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Motivated by recent developments on altermagnetism, we investigate the Hubbard model on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice, where the onsite repulsion between electrons induces the onset of a staggered magnetic order in which opposite magnetic sublattices are related to each other only by rotations and glide reflections, and not by inversion nor translations. As a consequence, the magnetic phase displays an altermagnetic character, i.e. a finite (non-relativistic) Zeeman splitting of the electronic excitations, despite the absence of a net magnetization. By means of a variational Monte Carlo approach based on Jastrow-Slater wave functions, which accounts for electronic correlations beyond the single-particle approximation, we study how $d$-wave altermagnetism shows up in the ground state properties and in the spectral function of the system. We characterize the metal-insulator transition between altermagnetic phases at half-filling and the stability of altermagnetism as a function of doping. The calculation of the single-particle spectral function displays the spin-split nature of the electronic excitations, also within the Mott insulating regime. We discuss possible realizations of the model in the context of organic $\alpha$- or $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$X charge transfer salts., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures

The interplay between electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions is studied in a one-dimensional lattice model, by means of a variational Monte Carlo method based on generalized Jastrow-Slater wave functions. Here, the fermionic part is constructed by a pair-product state, which explicitly depends on the phonon configuration, thus including the electron-phonon coupling in a backflow-inspired way. We report the results for the Hubbard model in presence of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger coupling to optical phonons, both at half-filling and upon hole doping. At half-filling, the ground state is either a translationally invariant Mott insulator, with gapless spin excitations, or a Peierls insulator, which breaks translations and has fully gapped excitations. Away from half-filling, the charge gap closes in both Mott and Peierls insulators, turning the former into a conventional Luttinger liquid (gapless in all excitation channels). The latter, instead, retains a finite spin gap that closes only above a threshold value of the doping. Even though consistent with the general theory of interacting electrons in one dimension, the existence of such a phase (with gapless charge but gapped spin excitations) has never been demonstrated in a model with repulsive interaction and with only two Fermi points. Since the spin-gapped metal represents the one-dimensional counterpart of a superconductor, our results furnish evidence that a true off-diagonal long-range order may exist in the two-dimensional case.

Motivated by recent numerical studies reporting putative quantum paramagnetic behavior in spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg models on the maple-leaf lattice, we classify Abrikosov fermion mean-field Ans\"atze of fully symmetric $U(1)$ and $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ quantum spin liquids within the framework of projective symmetry groups. We obtain a total of $17$ $U(1)$ and $12$ $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ algebraic PSGs, and, upon restricting their realization via mean-field Ans\"atze with nearest-neighbor amplitudes (relevant to the studied models), only 12 $U(1)$ and 8 $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ distinct phases are obtained. We present both singlet and triplet fields for all Ans\"atze up to third nearest-neighbor bonds and discuss their spinon dispersions as well as their dynamical spin structure factors. We further assess the effects of Gutzwiller projection on the equal-time spin structure factors, and identify a $U(1)$ Fermi surface spin liquid whose structure factor most closely reproduces the one obtained from pseudo-fermion functional renormalization group calculations., Comment: 28 pages, 21 figures, 7 tables

We investigate the impact of the spin-phonon coupling on the S=1/2 Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice. For the pure spin model, there is increasing evidence that the low-energy properties can be correctly described by a Dirac spin liquid, in which spinons with a conical dispersion are coupled to emergent gauge fields. Within this scenario, the ground-state wave function is well approximated by a Gutzwiller-projected fermionic state [Y. Ran, M. Hermele, P.A. Lee, and X.-G. Wen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 117205 (2007)]. However, the existence of U(1) gauge fields may naturally lead to instabilities when small perturbations are included. Since phonons are ubiquitous in real materials, they may play a relevant role in the determination of the actual physical properties of the kagome antiferromagnet. We perform a step forward in this direction, including phonon degrees of freedom (at the quantum level) and applying a variational approach based upon Gutzwiller-projected fermionic Ans\"atze. Our results suggest that the Dirac spin liquid is stable for small spin-phonon couplings, while valence-bond solids are obtained at large couplings. Even though different distortions can be induced by the spin-phonon interaction, the general aspect is that the energy is lowered by maximizing the density of perfect hexagons in the dimerization pattern.

$\require{mhchem}$The square-kagome lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet is a highly frustrated Hamiltonian whose material realizations have been scarce. We theoretically investigate the recently synthesized $\ce{Na6Cu7BiO4(PO4)4Cl3}$ where a Cu$^{2+}$ spin-$1/2$ square-kagome lattice (with six site unit cell) is decorated by a seventh magnetic site alternatingly above and below the layers. The material does not show any sign of long-range magnetic order down to 50 mK despite a Curie-Weiss temperature of $-212$ K indicating a quantum paramagnetic phase. Our DFT energy mapping elicits a purely antiferromagnetic Hamiltonian that features longer range exchange interactions beyond the pure square-kagome model and, importantly, we find the seventh site to be strongly coupled to the plane. We combine two variational Monte Carlo approaches, pseudo-fermion/Majorana functional renormalization group and Schwinger-Boson mean field calculations to show that the complex Hamiltonian of $\ce{Na6Cu7BiO4(PO4)4Cl3}$ still features a nonmagnetic ground state. We explain how the seventh Cu$^{2+}$ site actually aids the stabilization of the disordered state. We predict static and dynamic spin structure factors to guide future neutron scattering experiments., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Supplement: 7 pages, 11 figures v2: minor revisions in text and figure labels

We perform a projective symmetry group classification of spin $S=1/2$ symmetric quantum spin liquids with different gauge groups on the diamond lattice. Employing the Abrikosov fermion representation, we obtain $8$ $SU(2)$, $62$ $U(1)$ and $80$ $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ algebraic PSGs. Constraining these solutions to mean-field parton Ans\"atze with short-range amplitudes, the classification reduces to only $2$ $SU(2)$, $7$ $U(1)$ and $8$ $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ distinctly realizable phases. We obtain both the singlet and triplet fields for all Ans\"atze, discuss the spinon dispersions, and present the dynamical spin structure factors within a self-consistent treatment of the Heisenberg Hamiltonian with up to third-nearest neighbor couplings. Interestingly, we find that a zero-flux $SU(2)$ state and some descendent $U(1)$ and $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ states host robust gapless nodal loops in their dispersion spectrum, owing their stability at the mean-field level to the projective implementation of rotoinversion and screw symmetries. A nontrivial connection is drawn between one of our $U(1)$ spinon Hamiltonians (belonging to the nonprojective class) and the Fu-Kane-Mele model for a three-dimensional topological insulator on the diamond lattice. We show that Gutzwiller projection of the 0- and $\pi$-flux $SU(2)$ spin liquids generates long-range N\'eel order., Comment: Editors' Suggestion. 36 pages, 9 figures, 9 tables

The continued development of novel many-body approaches to ground-state problems in physics and chemistry calls for a consistent way to assess its overall progress. Here we introduce a metric of variational accuracy, the V-score, obtained from the variational energy and its variance. We provide the most extensive curated dataset of variational calculations of many-body quantum systems to date, identifying cases where state-of-the-art numerical approaches show limited accuracy, and novel algorithms or computational platforms, such as quantum computing, could provide improved accuracy. The V-score can be used as a metric to assess the progress of quantum variational methods towards quantum advantage for ground-state problems, especially in regimes where classical verifiability is impossible., Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures

Motivated by recent reports of a quantum disordered ground state in the triangular lattice compound NaRuO$_2$, we derive a $j_{\rm eff}=1/2$ magnetic model for this system by means of first-principles calculations. The pseudospin Hamiltonian is dominated by bond-dependent off-diagonal $\Gamma$ interactions, complemented by a ferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange and a notably antiferromagnetic Kitaev term. In addition to bilinear interactions, we find a sizable four-spin ring exchange contribution with a strongly anisotropic character, which has been so far overlooked when modeling Kitaev materials. The analysis of the magnetic model, based on the minimization of the classical energy and exact diagonalization of the quantum Hamiltonian, points toward the existence of a rather robust easy-plane ferromagnetic order, which cannot be easily destabilized by physically relevant perturbations., Comment: v2 includes supplementary information, a more detailed discussion of selected aspects and correction of small errors

We perform a projective symmetry group (PSG) classification of symmetric quantum spin liquids with different gauge groups on the square-octagon lattice. Employing the Abrikosov fermion representation for spin-$1/2$, we obtain $32$ $SU(2)$, $1808$ $U(1)$ and $384$ $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ algebraic PSGs. Constraining ourselves to mean-field parton ans\"atze with short-range amplitudes, the classification reduces to a limited number, with 4 $SU(2)$, 24 $U(1)$ and 36 $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$, distinct phases. We discuss their ground state properties and spinon dispersions within a self-consistent treatment of the Heisenberg Hamiltonian with frustrating couplings., Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables

Electronic systems living on Archimedean lattices such as kagome and square-octagon networks are presently being intensively discussed for the possible realization of topological insulating phases. Coining the most interesting electronic topological states in an unbiased way is however not straightforward due to the large parameter space of possible Hamiltonians. A possible approach to tackle this problem is provided by a recently developed statistical learning method [T. Mertz and R. Valent\'i, Phys. Rev. Research 3, 013132 (2021)], based on the analysis of a large data sets of randomized tight-binding Hamiltonians labeled with a topological index. In this work, we complement this technique by introducing a feature engineering approach which helps identifying polynomial combinations of Hamiltonian parameters that are associated with non-trivial topological states. As a showcase, we employ this method to investigate the possible topological phases that can manifest on the square-octagon lattice, focusing on the case in which the Fermi level of the system lies at a high-order van Hove singularity, in analogy to recent studies of topological phases on the kagome lattice at the van Hove filling., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

Motivated by recent experiments on Cs$_2$Cu$_3$SnF$_{12}$ and YCu$_{3}$(OH)$_{6}$Cl$_{3}$, we consider the ${S=1/2}$ Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice with nearest-neighbor super-exchange $J$ and (out-of-plane) Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction $J_D$, which favors (in-plane) ${\bf Q}=(0,0)$ magnetic order. By using both variational Monte Carlo (based upon Gutzwiller-projected fermionic wave functions) and tensor-network approaches (built from infinite projected-entangled pair/simplex states), we show that the ground state develops a finite magnetization for $J_D/J \gtrsim 0.03 - 0.04$, while the gapless spin liquid remains stable for smaller values of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. The relatively small value of $J_D/J$ for which magnetic order sets in is particularly relevant for the interpretation of low-temperature behaviors of kagome antiferromagnets, including ZnCu$_{3}$(OH)$_{6}$Cl$_{2}$. In addition, we assess the spin dynamical structure factors and the corresponding low-energy spectrum, by using the variational Monte Carlo technique. The existence of a continuum of excitations above the magnon modes is reported within the magnetically ordered phase, similarly to what has been detected by inelastic neutron scattering on Cs$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$SnF$_{12}$., Comment: 15 figures

Pinch point singularities, associated with flat band magnetic excitations, are tell-tale signatures of Coulomb spin liquids. While their properties in the presence of quantum fluctuations have been widely studied, the fate of the complementary non-analytic features -- shaped as half-moons and stars -- arising from adjacent shallow dispersive bands has remained unexplored. Here, we address this question for the spin $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice with second and third neighbor couplings, which allows one to tune the classical ground state from flat bands to being governed by shallow dispersive bands for intermediate coupling strengths. Employing the complementary strengths of variational Monte Carlo, pseudo-fermion functional renormalization group, and density-matrix renormalization group, we establish the quantum phase diagram. The U(1) Dirac spin liquid ground state of the nearest-neighbor antiferromagnet remains remarkably robust till intermediate coupling strengths when it transitions into a pinwheel valence bond crystal displaying signatures of half-moons in its structure factor. Our work thus identifies a microscopic setting that realizes one of the proximate orders of the Dirac spin liquid identified in a recent work [Song, Wang, Vishwanath, He, Nat. Commun. 10, 4254 (2019)]. For larger couplings, we obtain a collinear magnetically ordered ground state characterized by star-like patterns., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Supplemental Material appended

The Hubbard model on the kagome lattice is presently often considered as a minimal model to describe the rich low-temperature behavior of AV$_{3}$Sb$_{5}$ compounds (with A=K, Rb, Cs), including charge-density waves (CDWs), superconductivity, and possibly broken time-reversal symmetry. Here, we investigate, via variational Jastrow-Slater wave functions, the properties of its ground state when both onsite $U$ and nearest-neighbor $V$ Coulomb repulsions are considered at the van Hove filling. Our calculations reveal the presence of different interaction-driven CDWs and, contrary to previous renormalization-group studies, the absence of ferromagnetism and charge- or spin-bond order. No signatures of chiral phases are detected. Remarkably, the CDWs triggered by the nearest-neighbor repulsion possess charge disproportionations that are not compatible with the ones observed in AV$_{3}$Sb$_{5}$. As an alternative mechanism to stabilize charge-bond order, we consider the electron-phonon interaction, modeled by coupling the hopping amplitudes to quantum phonons, as in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. Our results show the instability towards a tri-hexagonal distortion with $2\times 2$ periodicity, in a closer agreement with experimental findings.

Neural networks have been recently proposed as variational wave functions for quantum many-body systems [G. Carleo and M. Troyer, Science 355, 602 (2017)]. In this work, we focus on a specific architecture, known as Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM), and analyse its accuracy for the spin-1/2 $J_1-J_2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model in one spatial dimension. The ground state of this model has a non-trivial sign structure, especially for $J_2/J_1>0.5$, forcing us to work with complex-valued RBMs. Two variational Ans\"atze are discussed: one defined through a fully complex RBM, and one in which two different real-valued networks are used to approximate modulus and phase of the wave function. In both cases, translational invariance is imposed by considering linear combinations of RBMs, giving access also to the lowest-energy excitations at fixed momentum $k$. We perform a systematic study on small clusters to evaluate the accuracy of these wave functions in comparison to exact results, providing evidence for the supremacy of the fully complex RBM. Our calculations show that this kind of Ans\"atze is very flexible and describes both gapless and gapped ground states, also capturing the incommensurate spin-spin correlations and low-energy spectrum for $J_2/J_1>0.5$. The RBM results are also compared to the ones obtained with Gutzwiller-projected fermionic states, often employed to describe quantum spin models [F. Ferrari, A. Parola, S. Sorella and F. Becca, Phys. Rev. B 97, 235103 (2018)]. Contrary to the latter class of variational states, the fully-connected structure of RBMs hampers the transferability of the wave function from small to large clusters, implying an increase of the computational cost with the system size., Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Scipost Physics

All numerical weather prediction models used for the wind industry need to produce their forecasts starting from the main synoptic hours 00, 06, 12, and 18 UTC, once the analysis becomes available. The six-hour latency time between two consecutive model runs calls for strategies to fill the gap by providing new accurate predictions having, at least, hourly frequency. This is done to accommodate the request of frequent, accurate and fresh information from traders and system regulators to continuously adapt their work strategies. Here, we propose a strategy where quasi-real time observed wind speed and weather model predictions are combined by means of a novel Ensemble Model Output Statistics (EMOS) strategy. The success of our strategy is measured by comparisons against observed wind speed from SYNOP stations over Italy in the years 2018 and 2019.

Recent experimental findings have reported the presence of unconventional charge orders in the enlarged ($2 \times 2$) unit-cell of kagome metals AV$_3$Sb$_5$ (A=K,Rb,Cs) and hinted towards specific topological signatures. Motivated by these discoveries, we investigate the types of topological phases that can be realized in such kagome superlattices. In this context, we employ a recently introduced statistical method capable of constructing topological models for any generic lattice. By analyzing large data sets generated from symmetry-guided distributions of randomized tight-binding parameters, and labeled with the corresponding topological index, we extract physically meaningful information. We illustrate the possible real-space manifestations of charge and bond modulations and associated flux patterns for different topological classes, and discuss their relation to present theoretical predictions and experimental signatures for the AV$_3$Sb$_5$ family. Simultaneously, we predict new higher-order topological phases that may be realized by appropriately manipulating the currently known systems.

We investigate the nature of the ground-state of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the $shuriken$ lattice by complementary state-of-the-art numerical techniques, such as variational Monte Carlo (VMC) with versatile Gutzwiller-projected Jastrow wave functions, unconstrained multi-variable variational Monte Carlo (mVMC), and pseudo-fermion/Majorana functional renormalization group (PF/PM-FRG) methods. We establish the presence of a quantum paramagnetic ground state and investigate its nature, by classifying symmetric and chiral quantum spin liquids, and inspecting their instabilities towards competing valence-bond-crystal (VBC) orders. Our VMC analysis reveals that a VBC with a pinwheel structure emerges as the lowest-energy variational ground state, and it is obtained as an instability of the U(1) Dirac spin liquid. Analogous conclusions are drawn from mVMC calculations employing accurate BCS pairing states supplemented by symmetry projectors, which confirm the presence of pinwheel VBC order by a thorough analysis of dimer-dimer correlation functions. Our work highlights the nontrivial role of quantum fluctuations via the Gutzwiller projector in resolving the subtle interplay between competing orders., Comment: Main paper (7 pages, 5 figures, 1 table) + Supplemental Material

We investigate the ground state properties of the spin-$1/2$ pyrochlore Heisenberg antiferromagnet using pseudofermion functional renormalization group techniques. The first part of our analysis is based on an enhanced parton mean-field approach which takes into account fluctuation effects from renormalized vertex functions. Our implementation of this technique extends earlier approaches and resolves technical difficulties associated with a diagrammatic overcounting. Using various parton ans\"atze for quantum spin liquids, dimerized and nematic states our results indicate a tendency for lattice symmetry breaking in the ground state. While overall quantum spin liquids seem unfavorable in this system, the recently proposed monopole state still shows the strongest support among all spin liquid ans\"atze that we have tested, which is further confirmed by our complementary variational Monte Carlo calculations. In the second part of our investigation, we probe lattice symmetry breaking more directly by applying the pseudofermion functional renormalization group to perturbed systems. Our results from this technique confirm that the system's ground state either exhibits broken $C_3$ rotation symmetry, or a combination of inversion and $C_3$ symmetry breaking., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures

The issue of the accuracy of wind speed/power forecasts is becoming more and more important as wind power production continues to increase year after year. Having accurate forecasts for the energy market clashes with intrinsic difficulties of wind forecasts due to, e.g., the coarse resolution of Numerical Weather Prediction models. Here, we propose a novel Ensemble Model Output Statistics (EMOS) which accounts for nonlinear relationships between predictands and both predictors and other weather observables used as conditioning variables. The strategy is computationally cheap and easy-to-implement with respect to other more complex strategies dealing with nonlinear regressions. Our novel strategy is assessed in a systematic way to quantify its added value with respect to ordinary, linear, EMOS strategies. Wind speed/power forecasts over Italy from the Ensemble Prediction System (EPS) in use at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) are considered for this purpose. The calibrations are based on the use of past wind speed measurements collected by 69 SYNOP stations over Italy in the years 2018 and 2019. Our results show the key role played by conditioning variables to disentangle the model error thus allowing a net improvement of the calibration with respect to ordinary EMOS strategies. Finally, we have quantified the impact of calibrated wind forecasts on the wind power forecasts finding results of interest for the renewable energy market.

We assess the ground-state phase diagram of the $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice by employing Gutzwiller-projected fermionic wave functions. Within this framework, different states can be represented, defined by distinct unprojected fermionic Hamiltonians that include hopping and pairing terms, as well as a coupling to local Zeeman fields to generate magnetic order. For $J_2=0$, the so-called U(1) Dirac state, in which only hopping is present (such as to generate a $\pi$-flux in the hexagons), has been shown to accurately describe the exact ground state [Y. Iqbal, F. Becca, S. Sorella, and D. Poilblanc, Phys. Rev. B 87, 060405 (2013); Y.-C. He, M. P. Zaletel, M. Oshikawa, and F. Pollmann, Phys. Rev. X 7, 031020 (2017)]. Here, we show that its accuracy improves in presence of a small antiferromagnetic super-exchange $J_2$, leading to a finite region where the gapless spin liquid is stable; then, for $J_2/J_1=0.11(1)$, a first-order transition to a magnetic phase with pitch vector ${\bf q}=(0,0)$ is detected, by allowing magnetic order within the fermionic Hamiltonian. Instead, for small ferromagnetic values of $|J_2|/J_1$, the situation is more contradictory. While the U(1) Dirac state remains stable against several perturbations in the fermionic part (i.e., dimerization patterns or chiral terms), its accuracy clearly deteriorates on small systems, most notably on $36$ sites where exact diagonalization is possible. Then, upon increasing the ratio $|J_2|/J_1$, a magnetically ordered state with $\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}$ periodicity eventually overcomes the U(1) Dirac spin liquid. Within the ferromagnetic $J_{2}$ regime, evidence is shown in favor of a first-order transition at $J_2/J_1=-0.065(5)$., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 1 table

We investigate the magnetism of a previously unexplored distorted spin-1/2 kagome model consisting of three symmetry-inequivalent nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic Heisenberg couplings Jhexagon, J and J', and uncover a rich ground state phase diagram even at the classical level. Using analytical arguments and numerical techniques we identify a collinear Q = 0 magnetic phase, two unusual non-collinear coplanar Q = (1/3,1/3) phases and a classical spin liquid phase with a degenerate manifold of non-coplanar ground states, resembling the jammed spin liquid phase found in the context of a bond-disordered kagome antiferromagnet. We further show with density functional theory calculations that the recently synthesized Y-kapellasite Y3Cu9(OH)19Cl8 is a realization of this model and predict its ground state to lie in the region of Q = (1/3,1/3) order, which remains stable even after inclusion of quantum fluctuation effects within variational Monte Carlo and pseudofermion functional renormalization group. The presented model opens a new direction in the study of kagome antiferromagnets., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 6 pages of supplement

The existence and stability of spin-liquid phases represent a central topic in the field of frustrated magnetism. While a few examples of spin-liquid ground states are well established in specific models (e.g. the Kitaev model on the honeycomb lattice), recent investigations have suggested the possibility of their appearance in several Heisenberg-like models on frustrated lattices. An important related question concerns the stability of spin liquids in the presence of small perturbations in the Hamiltonian. In this respect, the magnetoelastic interaction between spins and phonons represents a relevant and physically motivated perturbation, which has been scarcely investigated so far. In this work, we study the effect of the spin-phonon coupling on prototypical models of frustrated magnetism. We adopt a variational framework based upon Gutzwiller-projected wave functions implemented with a spin-phonon Jastrow factor, providing a full quantum treatment of both spin and phonon degrees of freedom. The results on the frustrated $J_1-J_2$ Heisenberg model on one- and two-dimensional (square) lattices show that, while a valence-bond crystal is prone to lattice distortions, a gapless spin liquid is stable for small spin-phonon couplings. In view of the ubiquitous presence of lattice vibrations, our results are particularly important to demonstrate the possibility that gapless spin liquids may be realized in real materials., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures

We show that gapless spin liquids, which are potential candidates to describe the ground state of frustrated Heisenberg models in two dimensions, become trivial insulators on cylindrical geometries with an even number of legs. In particular, we report calculations for Gutzwiller-projected fermionic states on strips of square and kagome lattices. By choosing different boundary conditions for the fermionic degrees of freedom, both gapless and gapped states may be realized, the latter ones having a lower variational energy. The direct evaluation of static and dynamical correlation functions, as well as overlaps between different states, allows us to demonstrate the sharp difference between the ground-state properties obtained within cylinders or directly in the two-dimensional lattice. Our results shed light on the difficulty to detect bona fide gapless spin liquids in such cylindrical geometries., Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures

The recently introduced topological quantum chemistry (TQC) framework has provided a description of universal topological properties of all possible band insulators in all space groups based on crystalline unitary symmetries and time reversal. While this formalism filled the gap between the mathematical classification and the practical diagnosis of topological materials, an obvious limitation is that it only applies to weakly interacting systems-which can be described within band theory. It is an open question to which extent this formalism can be generalized to correlated systems that can exhibit symmetry protected topological phases which are not adiabatically connected to any band insulator. In this work we address the many facettes of this question by considering the specific example of a Hubbard diamond chain. This model features a Mott insulator, a trivial insulating phase and an obstructed atomic limit phase. Here we discuss the nature of the Mott insulator and determine the phase diagram and topology of the interacting model with infinite density matrix renormalization group calculations, variational Monte Carlo simulations and with many-body topological invariants. We then proceed by considering a generalization of the TQC formalism to Green's functions combined with the concept of topological Hamiltonian to identify the topological nature of the phases, using cluster perturbation theory to calculate the Green's functions. The results are benchmarked with the above determined phase diagram and we discuss the applicability and limitations of the approach and its possible extensions., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures

We introduce variational wave functions to evaluate the ground-state properties of spin-phonon coupled systems described by the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. Quantum spins and phonons are treated on equal footing within a Monte Carlo sampling, and different regimes are investigated. We show that the proposed variational Ansatz yields good agreement with previous density-matrix renormalization group results in one dimension and is able to accurately describe the spin-Peierls transition. This variational approach is neither constrained by the magnetoelastic-coupling strength nor by the dimensionality of the systems considered, thus allowing future investigations in more general cases, which are relevant to spin-liquid and topological phases in two spatial dimensions., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

The spin-$1/2$ $J_1-J_2$ Heisenberg model on the square lattice represents one of the simplest examples in which the effets of magnetic interactions may suppress magnetic order, eventually leading to a pure quantum phase with no local order parameters. This model has been extensively studied in the last three decades, with conflicting results. Here, by using Gutzwiller-projected wave functions and recently developed methods to assess the low-energy spectrum, we show the existence of a level crossing between the lowest-energy triplet and singlet excitations for $J_2/J_1 \approx 0.54$. This fact supports the existence of a phase transition between a gapless spin liquid (which is stable for $0.48 \lesssim J_2/J_1 \lesssim 0.54$) and a valence-bond solid (for $0.54 \lesssim J_2/J_1 \lesssim 0.6$), even though no clear sign of dimer order is visible in the correlations functions. These results, which confirm recent density-matrix renormalization calculations on cylindrical clusters [L. Wang and A.W. Sandvik, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 107202 (2018)] reconcile the contraddicting results obtained within different approaches over the years., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures

By using a variational Monte Carlo technique based upon Gutzwiller-projected fermionic states, we investigate the dynamical structure factor of the antiferromagnetic $S=1/2$ Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice, in presence of first-neighbor ($J_1$) and second-neighbor ($J_2$) couplings, for ${J_2 < 0.5 J_1}$. The ground state of the system shows long-range antiferromagnetic order for ${J_2/J_1 \lesssim 0.23}$, plaquette valence-bond order for ${0.23 \lesssim J_2/J_1 \lesssim 0.36}$, and columnar dimer order for ${J_2/J_1 \gtrsim 0.36}$. Within the antiferromagnetic state, a well-defined magnon mode is observed, whose dispersion is in relatively good agreement with linear spin-wave approximation for $J_2=0$. When a nonzero second-neighbor super-exchange is included, a roton-like mode develops around the $K$ point (i.e., the corner of the Brillouin zone). This mode softens when $J_2/J_1$ is increased and becomes gapless at the transition point, $J_2/J_1 \approx 0.23$. Here, a broad continuum of states is clearly visible in the dynamical spectrum, suggesting that nearly-deconfined spinon excitations could exist, at least at relatively high energies. For larger values of $J_2/J_1$, valence-bond order is detected and the spectrum of the system becomes clearly gapped, with a triplon mode at low energies. This is particularly evident for the spectrum of the dimer valence-bond phase, in which the triplon mode is rather well separated from the continuum of excitations that appears at higher energies.

Variational wave functions have enabled exceptional scientific breakthroughs related to the understanding of novel phases of matter. Examples include the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity, the description of the fractional quantum Hall effect through the Laughlin state, and Feynman's variational understanding of large-scale quantum effects in liquid Helium. More recently, Gutzwiller-projected wave functions, typically constructed from fermionic degrees of freedom, have been employed to examine quantum spin models in the presence of competing interactions, where exotic phases with no spontaneous symmetry breaking and fractional excitations may exist. In this work, we investigate the aforementioned fermionic wave functions supplemented with neural networks, specifically with the so-called restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM), to boost their accuracy and obtain reliable approximations to the ground state of generic spin models. In particular, we apply our neural augmented fermionic construction to the description of both magnetically ordered and disordered phases of increasing complexity, including cases where the ground state displays a non-trivial sign structure. Even though the RBM state is by far more effective for N\'eel states endowed with a particularly simple sign structure, it provides a significant improvement over the original fermionic state in highly frustrated regimes where a complex sign structure is anticipated, thus marking the path to an understanding of strongly-correlated spin models on the lattice via neural Gutzwiller-projected variational wave functions., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures

Understanding the nature of the excitation spectrum in quantum spin liquids is of fundamental importance, in particular for the experimental detection of candidate materials. However, current theoretical and numerical techniques have limited capabilities, especially in obtaining the dynamical structure factor, which gives a crucial characterization of the ultimate nature of the quantum state and may be directly assessed by inelastic neutron scattering. In this work, we investigate the low-energy properties of the $S=1/2$ Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice, including both nearest-neighbor $J_1$ and next-nearest-neighbor $J_2$ super-exchanges, by a dynamical variational Monte Carlo approach that allows accurate results on spin models. For $J_2=0$, our calculations are compatible with the existence of a well-defined magnon in the whole Brillouin zone, with gapless excitations at $K$ points (i.e., at the corners of the Brillouin zone). The strong renormalization of the magnon branch (also including roton-like minima around the $M$ points, i.e., midpoints of the border zone) is described by our Gutzwiller-projected state, where Abrikosov fermions are subject to a non-trivial magnetic $\pi$-flux threading half of the triangular plaquettes. When increasing the frustrating ratio $J_2/J_1$, we detect a progessive softening of the magnon branch at $M$, which eventually becomes gapless within the spin-liquid phase. This feature is captured by the band structure of the unprojected wave function (with $2$ Dirac points for each spin component). In addition, we observe an intense signal at low energies around the $K$ points, which cannot be understood within the unprojected picture and emerges only when the Gutzwiller projection is considered, suggesting the relevance of gauge fields for the low-energy physics of spin liquids., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures