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We analytically and numerically study the Loschmidt echo and the dynamical order parameters in a spin chain with a deconfined phase transition between a dimerized state and a ferromagnetic phase. For quenches from a dimerized state to a ferromagnetic phase, we find that the model can exhibit a dynamical quantum phase transition characterized by an associating dimerized order parameters. In particular, when quenching the system from the Majumdar-Ghosh state to the ferromagnetic Ising state, we find an exact mapping into the classical Ising chain for a quench from the paramagnetic phase to the classical Ising phase by analytically calculating the Loschmidt echo and the dynamical order parameters. By contrast, for quenches from a ferromagnetic state to a dimerized state, the system relaxes very fast so that the dynamical quantum transition may only exist in a short time scale. We reveal that the dynamical quantum phase transition can occur in systems with two broken symmetry phases and the quench dynamics may be independent on equilibrium phase transitions., 7 pages, 3 figures

The out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) is central to the understanding of information scrambling in quantum many-body systems. In this work, we show that the OTOC in a quantum many-body system close to its critical point obeys dynamical scaling laws which are specified by a few universal critical exponents of the quantum critical point. Such scaling laws of the OTOC imply a universal form for the butterfly velocity of a chaotic system in the quantum critical region and allow one to locate the quantum critical point and extract all universal critical exponents of the quantum phase transitions. We numerically confirm the universality of the butterfly velocity in a chaotic model, namely the transverse axial next-nearest-neighbor Ising model, and show the feasibility of extracting the critical properties of quantum phase transitions from OTOC using the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

Degeneracy (exceptional) points embedded in energy band are distinct by their topological features. We report different hybrid two-state coalescences (EP2s) formed through merging two EP2s with opposite chiralities that created from the type III Dirac points emerging from a flat band. The band touching hybrid EP2, which is isolated, is induced by the destructive interference at the proper match between non-Hermiticity and synthetic magnetic flux. The degeneracy points and different types of exceptional points are distinguishable by their topological features of global geometric phase associated with the scaling exponent of phase rigidity. Our findings not only pave the way of merging EPs but also shed light on the future investigations of non-Hermitian topological phases., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures

We investigate quantum phase transitions in one-dimensional quantum disordered lattice models, the Anderson model and the Aubry-Andr\'{e} model, from the fidelity susceptibility approach. First, we find that the fidelity susceptibility and the generalized adiabatic susceptibility are maximum at the quantum critical points of the disordered models, through which one can locate the quantum critical point in disordered lattice models. Second, finite-size scaling analysis of the fidelity susceptibility and of the generalized adiabatic susceptibility show that the correlation length critical exponent and the dynamical critical exponent at the quantum critical point of the one-dimensional Anderson model are respectively 2/3 and 2 and of the Aubry-Andr\'{e} model are respectively 1 and 2.375. Thus the quantum phase transitions in the Anderson model and in the Aubry-Andr\'{e} model are of different universality classes. Because the fidelity susceptibility and the generalized adiabatic susceptibility are directly connected to the dynamical structure factor which are experimentally accessible in the linear response regime, the fidelity susceptibility in quantum disordered systems may be observed experimentally in near future., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

In this work, we investigate the heat exchange between two quantum systems whose initial equilibrium states are described by the generalized Gibbs ensemble. First, we generalize the fluctuation relations for heat exchange discovered by Jarzynski and W\'ojcik to quantum systems prepared in the equilibrium states described by the generalized Gibbs ensemble at different generalized temperatures. Second, we extend the connections between heat exchange and R\'enyi divergences to quantum systems with very general initial conditions.These relations are applicable for quantum systems with conserved quantities and are universally valid for quantum systems in the integrable and chaotic regimes., Comment: 7 pages

In this work, we show that the dissipation in a many-body system under an arbitrary non-equilibrium process is related to the Renyi divergences between two states along the forward and reversed dynamics under very general family of initial conditions. This relation generalizes the links between dissipated work and Renyi divergences to quantum systems with conserved quantities whose equilibrium state is described by the generalized Gibbs ensemble. The relation is applicable for quantum systems with conserved quantities and can be applied to protocols driving the system between integrable and chaotic regimes. We demonstrate our ideas by considering the one-dimensional transverse quantum Ising model which is driven out of equilibrium by the instantaneous switching of the transverse magnetic field.

In this work, we establish a general theory of phase transitions and quantum entanglement in the equilibrium state at arbitrary temperatures. First, we derived a set of universal functional relations between the matrix elements of two-body reduced density matrix of the canonical density matrix and the Helmholtz free energy of the equilibrium state, which implies that the Helmholtz free energy and its derivatives are directly related to entanglement measures because any entanglement measures are defined as a function of the reduced density matrix. Then we show that the first order phase transitions are signaled by the matrix elements of reduced density matrix while the second order phase transitions are witnessed by the first derivatives of the reduced density matrix elements. Near second order phase transition point, we show that the first derivative of the reduced density matrix elements present universal scaling behaviors. Finally we establish a theorem which connects the phase transitions and entanglement at arbitrary temperatures. Our general results are demonstrated in an experimentally relevant many-body spin model., Comment: 8 pages,2 figures

In this work, we establish an exact relation which connects the heat exchange between two systems initialized in their thermodynamic equilibrium states at different temperatures and the R\'{e}nyi divergences between the initial thermodynamic equilibrium state and the final non-equilibrium state of the total system. The relation tells us that the various moments of the heat statistics are determined by the Renyi divergences between the initial equilibrium state and the final non-equilibrium state of the global system. In particular the average heat exchange is quantified by the relative entropy between the initial equilibrium state and the final non-equilibrium state of the global system. The relation is applicable to both finite classical systems and finite quantum systems., Comment: 5 pages

In this work, we show that a universal quantum work relation for a quantum system driven arbitrarily far from equilibrium extends to a parity-time- (PT-) symmetric quantum system with unbroken PT symmetry, which is a consequence of microscopic reversibility. The quantum Jarzynski equality, linear response theory, and Onsager reciprocal relations for the PT-symmetric quantum system are recovered as special cases of the universal quantum work relation in a PT-symmetric quantum system. In the regime of broken PT symmetry, the universal quantum work relation does not hold because the norm is not preserved during the dynamics.

Thermodynamics and information theory have been intimately related since the times of Maxwell and Boltzmann. Recently it was shown that the dissipated work in an arbitrary non-equilibrium process is related to the Renyi divergences between two states along the forward and reversed dynamics. Here we show that the relation between dissipated work and Renyi divergences generalizes to $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric quantum mechanics with unbroken $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry. In the regime of broken $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry, the relation between dissipated work and Renyi divergences does not hold as the norm is not preserved during the dynamics. This finding is illustrated for an experimentally relevant system of two-coupled cavities.

Universality classes of non-unitary critical theories in two-dimensions are characterized by a dimensional number, termed central charge or conformal anomaly. Conformal invariance predicts that the leading finite-size correction to the free energy of a two-dimensional system at a conformal invariant critical point is linearly related to the central charge of the corresponding conformal field theory. However, experimental determination of the central charge of a non-unitary conformal invariant critical theory has not been done before because of the intrinsic difficulty that complex parameters occurs in non-unitary theory, which is not physical. Here we propose to extract the central charge of the non-unitary conformal invariant critical point of a two-dimensional lattice models from the quantum coherence measurement of a probe spin which is coupled to the two-dimensional lattice models. A recent discovery shows that quantum decoherence of a probe spin which is coupled to a bath is proportional to the partition function of the bath with a complex parameter. Thus the central charge of a non-unitary conformal field theory could be extracted from quantum decoherence measurement of a probe spin which is coupled to a bath. We have applied the method to a typical non-unitary conformal invariant critical theory, namely the Yang-Lee edge singularity of the two-dimensional Ising model and extracted the central charge of the Yang-Lee edge singularity in two-dimensional Ising model with good precision and tested other predictions of non-unitary conformal field theory. This work paves the way for the first experimental observation of the central charge of non-unitary conformal field theory., 17 pages, 3 Figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1706.04294

Quantum criticality usually occurs in many-body systems. Recently it was shown that the quantum Rabi model, which describes a two-level atom coupled to a single model cavity field, presents quantum phase transitions from a normal phase to a superradiate phase when the ratio between the frequency of the two level atom and the frequency of the cavity field extends to infinity. In this work, we study quantum phase transitions in the quantum Rabi model from the fidelity susceptibility perspective. We found that the fidelity susceptibility and the generalized adiabatic susceptibility present universal finite size scaling behaviors near the quantum critical point of the Rabi model if the ratio between frequency of the two level atom and frequency of the cavity field is finite. From the finite size scaling analysis of the fidelity susceptibility, we found that the adiabatic dimension of the fidelity susceptibility and the generalized adiabatic susceptibility of fourth order in the Rabi model are $4/3$ and $2$, respectively. Meanwhile the correlation length critical exponent and the dynamical critical exponent in the quantum critical point of the Rabi model are found to be $3/2$ and $1/3$ respectively. Since the fidelity susceptibility and the generalized adiabatic susceptibility are the moments of the quantum noise spectrum which is directly measurable by experiments in linear response regime, the scaling behavior of the fidelity susceptibility in the Rabi model could be tested experimentally. The simple structure of the quantum Rabi model paves the way for experimentally observing the universal scaling behavior of the fidelity susceptibility at a quantum phase transition., Comment: 6 pages, 6 Figures

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of mortality and permanent disability, with enormous financial repercussions on health systems worldwide. Ischemic brain injury results from a complex sequence of pathophysiological events that evolve over time. In order to examine the molecular mechanisms underlying middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)-induced ischemic stroke, the GSE35338 affymetrix microarray data was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between samples from patients with MCAO-induced ischemic stroke and sham controls at various time points were identified. Furthermore, protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed by mapping the DEGs into PPI data to identify the pathways that these DEGS are involved in. The results revealed that the expression of 438 DEGs, which are mainly involved in cell death, oxidant reduction, cell cycle and cell-cell signaling, were altered in MCAO samples. The nodes of CXC motif chemokine 10 (CXCL10) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were large, with degrees of >20. In conclusion, the results suggest that CXCL10 and IL-6 have important roles in the occurrence and progression of MCAO-induced ischemic stroke.

Quantum phase transitions also occur in non-Hermitian systems. In this work we show that density functional theory, for the first time, uncovers universal behaviors for phase transitions in non-Hermitian many-body systems. To be specific, we first prove that the non-degenerate steady state of a non-Hermitian quantum many-body system is a universal function of the first derivative of the steady state energy with respect to the control parameter. This finding has far-reaching consequences for non-Hermitian systems: (i) It bridges the nonanalytic behavior in physical observable and nonanalytic behavior of steady state energy, which explains why the quantum phase transitions in non-Hermitian systems occur for finite systems. (ii) It predicts universal scaling behaviors of any physical observable at non-Hermitian phase transition point with scaling exponent being $(1-1/p),2(1-1/p),\cdots,n(1-1/p),\cdots$ with $p$ being the number of coalesced states at the exceptional point and $n$ being a positive integer. (iii). It reveals that quantum entanglement in non-Hermitian phase transition point presents universal scaling behaviors with critical exponents being $(1-1/p),2(1-1/p),\cdots,n(1-1/p),\cdots$. These results uncover universal critical behaviors in non-Hermitian phase transitions and provide profound connections between entanglement and phase transition in non-Hermitian quantum many-body physics and establish foundations for quantum metrology in non-Hermitian systems., 5 pages,2 Figures

Yang-Lee edge singularities are the branch point of the free energy on the complex plane of physical parameters and were shown to be the simplest universality class of phase transitions. However, the Yang-Lee edge singularities have not been regarded as experimentally observable since they occur at complex physical parameters, which are unphysical. A recent discovery about the relation between partition functions and probe spin coherence makes it experimentally feasible to access the complex plane of physical parameters. However, how to extract the critical point and the critical exponent of Yang-Lee edge singularities in many-body systems, which occurs only at thermodynamic limit, has still been elusive. Here we show that the quantum coherence of a probe spin coupled to finite-size Ising-type spin systems presents universal scaling behavior near the Yang-Lee edge singularity. The finite-size scaling behavior of quantum coherence of the probe spin predicts that one can extract the critical point and the critical exponent of the Yang-Lee edge singularity of Ising-type spin system in the thermodynamic limit from the spin coherence measurement of the probe spin coupled to finite Ising-type spin systems. This finding provides a practical approach to studying the nature of Yang-Lee edge singularities of many-body systems., Comment: 5 pages,3 figures

In this brief report, two one-dimensional interacting particles interacting with a delta interaction in a harmonic trap is discussed. For strong interactions, we derive the asymptotic expressions for all the energy levels. In addition, the variational method is used to obtain asymptotic ground state energy and wave function. The variational results are compared with the exact solution and they turn out to agree very well.

Lee-Yang zeros are points on the complex plane of physical parameters where the partition function of a system vanishes and hence the free energy diverges. Lee-Yang zeros are ubiquitous in many-body systems and fully characterize their thermodynamics. Notwithstanding their fundamental importance, Lee-Yang zeros have never been observed in experiments, due to the intrinsic difficulty that they would occur only at complex values of physical parameters, which are generally regarded as unphysical. Here we report the first observation of Lee-Yang zeros, by measuring quantum coherence of a probe spin coupled to an Ising-type spin bath. The quantum evolution of the probe spin introduces a complex phase factor and therefore effectively realizes an imaginary magnetic field. From the measured Lee-Yang zeros, we reconstructed the free energy of the spin bath and determined its phase transition temperature. This experiment opens up new opportunities of studying thermodynamics in the complex plane.

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, being a promising candidate for quantum information processing, may also be an ideal platform for simulating many-body physics. However, it is difficult to realize interactions between nitrogen-vacancy centers strong enough to form a macroscopically ordered phase under realistic temperatures. Here we propose a scheme to realize long-range ferromagnetic Ising interactions between distant nitrogen-vacancy centers by using a mechanical resonator as a medium. Since the critical temperature in the long-range Ising model is proportional to the number of spins, a ferromagnetic order can be formed at a temperature of tens of millikelvin for a sample with $\sim10^4$ nitrogen-vacancy centers. This method may provide a new platform for studying many-body physics using qubit systems., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

The holographic principle states that the information about a volume of a system is encoded on the boundary surface of the volume. Holography appears in many branches of physics, such as optics, electromagnetism, many-body physics, quantum gravity, and string theory. Here we show that holography is also an underlying principle in thermodynamics, a most important foundation of physics. The thermodynamics of a system is fully determined by its partition function. We prove that the partition function of a physical system is an analytic function of all the physical parameters, and therefore its values in any area on the complex plane of a physical parameter are uniquely determined by its values along the boundary. The thermodynamic holography has applications in studying thermodynamics of nano-scale systems (such as molecule engines, nano-generators and macromolecules) and provides a new approach to many-body physics., 18 pages 3 figures

At low temperature a thermodynamic system undergoes a phase transition when a physical parameter passes through a singularity point of the free energy, corresponding to formation of a new order. At high temperature the thermal fluctuations destroy the orders; correspondingly the free energy is a smooth function of the physical parameter and the singularity would occur only at complex values of the parameter. Since a complex parameter is unphysical, at high temperature no phase transition is expected with varying the physical parameter. Here we show that the quantum evolution, driven by a designed interaction, of a system initialized in thermal equilibrium is equivalent to the partition function of a complex parameter. Therefore we can access the complex singularity points of thermodynamic functions and observe phase transitions even at high temperatures. This discovery makes it possible to study thermodynamics in the complex plane of physical parameters., 27 Pages, 6 figures (with supplementary information 7 Pages)

T cell responses to enteric bacteria are important in inflammatory bowel disease. I2, encoded by the pfiT gene of Pseudomonas fluorescens, is a T-cell superantigen associated with human Crohn's disease. Here we report the crystal structure of pfiT at 1.7Å resolution and provide a functional analysis of the interaction of pfiT and its homolog, PA2885, with human class II MHC. Both pfiT and PA2885 bound to mammalian cells and stimulated the proliferation of human lymphocytes. This binding was greatly inhibited by anti-class II MHC HLA-DR antibodies, and to a lesser extent, by anti HLA-DQ and DP antibodies, indicating that the binding was class II MHC-specific. GST-pfiT efficiently precipitated both endogenous and in vitro purified recombinant HLA-DR1 molecules, indicating that pfiT directly interacted with HLA-DR1. Competition studies revealed that pfiT and the superantigen Mycoplasma arthritidis mitogen (MAM) competed for binding to HLA-DR, indicating that their binding sites overlap. Structural analyses established that pfiT belongs to the TetR-family of DNA-binding transcription regulators. The distinct structure of pfiT indicates that it represents a new family of T cell superantigens., Author Summary Human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a family of chronic inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract which affect genetically susceptible individuals. IBD is a lifelong disease involving mostly young people, often severely. Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis are the two major forms of IBD. Although the exact cause of these diseases remains unknown, both genetic and environmental factors together play significant roles in the disease pathogenesis. Several lines of evidence implicate commensal bacteria as an important pathogenic element in clinical disease, particularly in CD. We recently identified a novel microbial gene, I2, encoded by Pseudomonas fluorescens, a gram-negative commensal, which may be involved in the pathogenesis of CD. Both molecular and immunological approaches were used to identify the human receptor for the microbial antigen encoded by I2, to characterize the ligand-receptor interactions, and to determine the three-dimensional structure of the microbial gene product. In particular, we show that the pfiT is a T cell superantigen, which may help to explain how microbial flora can trigger immune activation in IBD, and may provide the groundwork for novel therapies to treat CD.

The wave function of a dilute hard sphere Bose gas at low temperatures is revisited. Errors in an early 1957 paper are corrected. The pair distribution function is calculated for two values of [Formula: see text].

Ag2O-decorated flower-like ZnO composites were fabricated through a chemical precipitation process. X-ray diffraction analysis confirms the co-existence of cubic Ag2O and wurtzite ZnO phases. Scanning electron microscopy images reveal Ag2O nanoparticles located on the rough surface of ZnO flowers. The photocatalytic activities of the composites with various mole ratios were evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange (MO) under ultraviolet irradiation, which confirms that the composite shows superior activity to that of pure ZnO and Ag2O. The improvement can be ascribed to the deposited Ag2O forming the p-n junction at the interface of ZnO and Ag2O, resulting in the transfer of photocarriers and suppressing the electron–hole recombination rate.

Phase boundaries in p-T and p-V diagrams are essential in material science researches. Exact analytic knowledge about such phase boundaries are known so far only in two-dimensional (2D) Ising-like models, and only for cases with two phases. In the present paper we present several lattice gas models, some with three phases. The phase boundaries are either analytically calculated or exactly evaluated., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures

Phase transitions are not usually seen in the time domain. Here, we report on the finding of critical times at which a physical observable, in the thermodynamic limit, becomes nonanalytic as a function of time. We find that the coherence of a probe spin coupled to a many-body system vanishes at times in one-to-one correspondence to the Lee-Yang zeros of the partition function of the many-body system. In the thermodynamic limit, the Lee-Yang zeros form a continuum cut in the complex plane of fugacity and the probe spin coherence presents sudden death and birth at the critical times corresponding to the Yang-Lee singularities. These results provide new experimental possibilities in many-body physics.

In this paper, we investigate the ground-state properties of a bosonic Tonks-Girardeau gas confined in a one-dimensional periodic potential. The single-particle reduced density matrix is computed numerically for systems up to $N=265$ bosons. Scaling analysis of the occupation number of the lowest orbital shows that there are no Bose-Einstein Condensation(BEC) for the periodically trapped TG gas in both commensurate and incommensurate cases. We find that, in the commensurate case, the scaling exponents of the occupation number of the lowest orbital, the amplitude of the lowest orbital and the zero-momentum peak height with the particle numbers are 0, -0.5 and 1, respectively, while in the incommensurate case, they are 0.5, -0.5 and 1.5, respectively. These exponents are related to each other in a universal relation., Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures

The ground state energy for 1D multicomponent fermions and bosons with repulsive or attractive delta function interparticle interaction is studied.

In this paper, we study persistent charge and spin currents in the ground state of the one-dimensional mesoscopic Hubbard ring with repulsive interaction based on its Bethe-ansatz solution. We find that the persistent charge current is suppressed by the on-site Coulomb interaction more significantly at half-filling than away from half-filling. As the system size increases the charge current decays exponentially as I~L−1e−L/ξ in the half-filling case and decays in a power law away from the half-filling case. We also find that the persistent spin current is suppressed by the on-site Coulomb interaction, and it decays algebraically as the system size increases both at half-filling and away from half-filling.