Mobility edges in pseudo-unitary quasiperiodic quantum walks

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Cedzich, Christopher, Fillman, Jake
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Cedzich, Christopher
Fillman, Jake
author_facet Cedzich, Christopher
Fillman, Jake
contents We introduce a Floquet quasicrystal that simulates the motion of Bloch electrons in a homogeneous magnetic field in discrete time steps. We admit the hopping to be non-reciprocal which, via a generalized Aubry duality, leads us to push the phase that parametrizes the synthetic dimension off of the real axis. This breaks unitarity, but we show that the model is still ``pseudo-unitary''. We unveil a novel mobility edge between a metallic and an insulating phase that sharply divides the parameter space. Moreover, for the first time, we observe a second transition that appears to be unique to the discrete-time setting. We quantify both phase transitions and relate them to properties of the spectrum. If the hopping is reciprocal either in the lattice direction or the synthetic dimension, the model is $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric, and the spectrum is confined to the unit circle up to a critical point. At this critical point, $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry is spontaneously broken and the spectrum leaves the unit circle. This transition is topological and measured by a spectral winding number.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_16843
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mobility edges in pseudo-unitary quasiperiodic quantum walks
Cedzich, Christopher
Fillman, Jake
Quantum Physics
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
We introduce a Floquet quasicrystal that simulates the motion of Bloch electrons in a homogeneous magnetic field in discrete time steps. We admit the hopping to be non-reciprocal which, via a generalized Aubry duality, leads us to push the phase that parametrizes the synthetic dimension off of the real axis. This breaks unitarity, but we show that the model is still ``pseudo-unitary''. We unveil a novel mobility edge between a metallic and an insulating phase that sharply divides the parameter space. Moreover, for the first time, we observe a second transition that appears to be unique to the discrete-time setting. We quantify both phase transitions and relate them to properties of the spectrum. If the hopping is reciprocal either in the lattice direction or the synthetic dimension, the model is $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric, and the spectrum is confined to the unit circle up to a critical point. At this critical point, $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry is spontaneously broken and the spectrum leaves the unit circle. This transition is topological and measured by a spectral winding number.
title Mobility edges in pseudo-unitary quasiperiodic quantum walks
topic Quantum Physics
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.16843