We propose and analyze a generalization of the Kitaev chain for fermions with long-range p-wave pairing, which decays with distance as a power law with exponent α. Using the integrability of the model, we demonstrate the existence of two types of gapped regimes, where correlation functions decay exponentially at short range and algebraically at long range (α > 1) or purely algebraically (α < 1). Most interestingly, along the critical lines, long-range pairing is found to break conformal symmetry for sufficiently small α. This is accompanied by a violation of the area law for the entanglement entropy in large parts of the phase diagram in the presence of a gap and can be detected via the dynamics of entanglement following a quench. Some of these features may be relevant for current experiments with cold atomic ions.
We propose and analyze a generalization of the Kitaev chain for fermions with long-range p-wave pairing, which decays with distance as a power law with exponent α. Using the integrability of the model, we demonstrate the existence of two types of gapped regimes, where correlation functions decay exponentially at short range and algebraically at long range (α > 1) or purely algebraically (α < 1). Most interestingly, along the critical lines, long-range pairing is found to break conformal symmetry for sufficiently small α. This is accompanied by a violation of the area law for the entanglement entropy in large parts of the phase diagram in the presence of a gap and can be detected via the dynamics of entanglement following a quench. Some of these features may be relevant for current experiments with cold atomic ions.
We analyze the quantum phases, correlation functions and edge modes for a class of spin-1/2 and fermionic models related to the one-dimensional Ising chain in the presence of a transverse field. These models are the Ising chain with anti-ferromagnetic long-range interactions that decay with distance r as 1 / r α , as well as a related class of fermionic Hamiltonians that generalize the Kitaev chain, where both the hopping and pairing terms are long-range and their relative strength can be varied. For these models, we provide the phase diagram for all exponents α , based on an analysis of the entanglement entropy, the decay of correlation functions, and the edge modes in the case of open chains. We demonstrate that violations of the area law can occur for α ≲ 1 , while connected correlation functions can decay with a hybrid exponential and power-law behavior, with a power that is α -dependent. Interestingly, for the fermionic models we provide an exact analytical derivation for the decay of the correlation functions at every α . Along the critical lines, for all models breaking of conformal symmetry is argued at low enough α . For the fermionic models we show that the edge modes, massless for α ≳ 1 , can acquire a mass for α < 1 . The mass of these modes can be tuned by varying the relative strength of the kinetic and pairing terms in the Hamiltonian. Interestingly, for the Ising chain a similar edge localization appears for the first and second excited states on the paramagnetic side of the phase diagram, where edge modes are not expected. We argue that, at least for the fermionic chains, these massive states correspond to the appearance of new phases, notably approached via quantum phase transitions without mass gap closure. Finally, we discuss the possibility to detect some of these effects in experiments with cold trapped ions.
We study the competition of disorder and superconductivity for a generalized Kitaev model in incommensurate potentials. The generalized Kitaev model describes one dimensional spinless fermions with long-range p-wave superconducting pairing, which decays with distance l as a power law ∼[Formula: see text]. We focus on the transition from the topological superconducting phase to the topologically trivial Anderson localized phase, and effects of the exponent α on this phase transition. In the topological superconducting phase, for a system under open boundary condition the amplitude of zero-mode Majorana fermion has a hybrid exponential-algebraic decay as the distance increases from the edge. In the Anderson localized phase, some single-particle states remain critical for very strong disorders and the number of critical states increases as α decreases. In addition, except for critical disorders, the correlation function always has an exponential decay at the short range and an algebraic decay at the long range. Phase transition points are also numerically determined and the topological phase transition happens earlier at a smaller disorder strength for a system with smaller α.
Long-range interactions exhibit surprising features which have been less explored so far. Here, studying a one-dimensional fermionic chain with long-range hopping and pairing, we discuss some general features associated to the presence of long-range entanglement. In particular, after determining the algebraic decays of the correlation functions, we prove that a long-range quantum mutual information exists if the exponent of the decay is not larger than one. Moreover, we show that the time evolution triggered by a quantum quench between short-range and long-range regions, can be characterized by dynamical quantum phase transitions without crossing any phase boundary. We show, also, that the adiabatic dynamics is dictated by the divergence of a topological length scale at the quantum critical point, clarifying the violation of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism for long-range systems.
Abstract We discuss how nonlocality originates in long-range quantum systems and how it affects their dynamics at and out of equilibrium. We focus in particular on the Kitaev chains with long-range pairings and on the quantum Ising chain with long-range antiferromagnetic coupling (both having a power-law decay with exponent α ). By studying the dynamic correlation functions, we find that for every finite α two different behaviours can be identified, one typical of short-range systems and the other connected with locality violation. The latter behaviour is shown related also with the known power-law decay tails previously observed in the static correlation functions, and originated by modes—having in general energies far from the minima of the spectrum—where particular singularities develop as a consequence of the long-rangedness of the system. We refer to these modes as to ‘singular’ modes, and as to ‘singular dynamics’ to their dynamics. For the Kitaev model they are manifest, at finite α , in derivatives of the quasiparticle energy, the order of the derivatives at which the singularity occurs is increasing with α . The features of the singular modes and their physical consequences are clarified by studying an effective theory for them and by a critical comparison of the results from this theory with the lattice ones. Moreover, a numerical study of the effects of the singular modes on the time evolution after various types of global quenches is performed. We finally present and discuss the presence of singular modes and their consequences in interacting long-range systems by investigating in the long-range Ising quantum chain, both in the deep paramagnetic regime and at criticality, where they also play a central role for the breakdown of conformal invariance.
We study the role of long-range interactions (more precisely, the long-range superconducting gap term) on the nonequilibrium dynamics considering a long-range p-wave superconducting chain in which the superconducting term decays with distance between two sites in a power-law fashion characterized by an exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. We show that the Kibble-Zurek scaling exponent, dictating the power-law decay of the defect density in the final state reached following a slow (in comparison to the time scale associated with the minimum gap in the spectrum of the Hamiltonian) quenching of the chemical potential $\ensuremath{\mu}$ across a quantum critical point, depends nontrivially on the exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ as long as $\ensuremath{\alpha}<2$; on the other hand, for $\ensuremath{\alpha}>2$, we find that the exponent saturates to the corresponding well-known value of 1/2 expected for the short-range model. Furthermore, studying the dynamical quantum phase transitions manifested in the nonanalyticities in the rate function of the return possibility I(t) in subsequent temporal evolution following a sudden change in $\ensuremath{\mu}$, we show the existence of a new region; in this region, we find three instants of cusp singularities in I(t) associated with a single sector of Fisher zeros. Notably, the width of this region shrinks as $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ increases and vanishes in the limit $\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}2$, indicating that this special region is an artifact of the long-range nature of the Hamiltonian.
We study correlations in fermionic lattice systems with long-range interactions in thermal equilibrium. We prove a bound on the correlation decay between anticommuting operators and generalize a long-range Lieb-Robinson-type bound. Our results show that in these systems of spatial dimension D with, not necessarily translation invariant, two-site interactions decaying algebraically with the distance with an exponent α≥2D, correlations between such operators decay at least algebraically to 0 with an exponent arbitrarily close to α at any nonzero temperature. Our bound is asymptotically tight, which we demonstrate by a high temperature expansion and by numerically analyzing density-density correlations in the one-dimensional quadratic (free, exactly solvable) Kitaev chain with long-range pairing.