Since 2006, it has been found experimentally that superconductivity spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry (TRS) in certain materials, such as Sr2RuO4, UPt3, URu2Si2, and Bi/Ni bilayers. In the latter case, we argue that the superconducting order parameter has the winding number of +-2 around the Fermi surface, thus making Bi/Ni bilayers a rare example of intrinsic 2D topological superconductivity [1]. The experimental evidence for TRS breaking comes from the polar Kerr effect, which is rotation of polarization of normally incident light upon reflection from the sample. Theoretical studies indicate that this effect is possible only if a superconductor has more than one band. To clarify these conditions, we study a model of chiral TRS-breaking superconductivity on the honeycomb lattice [2]. We consider superconducting pairing on the neighboring sites belonging to different sublattices. The matrix of this superconducting pairing is non-unitary and does not commute with the normal-state Hamiltonian. We find that the latter condition is necessary for experimental manifestations of the TRS breaking. We show that such superconducting pairing generates persistent loop currents around each lattice site and opens a topological mass gap at the Dirac points with the corresponding chiral edge states, as in Haldane's model of the quantum anomalous Hall effect. We calculate the intrinsic ac Hall conductivity in the absence of an external magnetic field, which determines the polar Kerr effect, and show that it is proportional to the loop-current order parameter.
[1] X. Gong, M. Kargarian, A. Stern, D. Yue, H. Zhou, X. Jin, V. M. Galitski, V. M. Yakovenko, and J. Xia, Science Advances 3, e1602579 (2017), arXiv:1609.08538
[2] P. M. R. Brydon, D. S. L. Abergel, D. F. Agterberg, and V. M. Yakovenko, arXiv:1802.02280

The Markov chain Monte Carlo method traditionally consists in exploring large configuration spaces using a reversible random walk where moves are accepted or rejected based on an energy criterion. In this talk, I will present recent progress on irreversible Markov chains that challenge this picture. In one-dimensional particle systems, the new algorithms are related to the TASEP (totally asymmetric simple exclusion model). We can rigorously prove that they mix on much shorter time scales than the reversible Metropolis algorithms. I will then show how these algorithms sample the Boltzmann distribution (and thus explore configuration space) without computing the energy. In long-range interacting systems, where the computation of the energy is time-consuming, this provides a key advantage for the new method. For locally charge-neutral systems in three dimensions, we obtain a highly efficient algorithm, of N log N complexity in the number N of particles. I discuss the main paradox of this method: How is it possible to sample the Boltzmann distribution without computing the energy, and then review some recent successes as well as prospects and challenges for irreversible Markov chains in statistical physics.
References:
S. C. Kapfer, W. Krauth, Physical Review Letters 119, 240603 (2017)
Z. Lei, W. Krauth, arXiv:1806.06786 (2018)
M. F. Faulkner, L. Qin, A. C. Maggs, W. Krauth, arXiv:1804.05795 (2018)

Рассматриваемая задача возникла при изучении модели SYK, которая состоит из большого числа взаимодействующих фермионов (взаимодействие «все со всеми», т.е. эффективная размерность системы — 0+1). При низкой температуре важную роль играет мягкая мода с действием, выражающимся через шварциан. Это действие эквиваленто двумерной гравитации с дилатоном в определенном пределе. Первая часть доклада посвящена обзору упомянутых результатов. Затем шварцианная мода (или двумерная гравитация) будет рассмотрена как отдельная квантовая система. Статсумма в этой модели имеет необычное выражение: Z = tr(e^-βHP), где P — определенный оператор, коммутирующий с гамильтонианом.

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