In the realm of energy research, a team of scientists from various institutions, including Piotr Wrzosek and Krzysztof Wohlfeld from the University of Warsaw, Eugene A. Demler from Harvard University, Annabelle Bohrdt from the University of Bonn, and Fabian Grusdt from the University of Munich, have made a significant discovery that could potentially impact our understanding of strongly correlated electron systems. These systems are crucial in the development of advanced energy technologies, such as high-temperature superconductors, which could revolutionize energy transmission and storage.
The researchers have revisited a long-standing problem in condensed matter physics: the behavior of a single mobile hole, or absence of an electron, in an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator. This problem is particularly relevant to the energy sector due to its implications for high-temperature superconductivity, a phenomenon that could greatly enhance the efficiency of energy systems. The team focused on the simplest version of this problem, a single hole in an Ising antiferromagnet, which was previously thought to be well-understood.
However, the researchers found that the local spectrum of a single hole in this system contains a series of previously unknown, long-lived states. These states, dubbed “anomalous eigenstates,” have excitation energies that scale approximately linearly with the exchange interaction strength, J, unlike the more familiar ladder-like spectrum with energies scaling as (J^2/3)(t^1/3), where t is the hopping amplitude. The anomalous states lead to a series of avoided crossings with the more pronounced ladder spectrum, indicating a complex interplay between different types of states.
The origin of these anomalous states is rooted in an approximate emergent local C3 symmetry of the problem. This symmetry gives rise to a series of avoided crossings and leads to anomalously slow thermalization behavior. The researchers concluded that these states represent a new type of quantum many-body scar state, which could have significant implications for the energy sector. Quantum many-body scars are localized excitations in an otherwise thermalizing many-body system, and their presence can lead to long-lived, coherent behavior that could be harnessed for energy applications.
The researchers used exact diagonalization and the self-avoiding path approximation to uncover these anomalous states. Their findings were published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, a testament to the significance of their work. While the practical applications of this research are still under investigation, the discovery of these anomalous eigenstates could potentially open up new avenues for the development of advanced energy technologies, particularly in the field of high-temperature superconductivity. As our understanding of these complex systems grows, so too does our potential to harness their unique properties for the benefit of the energy sector.
This article is based on research available at arXiv.