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Introducing PRX Quantum, a new Physical Review journal

Opening for submissions mid-2020, PRX Quantum will be a highly selective, open access journal featuring quantum information science and technology research with an emphasis on lasting and profound impact. The journal expands on the excellence and innovation of Physical Review X (PRX).


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Physical Review B 50th Anniversary Milestones

The year 2020 marks PRB’s 50th anniversary. On this occasion, the editors launch a collection of select papers. These Milestone studies represent lasting contributions to physics by way of reporting significant discoveries, initiating new areas of research, or substantially enhancing the conceptual tools for making progress in the burgeoning field of condensed matter physics.

Collection


Interpretation 1
MILESTONE

Interpretation of Raman spectra of disordered and amorphous carbon

A general three-stage model relates Raman spectroscopy in the visible range to the content of disordered carbons for all amorphous carbons, whether hydrogenated or hydrogen-free.

A. C. Ferrari and J. Robertson
Phys. Rev. B 61, 14095 (2000)

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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Orientation dependence of the magnetic phase diagram of Yb2Ti2O7

When interactions support quantum fluctuations in frustrated magnets, one may hope to realize a quantum spin liquid. Here, the authors report a detailed experimental and theoretical study of the low-temperature phase diagram of the pyrochlore quantum magnet Yb2Ti2O7. Despite the geometric frustration associated with this structure, the material exhibits anisotropic ferromagnetism at low temperatures. The reentrant phase diagram and the reversed anisotropy of the upper critical field reported here are, however, inconsistent with a classical description and indicate that the reentrant low-field regime is driven by quantum fluctuations.

S. Säubert et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 174434 (2020)


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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Electromagnetic coupling in tight-binding models for strongly correlated light and matter

The rapidly developing collaboration of condensed matter and quantum optical physics opens up exciting new possibilities for creating novel photon-matter states that allow manipulating material properties using optical cavities. This paper addresses the important challenge of formulating consistent, accurate, and convenient forms of the light-matter coupling for the low-energy tight-binding-type models useful for theoretical analysis. It achieves this by constructing precise mappings from the fundamental ab initio description of the cavity-matter system to low-energy theories, producing a truncated Hamiltonian coupling to a quantum Peierls phase. In a simple model system, the authors demonstrate the quick convergence of the truncated Hamiltonian with the number of bands, paving the way for rigorous theoretical studies in this emerging research field.

Jiajun Li et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 205140 (2020)


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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Non-Abelian topology of nodal-line rings in PT-symmetric systems

The paradigm of topological band theory has been recently challenged by the discovery of band nodes with non-Abelian topological charges. Here, the authors simplify the description of the non-Abelian topology using elementary geometric rules, and they use them to prove a relation between the monopole charge and the linking structure of nodal-line rings. Furthermore, they establish a novel braiding phenomenon induced by topological interaction of the monopole charge with the Berry phase. The analysis suggests unexpected richness of topological structures in PT-symmetric systems.

Apoorv Tiwari and Tomáš Bzdušek
Phys. Rev. B 101, 195130 (2020)


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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Quantum many-body scars from virtual entangled pairs

Quantum many-body scarring is a recently discovered weak ergodicity-breaking phenomenon in quantum many-body systems. It was first seen in experiments with Rydberg atom array simulators, and characterized by nonthermalizing periodic revivals of certain initial-state configurations. Here, the authors extend our understanding of the physical origins of this phenomenon by showing through an explicit construction that scars can arise through the presence of entangled virtual degrees of freedom undergoing periodic dynamics. This demonstrates a novel analytic scenario, whereby intrinsically entangled states can exhibit periodic revivals in an otherwise chaotic many-body system, enriching the phenomenology of quantum many-body scarring.

Sambuddha Chattopadhyay, Hannes Pichler, Mikhail D. Lukin, and Wen Wei Ho
Phys. Rev. B 101, 174308 (2020)


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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Unified structure for exact towers of scar states in the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki and other models

Exact “towers” of quantum many-body scar states are recently discovered sets of states in some many-body nonintegrable systems. They are evenly spaced in energy and do not obey the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. Here, the authors provide a unified framework of proving several towers of states known in the literature. This sheds light on the general structure of exact scar towers, and on the specific models themselves: the 1D AKLT models, spin-1 XY model, and a spin-½ domain wall conserving model. In particular, they provide a simple proof for the scars in the AKLT models and discover a “pyramid” of exact states in the spin-½ model.

Daniel K. Mark, Cheng-Ju Lin, and Olexei I. Motrunich
Phys. Rev. B 101, 195131 (2020)


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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Gauge theories for the thermal Hall effect

The remarkable recent observation of a negative thermal Hall coefficient in the cuprate superconductors presents yet another puzzle about the nature of their ‘pseudogap’ regime. Here, the authors propose an emergent gauge theory framework to understand the sign change of the thermal Hall coefficient and the violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law. They compute the thermal Hall effect in Chern-Simons theories, and find that the emergent gauge fields yield a negative thermal Hall response. The theory captures the main observed trends, but the overall magnitude of the effect is smaller than that observed, suggesting that proper account of phonons could be the missing ingredient.

Haoyu Guo, Rhine Samajdar, Mathias S. Scheurer, and Subir Sachdev
Phys. Rev. B 101, 195126 (2020)


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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Thermodynamic uncertainty relation in atomic-scale quantum conductors

Recent advances in stochastic thermodynamics unraveled a thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR), which is a trade-off relation between cost (dissipation) and precision (fluctuations). In this study, the authors test its validity in nanoscale systems. Measurements of the electron current and its noise in gold atomic-scale junctions demonstrate that the TUR holds in this quantum coherent system. Based on calculations, the authors go on to argue that the TUR can identify transport mechanisms and pinpoint deviations from noninteracting-electron coherent dynamics.

Hava Meira Friedman et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 195423 (2020)


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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Homotopy characterization of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians

There has been much recent interest in understanding topological band theory of non-Hermitian systems. Most work has focused on the Chern number in these systems, although interesting phenomena related to an eigenvalue winding number has also been reported. Here, the authors give a complete topological classification using homotopy theory. They find that the Chern number can be reduced modulo 2 depending on the winding number, and this is interpreted in terms of braiding of Weyl points and exceptional nodal rings.

Charles C. Wojcik, Xiao-Qi Sun, Tomáš Bzdušek, and Shanhui Fan
Phys. Rev. B 101, 205417 (2020)


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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Localization from Hilbert space shattering: From theory to physical realizations

Known routes to ergodicity breaking – integrability and many-body localization – require extensively many explicit or emergent conservation laws. Here we show that two conservation laws are sufficient to provably and robustly break ergodicity by “shattering” Hilbert space into exponentially many dynamically disconnected sectors. This represents a new paradigm for localization, which does not rely on disorder or energy conservation, which works in any number of spatial dimensions, and which should be realizable in near-term ultracold atom experiments.

Vedika Khemani, Michael Hermele, and Rahul Nandkishore
Phys. Rev. B 101, 174204 (2020)


Theorypolarization 1
MILESTONE

Theory of polarization of crystalline solids

Adiabatic changes in the Kohn-Sham Hamiltonian lead to polarization changes in the solid that can be computed within the context of first-principles total-energy calculations.

R. D. King-Smith and David Vanderbilt
Phys. Rev. B 47, 1651(R) (1993)

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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Decoupling spin-orbital correlations in a layered manganite amidst ultrafast hybridized charge-transfer band excitation

Femtosecond optical lasers can be used to trigger drastic modifications of a material’s physical properties on the ultrafast timescale, revealing complex, otherwise inaccessible quantum mechanics as well as new processes with potential for creating novel devices with unprecedented high performance. Here, the authors report that the interaction of near-infrared laser light with a promising spin-orbitronics candidate, the layered mixed-valence manganite Nd1xSr1+xMnO4, produces unexpected results, triggering dramatic modifications in the spin state of the material while leaving its orbital state unperturbed. These observations are made with an x-ray free-electron laser, while optical spectroscopy further reveals the specific way electrons transfer within the system. The results open an opportunity to selectively control the spin state while keeping the orbital one intact, an extremely challenging task in strongly correlated electron systems. They pave an avenue for the next generation of multistate logic and memory devices.

L. Shen et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 201103(R) (2020)


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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Chiral quantum optics using a topological resonator

Topological physics has introduced a modern design principle in optics, providing build-in protection to specific types of disorder. This work demonstrates how such principles could be used to create a topological resonator in nanophotonic crystals so as to enable chiral light-matter interaction in the context of cavity quantum electrodynamics. A moderate Purcell effect is shown as an experimental proof of principle.

Sabyasachi Barik et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 205303 (2020)


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EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Theory of exciton-electron scattering in atomically thin semiconductors

Interacting electrons and excitons promise fascinating applications, such as exciton-mediated superconductors or semiconductor-based quantum simulators. A detailed understanding of the force, coupling electrons, and excitons is crucial to realize such applications in atomically thin semiconductors. The authors achieve this by developing an approach that simulates the physics of three charges in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD). Their approach predicts novel rotational bound trions as well as collisional states. This allows for the derivation of an accurate model of exciton-electron interactions and, as an application, for the prediction of the photoabsorption properties of electron-doped TMD, revealing the existence of exciton-polarons.

Christian Fey, Peter Schmelcher, Atac Imamoglu, and Richard Schmidt
Phys. Rev. B 101, 195417 (2020)


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RAPID COMMUNICATIONS

The Rapid Communications section of Physical Review B is devoted to the accelerated publication of especially important new results. A Rapid Communication presents work that is important, interesting, or timely to those in a particular subfield.

More about Rapids

Current Issues

Vol. 101, Iss. 17-20 — May 2020

View Current Issues
Physical Review A•B•C•D - 50 Years

To celebrate 50 years of enduring discoveries, APS is offering 50% off APCs for any manuscript submitted in 2020, published in any of its hybrid journals: PRL, PRA, PRB, PRC, PRD, PRE, PRApplied, PRFluids, and PRMaterials. Learn More »

Announcements

APS Announces Outstanding Referees for 2020
March 2, 2020

APS has selected 147 Outstanding Referees for 2020 that have demonstrated exceptional work in the assessment of manuscripts submitted to the Physical Review journals. A full list of the Outstanding Referees is available online.

More Announcements

Trending in PRB

Decoupling spin-orbital correlations in a layered manganite amidst ultrafast hybridized charge-transfer band excitation
L. Shen et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 201103 (2020)

Theory of exciton-electron scattering in atomically thin semiconductors
Christian Fey, Peter Schmelcher, Atac Imamoglu, and Richard Schmidt
Phys. Rev. B 101, 195417 (2020)

Chiral quantum optics using a topological resonator
Sabyasachi Barik et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 205303 (2020)

Observation of topological edge states induced solely by non-Hermiticity in an acoustic crystal
He Gao et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 180303 (2020)

Gauge theories for the thermal Hall effect
Haoyu Guo, Rhine Samajdar, Mathias S. Scheurer, and Subir Sachdev
Phys. Rev. B 101, 195126 (2020)

Thermodynamic uncertainty relation in atomic-scale quantum conductors
Hava Meira Friedman et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 195423 (2020)

Spin Hall effect in antiferromagnets
Sverre A. Gulbrandsen, Camilla Espedal, and Arne Brataas
Phys. Rev. B 101, 184411 (2020)

Observation of sixfold degenerate fermions in PdSb2
Xian Yang et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 201105 (2020)

Spin caloritronics in a CrBr3-based magnetic van der Waals heterostructure
Tian Liu et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 205407 (2020)

Prediction of MnSiTe3 as an intrinsic layered half-metal
Dechen Zhang et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 205119 (2020)

Signature for non-Stoner ferromagnetism in the van der Waals ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2
X. Xu et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 201104 (2020)

Homotopy characterization of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians
Charles C. Wojcik, Xiao-Qi Sun, Tomas Bzdusek, and Shanhui Fan
Phys. Rev. B 101, 205417 (2020)

Collective modes in excitonic insulators: Effects of electron-phonon coupling and signatures in the optical response
Yuta Murakami et al.
Phys. Rev. B 101, 195118 (2020)

Temperature dependence of surface and grain boundary energies from first principles
Daniel Scheiber, Oliver Renk, Maxim Popov, and Lorenz Romaner
Phys. Rev. B 101, 174103 (2020)

Localization from Hilbert space shattering: From theory to physical realizations
Vedika Khemani, Michael Hermele, and Rahul Nandkishore
Phys. Rev. B 101, 174204 (2020)

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