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arXiv:2203.09530 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Quantum sine-Gordon dynamics in coupled spin chains

Elisabeth Wybo, Michael Knap, Alvise Bastianello

Published Aug 1, 2022• 24 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The sine-Gordon field theory emerges as the low-energy description in a wealth of quantum many-body systems. Recent efforts have been directed towards realizing quantum simulators of the model, by interfering two weakly coupled one-dimensional cold atomic gases. The weak interactions within the atomic clouds provide a sine-Gordon realization in the semiclassical regime. Furthermore, the intricate microscopic dynamics prevents a quantitative understanding of the effective sine-Gordon validity realm. In this work, we focus on a spin-ladder realization and observe the emergent sine-Gordon dynamics deep in the quantum regime. We use matrix-product state techniques to numerically characterize the low-energy sector of the system and compare it with the exact field-theory predictions. From this comparison, we obtain quantitative boundaries for the validity of the sine-Gordon description. We provide encompassing evidence for the emergent field theory by probing its rich spectrum and by observing the signatures of integrable dynamics in scattering events.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.106.075102

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The sine-Gordon field theory emerges as the low-energy description in a wealth of quantum many-body systems. Recent efforts have been directed towards realizing quantum simulators of the model, by interfering two weakly coupled one-dimensional cold atomic gases. The weak interactions within the atomic clouds provide a sine-Gordon realization in the semiclassical regime. Furthermore, the intricate microscopic dynamics prevents a quantitative understanding of the effective sine-Gordon validity realm. In this work, we focus on a spin-ladder realization and observe the emergent sine-Gordon dynamics deep in the quantum regime. We use matrix-product state techniques to numerically characterize the low-energy sector of the system and compare it with the exact field-theory predictions. From this comparison, we obtain quantitative boundaries for the validity of the sine-Gordon description. We provide encompassing evidence for the emergent field theory by probing its rich spectrum and by observing the signatures of integrable dynamics in scattering events.
The sine-Gordon model emerges as a low-energy theory in a plethora of quantum many-body systems.Here, we theoretically investigate tunnel-coupled Bose-Hubbard chains with strong repulsive interactions as a realization of the sine-Gordon model deep in the quantum regime.We propose protocols for quantum gas microscopes of ultracold atoms to prepare and analyze solitons, which are the fundamental topological excitations of the emergent sine-Gordon theory.With numerical simulations based on matrix product states, we characterize the preparation and detection protocols and discuss the experimental requirements.
The sine-Gordon model captures the low-energy effective dynamics of a wealth of one-dimensional quantum systems, stimulating the experimental efforts in building a versatile quantum simulator of this field theory and fueling the parallel development of new theoretical toolkits able to capture far-from-equilibrium settings. In this work, we analyze the realization of the sine-Gordon model from the interference pattern of two one-dimensional quasicondensates: we argue that the emergent field theory is well described by its classical limit, and we develop its large-scale description based on generalized hydrodynamics. We show how, despite the sine-Gordon model being an integrable field theory, trap-induced inhomogeneities cause instabilities of excitations and provide exact analytical results to capture this effect.
Abstract A spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain is one of the most important paradigmatic models in quantum magnetism. Its ground state is a spin singlet, while the excitation spectrum is formed by gapless fractional excitations, spinons. The presence of alternating g-tensors and/or the staggered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction results in opening the energy gap Δ∝H2/3\varDelta \propto H^{2/3}Δ∝H2/3 Δ ∝ H 2 / 3 , once the magnetic field H is applied. A fairly good understanding of this phenomenon was achieved in the framework of the sine-Gordon quantum-field theory, taking into account the effective transverse staggered field induced by the applied uniform field. The theory predicts solitons and antisolitons as elementary excitations, as well as their bound states, breathers. Here, I review recent high-field electron spin resonance spectroscopy studies of such systems, focusing on peculiarities of their spin dynamics in the sine-Gordon regime and beyond.
We consider a prime example of simulating interacting relativistic QFT with cold atoms: the realisation of the sine-Gordon model by tunnel-coupled quasi-1D Bose gases. While experiments have shown that it can realise the sine-Gordon model in equilibrium, studies of non-equilibrium dynamics have revealed phase-locking behaviour that contrasts with predictions from sine-Gordon field theory. Here, we examine a one-dimensional field-theoretic model of the system and find that the phase-locking behaviour can be understood in terms of the longitudinal harmonic trap, and that the additional degrees of freedom observed in the experiment do not appear to play a significant role. Therefore, the experimental setup provides a good simulator of the sine-Gordon quantum field theory, even out of equilibrium, if the inhomogeneous background induced by the trap is taken into account. Furthermore, our results support the idea that modifying the longitudinal trap to a box shape should result in agreement with standard sine-Gordon dynamics. The main remaining open issues are accounting for 3D corrections and modelling the effect of the boundaries.
Quantum mechanical many-body systems are inherently hard to describe microscopically due to the exponential scaling of their state space with the number of particles. Progress in many-body physics is therefore often facilitated by identifying the relevant degrees of freedom of a system and constructing an effective field theory containing the dominant physical processes for the phenomena one would like to understand. Universal dynamics far from equilibrium, which has first been experimentally observed in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, has emerged as an im- portant concept which so far has eluded a comprehensive theoretical explanation. In this thesis, we experimentally test the validity of the sine-Gordon model, a paradigmatic integrable model in non-linear physics that describes the low energy behavior of a multitude of physical systems, as the effective field theory for our experimental platform, which is a spinor Bose-Einstein conden- sate. We find qualitative agreement in a first set of quench experiments between the late-time dynamics of the condensate and the effective theory for a wide range of parameters. The presence of topological excitations is conjectured to have an influence on the universal dy- namics exhibited by many-body systems. We develop a novel phase imprinting scheme in order to locally manipulate the degree of freedom of the effective sine-Gordon theory. We use the imprinting scheme to deterministically generate sine-Gordon-type solitons in the spinor con- densate, and characterize their behavior. The ability to control the velocity of the solitons with an experimental parameter opens up the study of collisions of the sine-Gordon-type solitons. We characterize the interaction of the solitons during collision, finding quantitative agreement with numerical simulations. We furthermore find that the solitons display even richer behavior than in the integrable sine-Gordon model, opening up the study of non-integrable effects such as energy transfer between internal and external modes. Observing the full spin-1 nature of the solitons during collisions additionally reveals that the solitons are a special case of a larger family of solitonic solutions. These results lay the foundation for the experimental exploration of uni- versal dynamics and its physical mechanisms through an effective field theory. The investigation of the sine-Gordon-type solitons furthermore constitutes the first experimental study of solitons in multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensates that go beyond the so-called Manakov regime.
We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the quantum sine-Gordon model describing a pair of Josephson-coupled one-dimensional bosonic quasicondensates. Motivated by experimentally accessible quench procedures where the zero mode of the quasicondensates is weakly coupled to finite momentum modes, we develop a Hamiltonian truncation scheme relying on a mini-superspace treatment of the zero mode (MSTHA). We apply this method to simulate the time evolution after both weak and strong quantum quenches, injecting a low or high energy density into the system, and we demonstrate that MSTHA accurately captures the dynamics from the hard-core boson limit to the experimentally relevant weakly interacting regime for sufficiently mild quenches. In the case of high energy densities, MSTHA breaks down for weak interaction but still extends the range of validity of previous Hamiltonian truncation schemes. We also compare these results to the semiclassical truncated Wigner approximation, and we establish that the dynamics can be well approximated by the semiclassical description in the weakly interacting regime realized in the experiments. In addition, we clarify the importance of the phononic modes depending on the sine-Gordon interaction strength.