This thesis explores the effects singularities have on stationary and dynamical properties of many-body quantum systems. In papers I and II we find that the ground state suffers a Z2 symmetry breaking phase transition (PT) when a single impurity is added to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a double well (bosonic Josephson junction). The PT occurs for a certain value of the BEC-impurity interaction energy, Λc . A result of the PT is the mean-field dynamics undergo chaotic motion in phase space once the symmetry is broken. We determine the critical scaling exponents that characterize the divergence of the correlation length and fidelity susceptibility at the PT, finding that the BEC-impurity system belongs to the same universality class as the Dicke and Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick models (which also describe symmetry breaking PTs in systems of bosons). In paper III we study the dynamics of a generic two-mode quantum field following a quench where one of the terms in the Hamiltonian is flashed on and off. This model is relevant to BECs in double wells as well as other simple many-particle systems found in quantum optics and optomechanics. We find that when plotted in Fock-space plus time, the semiclassical wave function develops prominent cusp-shaped structures after the quench. These structures are singular in the classical limit and we identify them as catastrophes (as described by the Thom-Arnold catastrophe theory) and show that they arise from the coalescence of classical (mean-field) trajectories in a path integral description. Furthermore, close to the cusp the wave function obeys a remarkable set of scaling relations signifying these structures as examples of universality in quantum dynamics. Within the cusp we find a network of vortex-antivortex pairs which are phase singularities caused by interference. When the mean-field Hamiltonian displays a Z2 symmetry breaking PT modelled by the Landau theory of PTs we calculate scaling exponents describing how the separation distance between the members of each pair diverges as the PT is approached. We also find that the cusp becomes infinitely stretched out at the PT due to critical slowing down. In paper IV we investigate in greater detail the morphology of the vortex network found within cusp catastrophes in many-body wave functions following a quench. In contrast to the cusp catastrophes studied so far in the literature, these structures live in Fock space which is fundamentally granular. As such, these cusps represent a new iii type of catastrophe, which we term a ‘quantum catastrophe’. The granularity of Fock space introduces a new length scale, the quantum length lq = N −1 which effectively removes the vortex cores. Nevertheless, a subset of the vortices persist as phase singularities as can be shown by integrating the phase of the wave function around circuits in Fock-space plus time. Whether or not the vortices survive in a quantum catastrophe is governed by the separation of the vortex-antivortex pairs lv ∝ N −3/4 in comparison to lq , i.e. they survive if lv lq . When particle numbers are reached such that lq ≈ lv the vortices annihilate in pairs. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis concerns two types of quantum many-body systems in one dimension exactly solved by special functions: firstly, systems with interactions localised at points and solved by the (coordinate) Bethe ansatz; secondly, systems of Calogero-Sutherland type, as well as certain recently introduced deformations thereof, with eigenfunctions given by natural many-variable generalisations of classical (orthogonal) polynomials. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first provides background and a few complementary results, while the second presents the main results of this thesis in five appended scientific papers. In the first paper we consider two complementary quantum many-body systems with local interactions related to the root systems CN, one with delta-interactions, and the other with certain momentum dependent interactions commonly known as delta-prime interactions. We prove, by construction, that the former is exactly solvable by the Bethe ansatz in the general case of distinguishable particles, and that the latter is similarly solvable only in the case of bosons or fermions. We also establish a simple strong/weak coupling duality between the two models and elaborate on their physical interpretations. In the second paper we consider a well-known four-parameter family of local interactions in one dimension. In particular, we determine all such interactions leading to a quantum many-body system of distinguishable particles exactly solvable by the Bethe ansatz. We find that there are two families of such systems: the first is described by a one-parameter deformation of the delta-interaction model, while the second features a particular one-parameter combination of the delta and the delta-prime interactions. In papers 3-5 we construct and study particular series representations for the eigenfunctions of a family of Calogero-Sutherland models naturally associated with the classical (orthogonal) polynomials. In our construction, the eigenfunctions are given by linear combinations of certain symmetric polynomials generalising the so-called Schur polynomials, with explicit and rather simple coefficients. In paper 5 we also generalise certain of these results to the so-called deformed Calogero-Sutherland operators. / QC 20100712

In this thesis, we will show how certain classes of quantum many-body Hamiltonians with $\su{2}_1 \oplus \su{2}_2 \oplus \ldots \oplus \su{2}_k$ spectrum generating algebras can be approximated by multi-dimensional shifted harmonic oscillator Hamiltonians. The dimensions of the Hilbert spaces of such Hamiltonians usually depend exponentially on $k$. This can make obtaining eigenvalues by diagonalization computationally challenging. The Shifted Harmonic Approximation (SHA) developed here gives good predictions of properties such as ground state energies, excitation energies and the most probable states in the lowest eigenstates. This is achieved by solving only a system of $k$ equations and diagonalizing $k\times k$ matrices. The SHA gives accurate approximations over wide domains of parameters and in many cases even across phase transitions. The SHA is first illustrated using the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model and the Canonical Josephson Hamiltonian (CJH) which have $\su{2}$ spectrum generating algebras. Next, we extend the technique to the non-compact $\su{1,1}$ algebra, using the five-dimensional quartic oscillator (5DQO) as an example. Finally, the SHA is applied to a $k$-level Bardeen-Cooper-Shrieffer (BCS) pairing Hamiltonian with fixed particle number. The BCS model has a $\su{2}_1 \oplus \su{2}_2 \oplus \ldots \oplus \su{2}_k$ spectrum generating algebra. An attractive feature of the SHA is that it also provides information to construct basis states which yield very accurate eigenvalues for low-lying states by diagonalizing Hamiltonians in small subspaces of huge Hilbert spaces. For Hamiltonians that involve a smaller number of operators, accurate eigenvalues can be obtained using another technique developed in this thesis: the generalized Rowe-Rosensteel-Kerman-Klein equations-of-motion method (RRKK). The RRKK is illustrated using the LMG and the 5DQO. In RRKK, solving unknowns in a set of $10\times 10$ matrices typically gives estimates of the lowest few eigenvalues to an accuracy of at least eight significant figures. The RRKK involves optimization routines which require initial guesses of the matrix representations of the operators. In many cases, very good initial guesses can be obtained using the SHA. The thesis concludes by exploring possible future developments of the SHA.

In this thesis, we will show how certain classes of quantum many-body Hamiltonians with $\su{2}_1 \oplus \su{2}_2 \oplus \ldots \oplus \su{2}_k$ spectrum generating algebras can be approximated by multi-dimensional shifted harmonic oscillator Hamiltonians. The dimensions of the Hilbert spaces of such Hamiltonians usually depend exponentially on $k$. This can make obtaining eigenvalues by diagonalization computationally challenging. The Shifted Harmonic Approximation (SHA) developed here gives good predictions of properties such as ground state energies, excitation energies and the most probable states in the lowest eigenstates. This is achieved by solving only a system of $k$ equations and diagonalizing $k\times k$ matrices. The SHA gives accurate approximations over wide domains of parameters and in many cases even across phase transitions. The SHA is first illustrated using the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model and the Canonical Josephson Hamiltonian (CJH) which have $\su{2}$ spectrum generating algebras. Next, we extend the technique to the non-compact $\su{1,1}$ algebra, using the five-dimensional quartic oscillator (5DQO) as an example. Finally, the SHA is applied to a $k$-level Bardeen-Cooper-Shrieffer (BCS) pairing Hamiltonian with fixed particle number. The BCS model has a $\su{2}_1 \oplus \su{2}_2 \oplus \ldots \oplus \su{2}_k$ spectrum generating algebra. An attractive feature of the SHA is that it also provides information to construct basis states which yield very accurate eigenvalues for low-lying states by diagonalizing Hamiltonians in small subspaces of huge Hilbert spaces. For Hamiltonians that involve a smaller number of operators, accurate eigenvalues can be obtained using another technique developed in this thesis: the generalized Rowe-Rosensteel-Kerman-Klein equations-of-motion method (RRKK). The RRKK is illustrated using the LMG and the 5DQO. In RRKK, solving unknowns in a set of $10\times 10$ matrices typically gives estimates of the lowest few eigenvalues to an accuracy of at least eight significant figures. The RRKK involves optimization routines which require initial guesses of the matrix representations of the operators. In many cases, very good initial guesses can be obtained using the SHA. The thesis concludes by exploring possible future developments of the SHA.

Understanding the collective behavior of a quantum many-body system, a system composed of a large number of interacting microscopic degrees of freedom, is a key aspect in many areas of contemporary physics. However, as a direct consequence of the difficultly of the so-called many-body problem, many exotic quantum phenomena involving extended systems, such as high temperature superconductivity, remain not well understood on a theoretical level. Entanglement renormalization is a recently proposed numerical method for the simulation of many-body systems which draws together ideas from the renormalization group and from the field of quantum information. By taking due care of the quantum entanglement of a system, entanglement renormalization has the potential to go beyond the limitations of previous numerical methods and to provide new insight to quantum collective phenomena. This thesis comprises a significant portion of the research development of ER following its initial proposal. This includes exploratory studies with ER in simple systems of free particles, the development of the optimisation algorithms associated to ER, and the early applications of ER in the study of quantum critical phenomena and frustrated spin systems.

A defining feature of quantum many-body systems is the presence of entanglement among their constituents. Besides providing valuable insights on several physical properties, entanglement is also responsible for the computational complexity of simulating quantum systems with variational methods. This thesis explores several aspects of entanglement in many-body systems, with the primary goal of devising efficient approaches for the study of topological properties and quantum dynamics of lattice models. The first focus of this work is the development of variational wavefunctions inspired by artificial neural networks. These can efficiently encode long-range and extensive entanglement in their structure, as opposed to the case of tensor network states. This feature makes them promising tools for the study of topologically ordered phases, quantum critical states as well as dynamical properties of quantum systems. In this thesis, we characterize the representational power of a specific class of artificial neural network states, constructed from Boltzmann machines. First, we show that wavefunctions obtained from restricted Boltzmann machines can efficiently parametrize chiral topological phases, such as fractional quantum Hall states. We then turn our attention to deep Boltzmann machines. In this framework, we propose a new class of variational wavefunctions, coined generalized transfer matrix states, which encompass restricted Boltzmann machine and tensor network states. We investigate the entanglement properties of this ansatz, as well as its capability of representing physical states. Understanding how the entanglement properties of a system evolve in time is the second focus of this thesis. In this context, we first investigate the manifestation of topological properties in the unitary dynamics of systems after a quench, using the degeneracy of the entanglement spectrum as a possible signature. We then analyze the phenomenon of entanglement growth, which limits to short timescales the applicability of tensor network methods in out-of-equilibrium problems. We investigate whether these limitations can be overcome by exploiting the dependence of entanglement entropies on the chosen computational basis. Specifically, we study how the spreading of quantum correlations can be contained by means of time-dependent basis rotations of the state, using exact diagonalization to simulate its dynamics after a quench. Going beyond the case of sudden quenches, we then show how, in certain weakly interacting problems, the asymptotic value of the entanglement entropy can be tuned by modifying the velocity at which the parameters in the Hamiltonian are changed. This enables the simulation of longer timescales using tensor network approaches. We present preliminary results obtained with matrix product states methods, with the goal of studying how equilibration affects the transport properties of interacting systems at long times.

Analogue quantum simulators have proven to be an extremely versatile tool for the study of strongly-correlated condensed matter systems both near and far from equilibrium. An enticing prospect is the quantum simulation of non- Fermi liquids which lack a quasiparticle description and feature prominently in the study of strange metals, fast scrambling of quantum information, as well as holographic quantum matter. Yet, large-scale laboratory realisations of such systems remain outstanding. In this thesis, we present a proposal for the analogue quantum simulation of one such system, the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev (SYK) model, using cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED). We discuss recent experimental advances in this pursuit, and perform analysis of this and related models. Through a combination of analytic calculations and numeric simulations, we show how driving a cloud of fermionic atoms trapped in a multi- mode optical cavity, and subjecting it to a spatially disordered AC-Stark shift, can realise an effective model which retrieves the physics of the SYK model, with random all-to-all interactions and fast scrambling. Working towards the SYK model, we present results from a recent proof-of-principle cQED experiment which implemented the disordered light-shift technique to quantum simulate all- to-all interacting spin models with quenched disorder. In this context, we show analytically how disorder-driven localisation can be extracted from spectroscopic probes employed in cQED experiments, despite their lack of spatially resolved information. Further, we numerically investigate the post-quench dynamics of the SYK model, finding a universal, super-exponential equilibration in the disorder-averaged far-from-equilibrium dynamics. These are reproduced analytically through an effective master equation. Our work demonstrates the increasing capabilities of cQED quantum simulators, highlighting how these may be used to study the fascinating physics of holographic quantum matter and other disorder models in the lab.

Thesis (MSc (Physics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Non-commutative quantum mechanics is a generalisation of quantum mechanics which incorporates the notion of a fundamental shortest length scale by introducing non-commuting position coordinates. Various theories of quantum gravity indicate the existence of such a shortest length scale in nature. It has furthermore been realised that certain condensed matter systems allow effective descriptions in terms of non-commuting coordinates. As a result, non-commutative quantum mechanics has received increasing attention recently. A consistent formulation and interpretation of non-commutative quantum mechanics, which unambiguously defines position measurement within the existing framework of quantum mechanics, was recently presented by Scholtz et al. This thesis builds on the latter formalism, extends it to many-particle systems and links it up with non-commutative quantum field theory via second quantisation. It is shown that interactions of particles, among themselves and with external potentials, are altered as a result of the fuzziness induced by non-commutativity. For potential scattering, generic increases are found for the differential and total scattering cross sections. Furthermore, the recovery of a scattering potential from scattering data is shown to involve a suppression of high energy contributions, disallowing divergent interaction forces. Likewise, the effective statistical interaction among fermions and bosons is modified, leading to an apparent violation of Pauli’s exclusion principle and foretelling implications for thermodynamics at high densities. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Nie-kommutatiewe kwantummeganika is ’n veralgemening van kwantummeganika wat die idee van ’n fundamentele kortste lengteskaal invoer d.m.v. nie-kommuterende ko¨ordinate. Verskeie teorie¨e van kwantum-grawitasie dui op die bestaan van so ’n kortste lengteskaal in die natuur. Dit is verder uitgewys dat sekere gekondenseerde materie sisteme effektiewe beskrywings in terme van nie-kommuterende koordinate toelaat. Gevolglik het die veld van nie-kommutatiewe kwantummeganika onlangs toenemende aandag geniet. ’n Konsistente formulering en interpretasie van nie-kommutatiewe kwantummeganika, wat posisiemetings eenduidig binne bestaande kwantummeganika raamwerke defineer, is onlangs voorgestel deur Scholtz et al. Hierdie tesis brei uit op hierdie formalisme, veralgemeen dit tot veeldeeltjiesisteme en koppel dit aan nie-kommutatiewe kwantumveldeteorie d.m.v. tweede kwantisering. Daar word gewys dat interaksies tussen deeltjies en met eksterne potensiale verander word as gevolg van nie-kommutatiwiteit. Vir potensiale verstrooi ¨ıng verskyn generiese toenames vir die differensi¨ele and totale verstroi¨ıngskanvlak. Verder word gewys dat die herkonstruksie van ’n verstrooi¨ıngspotensiaal vanaf verstrooi¨ıngsdata ’n onderdrukking van ho¨e-energiebydrae behels, wat divergente interaksiekragte verbied. Soortgelyk word die effektiewe statistiese interaksie tussen fermione en bosone verander, wat ly tot ’n skynbare verbreking van Pauli se uitsluitingsbeginsel en dui op verdere gevolge vir termodinamika by ho¨e digthede.

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Entanglement is a fundamental property of quantum systems and its characterization is a central problem for physics. Moreover, there is an increasing demand for scalable protocols that can certify the presence of entanglement. This is primarily due to the role of entanglement as a crucial resource for quantum technologies. However, systematic entanglement certification is highly challenging, and this is particularly the case for quantum many-body systems. In this dissertation, we tackle this challenge and introduce some techniques that allow the certification of multipartite entanglement in many-body systems. This is demonstrated with an application to a model of interacting fermions that shows the presence of resilient multipartite entanglement at finite temperatures. Moreover, we also discuss some subtleties concerning the definition entanglement in systems of indistinguishable particles and provide a formal characterization of multipartite mode entanglement. This requires us to work with an abstract formalism that can be used to define entanglement in quantum many-body systems without reference to a specific structure of the states. To further showcase this technique, and also motivated by current quantum simulation efforts, we use it to extend the framework of entanglement witnesses to lattice gauge theories. / L'entanglement è una proprietà fondamentale dei sistemi quantistici e la sua caratterizzazione è un problema centrale per la fisica. Inoltre, vi è una crescente richiesta di protocolli scalabili in grado di certificare la presenza di entanglement. Ciò è dovuto principalmente al ruolo dell'entanglement come risorsa cruciale per le tecnologie quantistiche. Tuttavia, la certificazione sistematica dell'entanglement è molto impegnativa, e questo è particolarmente vero per i sistemi quantistici a molti corpi. In questa dissertazione, affrontiamo questa sfida e introduciamo alcune tecniche che consentono la certificazione dell'entanglement multipartito in sistemi a molti corpi. Ciò è dimostrato con un'applicazione a un modello di fermioni interagenti che mostra la presenza di entanglement multipartito resiliente a temperature finite. Inoltre, discutiamo anche alcune sottigliezze riguardanti la definizione di entanglement in sistemi di particelle indistinguibili e forniamo una caratterizzazione formale dell'entanglement multipartito. Ciò ci richiede di lavorare con un formalismo astratto che può essere utilizzato per definire l'entanglement nei sistemi quantistici a molti corpi senza fare riferimento a una struttura specifica degli stati. Per mostrare ulteriormente questa tecnica, e anche motivata dagli attuali sforzi di simulazione quantistica, la usiamo per estendere la struttura dei testimoni di entanglement alle teorie di gauge del reticolo.