Reaction-Diffusion Processes, Critical Dynamics, and Quantum Chains

The master equation describing non-equilibrium one-dimensional problems like diffusion limited reactions or critical dynamics of classical spin systems can be written as a Schrödinger equation in which the wave function is the probability distribution and the Hamiltonian is that of a quantum chain with nearest neighbor interactions. Since many one-dimensional quantum chains are integrable, this opens a new field of applications. At the same time physical intuition and probabilistic methods bring new insight into the understanding of the properties of quantum chains. A simple example is the asymmetric diffusion of several species of particles which leads naturally to Hecke algebras and q-deformed quantum groups. Many other examples are given. Several relevant technical aspects like critical exponents, correlation functions, and finite-size scaling are also discussed in detail.     

Phase diagram and critical exponents of a dissipative Ising spin chain in a transverse magnetic field

We consider a one-dimensional Ising model in a transverse magnetic field coupled to a dissipative heat bath. The phase diagram and the critical exponents are determined from extensive Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that the character of the quantum phase transition is radically altered from the corresponding nondissipative model and the double well coupled to a dissipative heat bath with linear friction. Spatial couplings and the dissipative dynamics combine to form a new quantum criticality which is independent of dissipation strength.     

Sisyphus cooling of rubidium atoms on the line: The role of the neighbouring transitions

We study one-dimensional Sisyphus cooling on the transition of ⁸⁷ Rb atoms in the electric field created by two counter-propagating linearly polarized laser beams with an angle of between the polarization directions. The neighbouring F '=0 and F '=2 excited states are found to play an important role in the cooling mechanism, e.g., by inhibiting a significant population of the velocity-selective dark state. Our experimental data, such as temperatures and probe absorption coefficients, agree well with the results of quantum Monte-Carlo wavefunction simulations. Received 26 November 1998 and Received in final form 20 April 1999     

Delocalization in one-dimensional tight-binding models with fractal disorder II: existence of mobility edge

In the previous work, we investigated the correlation-induced localization-delocalization transition (LDT) of the wavefunction at the band center (E = 0) in the one-dimensional tight-binding model with fractal disorder [H.S. Yamada, Eur. Phys. J. B 88, 264 (2015)]. In the present work, we study the energy (E ≠ 0) dependence of the normalized localization length (NLL) and the delocalization of the wavefunction at different energy in the same system. The mobility edges in the LDT arise when the fractal dimension of the potential landscape is larger than the critical value depending on the disorder strength, which is consistent with the previous result. In addition, we present the distribution of individual NLL and Lyapunov exponents in the system with LDT.     

Renormalization group approach to a p-wave superconducting model

We present in this work an exact renormalization group (RG) treatment of a one-dimensional p-wave superconductor. The model proposed by Kitaev consists of a chain of spinless fermions with a p-wave gap. It is a paradigmatic model of great actual interest since it presents a weak pairing superconducting phase that has Majorana fermions at the ends of the chain. Those are predicted to be useful for quantum computation. The RG allows to obtain the phase diagram of the model and to study the quantum phase transition from the weak to the strong pairing phase. It yields the attractors of these phases and the critical exponents of the weak to strong pairing transition. We show that the weak pairing phase of the model is governed by a chaotic attractor being non-trivial from both its topological and RG properties. In the strong pairing phase the RG flow is towards a conventional strong coupling fixed point. Finally, we propose an alternative way for obtaining p-wave superconductivity in a one-dimensional system without spin–orbit interaction.     

Monte Carlo analysis of critical properties of the two-dimensional randomly site-diluted Ising model via Wang-Landau algorithm

The influence of random site dilution on the critical properties of the two-dimensional Ising model on a square lattice was explored by Monte Carlo simulations with the Wang-Landau sampling. The lattice linear size was L=20-120 and the concentration of diluted sites q=0.1,0.2,0.3. Its pure version displays a second-order phase transition with a vanishing specific heat critical exponent α, thus, the Harris criterion is inconclusive, in that disorder is a relevant or irrelevant perturbation for the critical behaviour of the pure system. The main effort was focused on the specific heat and magnetic susceptibility. We have also looked at the probability distribution of susceptibility, pseudocritical temperatures and specific heat for assessing self-averaging. The study was carried out in appropriate restricted but dominant energy subspaces. By applying the finite-size scaling analysis, the correlation length exponent ν was found to be greater than one, whereas the ratio of the critical exponents (α/ν) is negative and (γ/ν) retains its pure Ising model value supporting weak universality.     

Short-time dynamics of the positional order of the two-dimensional hard disk system

We investigate the positional order of the two-dimensional hard disk model with short-time dynamics and equilibrium simulations. The melting density and the critical exponents z and η are determined. Our results rule out a phase transition as predicted by the Kosterlitz–Thouless–Halperin–Nelson–Young theory as well as a first-order transition.     

一维自旋1键交替XXZ链中的量子纠缠和临界指数

利用基于张量网络表示的矩阵乘积态算法以及无限虚时间演化块抽取方法,本文研究了一维无限格点自旋1的键交替反铁磁XXZ海森伯模型中的量子相变.分别计算了系统的von Neumann熵、单位格点保真度和序参量,从而得到了系统随键交替强度的变化从拓扑有序Néel相到局域有序二聚化相的量子相变点.我们用矩阵乘积态方法拟合出了相变的中心荷c?0.5,表明此相变属于二维经典的Ising普适类.另外,通过对拓扑Néel序的数值拟合,我们得到了相变点处的特征临界指数β′=0.236和γ′=0.838.     

Majority-vote on directed Erd?s-Rényi random graphs

Through Monte Carlo Simulation, the well-known majority-vote model has been studied with noise on directed random graphs. In order to characterize completely the observed order-disorder phase transition, the critical noise parameter q_c, as well as the critical exponents β/ν, γ/ν and 1/ν have been calculated as a function of the connectivity z of the random graph.     

The critical exponents of crystalline random surfaces

We report on a high statistics numerical study of the crystalline random surface model with extrinsic curvature on lattices of up to 64² points. The critical exponents at the crumpling transition are determined by a number of methods all of which are shown to agree within estimated errors. The correlation length exponent is found to be ν = 0.71(5) from the tangent-tangent correlation function whereas we find ν = 0.73(6) by assuming finite size scaling of the specific heat peak and hyperscaling. These results imply a specific heat exponent α = 0.58(10); this is a good fit to the specific heat on a 64² lattice with a χ² per degree of freedom of 1.7 although the best direct fit to the specific heat data yields a much lower value of a. We have measured the normal-normal correlation function in the crumpled phase and find that, within the accuracy of our simulations, the data can be described by a super-renormalizable field theory.     

Critical exponents predicted by grouping of Feynman diagrams in φ4 model

Different perturbation theory treatments of the Ginzburg‐Landau phase transition model are discussed. This includes a criticism of the perturbative renormalization group (RG) approach and a proposal of a novel method providing critical exponents consistent with the known exact solutions in two dimensions. The usual perturbation theory is reorganized by appropriate grouping of Feynman diagrams of φ⁴ model with O(n) symmetry. As a result, equations for calculation of the two‐point correlation function are obtained which allow to predict possible exact values of critical exponents in two and three dimensions by proving relevant scaling properties of the asymptotic solution at (and near) the criticality. The new values of critical exponents are discussed and compared to the results of numerical simulations and experiments.     

Comparative study of the critical behavior in one-dimensional random and aperiodic environments

We consider cooperative processes (quantum spin chains and random walks) in one-dimensional fluctuating random and aperiodic environments characterized by fluctuating exponents . At the critical point the random and aperiodic systems scale essentially anisotropically in a similar fashion: length (L) and time (t) scales are related as . Also some critical exponents, characterizing the singularities of average quantities, are found to be universal functions of , whereas some others do depend on details of the distribution of the disorder. In the off-critical region there is an important difference between the two types of environments: in aperiodic systems there are no extra (Griffiths)-singularities. Received: 5 February 1998 / Accepted: 17 April 1998     

Quantum tricriticality in transverse Ising-like systems

The quantum tricriticality of d-dimensional transverse Ising-like systems is studied by means of a perturbative renormalization group approach focusing on static susceptibility. This allows us to obtain the phase diagram for 3 ≤ d < 4, with a clear location of the critical lines ending in the conventional quantum critical points and in the quantum tricritical one, and of the tricritical line for temperature T ≥ 0. We determine also the critical and the tricritical shift exponents close to the corresponding ground state instabilities. Remarkably, we find a tricritical shift exponent identical to that found in the conventional quantum criticality and, by approaching the quantum tricritical point increasing the non-thermal control parameter r, a crossover of the quantum critical shift exponents from the conventional value φ = 1/(d − 1) to the new one φ = 1/2(d − 1). Besides, the projection in the (r,T)-plane of the phase boundary ending in the quantum tricritical point and crossovers in the quantum tricritical region appear quite similar to those found close to an usual quantum critical point. Another feature of experimental interest is that the amplitude of the Wilsonian classical critical region around this peculiar critical line is sensibly smaller than that expected in the quantum critical scenario. This suggests that the quantum tricriticality is essentially governed by mean-field critical exponents, renormalized by the shift exponent φ = 1/2(d − 1) in the quantum tricritical region.     

Critical exponents of random XX and XY chains: Exact results via random walks

We study random XY and (dimerized) XX spin-1/2 quantum spin chains at their quantum phase transition driven by the anisotropy and dimerization, respectively. Using exact expressions for magnetization, correlation functions and energy gap, obtained by the free fermion technique, the critical and off-critical (Griffiths-McCoy) singularities are related to persistence properties of random walks. In this way we determine exactly the decay exponents for surface and bulk transverse and longitudinal correlations, correlation length exponent and dynamical exponent. Received 26 September 1999     

A specific heat study of the nematic-smectic-A transition in octyloxycyanobiphenyl

A high-resolution ac calorimetry measurement of the nematic to smectic-A transition has been carried out carefully on octyloxycyanobiphenyl (80CB). The measured critical exponents α = α′ = .24 ± .03 are consistent with X-ray results through the hyperscaling relation ν∥ + 2ν_⊥ = 2 - α.     

Quantum Monte Carlo study on the phase transition for a generalized two-dimensional staggered dimerized Heisenberg model

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the quantum criticality in the explicitly staggered dimerized Heisenberg models,we study a generalized staggered dimer model named the J0-J1-J2 model,which corresponds to the staggered J-J ' model on a square lattice and a honeycomb lattice when J1/J0 equals 1 and 0,respectively.Using the quantum Monte Carlo method,we investigate all the quantum critical points of these models with J1/J0 changing from 0 to 1 as a function of coupling ratio α=J2/J0.We extract all the critical values of the coupling ratio αc for these models,and we also obtain the critical exponents ν,β/ν,and η using different finite-size scaling anstz,.All these exponents are not consistent with the three-dimensional Heisenberg universality class,indicating some unconventional quantum ciritcial points in these models.     

Conformal invariance and surface defects in the two-dimensional Ising model. Exact results

The surface critical behavior of the two-dimensional Ising model with homogeneous perturbations in the surface interactions is studied on the one-dimensional quantum version. A transfer-matrix method leads to an eigenvalue equation for the excitation energies. The spectrum at the bulk critical point is obtained using anL ^–1 expansion, whereL is the length of the Ising chain. It exhibits the towerlike structure which is characteristic of conformal models in the case of irrelevant surface perturbations (h _s /J _s 0) as well as for the relevant perturbationh _s =0 for which the surface is ordered at the bulk critical point leading to an extraordinary surface transition. The exponents are deduced from the gap amplitudes and confirmed by exact finite-size scaling calculations. Both cases are finally related through a duality transformation.     

The effect of quenched bond disorder on first-order phase transitions

We investigate the effect of quenched bond disorder on the two-dimensional three-color Ashkin–Teller model, which undergoes a first-order phase transition in the absence of impurities. This is one of the simplest and striking models in which quantitative numerical simulations can be carried out to investigate emergent criticality due to disorder rounding of first-order transition. Utilizing extensive cluster Monte Carlo simulations on large lattice sizes of up to 128×128$128\times 128$ spins, each of which is represented by three colors taking values ±1$\pm 1$, we show that the rounding of the first-order phase transition is an emergent criticality. We further calculate the correlation length critical exponent, ν$\nu$, and the magnetization critical exponent, β$\beta$, from finite size scaling analysis. We find that the critical exponents, ν$\nu$ and β$\beta$, change as the strength of disorder or the four-spin coupling varies, and we show that the critical exponents appear not to be in the Ising universality class. We know of no analytical approaches that can explain our non-perturbative results. However our results should inspire further work on this important problem, either numerical or analytical.