This thesis describes the duality methods used in the tensor renormalization group method and their application to quantum simulation with cold atoms in optical lattices. Here we consider specifically the O(2) and O(3) nonlinear sigma models in two dimensions, as well as the Abelian Higgs model in two dimensions. We give numerical results from the tensor renormalization group and comparisons with other numerical methods for all three models. We give proposals for possible experimental methods with which these models could be simulated using cold atoms trapped in optical lattices as is done in ongoing experiments.
This thesis describes the duality methods used in the tensor renormalization group method and their application to quantum simulation with cold atoms in optical lattices. Here we consider specifically the O(2) and O(3) nonlinear sigma models in two dimensions, as well as the Abelian Higgs model in two dimensions. We give numerical results from the tensor renormalization group and comparisons with other numerical methods for all three models. We give proposals for possible experimental methods with which these models could be simulated using cold atoms trapped in optical lattices as is done in ongoing experiments.
We discuss the reformulation of the O(2) model with a chemical potential and the Abelian Higgs model on a 1+1 dimensional space-time lattice using the Tensor Renormalization Group (TRG) method. The TRG allows exact blocking and connects smoothly the classical Lagrangian approach to the quantum Hamiltonian approach. We calculate the entanglement entropy in the superfluid phase of the O(2) model and show that it approximately obeys the logarithmic Calabrese-Cardy scaling obtained from Conformal Field Theory (CFT). We calculate the Polyakov loop in the Abelian Higgs model and discuss the possibility of a deconfinement transition at finite volume. We propose Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonians implementable on optical lattices as quantum simulators for CFT models.
Abstract : In this project, we have developed a scheme for using cold atom systems on optical lattices as quantum simulators for lattice gauge theories. We designed cold atom experimental setups that could be used to learn about the phase diagrams of Lattice Gauge Theory models and real time evolution, which cannot be studied using conventional methods. We first constructed a sequence of theoretical steps connecting the classical O(2) model in 1+1 dimensions to a boson model that can be implemented on optical lattices, showing a proof-of-principle that quantum computing via optical lattices is possible for classical lattice models. We then extended this protocol to limits of the Abelian Higgs model, a model that exhibits important features of QCD such as confinement. Our results include construction of effective actions, testing with Monte Carlo simulations, tensor renormalization group technique development and application, mappings to quantum spin and boson Hamiltonians, and analysis of candidate systems for experimental realization. We verified that in the superfluid phase the central charge can be extracted from the entanglement entropy as predicted by conformal symmetry. We calculated and compared the Polyakov loop, an order parameter for confinement, in the two formulations, and propose that it can be a useful quantity to probe experimentally. The results from our project opens the door for exciting new research directions, such as quantum simulation of the Schwinger model and of non-Abelian models.
This thesis presents our recent studies on quantum simulation of the Abelian Higgs lattice gauge theory with quantum systems engineered with ultracold atoms in optical lattices and quantum equilibration and thermalization dynamics in the context of Joule expansion in cold atom systems.In the first part, we give proposals for the analog quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories with cold atoms in optical lattices with current experimental techniques, aiming at maximal simplicity on both the theoretical and experimental side. We search for the suitable platform for quantum simulation of the (1+1)-dimensional Abelian Higgs model, which is the scalar quantum electrodynamics replacing the fermionic fields by complex scalar fields. We use a discrete tensor reformulation to smoothly connect the space-time isotropic version used in most numerical lattice simulations to the continuous-time limit corresponding to the Hamiltonian formulation. We propose to use the Bose Hubbard model as a quantum simulator to probe the conformal Calabrese-Cardy scaling of its O(2) limit with a chemical potential. We also propose to use a physical multileg ladder of atoms trapped in optical lattices and interacting with Rydberg-dressed interactions to quantum simulate the model and measure the Polyakov loop. Numeric results from the Monte Carlo, the tensor renormalization group and the density matrix renormalization group techniques are cross-checked to support our proposals.In the second part of this thesis, we investigate the Joule expansion of nonintegrable quantum systems that contain bosons or spinless fermions in one-dimensional lattices. Initially a barrier confines the particles to be in half of the system in a thermal state described by the canonical ensemble and is removed at time t=0. We study the properties of the time-evolved density matrix, the diagonal ensemble density matrix and the corresponding canonical ensemble density matrix with an effective temperature determined by the total energy conservation. We discuss the equilibration and thermalization for the R\\'enyi entropy of subsystems, few-body observables and reduced density matrices in subsystems. We finally discuss the difference between bosons and fermions in finite size scaling of the effective temperature. We propose the Joule expansion as a way to dynamically create negative temperature states for fermion systems with repulsive interactions.
Tensor networks are a class of methods for studying many-body systems. They give a geometrical description of the internal structure of many-body states, operators, and partition functions, that can be used to implement efficient algorithms to simulate them numerically. In this thesis, after providing a very brief overview of the field, we present new tensor network methods for three different use cases. \n \nFirst, we present a new real-space renormalization group algorithm for tensor networks. Compared to existing methods, its advantages are its low computational cost, simplicity of implementation, and applicability to any network. We benchmark it on the 2D classical Ising model and find accuracy comparable with the best existing tensor network methods. Due to its simplicity and generalizability, we consider our algorithm to be an excellent candidate for implementation of real-space renormalization in higher dimensions, and discuss some of the details and the remaining challenges in 3D. \n \nSecond, we show how certain topological conformal defects of critical lattice theories can be represented as tensor networks, using the 2D classical Ising model as an example. Furthermore, we show how such tensor network descriptions, combined with a renormalization group algorithm, can be used to obtain accurate estimates of the universal properties of these defects. We also show how coarse-graining of defects can be applied to any conformal defect (i.e. not just topological ones), and yields a set of associated scaling dimensions. \n \nFinally, we leave behind the focus on renormalization group methods, and present a method for spatially resolving the overlap between two tensor network states, to obtain localized information about the similarities and differences between them. For a given region, the similarity of two states in this region can be quantified by the Uhlmann fidelity of their reduced density matrices, and we show how such fidelities can be efficiently computed in many cases when the two states are represented as tensor networks. We demonstrate the usefulness of evaluating such subsystem fidelities with three example applications: studying local quenches, comparing critical and non-critical states, and quantifying convergence in tensor network simulations.
This thesis describes the Tensor Renormalization Group (TRG) method used to solve the Z5 model in lattice gauge theory. The TRG method provides exact blocking for the models and is much less expansive in terms of computational costs. Here we consider the Z5 model in two dimensions, we discuss the formulation of the tensor and the process we used to do the TRG blocking, in order to find the phase transition and critical behavior of the model. We give some simple results and plots, and some expectation for further research in the model.
A Bose-Hubbard model, describing bosons in a harmonic trap with a superimposed optical lattice, is studied using a fast and accurate variational technique (MF+NRG): the Gutzwiller mean-field (MF) ansatz is combined with a numerical renormalization group (NRG) procedure in order to improve on both. Results are presented for one, two, and three dimensions, with particular attention to the experimentally accessible momentum distribution and possible satellite peaks in this distribution. In one dimension, a comparison is made with exact results obtained using stochastic series expansion.