Corner Charge Fluctuations and Many-Body Quantum Geometry

TL;DR

This paper investigates how corner charge fluctuations in many-body quantum systems reveal complex geometric and topological properties, extending previous universal formulas to include non-universal, microscopic details linked to the quantum metric.

Contribution

It introduces an infinite series representation of corner contributions, incorporating orientation-resolved universal angle functions and their coefficients related to the quantum metric, expanding understanding beyond simple universal formulas.

Findings

Corner charge fluctuations depend on microscopic details in insulators.

Quantum metric bounds influence corner fluctuation coefficients.

Certain fractional quantum Hall states saturate the derived bounds.

Abstract

In many-body systems with U(1) global symmetry, the charge fluctuations in a subregion reveal important insights into entanglement and other global properties. For subregions with sharp corners, bipartite fluctuations have been predicted to exhibit a universal shape dependence on the corner angle in certain quantum phases and transitions, characterized by a "universal angle function" and a "universal coefficient." However, we demonstrate that this simple formula is insufficient for charge insulators, including composite fermi liquids. In these systems, the corner contribution may depend on the corner angle, subregion orientation, and other microscopic details. We provide an infinite series representation of the corner term, introducing orientation-resolved universal angle functions with their non-universal coefficients. In the small-angle limit or under orientation averaging, the remaining terms' coefficients are fully determined by the many-body quantum metric, which, while not universal, adheres to both a universal topological lower bound and an energetic upper bound. We also clarify the conditions for bound saturation in (anisotropic) Landau levels, leveraging the generalized Kohn theorem and holomorphic properties of many-body wavefunctions. We find that a broad class of fractional quantum Hall wavefunctions, including unprojected parton states and composite-fermion Fermi sea wavefunctions, saturates the bounds.