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We investigate the nonequilibrium evolution of the quark-meson model using two-particle irreducible effective action techniques. Our numerical simulations, which include the full dynamics of the order parameter of chiral symmetry, show how the model thermalizes into different regions of its phase diagram. In particular, by studying quark and meson spectral functions, we shed light on the real-time dynamics approaching the crossover transition, revealing e.g. the emergence of light effective fermionic degrees of freedom in the infrared. At late times in the evolution, the fluctuation-dissipation relation emerges naturally among both meson and quark degrees of freedom, confirming that the simulation successfully reaches thermal equilibrium.

The quasi-2D metal Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ is one of the best characterized unconventional superconductors, yet the nature of its superconducting order parameter is still highly debated. This information is crucial to determine the pairing mechanism of Cooper pairs. Here we use ultrasound velocity to probe the superconducting state of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$. This thermodynamic probe is symmetry-sensitive and can help to identify the superconducting order symmetry. Indeed, we observe a sharp jump in the shear elastic constant $c_{66}$ as the temperature is raised across the superconducting transition at $T_c$. This directly implies that the superconducting order parameter is of a two-component nature. Based on symmetry argument and given the other known properties of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, we discuss what states are compatible with this requirement and propose that the two-component order parameter, namely $\lbrace d_{xz}; d_{yz} \rbrace$, is the most likely candidate.

We introduce a physics-guided signal processing approach to extract a damage-sensitive and domain-invariant (DS & DI) feature from acceleration response data of a vehicle traveling over a bridge to assess bridge health. Motivated by indirect sensing methods' benefits, such as low-cost and low-maintenance, vehicle-vibration-based bridge health monitoring has been studied to efficiently monitor bridges in real-time. Yet applying this approach is challenging because 1) physics-based features extracted manually are generally not damage-sensitive, and 2) features from machine learning techniques are often not applicable to different bridges. Thus, we formulate a vehicle bridge interaction system model and find a physics-guided DS & DI feature, which can be extracted using the synchrosqueezed wavelet transform representing non-stationary signals as intrinsic-mode-type components. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed feature with simulated experiments. Compared to conventional time- and frequency-domain features, our feature provides the best damage quantification and localization results across different bridges in five of six experiments., Comment: To appear in Proc. ICASSP2020, May 04-08, 2020, Barcelona, Spain. IEEE

Inspired by topological data analysis techniques, we introduce persistent homology observables and apply them in a geometric analysis of the dynamics of quantum field theories. As a prototype application, we consider data from a classical-statistical simulation of a two-dimensional Bose gas far from equilibrium. We discover a continuous spectrum of dynamical scaling exponents, which provides a refined classification of nonequilibrium self-similar phenomena. A possible explanation of the underlying processes is provided in terms of mixing strong wave turbulence and anomalous vortex kinetics components in point clouds. We find that the persistent homology scaling exponents are inherently linked to the geometry of the system, as the derivation of a packing relation reveals. The approach opens new ways of analyzing quantum many-body dynamics in terms of robust topological structures beyond standard field theoretic techniques., Comment: 21 pages, 18 figures

We compute the far-from-equilibrium dynamics of relativistic scalar quantum fields in 3+1 space-time dimensions starting from over-occupied initial conditions. We determine universal scaling exponents and functions for two-point correlators and the four-vertex in a self-similar regime in time and space or momenta. The scaling form of the momentum-dependent four-vertex exhibits a dramatic fall-off towards low momenta. Comparing spectral functions (commutators) and statistical correlations (anti-commutators) of field operators allows us to detect strong violations of the fluctuation-dissipation relation in this non-perturbative infrared regime. Based on a self-consistent expansion in the number of field components to next-to-leading order, a wide range of interaction strengths is analyzed and compared to weak-coupling estimates in effective kinetic theory and classical-statistical field theory., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures

We present an ab initio approach for the calculation of phonon self-energies and their fluctuation diagnostics, which allows us to identify the electronic processes behind phonon anomalies. Application to the transition-metal-dichalcogenide monolayer 1H-TaS$_2$ reveals that coupling between the longitudinal-acoustic phonons and the electrons from an isolated low-energy metallic band is entirely responsible for phonon anomalies such as the mode softening and associated charge-density waves observed in this material. Our analysis allows us to distinguish between different mode-softening mechanisms including matrix-element effects, Fermi-surface nesting, and Van Hove scenarios. We find that matrix-element effects originating from a peculiar type of Dirac pseudospin textures control the charge-density-wave physics in 1H-TaS$_2$ and similar transition metal dichalcogenides., Comment: Revised manuscript with ancillary scripts and data, 15 pages, 9 figures

Quantum field theory is a powerful tool to describe the relevant physics governing complex quantum many-body systems. Here we develop a general pathway to extract the irreducible building blocks of quantum field theoretical descriptions and its parameters purely from experimental data. This is accomplished by extracting the one-particle irreducible (1PI) vertices from which one can construct all observables. To match the capabilities of experimental techniques used in quantum simulation experiments, our approach employs a formulation of quantum field theory based on equal-time correlation functions only. We illustrate our procedure by applying it to the quantum sine-Gordon model in thermal equilibrium. The theoretical foundations are illustrated by estimating the irreducible vertices at equal times both analytically and using numerical simulations. We then demonstrate explicitly how to extract these quantities from an experiment where we quantum simulate the sine-Gordon model by two tunnel-coupled superfluids. We extract the full two-point function and the interaction vertex (four-point function) and their variation with momentum, encoding the `running' of the couplings. The measured 1PI vertices are compared to the theoretical estimates, verifying our procedure. Our work opens new ways of addressing fundamental questions in quantum field theory, which are relevant in high-energy and condensed matter physics, and in taking quantum phenomena from fundamental science to practical technology., Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. Updated Phys. Rev. X version with minor changes

We investigate the measurement of Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) photon correlations as an experimental tool to discriminate different sources of photon enhancement, which are proposed to simultaneously reproduce the direct photon yield and the azimuthal anisotropy measured in nuclear collisions at RHIC and the LHC. To showcase this, we consider two different scenarios in which we enhance the yields from standard hydrodynamical simulations. In the first, additional photons are produced from the early pre-equilibrium stage computed from the \textit{bottom-up} thermalization scenario. In the second, the thermal rates are enhanced close to the pseudo-critical temperature $T_c\approx 155\,\text{MeV}$ using a phenomenological ansatz. We compute the correlators for relative momenta $q_o, \,q_s$ and $q_l$ for different transverse pair momenta, $K_\perp$, and find that the longitudinal correlation is the most sensitive to different photon sources. Our results also demonstrate that including anisotropic pre-equilibrium rates enhances non-Gaussianities in the correlators, which can be quantified using the kurtosis of the correlators. Finally, we study the feasibility of measuring a direct photon HBT signal in the upcoming high-luminosity LHC runs. Considering only statistical uncertainties, we find that with the projected $\sim 10^{10}$ heavy ion events a measurement of the HBT correlations for $K_\perp<1\, \text{GeV}$ is statistically significant.

In the fundamental laws of physics, gauge fields mediate the interaction between charged particles. An example is quantum electrodynamics -- the theory of electrons interacting with the electromagnetic field -- based on U(1) gauge symmetry. Solving such gauge theories is in general a hard problem for classical computational techniques. While quantum computers suggest a way forward, it is difficult to build large-scale digital quantum devices required for complex simulations. Here, we propose a fully scalable analog quantum simulator of a U(1) gauge theory in one spatial dimension. To engineer the local gauge symmetry, we employ inter-species spin-changing collisions in an atomic mixture. We demonstrate the experimental realization of the elementary building block as a key step towards a platform for large-scale quantum simulations of continuous gauge theories.

The large density of gluons, which is present shortly after a nuclear collision at very high energies, can lead to the formation of a condensate. We identify a gauge-invariant order parameter for condensation based on elementary non-perturbative excitations of the plasma, which are described by spatial Wilson loops. Using real-time lattice simulations, we demonstrate that a self-similar transport process towards low momenta builds up a macroscopic zero mode. Our findings reveal intriguing similarities to recent discoveries of condensation phenomena out of equilibrium in table-top experiments with ultracold Bose gases., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2: journal version, add. section comparing to thermal case and extended discussion

Far-from-equilibrium situations are ubiquitous in nature. They are responsible for a wealth of phenomena, which are not simple extensions of near-equilibrium properties, ranging from fluid flows turning turbulent to the highly organized forms of life. On the fundamental level, quantum fluctuations or entanglement lead to novel forms of complex dynamical behaviour in many-body systems for which a description as emergent phenomena can be found within the framework of quantum field theory. A central quantity in these efforts, containing all information about the measurable physical properties, is the quantum effective action. Though the problem of non-equilibrium quantum dynamics can be exactly formulated in terms of the quantum effective action, the solution is in general beyond capabilities of classical computers. In this work, we present a strategy to determine the non-equilibrium quantum effective action using analog quantum simulators, and demonstrate our method experimentally with a quasi one-dimensional spinor Bose gas out of equilibrium. Building on spatially resolved snapshots of the spin degree of freedom, we infer the quantum effective action up to fourth order in an expansion in one-particle irreducible correlation functions at equal times. We uncover a strong suppression of the irreducible four-vertex emerging at low momenta, which solves the problem of dynamics in the highly occupied regime far from equilibrium where perturbative descriptions fail. Similar behaviour in this non-pertubative regime has been proposed in the context of early-universe cosmology. Our work constitutes a new realm of large-scale analog quantum computing, where the high level of control of synthetic quantum systems provides the means for the solution of long-standing theoretical problems in high-energy and condensed matter physics with an experimental approach.

One fundamental obstacle to efficient ferromagnetic spintronics is magnetic precession, which intrinsically limits the dynamics of magnetic textures, We demonstrate that the domain wall precession fully vanishes with a record mobility when the net angular momentum is compensated (TAC) in DWs driven by spin-orbit torque in a ferrimagnetic GdFeCo/Pt track. We use transverse in-plane fields to reveal the internal structure of DWs and provide a robust and parameter-free measurement of TAC. Our results highlight the mechanism of faster and more efficient dynamics in materials with multiple spin lattices and reduced net angular momentum, promising for high-speed, low-power spintronics applications.

Quantum fluctuations lead to an anomalous violation of parity symmetry in quantum electrodynamics for an even number of spatial dimensions. While the leading parity-odd electric current vanishes in vacuum, we uncover a non-cancellation of the anomaly for strong electric fields with distinct macroscopic signatures. We perform real-time lattice simulations with fully dynamical gauge fields and Wilson fermions in $2+1$ space-time dimensions. In the static field limit, relevant at early times, we solve the problem analytically. Our results point out the fundamental role of quantum anomalies for strong-field phenomena, relevant for a wide range of condensed matter and high-energy applications, but also for the next generation of gauge theory quantum simulators., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We investigate the dynamics of axion-like particle (ALP) dark matter where the field range is enlarged by a monodromy. The monodromy potential allows sufficient production of dark matter also at larger couplings to the Standard Model particles. The potential typically features a number of "wiggles" that lead to a rapid growth of fluctuations. Using classical-statistical field theory simulations we go beyond the linear regime and treat the system in the non-linear and even non-perturbative regime. For sufficiently strong wiggles the initially homogeneous field is completely converted into fluctuations. The fluctuations correspond to dark matter particles with a non-vanishing velocity and we consider the corresponding restrictions from structure formation as well as the effects on today's dark matter density. Since all the dark matter is made up from these strong fluctuations, the dark matter density features large, $\mathcal{O}(1)$ fluctuations at scales $\lesssim 10^{6}\,{\rm km}\sqrt{{\rm eV}/m_a}$., Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures; v2: extended discussion about the field ending up in the true vs false minimum, extended discussion about the field becoming inhomogeneous vs staying homogeneous, Fig. 8 updated, clarifications and references added, published version

The rapid pace of recent research in AI has been driven in part by the presence of fast and challenging simulation environments. These environments often take the form of games; with tasks ranging from simple board games, to competitive video games. We propose a new benchmark - Obstacle Tower: a high fidelity, 3D, 3rd person, procedurally generated environment. An agent playing Obstacle Tower must learn to solve both low-level control and high-level planning problems in tandem while learning from pixels and a sparse reward signal. Unlike other benchmarks such as the Arcade Learning Environment, evaluation of agent performance in Obstacle Tower is based on an agent's ability to perform well on unseen instances of the environment. In this paper we outline the environment and provide a set of baseline results produced by current state-of-the-art Deep RL methods as well as human players. These algorithms fail to produce agents capable of performing near human level., Comment: IJCAI 2019

In a quantum field theory, apparent thermalization can be a consequence of entanglement as opposed to scatterings. We discuss here how this can help to explain open puzzles such as the success of thermal models in electron-positron collisions. It turns out that an expanding relativistic string described by the Schwinger model (which also underlies the Lund model) has at early times an entanglement entropy that is extensive in rapidity. At these early times, the reduced density operator is of thermal form, with an entanglement temperature $T_\tau=\hbar/(2\pi k_B\tau)$, even in the absence of any scatterings., Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of Quark Matter 2018, to appear in Nuclear Physics A

Far-from-equilibrium dynamics of SU(2) gauge theory with Wilson fermions is studied in 1+1 space-time dimensions using a real-time lattice approach. Lattice improved Hamiltonians are shown to be very efficient in simulating Schwinger pair creation and emergent phenomena such as plasma oscillations. As a consequence, significantly smaller lattices can be employed to approach continuum physics in the infinite-volume limit as compared to unimproved implementations. This allows us to compute also higher-order correlation functions including four fermion fields, which give unprecedented insights into the real-time dynamics of the fragmentation process of strings between fermions and antifermions., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures

The quantum dimer magnet (QDM) is the canonical example of quantum magnetism. The QDM state consists of entangled nearest-neighbor spin dimers and often exhibits a field-induced triplon Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) phase. We report on a new QDM in the strongly spin-orbit coupled, distorted honeycomb-lattice material Yb$_2$Si$_2$O$_7$. Our single crystal neutron scattering, specific heat, and ultrasound velocity measurements reveal a gapped singlet ground state at zero field with sharp, dispersive excitations. We find a field-induced magnetically ordered phase reminiscent of a BEC phase, with exceptionally low critical fields of $H_{c1} \sim 0.4$ T and $H_{c2} \sim 1.4$ T. Using inelastic neutron scattering in an applied magnetic field we observe a Goldstone mode (gapless to within $\delta E$ = 0.037 meV) that persists throughout the entire field-induced magnetically ordered phase, suggestive of the spontaneous breaking of U(1) symmetry expected for a triplon BEC. However, in contrast to other well-known cases of this phase, the high-field ($\mu$$_0$$H\geq1.2$T) part of the phase diagram in Yb$_2$Si$_2$O$_7$ is interrupted by an unusual regime signaled by a change in the field dependence of the ultrasound velocity and magnetization, as well as the disappearance of a sharp anomaly in the specific heat. These measurements raise the question of how anisotropy in strongly spin-orbit coupled materials modifies the field induced phases of QDMs., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 12 pages of Supplemental Information, 15 Supplemental figures. Updated to published version

Universal phenomena far from equilibrium exhibit additional independent scaling exponents and functions as compared to thermal universal behavior. For the example of an ultracold Bose gas we simulate nonequilibrium transport processes in a universal scaling regime and show how they lead to the breaking of the fluctuation-dissipation relation. As a consequence, the scaling of spectral functions (commutators) and statistical correlations (anticommutators) between different points in time and space become linearly independent with distinct dynamic scaling exponents. As a macroscopic signature of this phenomenon we identify a transport peak in the statistical two-point correlator, which is absent in the spectral function showing the quasiparticle peaks of the Bose gas., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

Prescaling is a far-from-equilibrium phenomenon which describes the rapid establishment of a universal scaling form of distributions much before the universal values of their scaling exponents are realized. We consider the example of the spatio-temporal evolution of the quark-gluon plasma explored in heavy-ion collisions at sufficiently high energies. Solving QCD kinetic theory with elastic and inelastic processes, we demonstrate that the gluon and quark distributions very quickly adapt a self-similar scaling form, which is independent of initial condition details and system parameters. The dynamics in the prescaling regime is then fully encoded in a few time-dependent scaling exponents, whose slow evolution gives rise to far-from-equilibrium hydrodynamic behavior., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, v2 rewrote conclusion, other minor changes, published version

Recent advances in artificial intelligence have been driven by the presence of increasingly realistic and complex simulated environments. However, many of the existing environments provide either unrealistic visuals, inaccurate physics, low task complexity, restricted agent perspective, or a limited capacity for interaction among artificial agents. Furthermore, many platforms lack the ability to flexibly configure the simulation, making the simulated environment a black-box from the perspective of the learning system. In this work, we propose a novel taxonomy of existing simulation platforms and discuss the highest level class of general platforms which enable the development of learning environments that are rich in visual, physical, task, and social complexity. We argue that modern game engines are uniquely suited to act as general platforms and as a case study examine the Unity engine and open source Unity ML-Agents Toolkit. We then survey the research enabled by Unity and the Unity ML-Agents Toolkit, discussing the kinds of research a flexible, interactive and easily configurable general platform can facilitate.

Aiming at a better understanding of anomalous and topological effects in gauge theories out-of-equilibrium, we study the real-time dynamics of a prototype model for CP-violation, the massive Schwinger model with a $\theta$-term. We identify dynamical quantum phase transitions between different topological sectors that appear after sufficiently strong quenches of the $\theta$-parameter. Moreover, we establish a general dynamical topological order parameter, which can be accessed through fermion two-point correlators and, importantly, which can be applied for interacting theories. Enabled by this result, we show that the topological transitions persist beyond the weak-coupling regime. Finally, these effects can be observed with table-top experiments based on existing cold-atom, superconducting-qubit, and trapped-ion technology. Our work, thus, presents a significant step towards quantum simulating topological and anomalous real-time phenomena relevant to nuclear and high-energy physics., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

We present real-time lattice simulation results for nonequilibrium quark production from an over-occupied gluon plasma in longitudinally expanding geometry. The quark number density per unit transverse area and rapidity shows almost linear growth in time, and its growth rate appears to be consistent with a simple kinetic theory estimate involving only two-to-two scattering processes in small-angle approximation. We also find that quarks produced at early times satisfy a nonequilibrium scaling law., Comment: Quark Matter 2018 proceedings

We present a non-equilibrium quantum field theory approach to the initial-state dynamics of spin models based on two-particle irreducible (2PI) functional integral techniques. It employs a mapping of spins to Schwinger bosons for arbitrary spin interactions and spin lengths. At next-to-leading order (NLO) in an expansion in the number of field components, a wide range of non-perturbative dynamical phenomena are shown to be captured, including relaxation of magnetizations in a 3D long-range interacting system with quenched disorder, different relaxation behaviour on both sides of a quantum phase transition and the crossover from relaxation to arrest of dynamics in a disordered spin chain previously shown to exhibit many-body-localization. Where applicable, we employ alternative state-of-the-art techniques and find rather good agreement with our 2PI NLO results. As our method can handle large system sizes and converges relatively quickly to its thermodynamic limit, it opens the possibility to study those phenomena in higher dimensions in regimes in which no other efficient methods exist. Furthermore, the approach to classical dynamics can be investigated as the spin length is increased.