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Subir Sachdev

Publications and source records attributed to Subir Sachdev.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Floquet engineering of competing antiferromagnetism and $d$-wave superconductivity on the square lattice

We propose a driven Lieb--Hubbard quantum simulator whose prethermal dynamics realize a square-lattice spin-1/2 fermion model with independently tunable repulsive on-site and attractive bond interactions. Periodically modulating the charge-transfer offset between the site ($d$) and bond ($p$) orbitals of the Lieb lattice brings a $p$-orbital doublon energetically close to a pair in the $d$ manifold while keeping all $p$-orbital singlons off resonance, thereby creating a synthetic ``negative-$U$'' center on a Lieb-lattice bond site. Two controlled eliminations then generate a compact bond attraction in the reduced $d$-only model on the square lattice, despite the microscopic repulsion in the $p$ orbital. The resulting interaction $J$ is tunable independently of the Hubbard repulsion $U_d$ on the $d$ orbitals, while interference between photon-assisted paths provides access to an intermediate-coupling regime in which $J$ and $U_d$ are both comparable to the effective hopping. At half filling, a mean-field calculation in this regime finds adjacent antiferromagnetic and $d$-wave superconducting phases, as well as narrow coexistence regions, suggesting close competition between these orders. We discuss the branch-preparation, prethermal, and higher-band conditions required to translate the formal construction into an optical-lattice protocol. More broadly, our work identifies a structural similarity between Floquet systems and electron-phonon problems that may guide the design of novel quantum-simulation protocols.

cond-mat.str-el

Superconducting and charge-ordered phases from Dirac quantum spin liquids on the triangular lattice

Triangular-lattice quantum spin-liquid insulators are observed to undergo transitions to superconductivity under pressure or doping, and exhibit enhanced terahertz conductivity when driven by mid-infrared light. We present a general theoretical framework for the emergence of superconducting and charge-ordered phases from a U(1) Dirac spin liquid with fermionic spinons, as well as from its gapped $\mathbb{Z}_2$ and chiral descendants. Numerical studies have provided substantial evidence for these spin-liquid states. The spin-liquid phase hosts fractionalized Dirac spinons coupled to an emergent gauge field, whereas the superconducting and charge-ordered phases are conventional, with neither fractionalized excitations nor emergent gauge dynamics. The transition between these phases is driven by the Higgs condensation of spinless charge-$e$ bosonic chargons (``doublons'' and ``holons''). We show that the projective symmetry group of the Dirac spinons uniquely determines the symmetry and dispersion of the chargons, allowing us to construct an effective low-energy theory near the chargon band minima. Gauge-invariant composites of the chargon Higgs fields provide the order parameters characterizing the phases. The resulting phase diagram contains a rich variety of ordered states, including $d+id$ superconductivity, charge-density waves, bond-density waves, and pair-density waves.

cond-mat.str-el

Entanglement entropy of fermions in a strange metal

The subsystem-size dependence of ground-state entanglement entropy and its crossover to thermal entropy as a function of temperature are well understood for one-dimensional (1D) gapless systems described by conformal field theory (CFT), and for free fermions with a Fermi surface in any dimension. However, little is known about the entanglement entropy for gapless fermionic systems without quasi-particles, such as a strange metal. Here we study the entanglement entropy of fermions in a solvable large-$N$ 1D lattice model akin to the Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (Yukawa SYK) model. In this model, two Fermi points are coupled to scalar bosons via spatially random Yukawa interactions, providing a solvable model of a strange metal when the bosons become critical at a quantum critical point. We exactly compute the second R\'{e}nyi entropy of fermions in a spatial subregion in this model. Our results unravel crucial role of intra-subregion entanglement between fermionic and bosonic degrees of freedom along with the inter-subregion entanglement in understanding the ground states of such strongly coupled fermion-boson systems. We show that the crossover from thermal entropy to entanglement entropy, is captured by a single scaling ansatz, that collapses the second R\'{e}nyi entropy of fermions for different subregion sizes and temperatures into a single universal curve. We further show that the universal scaling curve for the critical strange metal is well described by the standard CFT formula, albeit with an effective central charge substantially larger than the non-interacting value.

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Meissner Effect and Josephson Radiation in Driven Dissipative Superconductors

Photo-induced superconducting signatures have been observed in several materials at temperatures far above their equilibrium critical temperatures, including magnetic field expulsion as in the Meissner effect. We propose driven-dissipative condensation of the superconducting order parameter as a mechanism for this phenomenon. In such a theory, optical pumping generates an effective gain (possibly via a parametric resonance) that overcomes the intrinsic damping of the pairing field, and stabilizes a non-equilibrium condensate whose phase rotates at an intrinsic frequency that is generally lower than, and incommensurate with, the drive frequency. We develop a phenomenological continuum theory that couples this slowly rotating order parameter to the conserved charge density and the electromagnetic gauge field. Despite its finite-frequency dynamics, the resulting state exhibits the conventional long-wavelength electromagnetic signatures of superconductivity. In three dimensions, it displays a static Meissner effect and a gapped plasmon generated by the Anderson--Higgs mechanism. In a two-dimensional sheet, it exhibits Pearl screening and the characteristic square-root plasmon dispersion. We further propose a direct experimental test based on a Josephson junction between the driven-dissipative state and an equilibrium superconductor. The junction supports an AC Josephson current at zero applied voltage and emits radiation at the intrinsic rotation frequency of the condensate. Its low, pump-dependent, and generally incommensurate frequency provides a clear signature distinguishing driven-dissipative superconductivity from equilibrium and drive-locked pairing states.

cond-mat.supr-con

Deconfined criticality between an antiferromagnetic insulator and a nodal d-wave superconductor: a quantum Monte Carlo study

We present a quantum Monte Carlo study of the transition between the insulating N\'eel state and the nodal $d$-wave superconductor on the square lattice at half-filling. We access a regime of frustrated magnetic order without a sign problem using a parton representation of the electron in terms of fermionic spinons and bosonic chargons. Both partons move in a background $\pi$-flux (so the electron experiences no net flux) and are coupled to a quantum fluctuating SU(2) lattice gauge field. In contrast to earlier studies directly on the electronic degrees of freedom, we find evidence for a second-order deconfined quantum phase transition at which both the N\'eel and $d$-wave superconductivity orders vanish continuously. We compute correlators of the spinon-chargon composite with the same quantum numbers as the electron: we find a gapless Dirac dispersion inside the $d$-wave superconductor, turning into a gapped dispersion in the antiferromagnet.

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Influence of Harris disorder on quantum-critical superconductivity

In the Hertz theory, a quantum critical metal is described by the coupling of a Fermi surface to fluctuations of a Landau-damped bosonic field $\phi$, which may represent either an order parameter or a Higgs field for a transition without symmetry breaking. Scattering from $\phi$ produces non-Fermi-liquid behavior in the normal state, while the same fluctuations mediate enhanced Cooper pairing. By the Harris criterion, symmetry-preserving disorder couples most strongly to the coefficient of the $\phi^2$ term, locally tuning the system toward or away from criticality. This random mass (``Harris disorder'') leads to a finite density of localized low-energy $\phi$ modes even when the fermionic states remain extended and continue to provide Landau damping. We study the onset of pairing mediated by these localized overdamped bosonic modes. Starting from a real-space linearized Usadel equation for the two-particle propagator, we show that the localized bosonic wave functions generate both a spatially random pairing vertex and an effective random potential for Cooper pairs. Numerical solution, a self-consistent Born approximation, and Lifshitz-tail analysis reveal two regimes of the pairing instability. At high temperatures, pairing nucleates compact superconducting puddles on the most localized bosonic modes. At lower temperatures, an extended pairing eigenstate appears, but its transition scale and spatial structure remain strongly affected by mesoscopic correlation effects and enhanced probability of returns to favorable regions of the localized bosonic glue. The resulting distribution of local pairing scales has a power-law tail, in contrast to the stretched-exponential tails of disordered BCS superconductors. This mechanism provides a route to broad gap inhomogeneity and superconducting puddles in quantum-critical metals, and offers an interpretation of STM measurements of the cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con

Fermi surface change and $d$-wave superconductivity in the square lattice Kondo-Heisenberg model

We study the two-dimensional Kondo-Heisenberg model on a square lattice, with the conduction electrons away from half-filling, using neural network quantum states. Mapping the ground-state phase diagram as a function of the Kondo and Heisenberg couplings, we identify (i) at weak Kondo coupling, antiferromagnetic N\'eel order with a Fermi surface whose enclosed area counts only the conduction electrons and is insensitive to the N\'eel order, and (ii) at strong coupling, a heavy Fermi liquid with a Fermi surface whose enclosed area counts both the conduction electrons and the spins. In the crossover between these regimes, we find $d_{x^2-y^2}$ superconductivity, evidenced by off-diagonal long-range order in the pair-pair correlations and a pairing-amplitude dome that coexists with the underlying magnetic phase. Our results establish Fermi volume change and unconventional superconductivity as intrinsic features of the two-dimensional Kondo-Heisenberg model.

cond-mat.str-el

Symmetry-resolved monopoles and stability criteria for an $N_f=12$ Dirac spin liquid on the maple-leaf lattice

The $\mathrm{U}(1)$ Dirac spin liquid provides a useful organizing framework for frustrated magnets: it offers an algebraic parent state from which competing orders, confinement patterns, and low-energy spectral features can be understood. Whether such a state can occur as a stable ground state of a two-dimensional spin Hamiltonian remains an open question, because monopole operators of the compact gauge field can proliferate and confine the spinons. Here we determine the symmetry quantum numbers of the fundamental monopoles of a maple-leaf-lattice Dirac spin liquid whose generic six-node regime realizes QED$_3$ with $N_f=12$ two-component Dirac fermions. The charge-one monopoles span a $924$-dimensional complex representation. In the spin-singlet, zero-momentum, zero-$C_6$-angular-momentum sector we find five complex charge-one directions, of which three are mapped to their Hermitian conjugates under time reversal. Their real and imaginary Hermitian combinations therefore supply six independent monopole perturbations that are trivial under translations, $C_6$, time reversal, and spin rotation. The Dirac spin liquid phase is thus not protected by symmetry exclusion of charge-one monopoles: its stability depends on whether these allowed perturbations are relevant in the renormalization group sense. Existing large-$N_f$ and numerical estimates of the charge-one monopole scaling dimension lie close to the relevance threshold, making the maple-leaf lattice a concrete platform for testing the stability of compact QED$_3$ in a quantum magnet. Our complete monopole classification also identifies the spin, momentum, and rotation sectors in which monopole excitations should appear, providing symmetry-resolved benchmarks for exact-diagonalization and variational tests of the $N_f=12$ Dirac spin liquid.

cond-mat.str-el

From Ferrimagnetic Insulator to superconducting Luther-Emery Liquid: A DMRG Study of the Two-Leg Lieb Lattice

Motivated by recent experiments on ultracold fermionic spin-1/2 $^6$Li atoms in a Lieb lattice at various Hubbard repulsion $U$ and filling fractions $n$ (Lebrat et al., arXiv:2404.17555), we conduct a density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) analysis of the Hubbard model on a two-leg Lieb ladder. At half-filling, we find a ferrimagnetic Mott insulating ground state, consistent with Lieb's theorem. Away from half-filling, a state with finite total spin $\vec{S}^2 \neq 0$ and vanishing charge gap persists down to filling $n_c \approx 2/3$. For lower, incommensurate fillings, the system is described by a Luttinger liquid with one charge and one spin mode. Intriguingly, in a narrow window near $n_c = 2/3$, close to the onset of ferromagnetic order, we identify a superconducting Luther-Emery phase with dominant $s_{xy}$-wave pairing.

cond-mat.str-el

Superconductivity and fractionalized magnetic excitations in CeCoIn5

Recent experiments on CeCoIn5 -- a prototypical d-wave superconductor -- indicate that its normal state lies near an unconventional quantum critical point (QCP). One intriguing hypothesis is that quantum-critical fluctuations promote fractionalization of localized 4f moments into fermionic spinons. This fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL*) scenario provides a comprehensive framework for the unconventional QCP and superconductivity, and can reconcile a "missing" Fermi-surface volume relative to the Luttinger count in the normal state of CeCoIn5. To test this possibility, we performed inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements on CeCoIn5 across the superconducting transition and corresponding theoretical analysis. Our high-precision spectra reveal detailed momentum and temperature dependence of the spin resonance and a structured spin excitation continuum persisting even in the normal state, placing stringent constraints on the physical picture of pairing in a d-wave superconductor. We show that a Kondo-lattice framework incorporating proximity to FL* physics and d-wave pairing reproduces key features of the data. The model suggests that both the quasi-localized nature of the f-moments above Tc and the resonance below Tc arise from common underlying gauge dynamics, implying a unifying organizing principle linking spin fractionalization and unconventional superconductivity in strongly correlated metals.

cond-mat.str-el

Higgs criticality of Dirac spin liquids on depleted triangular lattices

We investigate Higgs criticality in candidate U(1) Dirac spin liquids across a family of depleted triangular lattices: the triangular, kagome, and maple-leaf geometries. For each, we identify the symmetry-allowed spinon-pairing channel connecting the U(1) state to a proximate $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquid, deriving the corresponding quantum electrodynamics (QED$_3$)-Higgs theory. While the triangular and kagome lattices share a low-energy description with $N_f=4$ Dirac fermions, the maple-leaf lattice yields an analogous theory with $N_f=12$ and a distinct nodal structure where the Dirac cones can move along high-symmetry lines in momentum space instead of gapping out. Using a large-$N_{f,b}$ expansion, we compute critical exponents and the scaling dimensions of the symmetry-allowed Yukawa couplings. Although Higgs-field fluctuations and a large fermion flavor number strongly suppress the Yukawa coupling---pushing the maple-leaf lattice closer to stability than its counterparts---we find that the coupling remains relevant at leading order in all three cases, substantially reducing its scaling dimension on the maple-leaf lattice and asymptotically breaking Lorentz and conformal invariance. Ultimately, our results provide a unified framework demonstrating how the interplay between fermion flavor count and nodal geometry dictates the fate of the QED$_3$-Higgs transition.

cond-mat.str-el

Landau and fractionalized theories of periodically driven intertwined orders

We obtain the phase diagrams of field theories of intertwined orders in the presence of periodic driving by an external field which preserves all symmetries. We consider both a conventional Landau theory of competing orders, and a fractionalized theory in which the order parameters are distinct composites of an underlying multi-component Higgs field. We work in the large $N$ limit and couple to a Markovian bath. The long time limits are characterized by non-zero average values, oscillations with the drive period and/or half the drive period, quasi-periodic oscillations, or chaotic behavior.

cond-mat.str-el

Unified gauge-theory description of quantum spin liquids on square-based frustrated lattices

Quantum spin liquids are commonly thought to be highly sensitive to lattice geometry, symmetry, and microscopic exchange patterns, leading to a proliferation of seemingly distinct phases across frustrated magnets. Here, we provide a framework that unifies phases that appear distinct from the viewpoint of this intuition. We postulate that the spin-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg antiferromagnets on the square, Shastry-Sutherland, and checkerboard lattices can realize a single unified quantum phase: a gapless $\mathbb{Z}_2$ Dirac quantum spin liquid, despite their markedly different lattice symmetries. Using a systematic projective symmetry group analysis, we identify a checkerboard spin-liquid state that completes a closed set of adiabatically connected phases linking the well-established square-lattice and Shastry-Sutherland spin liquids. Crucially, we show that this lattice-level unification is mirrored exactly in the continuum description. In all three cases, the spin liquids descend from a common SU(2) $\pi$-flux parent state and are governed by the same gauge theory, QED$_3$ with two Dirac fermion flavors coupled to two adjoint Higgs fields. As a result, we postulate that the surrounding N\'eel and valence-bond-solid phases and their confinement transitions admit a unified interpretation within the framework of deconfined quantum criticality. More broadly, our results suggest that quantum spin liquids are most fundamentally classified not by lattice geometry or microscopic couplings, but by the emergent gauge theory and its Higgs structure. Distinct frustrated lattices can thus host the same quantum phase and exhibit the same confinement mechanisms, despite substantial differences in their microscopic symmetries.

cond-mat.str-el

Crossover to Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev criticality in an infinite-range quantum Heisenberg spin glass

A central question in frustrated quantum magnets is how quantum fluctuations destabilize spin-glass order and promote quantum spin-liquid behavior. We study the equilibrium dynamics of an infinite-range quantum Heisenberg model with random couplings, in which local magnetic moments arise from $\mathcal{N}_f$ flavors of spinful fermions. We employ an expansion in $\mathcal{N}_f$, which controls the strength of quantum fluctuations, and self-consistently include $1/\mathcal{N}_f$ corrections to the Luttinger-Ward functional. In the large-$\mathcal{N}_f$ limit, where quantum fluctuations are weak, the high- and low-temperature phases are respectively paramagnetic and spin glass ordered, with a transition temperature independent of $\mathcal{N}_f$. For small numbers of fermionic flavors, however, quantum fluctuations substantially suppress the ordering temperature. We show that this behavior reflects the proximity of the system to a Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) regime, realizing quantum spin-liquid dynamics over a broad range of finite frequencies, where both fermionic and spin spectral densities display critical behavior over a broad range of finite frequencies, with the latter exhibiting the scale-invariant form $\chi''(\omega)\sim\operatorname{sgn}(\omega)$. At the lowest energies and temperatures, spin glass dynamics ultimately take over, producing a universal sub-Ohmic dynamical spin susceptibility $\chi''(\omega)\sim\operatorname{sgn}(\omega)\sqrt{|\omega|}$. Our results highlight a direct connection between the suppression of spin-glass order and the emergence of SYK criticality in a frustrated quantum magnet.

cond-mat.str-el

Transformer Neural-Network Quantum States for lattice models of spins and fermions: Application to the Ancilla Layer Model

We introduce a variational wave function based on Neural-Network Quantum States (NQS) to study lattice systems whose local Hilbert space contains both spin and fermionic degrees of freedom. Our approach is based on the use of the Transformer architecture, which can naturally handle composite local Hilbert spaces through a tokenization procedure closely inspired by techniques from natural language processing. The neural network predicts a set of fermionic orbitals that depend on the spin configuration in a backflow-inspired manner. We apply the method to the one-dimensional Ancilla Layer Model, consisting of a chain of mobile spin-$1/2$ fermions coupled to a two-leg spin-$1/2$ ladder. For open boundary conditions, we achieve excellent quantitative agreement with Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) results across the full range of parameters considered. We find a phase in which the chain forms an effectively decoupled Luttinger liquid (LL), and a LL* phase with a distinct Fermi wavevector in which the mobile fermions are Kondo screened by one leg of the ladder, while the other leg forms the critical Bethe spin liquid. The LL* is the analog of the phase describing the pseudogap in two dimensions. We also find a Luther-Emery (LE) phase, where the LL* state becomes unstable toward the formation of a spin gap. The Transformer Ansatz maintains comparable accuracy for periodic boundary conditions, where tensor-network methods are computationally more demanding. Together, these findings establish Transformer-based NQS as an accurate and scalable variational framework for correlated lattice systems with composite local Hilbert spaces and highlight their potential for studying higher-dimensional models where boundary effects and heterogeneous local structures pose significant challenges.

cond-mat.str-el

Sondheimer magneto-oscillations as a probe of Fermi surface reconstruction in underdoped cuprates

Determining the Fermi surface (FS) volume in underdoped cuprates is crucial for understanding the nature of the strongly correlated pseudogap phase. Conventional quantum oscillation techniques, typically used for this purpose, are inapplicable in this high-temperature regime due to thermal and disorder-induced smearing of Landau levels. We propose Sondheimer oscillations (SO), semiclassical oscillations of in-plane magnetoresistivity in thin films, as a robust alternative probe of FS reconstruction. SO arise from the commensuration between the cyclotron radius and film thickness, do not rely on Landau quantization, and remain observable at moderate fields and elevated temperatures where quantum oscillations are suppressed. Their frequencies depend solely on the FS parameters (e.g., curvature), and not on specific details of scattering mechanisms. SO are also sensitive to the coherence of inter-layer tunneling, allow contributions from individual FS pockets to be distinguished in the frequency domain, and naturally include the Yamaji angle effect (if present in the system) as a prominent feature in the frequency spectrum. We compute SO spectra as a function of the magnetic field orientation for three representative scenarios: (i) an unreconstructed large FS, (ii) a spin density wave reconstructed FS with volume $p/4$, and (iii) a fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL$^*$) with pocket volume $p/8$ (here $p$ is the hole doping). We show that the SO spectrum offers a wealth of universal features that could be used to differentiate between these scenarios. In particular, we highlight a FS geometry-dependent phase shift between oscillations in longitudinal and transverse conductivities, characterize how the FS curvature can be extracted from SO if the film orientation is perpendicular to the crystallographic $c$-axis, and analyze the evolution of the SO spectrum with doping.

cond-mat.str-el

Approaching the Thermodynamic Limit with Neural-Network Quantum States

Accessing the thermodynamic-limit properties of strongly correlated quantum matter requires simulations on very large lattices, a regime that remains challenging for numerical methods, especially in frustrated two-dimensional systems. We introduce the Spatial Attention mechanism, a minimal and physically interpretable inductive bias for Neural-Network Quantum States, implemented as a single learned length scale within the Transformer architecture. This bias stabilizes large-scale optimization and enables access to thermodynamic-limit physics through highly accurate simulations on unprecedented system sizes within the Variational Monte Carlo framework. Applied to the spin-$\tfrac12$ triangular-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet, our approach achieves state-of-the-art results on clusters of up to $42\times42$ sites. The ability to simulate such large systems allows controlled finite-size scaling of energies and order parameters, enabling the extraction of experimentally relevant quantities such as spin-wave velocities and uniform susceptibilities. In turn, we find extrapolated thermodynamic limit energies systematically better than those obtained with tensor-network approaches such as iPEPS. The resulting magnetization is strongly renormalized, $M_0=0.148(1)$ (about $30\%$ of the classical value), revealing that less accurate variational states systematically overestimate magnetic order. Analysis of the optimized wave function further suggests an intrinsically non-local sign structure, indicating that the sign problem cannot be removed by local basis transformations. We finally demonstrate the generality of the method by obtaining state-of-the-art energies for a $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on a $20\times20$ square lattice, outperforming Residual Convolutional Neural Networks.

cond-mat.str-el

Unifying Dirac Spin Liquids on Square and Shastry-Sutherland Lattices via Fermionic Deconfined Criticality

We present a fermionic gauge theory for deconfined quantum criticality on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice and reveal its shared low-energy field-theoretic structure with the square lattice. Starting from an SU(2) $\pi$-flux parent state, we construct a continuum theory of Dirac spinons coupled to an SU(2) gauge field and adjoint Higgs fields whose condensates drive transitions to a staggered-flux U(1) spin liquid and a gapless $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ Dirac spin liquid. While the Shastry-Sutherland lattice permits additional symmetry-allowed fermion bilinears compared to the square lattice, the quantum field theories are identical up to additional irrelevant terms. Consequently, the Higgs potential structure and the leading low-energy theory coincide with the square-lattice case at the quantum critical point. The SO(5) critical point is expected to realize conformal deconfined criticality: we analyze it in a large flavor expansion, calculate its critical exponents, and identify the Yukawa coupling between the fermions and Higgs fields as the relevant perturbation that destabilizes it, consistent with pseudocritical behavior observed in recent Monte Carlo studies. We show that the emergent SO(5) order parameter acquires a large anomalous dimension at the critical point, leading to strongly enhanced N\'eel and VBS susceptibilities-a hallmark of fermionic deconfined quantum criticality consistent with numerical studies. Our results place recent numerical evidence for a gapless $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ Dirac spin liquid on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice within a controlled field-theoretic framework and demonstrate that fermionic deconfined criticality on the square lattice-including critical exponents and stability-extends to frustrated lattices with reduced symmetry.

cond-mat.str-el