Predicting the phase diagram of interacting quantum many-body systems is a challenging problem in condensed matter physics. Strong interactions and correlation effects may lead to exotic states of matter, such as quantum spin liquids and unconventional superconductors, that often compete with other symmetry-broken states including ordered magnets and charge density waves. Here, we put forward a formalism for determining the phase diagram of fermionic systems that combines recent progress in the field of Lee-Yang theory of phase transitions with many-body tensor-network methods. Using this strategy, we map out the phase diagram of a fermionic chain, where charge density waves form owing to strong repulsion. Specifically, from the high cumulants of the order parameter, we extract the dominant zeros of the moment-generating function in chains of finite size. By extrapolating their positions to the thermodynamic limit, we determine the boundaries between competing phases. Our formalism provides a strategy for determining critical points in fermionic systems, and it is based on fluctuations of the order parameter, which are measurable quantities.
Predicting the phase diagram of interacting quantum many-body systems is a challenging problem in condensed matter physics. Strong interactions and correlation effects may lead to exotic states of matter, such as quantum spin liquids and unconventional superconductors, that often compete with other symmetry-broken states including ordered magnets and charge density waves. Here, we put forward a formalism for determining the phase diagram of fermionic systems that combines recent progress in the field of Lee-Yang theory of phase transitions with many-body tensor-network methods. Using this strategy, we map out the phase diagram of a fermionic chain, where charge density waves form owing to strong repulsion. Specifically, from the high cumulants of the order parameter, we extract the dominant zeros of the moment-generating function in chains of finite size. By extrapolating their positions to the thermodynamic limit, we determine the boundaries between competing phases. Our formalism provides a strategy for determining critical points in fermionic systems, and it is based on fluctuations of the order parameter, which are measurable quantities.
Quantum phase transitions are a ubiquitous many-body phenomenon that occurs in a wide range of physical systems, including superconductors, quantum spin liquids, and topological materials. However, investigations of quantum critical systems also represent one of the most challenging problems in physics, since highly correlated many-body systems rarely allow for an analytic and tractable description. Here, we present a Lee-Yang theory of quantum phase transitions including a method to determine quantum critical points which readily can be implemented within the tensor network formalism and even in realistic experimental setups. We apply our method to a quantum Ising chain and the anisotropic quantum Heisenberg model and show how the critical behavior can be predicted by calculating or measuring the high cumulants of properly defined operators. Our approach provides a powerful formalism to analyze quantum phase transitions using tensor networks, and it paves the way for systematic investigations of quantum criticality in two-dimensional systems.
Determining the phase diagram of interacting quantum many-body systems is an important task for a wide range of problems such as the understanding and design of quantum materials. For classical equilibrium systems, the Lee-Yang formalism provides a rigorous foundation of phase transitions, and these ideas have also been extended to the quantum realm. Here, we develop a Lee-Yang theory of quantum phase transitions that can include thermal fluctuations caused by a finite temperature, and it thereby provides a link between the classical Lee-Yang formalism and recent theories of phase transitions at zero temperature. Our methodology exploits analytic properties of the moment generating function of the order parameter in systems of finite size, and it can be implemented in combination with tensor-network calculations. Specifically, the onset of a symmetry-broken phase is signaled by the zeros of the moment generating function approaching the origin in the complex plane of a counting field that couples to the order parameter. Moreover, the zeros can be obtained by measuring or calculating the high cumulants of the order parameter. We determine the phase diagram of the two-dimensional quantum Ising model and thereby demonstrate the potential of our method to predict the critical behavior of two-dimensional quantum systems at finite temperatures.
Predicting the phase diagram of interacting quantum many-body systems is a central problem in condensed matter physics and related fields. A variety of quantum many-body systems, ranging from unconventional superconductors to spin liquids, exhibit complex competing phases whose theoretical description has been the focus of intense efforts. Here, we show that neural network quantum states can be combined with a Lee-Yang theory of quantum phase transitions to predict the critical points of strongly correlated spin lattices. Specifically, we implement our approach for quantum phase transitions in the transverse-field Ising model on different lattice geometries in one, two, and three dimensions. We show that the Lee-Yang theory combined with neural network quantum states yields predictions of the critical field, which are consistent with large-scale quantum many-body methods. As such, our results provide a starting point for determining the phase diagram of more complex quantum many-body systems, including frustrated Heisenberg and Hubbard models.
The collective behavior of large numbers of interacting particles may give rise to a phase transition. A continuing challenge is to identify the underlying principles of this phenomenon emerging in many important systems in nature and characterize the critical behavior of interacting many-body systems. In this thesis, we present a theoretical and methodological framework for predicting the phase properties of a macroscopic system based on the behavior of just a few of its constituents. To this end, we devise a direct pathway from the detection of partition function zeros by measuring or simulating fluctuating observables in systems of finite size to the characterization of criticality and large deviation statistics in interacting many-body systems. Our approach combines ideas and concepts from the finite-size scaling analysis with the Lee-Yang formalism and theories of high cumulants and large deviations, and it can be applied in a wide range of critical systems from physics, chemistry, and biology, both in theory and experiment. The thesis consists of four publications. In publications I and II, we report a novel method that makes it possible to extract the partition function zeros in interacting many-body systems of finite size solely from the fluctuations of thermodynamic observables without any prior knowledge of the partition function. To illustrate the feasibility of our approach, we use the Fisher zeros and their relation to the energy fluctuations as a tool for probing criticality in Ising models in two and three dimensions. In particular, we suggest an alternative way of extracting the universal critical exponents from measured fluctuations in finite-size systems away from the phase transition. In publications III and IV, we develop a scaling analysis of the partition function zeros to investigate the criticality in higher dimensions where the hyperscaling breaks down. We also show that even if the system does not exhibit a sharp phase transition, the partition function zeros carry important information about the large-deviation statistics of the system and its symmetry properties. To this end, we determine the rare magnetization fluctuations from the asymptotic behavior of the Lee-Yang zeros, i.e., from the Yang-Lee edge singularities. This finding may constitute a profound connection between Lee-Yang theory and large-deviation statistics.
The classical simulation of many-body quantum systems is an essential tool in understanding many fundamental aspects of condensed matter physics. But a major obstacle arises from the number of degrees of freedom involved in describing such systems, which is exponential in the system size. Recently, however, a class of numerical techniques based on structures called "tensor networks" has emerged, which allows many "typical" quantum states (such as the ground states of gapped, local Hamiltonians) to be represented much more efficiently. In this work we extend and apply these techniques to consider several central topics in quantum many-body physics. After reviewing the relevant background material from the field of tensor networks and tensor network states, we demonstrate a method for computing high order moments and cumulants of operators with respect to such states, including the so-called "Binder cumulant," a powerful tool for detecting phase transitions. Next, we employ tensor network algorithms to characterize the ground state phase diagram of a quantum spin model, including both symmetry-breaking phases and symmetry protected topological order, and find a signicant variety of phases and phase transitions. Finally, we consider the entanglement properties of quantum states exhibiting many-body localization, using a combination of exact diagonalization and tensor network techniques. | 231 pages
Lee-Yang theorems are a powerful tool for studying many-body systems, with applications ranging from analyzing phase transitions to proving the efficiency of certain classical and quantum algorithms. In this work, we prove a Lee-Yang zero-freeness theorem for the partition function of a broad class of interacting fermion models, implying the existence of a provably efficient quantum algorithm for estimating their ground-state energies. This class includes several well-known models such as the attractive Hubbard model, repulsive Hubbard model on bipartite graphs, and the interacting Hofstadter model. Our results also rigorously establish the nonexistence of phase transitions in these models in the presence of a nonzero local external field.