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arXiv:0912.0028 · Physical Review Letters

Nonlocal Order in Gapless Systems: Entanglement Spectrum in Spin Chains

Ronny Thomale, Daniel P. Arovas, Bogdan Andrei Bernevig

Published Sep 9, 2010• 153 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We show that the entanglement spectrum can be used to define non-local order in gapless spin systems. We find a gap that fully separates a series of generic, high "entanglement energy" levels, from a flat band of levels with specific multiplicities defining the ground state, and remains finite in the thermodynamic limit. We pick the appropriate set of quantum numbers and partition the system in this space, corresponding to a nonlocal real-space cut. Despite the Laughlin state being bulk gapped while the antiferromagnetic spin chain state is bulk gapless, we show that the S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet in one dimension has an entanglement spectrum almost identical to that of the Laughlin Fractional Quantum Hall state in two dimensions, revealing the similar field theory of their low-energy bulk and edge excitations, respectively. We also discuss the dimerization transition from entanglement gap scaling.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.105.116805

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We show that the entanglement spectrum can be used to define non-local order in gapless spin systems. We find a gap that fully separates a series of generic, high "entanglement energy" levels, from a flat band of levels with specific multiplicities defining the ground state, and remains finite in the thermodynamic limit. We pick the appropriate set of quantum numbers and partition the system in this space, corresponding to a nonlocal real-space cut. Despite the Laughlin state being bulk gapped while the antiferromagnetic spin chain state is bulk gapless, we show that the S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet in one dimension has an entanglement spectrum almost identical to that of the Laughlin Fractional Quantum Hall state in two dimensions, revealing the similar field theory of their low-energy bulk and edge excitations, respectively. We also discuss the dimerization transition from entanglement gap scaling.
We study the "entanglement spectrum" (a presentation of the Schmidt decomposition analogous to a set of "energy levels") of a many-body state, and compare the Moore-Read model wave function for the nu=5/2 fractional quantum Hall state with a generic 5/2 state obtained by finite-size diagonalization of the second-Landau-level-projected Coulomb interactions. Their spectra share a common "gapless" structure, related to conformal field theory. In the model state, these are the only levels, while in the "generic" case, they are separated from the rest of the spectrum by a clear "entanglement gap", which appears to remain finite in the thermodynamic limit. We propose that the low-lying entanglement spectrum can be used as a "fingerprint" to identify topological order.
Bipartite entanglement measures are surprisingly useful tools to investigate quantum phases of correlated electrons. Here, I analyze the entanglement spectrum of gapped two-leg quantum Heisenberg ladders on a periodic ribbon partitioned into two identical periodic chains. The entanglement spectrum closely reflects the low-energy gapless spectrum of each individual edge. This extends the conjecture initially drawn for fractional quantum Hall systems to the field of quantum magnetism, stating a direct correspondence between the low-energy entanglement spectrum of a partitioned system and the true spectrum of the virtual edges. A mapping of the reduced density matrix to a thermodynamic density matrix is also proposed via the introduction of an effective temperature.
In this dissertation, the momentum-space entanglement properties of several quantum spin chains are investigated. In the second chapter we re- view important results on many-body entanglement. In the third chapter, we numerically study the momentum-space entanglement spectra of bosonic and fermionic formulations of the spin-1/2 XXZ chain [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 256404 (2014)]. We investigate the behavior of the entanglement gaps, present in both formulations, across quantum phase transitions in the XXZ chain. In both cases, finite size scaling suggests that the entanglement gap closure does not occur at the physical transition points. For bosons, we find that the entan- glement gap depends on the scaling dimension of the conformal field theory as varied by the X X Z anisotropy. For fermions, the infinite entanglement gap present at the XX point persists well past the phase transition at the Heisenberg point. We elaborate on how this may support the numerical study of phase transitions. In the third chapter, we advocate that in certain critical spin chains a gap in the momentum-space entanglement spectrum separates the universal part of the spectrum, which is determined by the associated conformal field theory, from the non-universal part, which is specific to the model [arXiv:1512.09030]. We provide affirmative evidence from multicritical spin-1 chains with low energy sectors described by the SU(2)2 or the SU(3)1 Wess-Zumino-Witten model. In chapter four, we study momentum- space en- tanglement in quantum spin-half ladders [Phys. Rev. B 93, 125107 (2016)]. When the system is gapped, we analytically find the momentum-space entan- glement Hamiltonian is described by a chiral conformal field theory with a central charge of two. When the system is gapless, the entanglement Hamil- tonian consists of one gapless mode that is linear in subsystem momentum and one mode with a flat dispersion relation. We also analytically include the effect of a certain irrelevant terms (in the renormalization group sense) on the entanglement spectrum. In chapter six, we investigate the momentum- space entanglement spectrum after a quantum quench [arXiv:1603.01997]. We show that the momentum-space entanglement spectrum of the XXZ spin- half chain possesses many universal features both in equilibrium and after a quantum quench.
Abstract Entanglement spectroscopy has stimulated an extensive range of studies. The entanglement spectrum is the spectrum of the reduced density matrix when the system is partitioned into two. For many quantum systems, when computed from the bulk ground-state wavefunction, it gives access to the physics of edge excitations. It is thus a valuable tool to diagnose topological ordering. These lecture notes provide an overview of entanglement spectroscopy, mostly in the context of the fractional quantum Hall effect. The basic concepts are introduced through the example of quantum spin chains. The connection with entanglement entropy and the matrix product state representation is discussed. The entanglement spectrum can be computed for non-interacting topological phases, revealing edge excitation from the ground state. Application to fractional quantum Hall phases shows how much information is encoded within the ground state and how different partitions probe different types of excitations. Application to fractional Chern insulators is discussed.
Numerical studies of the reduced density matrix of a gapped spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a two-leg ladder find that it has the same form as the Gibbs density matrix of a gapless spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain at a finite temperature determined by the spin gap of the ladder. We investigate this interesting result by considering a model of free fermions on a two-leg ladder (gapped by the inter-chain tunneling operator) and in spin systems on a ladder with a gapped ground state using exact solutions and several controlled approximations. We calculate the reduced density matrix and the entanglement entropy for a leg of the ladder (i.e. a cut made between the chains). In the fermionic system we find the exact form of the reduced density matrix for one of the chains and determine the entanglement spectrum explicitly. Here we find that in the weak tunneling limit of the ladder the entanglement entropy of one chain of the gapped ladder has a simple and universal form dictated by conformal invariance. In the case of the spin system, we consider the strong coupling limit by using perturbation theory and get the reduced density matrix by the Schmidt decomposition. The entanglement entropies of a general gapped system of two coupled conformal field theories (in 1 + 1 dimensions) are discussed using the replica trick and scaling arguments. We show that (1) for a system with a bulk gap the reduced density matrix has the form of a thermal density matrix, (2) the long-wavelength modes of one subsystem (a chain) of a gapped coupled system are always thermal, (3) the von Neumann entropy equals the thermodynamic entropy of one chain, and (4) the bulk gap plays the role of effective temperature.
We give a complete definition of the entanglement gap separating low-energy, topological levels from high-energy, generic ones, in the "entanglement spectrum" of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states. This is accomplished by removing the magnetic length inherent in the FQH problem--a procedure which we call taking the conformal limit. The counting of the low-lying entanglement levels starts off as the counting of modes of the edge theory of the FQH state, but quickly develops finite-size effects which we find to serve as a fingerprint of the FQH state. As the sphere manifold where the FQH resides grows, the level spacing of the states at the same angular momentum goes to zero, suggestive of the presence of relativistic gapless edge states. By using the adiabatic continuity of the low-entanglement energy levels, we investigate whether two states are topologically connected.