Based on the relationship between reduced and thermal density matrices in conformal field theory (CFT), we show that the entanglement spectrum of a conformal critical chain with exponentially decaying terms consists of conformal towers of the associated chiral CFT, with only weak finite-size effects. Through free-fermion and interacting examples, we show that these entanglement spectra present a reliable method to extract detailed CFT spectra from single wave functions without access to the parent Hamiltonian. We complement our method with a Wilsonian numerical renormalisation group algorithm for solving interacting, exponentially decaying chain Hamiltonians.
Based on the relationship between reduced and thermal density matrices in conformal field theory (CFT), we show that the entanglement spectrum of a conformal critical chain with exponentially decaying terms consists of conformal towers of the associated chiral CFT, with only weak finite-size effects. Through free-fermion and interacting examples, we show that these entanglement spectra present a reliable method to extract detailed CFT spectra from single wave functions without access to the parent Hamiltonian. We complement our method with a Wilsonian numerical renormalisation group algorithm for solving interacting, exponentially decaying chain Hamiltonians.
Entanglement entropy and entanglement spectrum have been widely used to characterize quantum entanglement in extended many-body systems. Given a pure state of the system and a division into regions A and B, they can be obtained in terms of the Schmidtvalues, or eigenvalues λα of the reduced density matrix ρA for region A. In this paper we draw attention instead to the Schmidtvectors, or eigenvectors ∣vα⟩ of ρA. We consider the ground state of critical quantum spin chains whose low energy/long distance physics is described by an emergent conformal field theory (CFT). We show that the Schmidt vectors ∣vα⟩ display an emergent universal structure, corresponding to a realization of the Virasoro algebra of a boundary CFT (a chiral version of the original CFT). Indeed, we build weighted sums Hn of the lattice Hamiltonian density hj,j+1 over region A and show that the matrix elements ⟨vαHn∣vα′⟩ are universal, up to finite-size corrections. More concretely, these matrix elements are given by an analogous expression for HnCFT=21(Ln+L−n) in the boundary CFT, where Ln's are (one copy of) the Virasoro generators. We numerically confirm our results using the critical Ising quantum spin chain and other (free-fermion equivalent) models.
The entanglement spectra for a subsystem in a spin chain fine-tuned to a quantum-critical point contains signatures of the underlying quantum field theory that governs its low-energy properties. For an open chain with given boundary conditions described by a 2D conformal field theory~(CFT), the entanglement spectrum of the left/right half of the system coincides with a boundary CFT spectrum, where one of the boundary conditions arise due to the `entanglement cut'. The latter has been argued to be conformal and has been numerically found to be the `free' boundary condition for Ising, Potts and free boson theories. For these models, the `free' boundary condition for the lattice degree of freedom has a counterpart in the continuum theory. However, this is not true in general. Here, this question is analyzed for the unitary minimal models of 2D CFTs using the density matrix renormalization group technique. The entanglement spectra are computed for blocks of spins in open chains of A-type restricted solid-on-solid models with identical boundary conditions at the ends. The imposed boundary conditions are realized exactly for these lattice models due to their integrable nature. The obtained entanglement spectra are in good agreement with certain boundary CFT spectra. The boundary condition for the entanglement cut is found to be conformal and to coincide with the one with the highest boundary entropy. This identification enables determination of the exponents governing the unusual corrections to the entanglement entropy from the CFT partition functions. These are compared with numerical results.
Quantum critical chains are well-described and understood by virtue of conformal field theory. Still, the meaning of the real space entanglement spectrum—the eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix—of such systems remains elusive in general, even when there is an additional quantum number available such as the spin or particle number. In this paper, we explore in detail the properties and structure of the reduced density matrix of critical XXZ spin- chains. We investigate the quantum/thermal correspondence between the reduced density matrix of a T = 0 pure quantum state and the thermal density matrix of an effective entanglement Hamiltonian. Using large scale DMRG and QMC simulations, we investigate the conformal structure of the spectra, the entanglement Hamiltonian, and temperature. We then introduce the notion of spin-resolved entanglement entropies, which display interesting scaling features.
We provide numerical evidence that the low-lying part of the entanglement spectrum of a real-space block (i.e. a single interval) of a one-dimensional quantum many body system at a conformal critical point corresponds to the energy spectrum of a boundary conformal field theory (CFT). This correspondence allows to uncover a subset of the operator content of a conformal field theory by inspection of the entanglement spectrum of a single wave function, thus providing important information on a CFT beyond its central charge. As a practical application we show that for many systems described by a compactified boson CFT, one can infer the compactification radius (governing e.g. the power law decay of correlation functions) of the theory in a simple way based on the entanglement spectrum.
Understanding the universality class of continuous phase transition is of central importance in condensed matter physics. In one spatial dimension, the universal properties are encoded in the conformal field theory (CFT), which is in turn specified by the conformal data. In this thesis, we propose a systematic method to extract complete and accurate conformal data from the critical quantum spin chain based on the operator-state correspondence, thus completing the project initiated by Cardy and others in the 80's. \n \nOur method is based on the low-energy eigenstates of the critical quantum spin chain with periodic boundary conditions. First, scaling dimensions and conformal spins are extracted by the energies and momenta. Second, the primary states and conformal towers are identified by using the Koo-Saleur lattice Virasoro generators. Third, we propose a systematic way of identifying lattice operators with CFT operators, which enables us to compute operator product expansion coefficients from the low-energy eigenstates. Finally, the whole approach is generalized to critical quantum spin chains with antiperiodic boundary condition. In order to reduce finite-size corrections, we put forward the periodic uniform matrix product state (puMPS) algorithm which enables us to compute low-energy eigenstates of a critical quantum spin chain up to several hundreds of spins. Our method also enables us to study nonperturbatively the renormalization group flow between two CFTs as well as explore the emergence of extended symmetries beyond conformal symmetry. \n \nWe test our method with the Ising model and its generalization due to O'Brien and Fendley. The latter model is featured by a tricritical point described by the tricritical Ising CFT and a line of critical points interpolating between the Ising CFT and the tricritical Ising CFT. We extract complete conformal data from the two models and find excellent agreement with analytical results. Furthermore, we study the spectral renormalization group flow between the two CFTs nonperturbatively. At the tricritical point, the underlying CFT has an extended symmetry, the superconformal symmetry. We propose lattice operators that correspond to supervirasoro generators and verify their action on low-energy eigenstates. In this way we study the emergence of superconformal symmetry in critical quantum spin chains.
In this dissertation, the momentum-space entanglement properties of several quantum spin chains are investigated. In the second chapter we re- view important results on many-body entanglement. In the third chapter, we numerically study the momentum-space entanglement spectra of bosonic and fermionic formulations of the spin-1/2 XXZ chain [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 256404 (2014)]. We investigate the behavior of the entanglement gaps, present in both formulations, across quantum phase transitions in the XXZ chain. In both cases, finite size scaling suggests that the entanglement gap closure does not occur at the physical transition points. For bosons, we find that the entan- glement gap depends on the scaling dimension of the conformal field theory as varied by the X X Z anisotropy. For fermions, the infinite entanglement gap present at the XX point persists well past the phase transition at the Heisenberg point. We elaborate on how this may support the numerical study of phase transitions. In the third chapter, we advocate that in certain critical spin chains a gap in the momentum-space entanglement spectrum separates the universal part of the spectrum, which is determined by the associated conformal field theory, from the non-universal part, which is specific to the model [arXiv:1512.09030]. We provide affirmative evidence from multicritical spin-1 chains with low energy sectors described by the SU(2)2 or the SU(3)1 Wess-Zumino-Witten model. In chapter four, we study momentum- space en- tanglement in quantum spin-half ladders [Phys. Rev. B 93, 125107 (2016)]. When the system is gapped, we analytically find the momentum-space entan- glement Hamiltonian is described by a chiral conformal field theory with a central charge of two. When the system is gapless, the entanglement Hamil- tonian consists of one gapless mode that is linear in subsystem momentum and one mode with a flat dispersion relation. We also analytically include the effect of a certain irrelevant terms (in the renormalization group sense) on the entanglement spectrum. In chapter six, we investigate the momentum- space entanglement spectrum after a quantum quench [arXiv:1603.01997]. We show that the momentum-space entanglement spectrum of the XXZ spin- half chain possesses many universal features both in equilibrium and after a quantum quench.