusion of additional matrix elements and descriptors for non-Coulombic interactions. We apply this model to electronic structure at length and time scales inaccessible to first principles methods, finding an increase in band gap, carrier mass, and the sub-picosecond fluctuations in these quantities with increasing temperature as well as the onset of carrier localization in large supercells induced by thermal disorder at 300 K. Finally, we identify the length scale $L^*= 5$ nm as the onset of localization in the electronic structure, associated with associated with decreasing band edge fluctuations, increasing carrier mass, and Rashba splitting approaching zero.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

The Hard Ferromagnetism in FePS 3 Induced by Non‐Magnetic Molecular Intercalation

Abstract Manipulating the magnetic ground states of 2D magnets is a focal point of recent research efforts. Various methods have demonstrated efficacy in modulating the magnetic properties inherent to van der Waals (vdW) magnetic systems. Herein, the emergence of robust anisotropic ferromagnetism within antiferromagnetic FePS 3 is unveiled via intercalation with non‐magnetic pyridinium ions. A one‐step ion exchange reaction facilitates the formation of energetically favorable B‐phase and metastable P‐phase. Notably, both B‐ and P‐phases manifest hard ferromagnetic behavior, featuring substantial unsaturated coercive fields (>7 T) and high Curie temperatures (72–87 K). First‐principles calculations elucidate the pivotal role of electron transfer from pyridinium ions to FePS 3 in engineering magnetic exchange interactions. Calculated effective spin Hamiltonian corroborates the observed hard ferromagnetism in intercalated FePS 3 . This study offers crucial insights into hard magnetism in intercalated vdW materials, thereby presenting promising avenues for 2D vdW magnet‐based magnetic devices.

Ou, Yunbo↗

Hamiltonian kinetic-Hall magnetohydrodynamics with fluid and kinetic ions in the current and pressure coupling schemes

We present two generalized hybrid kinetic-Hall magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) models describing the interaction of a two-fluid bulk plasma, which consists of thermal ions and electrons, with energetic, suprathermal ion populations described by Vlasov dynamics. The dynamics of the thermal components are governed by standard fluid equations in the Hall MHD limit with the electron momentum equation providing an Ohm's law with Hall and electron pressure terms involving a gyrotropic electron pressure tensor. The coupling of the bulk, low-energy plasma with the energetic particle dynamics is accomplished through the current density (current coupling scheme; CCS) and the ion pressure tensor appearing in the momentum equation (pressure coupling scheme; PCS) in the first and the second model, respectively. The CCS is a generalization of two well-known models, because in the limit of vanishing energetic and thermal ion densities, we recover the standard Hall MHD and the hybrid kinetic-ions/fluid-electron model, respectively. This provides us with the capability to study in a continuous manner, the global impact of the energetic particles in a regime extending from vanishing to dominant energetic particle densities. The noncanonical Hamiltonian structures of the CCS and PCS, which can be exploited to study equilibrium and stability properties through the energy-Casimir variational principle, are identified. As a first application here, we derive a generalized Hall MHD Grad–Shafranov–Bernoulli system for translationally symmetric equilibria with anisotropic electron pressure and kinetic effects owing to the presence of energetic particles using the PCS.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Ultrafast spin-nematic and ferroelectric phase transitions induced by femtosecond light pulses

We report, optically induced phase transitions of the manganite Pr 1/3 Ca 2/3 MnO 3 have been simulated by using a model Hamiltonian that captures the dynamics of strongly correlated charge, orbital, lattice, and spin degrees of freedom. Its parameters have been extracted from first-principles calculations. Beyond a critical intensity of a femtosecond light pulse, the material undergoes an ultrafast and nonthermal magnetic phase transition from a noncollinear to collinear antiferromagnetic phase. The light-pulse excites selectively either a spin-nematic or a ferroelectric phase, depending on the light polarization. The behavior can be traced to an optically induced ferromagnetic coupling between Mn trimers, i.e., polarons which are delocalized over three Mn sites. The polarization guides the polymerization of the polaronic crystal into distinct patterns of ferromagnetic chains determining the target phase.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Spin pumping from antiferromagnetic insulator spin-orbit-proximitized by adjacent heavy metal: a first-principles Floquet-nonequilibrium Green function study

Motivated by the recent experiment on spin pumping from sub-THz radiation-driven uniaxial antiferromagnetic insulator (AFI) MnF 2 into heavy metal (HM) Pt hosting strong spin-orbit (SO) coupling, we compute and compare pumped spin currents in Cu/MnF 2 /Cu and Pt/MnF 2 /Cu heterostructures. Recent theories of spin pumping by AFI have relied on simplistic Hamiltonians (such as tight-binding) and the scattering approach to quantum transport yielding the so-called interfacial spin mixing conductance (SMC), but the concept of SMC ceases to be applicable when SO coupling is present directly at the interface. In contrast, we use a more general first-principles quantum transport approach which combines noncollinear density functional theory with Floquet-nonequilibrium Green's functions in order to take into account: SO-proximitized AFI as a new type of quantum material, different from isolated AFI and brought about by AFI hybridization with adjacent HM layer; strong SO coupling at the interface; and evanescent wavefunctions penetrating from Pt or Cu into AFI layer to make its interfacial region conducting rather than insulating as in the isolated AFI. The DC component of pumped spin current $I_\mathrm{DC}^{S_z}$ vs. precession cone angle $\theta_{\boldsymbol{l}}$ of the Néel vector l of AFI does not follow putative $I^{S_z}_\mathrm{DC} \propto \sin^2 \theta_{\boldsymbol{l}}$, except for very small angles $\theta_{\boldsymbol{l}} \lesssim 10^\circ$ for which we define an effective SMC from the prefactor and find that it doubles from MnF2/Cu to MnF2/Pt interface. In addition, the angular dependence $I^{S_z}_\mathrm{DC}(\theta_{\boldsymbol{l}})$ differs for opposite directions of precession of the Néel vector, leading to twice as large SMC for the right-handed than for the left-handed chirality of the precession mode.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Multipole groups and fracton phenomena on arbitrary crystalline lattices

Multipole symmetries are of interest in multiple contexts, from the study of fracton phases, to nonergodic quantum dynamics, to the exploration of new hydrodynamic universality classes. However, prior explorations have focused on continuum systems or hypercubic lattices. In this work, we systematically explore multipole symmetries on arbitrary crystal lattices. We explain how, given a crystal structure (specified by a space group and the occupied Wyckoff positions), one may systematically construct all consistent multipole groups. We focus on two-dimensional crystal structures for simplicity, although our methods are general and extend straightforwardly to three dimensions. We classify the possible multipole groups on all two-dimensional Bravais lattices, and on the Kagome and breathing Kagome crystal structures to illustrate the procedure on general crystal lattices. Using Wyckoff positions, we provide an in-principle classification of all possible multipole groups in any space group. We explain how, given a valid multipole group, one may construct a consistent lattice Hamiltonian and a low-energy field theory. We then explore the physical consequences, beginning by generalizing certain results originally obtained on hypercubic lattices to arbitrary crystal structures. Next, we identify two apparently novel phenomena: an emergent, robust subsystem symmetry on the triangular lattice, and an exact multipolar symmetry on the breathing Kagome lattice that does not include conservation of charge (monopole), but instead conserves a vector charge. This makes clear that there is new physics to be found by exploring the consequences of multipolar symmetries on arbitrary lattices, and this work provides the map for the exploration thereof, as well as guiding the search for emergent multipolar symmetries and the attendant exotic phenomena in real materials based on nonhypercubic lattices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗