Entanglement and U(D)-spin squeezing in symmetric multi-quDit systems and applications to quantum phase transitions in Lipkin–Meshkov–Glick D-level atom models

Collective spin operators for symmetric multi-quDit (namely identical D-level atom) systems generate a U(D) symmetry. We explore generalizations to arbitrary D of SU(2)-spin coherent states and their adaptation to parity (multi-component Schrödinger cats), together with multi-mode extensions of NOON states. We write level, one- and two-quDit reduced density matrices of symmetric N-quDit states, expressed in the last two cases in terms of collective U(D)-spin operator expectation values. Then, we evaluate level and particle entanglement for symmetric multi-quDit states with linear and von Neumann entropies of the corresponding reduced density matrices. In particular, we analyze the numerical and variational ground state of Lipkin–Meshkov–Glick models of 3-level identical atoms. We also propose an extension of the concept of SU(2)-spin squeezing to SU(D) and relate it to pairwise D-level atom entanglement. Squeezing parameters and entanglement entropies are good markers that characterize the different quantum phases, and their corresponding critical points, that take place in these interacting D-level atom models.

The Free Energy of a Quantum Sherrington–Kirkpatrick Spin-Glass Model for Weak Disorder

We extend two rigorous results of Aizenman, Lebowitz, and Ruelle in their pioneering paper of 1987 on the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick spin-glass model without external magnetic field to the quantum case with a “transverse field” of strength $$\mathsf {b}$$ b . More precisely, if the Gaussian disorder is weak in the sense that its standard deviation $$\mathsf {v}>0$$ v > 0 is smaller than the temperature $$1/\beta $$ 1 / β , then the (random) free energy almost surely equals the annealed free energy in the macroscopic limit and there is no spin-glass phase for any $$\mathsf {b}/\mathsf {v}\ge 0$$ b / v ≥ 0 . The macroscopic annealed free energy turns out to be non-trivial and given, for any $$\beta \mathsf {v}>0$$ β v > 0 , by the global minimum of a certain functional of square-integrable functions on the unit square according to a Varadhan large-deviation principle. For $$\beta \mathsf {v}<1$$ β v < 1 we determine this minimum up to the order $$(\beta \mathsf {v})^{4}$$ ( β v ) 4 with the Taylor coefficients explicitly given as functions of $$\beta \mathsf {b}$$ β b and with a remainder not exceeding $$(\beta \mathsf {v})^{6}/16$$ ( β v ) 6 / 16 . As a by-product we prove that the so-called static approximation to the minimization problem yields the wrong $$\beta \mathsf {b}$$ β b -dependence even to lowest order. Our main tool for dealing with the non-commutativity of the spin-operator components is a probabilistic representation of the Boltzmann–Gibbs operator by a Feynman–Kac (path-integral) formula based on an independent collection of Poisson processes in the positive half-line with common rate $$\beta \mathsf {b}$$ β b . Its essence dates back to Kac in 1956, but the formula was published only in 1989 by Gaveau and Schulman.

Local spin and open quantum systems: clarifying misconceptions, unifying approaches

The theory of open quantum systems (OQSs) is applied to partition the squared spin operator into fragment (local spin) and interfragment (spin-coupling) contributions in a molecular system. An atomic or...

A New Approach to Transport Coefficients in the Quantum Spin Hall Effect

We investigate some foundational issues in the quantum theory of spin transport, in the general case when the unperturbed Hamiltonian operator $$H_0$$ H 0 does not commute with the spin operator in view of Rashba interactions, as in the typical models for the quantum spin Hall effect. A gapped periodic one-particle Hamiltonian $$H_0$$ H 0 is perturbed by adding a constant electric field of intensity $$\varepsilon \ll 1$$ ε ≪ 1 in the j-th direction, and the linear response in terms of a S-current in the i-th direction is computed, where S is a generalized spin operator. We derive a general formula for the spin conductivity that covers both the choice of the conventional and of the proper spin current operator. We investigate the independence of the spin conductivity from the choice of the fundamental cell (unit cell consistency), and we isolate a subclass of discrete periodic models where the conventional and the proper S-conductivity agree, thus showing that the controversy about the choice of the spin current operator is immaterial as far as models in this class are concerned. As a consequence of the general theory, we obtain that whenever the spin is (almost) conserved, the spin conductivity is (approximately) equal to the spin-Chern number. The method relies on the characterization of a non-equilibrium almost-stationary state (NEASS), which well approximates the physical state of the system (in the sense of space-adiabatic perturbation theory) and allows moreover to compute the response of the adiabatic S-current as the trace per unit volume of the S-current operator times the NEASS. This technique can be applied in a general framework, which includes both discrete and continuum models.

Spinor field solutions in F(B2) modified Weyl gravity

We consider modified Weyl gravity where a Dirac spinor field is nonminimally coupled to gravity. It is assumed that such modified gravity is some approximation for the description of quantum gravitational effects related to the gravitating spinor field. It is shown that such a theory contains solutions for a class of metrics which are conformally equivalent to the Hopf metric on the Hopf fibration. For this case, we obtain a full discrete spectrum of the solutions and show that they can be related to the Hopf invariant on the Hopf fibration. The expression for the spin operator in the Hopf coordinates is obtained. It is demonstrated that this class of conformally equivalent metrics contains the following: (a) a metric describing a toroidal wormhole without exotic matter; (b) a cosmological solution with a bounce and inflation and (c) a transition with a change in metric signature. A physical discussion of the results is given.