Exotic versus conventional scaling and universality in a disordered bilayer quantum heisenberg antiferromagnet

We present Monte Carlo simulations of a two-dimensional bilayer quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet with random dimer dilution. In contrast with exotic scaling scenarios found in other random quantum systems, the quantum phase transition in this system is characterized by a finite-disorder fixed point with power-law scaling. After accounting for corrections to scaling, with a leading irrelevant exponent of omega approximately 0.48, we find universal critical exponents z=1.310(6) and nu=1.16(3). We discuss the consequences of these findings and suggest new experiments.     

Optically induced phase transition of excitons in coupled quantum dots

The weak classical light excitations in many semiconductor quantum dots have been chosen as important solid- state quantum systems for processing quantum information and implementing quantum computing. For strong classical light we predict theoretically a novel phase transition as a function of magnitude of this classical light from the deformed to the normal phases in resonance ease, and the essential features of criticality such as the scaling behaviour, critical exponent and universality are also present in this paper.     

Evolution from BCS to BEC superfluidity in p-wave Fermi gases

We consider the evolution of superfluid properties of a three-dimensional p-wave Fermi gas from a weak coupling Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to strong coupling Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) limit as a function of scattering volume. At zero temperature, we show that a quantum phase transition occurs for p-wave systems, unlike the s-wave case where the BCS to BEC evolution is just a crossover. Near the critical temperature, we derive a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory and show that the GL coherence length is generally anisotropic due to the p-wave nature of the order parameter, and becomes isotropic only in the BEC limit.     

Transition Probabilities and Dynamic Structure Function in the ASEP Conditioned on Strong Flux

We consider the asymmetric simple exclusion processes (ASEP) on a ring constrained to produce an atypically large flux, or an extreme activity. Using quantum free fermion techniques we find the time-dependent conditional transition probabilities and the exact dynamical structure function under such conditioned dynamics. In the thermodynamic limit we obtain the explicit scaling form. This gives a direct proof that the dynamical exponent in the extreme current regime is z=1 rather than the KPZ exponent z=3/2 which characterizes the ASEP in the regime of typical currents. Some of our results extend to the activity in the partially asymmetric simple exclusion process, including the symmetric case.     

Scaling analysis of phase fluctuations in experimental three-phase flows

The characterization of complex patterns arising from three-phase (e.g., oil-gas-water) flows is an important problem with significant engineering and industrial applications. Based solely on measured conductance fluctuation signals from experimental three-phase flows, we propose a method to characterize and distinguish three commonly observed flow patterns. Using the phase characterization method, we first calculate the instantaneous phase from the signals. Then, through performing a scaling analysis, detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), we extract scaling behaviors associated with the phase fluctuations and find that the DFA scaling exponent is sensitive to the transition among different flow patterns, which can be used to characterize nonlinear dynamics of the three-phase flow. From a novel perspective, we investigate the three-phase flow in terms of phase characterization and scaling analysis. The results indicate that our method can provide new insights into the exploration of complex mechanism in flow pattern transition. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated and its broader applicability is articulated.     

A New First-Order Phase Transition for an Extended Jaynes–Cummings–Dicke Model with a High-Finesse Optical Cavity in the BEC System<Superscript>†</Superscript>

We present a two-level atomic Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) with dispersion, which is coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity. We call this model the extended Jaynes–Cummings–Dicke (JC-Dicke) model and introduce an effective Hamiltonian for this system. From the direct product of Heisenberg–Weyl (HW) coherent states for the field and U(2) coherent states for the matter, we obtain the potential energy surface of the system. Within the framework of the mean-field approach, we evaluate the variational energy as the expectation value of the Hamiltonian for the considered state. We investigate numerically the quantum phase transition and the Berry phase for this system. We find the influence of the atom–atom interactions on the quantum phase transition point and obtain a new phase transition occurring when the microwave amplitude changes. Furthermore, we observe that the coherent atoms not only shift the phase transition point but also affect the macroscopic excitations in the superradiant phase.     

Anderson transition in two-dimensional systems with spin-orbit coupling

We report a numerical investigation of the Anderson transition in two-dimensional systems with spin-orbit coupling. An accurate estimate of the critical exponent nu for the divergence of the localization length in this universality class has to our knowledge not been reported in the literature. Here we analyze the SU(2) model. We find that for this model corrections to scaling due to irrelevant scaling variables may be neglected permitting an accurate estimate of the exponent nu=2.73+/-0.02.     

Symmetry breaking and restoration for interacting scalar and gauge fields in Lifshitz type theories

We consider the one-loop effective potential at zero and finite temperature in field theories with anisotropic space–time scaling, with critical exponent z=2$z=2$, including both scalar and gauge fields. Depending on the relative strength of the coupling constants for the gauge and scalar interactions, we find that there is a symmetry breaking term induced at one loop at zero temperature and we find symmetry restoration through a first-order phase transition at high temperature.     

Polyakov loop distributions near deconfinement inSU(2) lattice gauge theory

The distribution function of the Polyakov loop is investigated on a 16³×3 lattice in the neighbourhood of the deconfinement transition ofSU(2) gauge theory. We find, that well above the transition the distribution is a Gaussian; when the coupling approaches the critical point it is modified due to phase flip attempts of the system. Corresponding distributions for the plaquettes remain, however, Gaussian. For one coupling close to the transition we study the distributions on 8³, 12³ and 18³×4 lattices and show that strong finite size effects are present. Using the maximum values of the Gaussian parts of the distributions we construct a more physical (and therefore scaling) order parameter whose critical exponent is in excellent agreement with the universality hypothesis.     

Bose-Einstein condensation of S = 1 nickel spin degrees of freedom in NiCl2-4SC(NH2)2

It has recently been suggested that the organic compound NiCl2-4SC(NH2)2 (DTN) undergoes field-induced Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of the Ni spin degrees of freedom. The Ni S = 1 spins exhibit three-dimensional XY antiferromagnetism above a critical field H(c1) approximately 2 T. The spin fluid can be described as a gas of hard-core bosons where the field-induced antiferromagnetic transition corresponds to Bose-Einstein condensation. We have determined the spin Hamiltonian of DTN using inelastic neutron diffraction measurements, and we have studied the high-field phase diagram by means of specific heat and magnetocaloric effect measurements. Our results show that the field-temperature phase boundary approaches a power-law H - H(c1) proportional variant T(alpha)(c) near the quantum critical point, with an exponent that is consistent with the 3D BEC universal value of alpha = 1.5.     

Superfluid to Mott-insulator transition in a one-dimensional optical lattice

Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of sodium atoms are transferred into one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice potentials, formed by two laser beams with a wavelength of 1064 nm, in a shallow optical trap. The phase coherence of the condensate in the lattice potential is studied by changing the lattice depth. A qualitative change in behavior of the BEC is observed at a lattice depth of ～ 13.7 E_r, where the quantum gas undergoes a transition from a superfluid state to a state that lacks well-to-well phase coherence.     

Nonlinear electric field effects at a continuous mott-hubbard transition

We characterize the non-Ohmic portion of the conductivity at temperatures T<1 K in the highly correlated transition metal chalcogenide Ni(S,Se)(2). Pressure tuning of the T = 0 metal-insulator transition reveals the influence of the quantum critical point and permits a direct determination of the dynamical critical exponent z = 2.7(+0.3)(-0.4). Within the framework of finite temperature scaling, we find that the spatial correlation length exponent nu and the conductivity exponent &mgr; differ.     

Entanglement dynamics of three-qubit states under an XY spin-chain environment

The entanglement dynamics of three-qubit states under a general XY spin-chain environment which can exhibit a quantum phase transition is investigated by using negativity as entanglement measure. Our results imply that the entanglement evolution depends not only on the states of concern but also on the system-environment coupling, the anisotropy parameter, the size of the environment, and the strength of the external field applied to the environment. For the cases under study, we find that the entanglement decay is enhanced by quantum phase transition under weak coupling. The conditions to identify quantum decoherence-free subspaces have been discussed.     

Interplay between phase ordering and roughening on growing films

We study the interplay between surface roughening and phase separation during the growth of binary films. Renormalization group calculations are performed on a pair of equations coupling the interface height and order parameter fluctuations. We find a larger roughness exponent at the critical point of the order parameter compared to the disordered phase, and an increase in the upper critical dimension for the surface roughening transition from two to four. Numerical simulations performed on a solid-on-solid model with two types of deposited particles corroborate some of these findings. However, for a range of parameters not accessible to perturbative analysis, we find non-universal behavior with a continuously varying dynamic exponent.Received: 23 July 2003, Published online: 23 December 2003PACS: 68.35.Rh Phase transitions and critical phenomena - 05.70.Jk Critical point phenomena - 05.70.Ln Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics - 64.60.Cn Order-disorder transformations; statistical mechanics of model systems     

平面自旋压缩态的产生与原子干涉的机理

在玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体中实现自旋压缩和量子纠缠, 对于提高原子干涉测量相位灵敏度和原子钟精度有着非常重要的意义. 基于一种新的平面自旋分量的不确定性关系, 介绍了如何利用两分量玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚系统中原子间相互作用提供的非线性效应和原子内部能级间线性耦合, 实现量子平面自旋压缩(挤压)和模式纠缠. 描述了一项关于平面压缩态的理论工作, 该工作利用哈密顿量的精确对角化求解系统基态, 优化非线性作用和线性耦合强度比值, 使得包含平均自旋方向在内的两个正交自旋分量的不确定度同时压缩, 因此在平面上所有相位角度的涨落都受到压制, 而在与该平面垂直的第三个自旋分量方向反压缩. 利用传统自旋压缩判定纠缠, 只能判断多个不可分辨的原子处于纠缠态, 而平面自旋压缩可以检测两个可区分模式(比如, 原子内态)间的纠缠, 从而在不同模式间进行量子信息处理. 同时, 为实现超越标准量子极限的原子干涉相位精密测量, 传统方式是利用单个自旋分量压缩, 但需要对待测相位角度有很好的估计, 或者可以进行多次测量以逐渐逼近可获得的最大压缩极限, 这就要求量子态可以被精确的重复制备. 而利用平面自旋压缩, 对任意未知相位角度只需要测量两个垂直自旋分量就可以实现高的相位测量灵敏度.     

双势阱玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体系的自俘获现象及其周期调制效应

研究了双势阱玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体系(BEC)的自俘获现象(self-trapping). 在平均场近似下通过相平面(phase space)分析的方法研究了两种自俘获的机理：1)势阱中的粒子数在平衡位置附近振动，而相对相位随时间单调变化(running-phase); 2) 势阱中的粒子数和相对相位都在平衡点附近振动. 研究了周期调制场对自俘获现象的影响，发现发生自俘获现象的相变参数能够被周期场非常有效的调制，从而在弱相互作用BEC体系中也可以观察到自俘获现象. 还研究了多体量子涨落对自俘获现象的影响，讨论了在现有的实验条件下对凝聚体自俘获现象进行观察和周期调制. 关键词： 玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚 自俘获 双势阱 周期调制