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arXiv:2207.01147 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Disentanglement, disorder lines, and Majorana edge states in a solvable quantum chain

Gennady Y. Chitov, Karun Gadge, P. N. Timonin

Published Sep 28, 2022• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the exactly solvable one-dimensional model: the dimerized $XY$ chain with uniform and staggered transverse fields, equivalent upon fermionization to the noninteracting dimerized Kitaev-Majorana chain with modulation. The model has three known gapped phases with local and nonlocal (string) orders, along with the gapless incommensurate (IC) phase in the $U(1)$ limit. The criticality is controlled by the properties of zeros of model's partition function, analytically continued onto the complex wave numbers. In the ground state they become complex zeros of the spectrum of the Hamiltonian. The analysis of those roots yields the phase diagram which contains continuous quantum phase transitions and weaker singularities known as disorder lines (DLs) or modulation transitions. The latter are shown to occur in two types: DLs of the first kind with continuous appearance of the IC oscillations, and DLs of the second kind corresponding to a jump of the wave number of oscillations. The salient property of zeros of the spectrum is that the ground state is shown to be separable (factorized), and the model is disentangled on a subset of the DLs. From analysis of those zeros we also find the Majorana edge states and their wave functions.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.106.125146

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We study the exactly solvable one-dimensional model: the dimerized XYXYXY chain with uniform and staggered transverse fields, equivalent upon fermionization to the noninteracting dimerized Kitaev-Majorana chain with modulation. The model has three known gapped phases with local and nonlocal (string) orders, along with the gapless incommensurate (IC) phase in the U(1)U(1)U(1) limit. The criticality is controlled by the properties of zeros of model's partition function, analytically continued onto the complex wave numbers. In the ground state they become complex zeros of the spectrum of the Hamiltonian. The analysis of those roots yields the phase diagram which contains continuous quantum phase transitions and weaker singularities known as disorder lines (DLs) or modulation transitions. The latter are shown to occur in two types: DLs of the first kind with continuous appearance of the IC oscillations, and DLs of the second kind corresponding to a jump of the wave number of oscillations. The salient property of zeros of the spectrum is that the ground state is shown to be separable (factorized), and the model is disentangled on a subset of the DLs. From analysis of those zeros we also find the Majorana edge states and their wave functions.
The phase diagram and the order parameters of the exactly solvable quantum one-dimensional model are analyzed. The model in its spin representation is the dimerized XYXYXY spin chain in the presence of uniform and staggered transverse fields. In the fermionic representation this model is the dimerized noninteracting Kitaev chain with a modulated chemical potential. The model has a rich phase diagram which contains phases with local and nonlocal (string) orders. We have calculated within the same systematic framework the local order parameters (spontaneous magnetization) and the nonlocal string order parameters, along with the topological winding numbers for all domains of the phase diagram. The topologically nontrivial phase is shown to have a peculiar oscillating string order with the wave number $q=\ensuremath{\pi}/2$, awaiting for its experimental confirmation.
The modulation is analyzed from the analytical properties of zeros of the free fermionic partition function on the complex plane of wave numbers. It is shown how these properties are related to the oscillations of correlation functions. This approach can be used for analysis of phase transitions with local or nonlocal order parameters, as well as for the disorder lines. We find an infinite cascade of disorder lines at finite temperature in the quantum XYXYXY chain (equivalent to free fermions). The well-known ground-state factorization on the disorder line, and consequently disentanglement, is shown to follow directly from analytical properties of this model on the complex plane. From the quantum-classical correspondence the results for the chain are used to detect the disorder lines in several frustrated two-dimensional Ising models. The present formalism can be applied to other fermionic models in two and three spatial dimensions. In particular, we find the temperature-dependent Fermi wave vector of oscillations in the degenerate gas of three-dimensional fermions, which naturally leads in the limit $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ to the definition of the Fermi energy as the surface of quantum criticality. The modulation is a very common phenomenon, and it occurs in a large variety of models. The important point is that all these modulation transitions can be related to the complex zeros of partition functions, as done in the present study.
The proposal is to probe Majorana modes in the system when its parameters are tuned to bring it into a disentangled ground state, which occur on the parametric curves known as disorder lines (DL). In such state certain correlation functions do not depend on separation. The exact results are presented for the XY spin chain in transverse field, also called the Kitaev chain in the Majorana representation. The single Majorana modes are shown to be localized near the ends of the chain, as in the states off the DL, while the disentangled nnn-particle Majorana modes (n≥2n \geq 2n≥2) penetrate into the bulk without attenuation. The predicted bulk-edge effects can be detected in the specially engineered optical chains and lattices.
In this Letter we present, in a number conserving framework, a model of interacting fermions in a two-wire geometry supporting nonlocal zero-energy Majorana-like edge excitations. The model has an exactly solvable line, on varying the density of fermions, described by a topologically nontrivial ground state wave function. Away from the exactly solvable line we study the system by means of the numerical density matrix renormalization group. We characterize its topological properties through the explicit calculation of a degenerate entanglement spectrum and of the braiding operators which are exponentially localized at the edges. Furthermore, we establish the presence of a gap in its single particle spectrum while the Hamiltonian is gapless, and compute the correlations between the edge modes as well as the superfluid correlations. The topological phase covers a sizable portion of the phase diagram, the solvable line being one of its boundaries.
We numerically study the quantum phase transitions and the stability of Majorana zero modes in a generalized Kitaev model in one dimension when the chemical potential is periodically modulating in space. By using the exact diagonalization method for open boundary condition, we investigate the ground-state phases in terms of the non-local properties such as the entanglement spectrum (ES) and the string correlation functions. When we vary the phase of the modulation, the number of the Majorana zero modes changes, which manifests itself in the degeneracy of the lowest level of the ES. Next, we study the quantum phase transitions driven by the change in the amplitude of the modulation. In particular, for certain values of the wave number and the phase of the modulation, we observe a quantum phase transition from one topological phase into another where the string correlation function oscillates in space. We also show a case where the degeneracy of the ES does not change even for large enough amplitude of the modulation. Finally, we characterize the phases of the system with periodic boundary condition by the topological invariant, which reflects the number of the zero-energy excitations.
The Hubbard and spinless fermion chains are paradigms of strongly correlated systems, very well understood using the Bethe ansatz, density matrix renormalization group (DMRG), and field theory/renormalization group (RG) methods. They have been applied to one-dimensional materials and have provided important insights for understanding higher-dimensional cases. Recently, an interacting fermion model has been introduced, with possible applications to topological materials. It has a single Majorana fermion operator on each lattice site and interactions with the shortest possible range that involve four sites. We present a thorough analysis of the phase diagram of this model in one dimension using field-theory/RG and DMRG methods. It includes a gapped supersymmetric region and a gapless phase with coexisting Luttinger liquid and Ising degrees of freedom. In addition to a first-order transition, three critical points occur: tricritical Ising, Lifshitz, and a generalization of the commensurate-incommensurate transition. We also survey various gapped phases of the system that arise when the translation symmetry is broken by dimerization and find both trivial and topological phases with 0, 1, and 2 Majorana zero modes bound to the edges of the chain with open boundary conditions.