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arXiv:1507.05496 · Physical Review B

Phase diagram of a quantum Coulomb wire

Guillem Ferré, G. E. Astrakharchik, Jordi Boronat

Published Dec 9, 2015• 16 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report the quantum phase diagram of a one-dimensional Coulomb wire obtained using the path-integral Monte Carlo method. The exact knowledge of the nodal points of this system permits us to find the energy in an exact way, solving the sign problem which spoils fermionic calculations in higher dimensions. The results obtained allow for the determination of the stability domain, in terms of density and temperature, of the one-dimensional Wigner crystal. At low temperatures, the quantum wire reaches the quantum-degenerate regime, which is also described by the diffusion Monte Carlo method. Increasing the temperature, the system transforms to a classical Boltzmann gas, which we simulate using classical Monte Carlo. At large enough density, we identify a one-dimensional ideal Fermi gas which remains quantum up to higher temperatures than in two- and three-dimensional electron gases. The obtained phase diagram and the energetic and structural properties of this system are relevant to experiments with electrons in quantum wires and to Coulomb ions in one-dimensional confinement.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.92.245305

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Journal of Physics Conference Series•Apr 1, 2006•4 citations
We report the quantum phase diagram of a one-dimensional Coulomb wire obtained using the path-integral Monte Carlo method. The exact knowledge of the nodal points of this system permits us to find the energy in an exact way, solving the sign problem which spoils fermionic calculations in higher dimensions. The results obtained allow for the determination of the stability domain, in terms of density and temperature, of the one-dimensional Wigner crystal. At low temperatures, the quantum wire reaches the quantum-degenerate regime, which is also described by the diffusion Monte Carlo method. Increasing the temperature, the system transforms to a classical Boltzmann gas, which we simulate using classical Monte Carlo. At large enough density, we identify a one-dimensional ideal Fermi gas which remains quantum up to higher temperatures than in two- and three-dimensional electron gases. The obtained phase diagram and the energetic and structural properties of this system are relevant to experiments with electrons in quantum wires and to Coulomb ions in one-dimensional confinement.
The ground-state properties of a single-component one-dimensional Coulomb gas are investigated. We use Bose-Fermi mapping for the ground-state wave function which permits solution of the Fermi sign problem in the following respects: (i) the nodal surface is known, permitting exact calculations; and (ii) evaluation of determinants is avoided, reducing the numerical complexity to that of a bosonic system and, thus, allowing simulation of a large number of fermions. Due to the mapping, the energy and local properties in one-dimensional Coulomb systems are exactly the same for Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics. The exact ground-state energy is calculated in homogeneous and trapped geometries using the diffusion Monte Carlo method. We show that in the low-density Wigner crystal limit an elementary low-lying excitation is a plasmon, which is to be contrasted with the high-density ideal Fermi gas/Tonks-Girardeau limit, where low-lying excitations are phonons. Exact density profiles are compared to the ones calculated within the local density approximation, which predicts a change from a semicircular to an inverted parabolic shape of the density profile as the value of the charge is increased.
Variational and diffusion quantum Monte Carlo methods are employed to investigate the zero-temperature phase diagram of the three-dimensional homogeneous electron gas at very low density. Fermi fluid and body-centered cubic Wigner crystal ground-state energies are determined using Slater-Jastrow-backflow and Slater-Jastrow many-body wave functions at different densities and spin polarizations in finite simulation cells. Finite-size errors are removed using twist-averaged boundary conditions and extrapolation of the energy per particle to the thermodynamic limit of infinite system size. Unlike previous studies, our results show that the electron gas undergoes a first-order quantum phase transition directly from a paramagnetic fluid to a body-centered cubic crystal at density parameter rs=86.6(7){r}_{\text{s}}=86.6(7)rs​=86.6(7), with no region of stability for an itinerant ferromagnetic fluid.
We study the ground state properties of a quasi-one-dimensional electron gas interacting via an effective potential with a harmonic transversal confinement and long-range Coulomb tail. The exact correlation energy has been calculated for a wide range of electron densities by using the lattice regularized diffusion Monte Carlo method, which is a recent development of the standard projection Monte Carlo technique. In this case it is particularly useful as it allows one to sample the exact ground state of the system, even in the low-density regime when the exchange between electrons is extremely small. For different values of the width parameter bbb $(0.1\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{a}_{0}^{*}\ensuremath{\leqslant}b\ensuremath{\leqslant}4\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{a}_{0}^{*})$, we give a simple parametrization of the correlation energy, which provides an accurate local density energy functional for quasi-one-dimensional systems. Moreover, we show that static correlations are in qualitative agreement with those obtained for the Luttinger liquid model with long-range interactions.
Abstract We study the ground-state properties of quasi-one-dimensional paramagnetic electron fluid using variational quantum Monte Carlo method. The electrons are transversally confined using the harmonically regularized Coulomb potential with long range order. In this work we have investigated the crossover from liquid to crystalline phase in the finite width paramagnetic quantum wire. The calculated pair correlation function shows the oscillations of period 2rsa02r_\text {s} a_02rs​a0​ 2 r s a 0 , where a0a_0a0​ a 0 is the Bohr’s radius and rsr_\text {s}rs​ r s is Wigner Seitz radius or electron-density parameter which corresponds to a k=4kFk=4k_\text {F}k=4kF​ k = 4 k F peak with kFk_\text {F}kF​ k F being Fermi wave vector in the static structure factor at finite electron density. It is a signature of the onset of Wigner crystallization. It is found that the cross-over from liquid to a quasi-Wigner phase is due to enhancement of the electron correlation effects as rsr_\text {s}rs​ r s increases or as the wire width b decreases.
The main objective of the thesis is to study static and/or dynamic properties of a set of quantum fluids by means of quantum Monte Carlo techniques, mainly using the path integral formalism to obtain results both at zero temperature and finite temperature. First, we present briefly some of the more important quantum Monte Carlo methods, and introduce the Path Integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) method, which has been used during all this thesis, as well as the Path Integral Ground State (PIGS), which is an extension of the first at ground state. After introducing the basic formalism, we comment on the approximations needed and provide a comparison between different actions. We also comment on parallelization schemes and advanced sampling techniques. The first results shown in this thesis are for the phase diagram of a one-dimensional Coulomb gas, which have been obtained using the PIMC method. The phase diagram have been constructed mainly by calculating energetic and structural properties. The obtained results extend previous knowledge of different phases in the one-dimensional Coulomb gas at zero temperature. Our results show the existence of a quantum Wigner crystal regime and a Ideal Fermi gas regime at low temperatures. As temperature increases, we reach a classic Wigner crystal regime and a classical gas. In the following chapter we show the results of a quasi-one-dimensional para-H2. The aim of this work is to see how the quasi-one-dimensionality affects the Luttinger parameter when comparing it with the pure one-dimensional case. This is done at zero temperature using PIGS. As para-hydrogen is an important candidate to superfluidity, the main idea behind study a quasi-one-dimensional system is to reduce dimensionality in order to soften intermolecular interaction. For that, we try different external potentials to control the opening of the system in two dimensions. Despite an increase in the Luttinger parameter in the various quasi-one-dimensional cases, it still does not reach the values displaying superfluidity. The next work shown in the thesis is our extensive study of the dynamic structure factor for the 4He. Using Path Integral Monte Carlo, we compute the intermediate scattering function at different temperatures and perform an inversion in order to gain access at the dynamics of the system. Despite the ill-posed problem of this inversion, we obtain results in a qualitative agreement with the experiments and prove that our method of inversion, despite having to yield with inversion problems achieves to obtain better numerical results for 4He at finite temperature than the ones previously reported. In this sense, we provide comparisons with the Maximum Entropy method and with experimental results. The study at different temperatures shows us the dissappearance of the roton peak when we cross T=2.17K from the superfluid regime to the normal fluid. We also observe a kink in the momentum distribution at the superfluid regime that dissappears at higher temperatures, for which does not exist an explanation in the theory. In the final chapter of the thesis we provide a method to sample complex-time correlation functions whose aim is to obtain better dynamic structure factor functions than the ones obtained via pure imaginary-time correlation functions. This model has already been tested for single-particle systems. Our aim is to test it for multi-particle systems, and to see if we can still recover good results at a reasonable high complex-time when the number of particles is closer to the typical simulation values of real systems. We tested it with particles interacting with an harmonic potential. Despite an increased variance compared with the one-particle case, we obtain good results that allow us to obtain the dynamic structure factor. Comparing the results with ones obtained at pure-imaginary time, we show how the complex-time inversion is superior and provides results closer to the exact ones. L'objectiu principal d'aquesta tesi es l'estudi de propietats estàtiques i dinàmiques de diferents fluids quàntics utilitzant tècniques de Monte Carlo quàntiques, principalment emprant el formalisme de path integrals per obtenir resultats tan a temperatura zero com a temperatura finita. Primer de tot, presentem els mètodes de Monte Carlo quàntics més importants, i introduïm el mètode de Path Integral Monte Carlo (PIMC), que fem servir al llarg de tota la tesi, i el mètode de Path Integral Ground State (PIGS), que es una extensió del primer però a temperatura zero. Després d'introduir el formalisme bàsic, comentem les diferents aproximacions necessàries i aportem una comparació entre elles. També expliquem un possible mètode de paral·lelització i tècniques de mostreig avançat. Els primers resultats que mostrem en aquesta tesi son pel diagrama de fases d'un gas de Coulomb unidimensional, que hem obtingut emprant PIMC. Hem construït el diagrama de fases mitjançant el càlcul de propietats energètiques i estructurals. Els nostres resultats amplien estudis previs que s'havien realitzat pel mateix sistema a temperatura zero. Els nostres resultats mostren l'existència d'un règim de cristall de Wigner quàntic i un d'un gas de Fermi ideal a temperatures baixes. Incrementant la temperatura obtenim un cristall de Wigner clàssic i un gas clàssic. En el següent capítol ensenyem els resultats per un sistema quasi-unidimensional de parahidrogen. L'objectiu d'aquest estudi es veure si la quasi-unidimensionalitat afecta al paràmetre de Luttinger quan el comparem pel cas purament unidimensional. Això ho fem a temperatura zero utilitzant PIGS. Sent el parahidrogen un fort candidat a ser superfluid, la idea principal es veure si reduint la dimensionalitat del sistema podem alleugerir suficient la interacció intermolecular. Per fer-ho, provem diferents potencials externs per controlar l'obertura del sistema en dues de les dimensions. Tot i l'increment del paràmetre de Luttinger respecte al cas unidimensional, aquest no arriba als valors esperats per mostrar superfluïdesa. El següents resultats són del nostre estudi sobre el factor d'estructura dinàmic per 4He. Utilitzant PIMC, calculem la funció de dispersió a diferents temperatures i fem una inversió per tal d'accedir a les propietats dinàmiques del sistema. Tot i la naturalesa de problema mal posat d'aquesta inversió, obtenim resultats qualitativament bons en comparació amb els experimentals, i provem que el nostre mètode d'inversió obté resultats superiors per 4He a temperatura finita que els obtinguts prèviament utilitzant altres mètodes. En aquest sentit, aportem una comparació amb el mètode de màxima entropia i amb resultats experimentals. L'estudi a diferents temperatures ens deixa veure la desaparició del pic del rotó quan creuem T=2.17K des de el règim superfluid al fluid normal. També observem una curvatura estranya en la distribució de moments en el règim de superfluïdesa que desapareix a temperatures més elevades, i pel qual no existeix cap explicació teòrica. Finalment, mostrem un mètode per calcular funcions de correlació en temps complex, l'objectiu del qual es obtenir factors d'estructura dinàmic superiors als obtinguts en temps purament imaginari. Aquest model ha sigut provat amb èxit en sistemes d'una sola partícula. El nostre objectiu es veure si obtenim resultats bons en sistemes amb més partícules, i si el temps complex màxim al que podem accedir no es redueix amb aquest increment. Tot i l'increment en la variança, obtenim bons resultats pel factor dinàmic i, comparant-los amb els obtinguts amb temps imaginari, podem veure com el temps complex ofereix resultats més pròxims als exactes.
We study quantum wires and point contacts with a fixed-node path integral Monte Carlo technique. The fixed-node technique uses a variational principle to map fermionic problems into effective bosonic problems, which are then evaluated with standard quantum Monte Carlo techniques. While fixed-node is an approximation, it has the useful properties of being variational and being able to recover the exact answer when the exact nodes or phases of the density matrix are known. In these finite-temperature simulations we use the free particle density matrix as a fixed-node constraint to efficiently simulate hundreds of interacting electrons. We have calculated charge densities, pair correlation functions, and the currentcurrent Matsubura Green's functions for quantum wires and quantum point contacts.