Research

Dynamics and Excited States in Many-Body Systems

Entanglement entropy in a model with quantum many-body scars — Calculating entanglement entropy in the spin-1 XY model reveals a set of states (red) with anomalously low entanglement and equal energy spacing--a solvable example of quantum many-body scars.

Two-leg ladder — Hardcore bosons on a two-leg ladder with a symmetric disorder potential self-organize into a mixture of fast and slow degrees of freedom--a "mobility emulsion."

Quantum many-body physics is traditionally formulated in terms of ground states and their low-lying excitations. Recent developments in the field have upended this paradigm: we now know that the far-from-equilibrium dynamics of such systems, as well as their highly-excited (i.e., finite-energy-density) eigenstates, provide a rich landscape of new phenomena that go beyond what is possible near equilibrium. My research uses a combination of analytical reasoning and numerics to explore the new possibilities arising within this landscape. One particular focus is on understanding how the dynamics of quantum many-body systems can avoid reaching local thermal equilibrium at late times.

Selected papers

Z.-C. Yang, F. Liu, A. V. Gorshkov, and T. Iadecola, "Hilbert-space fragmentation from strict confinement," Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 207602 (2020).
M. Schecter and T. Iadecola, “Weak ergodicity breaking and quantum many-body scars in spin-1 XY magnets,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 147201 (2019).
T. Iadecola and M. Žnidarič, “Exact localized and ballistic eigenstates in disordered chaotic spin ladders and the Fermi-Hubbard model,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 036403 (2019).
M. Schecter, T. Iadecola, and S. Das Sarma, “Configuration-controlled many-body localization and the mobility emulsion,” Phys. Rev. B 98, 174201 (2018) [Editors’ Suggestion].

Topological Phases of Matter

Braiding excitations in a 3D topological phase — Braiding excitations in a (3+1)-dimensional topological phase constructed from coupled (1+1)-dimensional quantum wires.

Braiding excitations at the boundary of a fracton topological phase — Braiding excitations at a gapped boundary in a fracton topological phase in 3+1 dimensions.

Topologically ordered states of matter, exemplified in 2+1 dimensions by the fractional quantum Hall effect, provide remarkable counterexamples to the traditional "Landau paradigm," which distinguishes phases of matter by their broken symmetries. Topological phases are distinguished not by their broken symmetries, but rather by their fractionalized quasiparticle excitations, which could provide a powerful framework for the robust storage and manipulation of quantum information. I use tools from field theory and exactly solvable models to elucidate the properties of such phases, and to search for new phases altogether. I am particularly interested in generalizations of topological order to 3+1 dimensions, which are much less understood than their lower dimensional counterparts.

Selected Papers

T. Iadecola, T. Neupert, C. Chamon, and C. Mudry, “Ground-state degeneracy of non-Abelian topological phases from coupled wires,” Phys. Rev. B 99, 245138 (2019).
D. Bulmash and T. Iadecola, “Braiding and gapped boundaries in fracton topological phases,” Phys. Rev. B 99, 125132 (2019).
T. Iadecola, T. Neupert, C. Chamon, and C. Mudry, “Wire constructions of Abelian topological phases in three or more dimensions,” Phys. Rev. B 93, 195136 (2016).