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arXiv:2110.02203 · Physical Review Research

Detecting confined and deconfined spinons in dynamical quantum simulations

Qiaoyi Li, Jian Cui, Wei Li

Published Mar 11, 2022• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Dynamical spin-structure factor (DSF) contains fingerprint information of collective excitations in interacting quantum spin systems. In solid state experiments, DSF can be measured through neutron scatterings. However, it is in general challenging to compute the spectral properties accurately via many-body simulations. Currently, quantum simulation and computation constitute a thriving research field, which are believed to provide a very promising platform for simulating quantum many-body systems. In this paper, we establish a link between the many-body dynamics and quantum simulations by studying the nonequilibrium DSF (nDSF) measured on direct product states, which are accessible in contemporary quantum simulators with Rydberg atoms, superconducting qubits, etc. Based on the many-body calculations of transverse field Ising chains, we find the nDSF can be used to sensitively probe the multispinon continua associated with the two-spinon creation and spinon-antispinon process, etc. Moreover, we further demonstrate that the low-energy spinons can be confined---forming spinon bound states---under a finite longitudinal field. Our results pave the way of quantum simulation and manipulation of fractional excitations in highly entangled quantum many-body systems.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.4.013193

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Dynamical spin-structure factor (DSF) contains fingerprint information of collective excitations in interacting quantum spin systems. In solid state experiments, DSF can be measured through neutron scatterings. However, it is in general challenging to compute the spectral properties accurately via many-body simulations. Currently, quantum simulation and computation constitute a thriving research field, which are believed to provide a very promising platform for simulating quantum many-body systems. In this paper, we establish a link between the many-body dynamics and quantum simulations by studying the nonequilibrium DSF (nDSF) measured on direct product states, which are accessible in contemporary quantum simulators with Rydberg atoms, superconducting qubits, etc. Based on the many-body calculations of transverse field Ising chains, we find the nDSF can be used to sensitively probe the multispinon continua associated with the two-spinon creation and spinon-antispinon process, etc. Moreover, we further demonstrate that the low-energy spinons can be confined---forming spinon bound states---under a finite longitudinal field. Our results pave the way of quantum simulation and manipulation of fractional excitations in highly entangled quantum many-body systems.
The dynamical structure factor is a central observable in condensed-matter physics, providing direct insight into the excitation spectrum and dynamical response of quantum materials. While it is traditionally accessed in real materials through inelastic neutron scattering, recent works have shown that analogous information can be extracted in quantum simulators using suitable dynamical protocols. So far, these approaches have been demonstrated mainly in paradigmatic integrable one-dimensional models. In this work, we use numerical emulations of a neutral-atom quantum processing unit to assess the feasibility of measuring the dynamical structure factor in a broader class of Ising-like spin systems. Beyond the standard one-dimensional transverse-field Ising chain, we benchmark the protocol in chains with dimerized interactions and in the two-dimensional transverse-field Ising model, where spectral properties are difficult to access with classical numerical methods at large scales. We further analyze the robustness of the protocol under realistic experimental conditions, including finite simulation times, pulse modulation, positional disorder, and laser noise. Our results show that neutral-atom quantum simulators can provide a practical route to probing dynamical response functions in regimes where classical simulations become increasingly demanding, paving the way toward experimental implementation.
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Observing constituent particles with fractional quantum numbers in confined and deconfined states is an interesting and challenging problem in quantum many-body physics. Here, we further explore a computational scheme [Y. Tang and A. W. Sandvik, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 157201 (2011)] based on valence-bond quantum Monte Carlo simulations of quantum spin systems. Using several different one-dimensional models, we characterize S=12S=\frac{1}{2}S=21​ spinon excitations using the intrinsic spinon size $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ and confinement length $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ (the size of a bound state). The spinons have finite size in valence-bond-solid states, infinite size in the critical region (with overlaps characterized by power laws), and become ill defined (completely unlocalizable) in the N\'eel state (which we stabilize in one dimension by introducing long-range interactions). We also verify that pairs of spinons are deconfined in uniform spin chains but become confined upon introducing a pattern of alternating coupling strengths (dimerization) or coupling two chains (forming a ladder). In the dimerized system, an individual spinon can be small when the confinement length is large; this is the case when the imposed dimerization is weak but the ground state of the corresponding uniform chain is a spontaneously formed valence-bond solid (where the spinons are deconfined). Based on our numerical results, we argue that a system with $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\ll}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ is associated with weak repulsive short-range spinon-spinon interactions. In principle, both the length scales $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ can still be individually tuned from small to infinite (with $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\le}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$) by varying model parameters. In contrast, in the ladder system the two lengths are always similar, and this is the case also in the weakly dimerized systems when the corresponding uniform chain is in the critical phase. In these systems, the effective spinon-spinon interactions are purely attractive and there is only a single large length scale close to criticality, which is reflected in the standard spin correlations as well as in the spinon characteristics.
Fractionalization remains one of the most fascinating manifestations of strong interactions in quantum many-body systems. In quantum magnetism, the existence of spinons—collective magnetic excitations that behave as quasiparticles with fractional quantum numbers—is proven in spin chains, but the criteria for their appearance in higher dimensions remain disputed. Motivated by experiments reporting the observation of spinons at high energies in the square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet, we adopt the approach of extrapolating from where spinons are well defined. We study the dynamical properties of a Gutzwiller-projected wave function, the staggered-flux state, on a rectangular spin-1/2 Heisenberg lattice as a function of the spatial coupling ratio, γ = J y / J x . By studying the spectrum and the spinon separation distribution we show how, as the system evolves from one-dimensional (1D) towards 2D, the spinons become progressively more confined over most of reciprocal space, but remain deconfined at specific wave vectors.
The space-and time-dependent response of many-body quantum systems is the most informative aspect of their emergent behavior. The dynamical structure factor, experimentally measurable using neutron scattering, can map this response in wave vector and energy with great detail, allowing theories to be quantitatively tested to high accuracy. Here, we present a comparison between neutron scattering measurements on the one-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet KCuF3, and recent state-of-the-art theoretical methods based on integrability and density matrix renormalization group simulations. The unprecedented quantitative agreement shows that precise descriptions of strongly correlated states at all distance, time, and temperature scales are now possible, and highlights the need to apply these novel techniques to other problems in low-dimensional magnetism.
Two-dimensional coherent spectroscopy (2DCS) with terahertz radiation offers a promising new avenue for the exploration of many-body phenomena in quantum magnets. This includes the potential diagnosis of fractionalized excitations, for which linear response often struggles due to the indistinguishability of a continuum of fractional excitations from that caused by disorders or impurities. However, the interpretation of the complex results produced by 2DCS remains a challenge. Here, we explore a numerical approach based on exact diagonalization (ED) to help push forward our understanding of 2DCS and, as an example, use it to study the impact of confinement in the one-dimensional transverse field Ising (TFIM) model. We first validate our approach by comparing numerical ED and exact analytical results for the spectroscopic signatures of fractionalized spinons in the model, which exhibits a sharp spinon-echo signal in 2DCS, and show how to understand the finite-size effects inevitable with the inherently small system sizes in ED calculations. By augmenting the model with a longitudinal field, which breaks integrability and introduces confinement of spinon pairs, we observe significant changes to the 2DCS spectrum, such as nonsymmetric broadening of the spinon-echo signal. To further elucidate these changes, we introduce a ``four-kink'' approximation, an effective model that captures the interactions between multiple (confined) spinon pairs. Comparing ED data to these four-kink results provides understanding of the multiple features of the 2DCS spectra, allowing us to interpolate between finite-system size data and the thermodynamic limit. One advantage of our ED approach is its possible extension to finite temperatures, which we explore using thermally pure quantum states and demonstrate how the intensity and spectroscopic patterns of 2DCS change when going beyond the integrable model. Our numerically exact results provide a benchmark for future experiments and theoretical studies relying on approximation methods and pave the way for the exploration of fractionalized excitations in quantum magnets.