Lattice model (physics) | EPFL Graph Search

In mathematical physics, a lattice model is a mathematical model of a physical system that is defined on a lattice, as opposed to a continuum, such as the continuum of space or spacetime. Lattice models originally occurred in the context of condensed matter physics, where the atoms of a crystal automatically form a lattice. Currently, lattice models are quite popular in theoretical physics, for many reasons. Some models are exactly solvable, and thus offer insight into physics beyond what can be learned from perturbation theory. Lattice models are also ideal for study by the methods of computational physics, as the discretization of any continuum model automatically turns it into a lattice model. The exact solution to many of these models (when they are solvable) includes the presence of solitons. Techniques for solving these include the inverse scattering transform and the method of Lax pairs, the Yang–Baxter equation and quantum groups. The solution of these models has given insight

Complex Analysis meets Statistical Mechanics: Applications to Kernel Methods and Conformal Field Theory

Francesco Spadaro

This thesis is centered on questions coming from Machine Learning (ML) and Statistical Field Theory (SFT).In Machine Learning, we consider the subfield of Supervised Learning (SL), and in particular regression tasks where one tries to find a regressor that fits given labeled data points as well as possible while at the same time optimizing other constrains. We consider two very famous Regression Models: Kernel Methods and Random Features (RF) models. We show that RF models can be used as an effective way to implement Kernel Methods and discuss in details the robustness of this approximation. Furthermore we propose a new estimator for the analysis of the choice of kernels that it is based only on the acquired dataset.In SFT we focus on so-called two-dimensional Conformal Field Theories (CFTs). We study these theories via their connection with lattice models, detailing how they emerge as continuous limits of discrete models as well as the meaning of all the central quantities of the theory. Furthermore, we show how to connect CFTs with the theory of Schramm-Loewner Evolutions (SLEs). Finally, we focus on the semi-local theories associated with the Ising and Tricritical Ising models and analyze the probabilistic and geometric meaning of the holomorphic fermions present therein.

EPFL2021

Linear Flavour-Wave Theory of SU(N) Lattice Models with Arbitrary Irreducible Representations

Francisco Hyunkyu Kim

This thesis explores various approaches of studying the long-range colour order of antiferromagnetic SU(N) Heisenberg models with the linear flavour-wave theory (LFWT). The LFWT is an extension of the well-known SU(2) spin-wave theory to SU(N), and this semi-classical method has been used to study SU(N) models with colour-ordered ground states in the fundamental irreducible representation (irrep). The aim of this thesis is to study various SU(N) Heisenberg models in different irreps and in various colour configurations, in part by extending the LFWT method to different irreps of SU(N). This will be achieved by using three different methods all using different bosonic representations. First, the LFWT willbe performed using the multiboson method that introduces a boson for each state of a given irrep. Then, a different SU(3) bosonic representation first introduced by Mathur & Sen will be presented and used to perform the LFWT calculations. Finally, another way of applying the LFWT will be shown using the bosons first used by Read & Sachdev for SU(N) irreps with rectangular Young tableaux. The specific models that will be treated by these methods are the fully antisymmetric SU(N) models on the square, honeycomb, and triangular lattices with m>1 particles per site, as well as the bipartite SU(3) Heisenberg chain in the adjoint irrep to show how the LFWT can be used for mixed symmetries. The last chapter of the thesis will be dedicated to another problem related to the accidental line of zero modes in the harmonic spectrum of the antiferromagnetic SU(3) Heisenberg model on the square lattice with one particle per site in a three-sublattice order. The objective will be to try to lift the accidental zero modes in the spectrum.

EPFL2019

Order and dynamics in Kagome like compound Cu2OSO4 and other quantum magnets

Virgile Yves Favre

This thesis presents results of studies of novel compounds modeling complex fundamental physics phenomena. Cu2OSO4 is a copper based magnetic Mott Insulator system, where spin half magnetic moments form a new type of lattice. These intrinsically quantum pins are exhibiting atypical magnetic order and spin dynamics. The recent success in the growth of large single crystals of Cu2OSO4 enabled to perform measurements probing its static and fluctuating properties. The peculiarity of this sample is that its atoms are forming layers, with a geometry close to the intensively studied Kagomé lattice, but with a third of its spins replaced by dimers. This quantum magnetism system has been probed in its bulk, by the means of heat capacity and DC-susceptibility measurements, revealing a transition to a magnetically long range ordered state upon cooling, the details of which are revealed by neutron scattering. Single crystal inelastic neutron scattering shed light on the spin-dynamics in the system, with clear spin waves appearing as fluctuations around the peculiar ground state of the system: a 120 degrees spin configuration where the magnetic moment of the spin-dimer causes the sample to be globally ferrimagnetic. The presented results indicate that Cu2OSO4 represents a new type of model lattice with frustrated interactions where interplay between magnetic order, thermal and quantum fluctuations can be explored. The magnetic excitations of the compound can be modeled by a yet-to-be-understood internal effective mean-field that no simple magnetic coupling seems to reproduce. K2Ni2(SO4)3 is another compound that allows for the existence of non-trivial topological phases. This thesis presents results of the study of the unusual magnetic behavior of K2Ni2(SO4)3. No clear sign of well-established magnetic long range order has been observed down to dilution temperatures. Neutron scattering reveals the details of the competition between frustration and fluctuations that prevent order from settling in. Low temperature spin excitations take the form of a continuum at 500 mK, but also of broad, energy independent continua at higher temperatures. Bulk and neutron scattering measurements are put in perspective and linked together with a view to building up a better understanding of how quantum spin liquids can be stabilized in general, and in particular in this model compound. Finally, the last contribution of this thesis to the field of condensed matter physics regards the establishment of a state-of-the-art technique to fit heat capacity and unit cell volume of samples to try and make the extraction of magnetic information from specific heat measurements more robust. This newly-developed technique consists in modeling lattice contributions with better accuracy by using data from multiple experimentally accessible quantities to consolidate the fitting scheme. This method has been cautiously applied to several compounds at the forefront of research in experimental physics.

EPFL2021

Order and dynamics in Kagome like compound Cu2OSO4 and other quantum magnets

Virgile Yves Favre

EPFL2021