Ferromagnetic transition in one-dimensional itinerant electron systems

We use bosonization to derive the effective field theory that properly describes ferromagnetic transition in one-dimensional itinerant electron systems. The resultant theory is shown to have dynamical exponent z = 2 at tree level and upper critical dimension dc = 2. Thus one dimension is below the upper critical dimension of the theory, and the critical behavior of the transition is controlled by an interacting fixed point, which we study via epsilon expansion. Comparisons will be made with the Hertz-Millis theory, which describes the ferromagnetic transition in higher dimensions.     

Fractal Aggregation Near the Threshold

In this papel, we present two fractal aggregation models, line pattern seed model (model 1) and point pattern seed model (model 2), which are particle-cluster models. Using the current models, we investigate the critical transition in fractal aggregation processes in two dimensions, and suggest a method for finding the critical transition point. The computer simulation results show that the critical concentration is P_ca=0.69±0.02 for model 1 and P_ca=0.72±0.01 for model 2, critical fractal dimension. D_c= 1.71±0.06 for model 1 and D_c=1.66±0.07 for model 2, which are in good agreement with those of DLA model (D=5/3) and experimental data. The results also show that the critical transition point in two dimensions seems to be inilependent of the size of lattices and the initial seed patterns. The results seem to belong to the same universality class.     

Rounding by disorder of first-order quantum phase transitions: emergence of quantum critical points

We give a heuristic argument for disorder rounding of a first-order quantum phase transition into a continuous phase transition. From both weak and strong disorder analysis of the N-color quantum Ashkin-Teller model in one spatial dimension, we find that, for N > or =3, the first-order transition is rounded to a continuous transition and the physical picture is the same as the random transverse field Ising model for a limited parameter regime. The results are strikingly different from the corresponding classical problem in two dimensions where the fate of the renormalization group flows is a fixed point corresponding to N-decoupled pure Ising models.     

Ising gauge theory in 3.999… dimensions

We numerically study Ising gauge theories in non-integer dimensions below four dimensions using fractals. We find indications that the first-order transition of the d = 4 theory becomes second order for d = 4 − ϵ for arbitrarily small non-zero ϵ. This suggests that the upper critical dimension of abelian gauge theories is four.     

Critical dynamics of model C resolved

We analyze the field theoretic functions of the dynamical model C in two-loop order. Our results correct long-standing errors in these functions published by several authors. We discuss, in particular, the fixed points for the ratio w* of the two time scales involved, as well as their stability. The regions of the "phase diagram," whose axes are the spatial dimension d and number of order parameter components n, correspond to these fixed points; previous authors have found, in addition, an anomalous region in which the scaling properties were unclear. We show that such an anomalous region does not exist. There are only two regions: one with a finite fixed-point w* where the dynamical exponent z=2+alpha/nu, and another where w*=0 and z is equal to the model A value. We show how the one-loop result is recovered from the two-loop result in the limit epsilon=4-d going to zero.     

Multicritical behaviour at surfaces

The critical behaviour of a semi-infiniten-vector model with a surface term (c/2) ∫d Sφ² is studied in 4-ε dimensions near the special transition. It is shown that all critical surface exponents derive from bulk exponents and η_∥, the anomalous dimension of the order parameter at the surface. The surface exponents and the crossover exponent Φ for the variablec are calculated to second order in ε. It is found that Φ does not satisfy the relation Φ=1-ν predicted by Bray and Moore. The order-parameter profilem(z)=<ø> is calculated to first order in ε. In contrast to mean-field theory,m(z) is not flat nor does it satisfy a Neumann boundary condition. General aspects of the field-theoretic renormalization program for systems with surfaces are discussed with particular attention paid to the explanation of the unfamiliar new features caused by the presence of surfaces.     

On self-trapping in the molecular crystal model in onw,two and three dimensions

We present the outcome of a simple variational calculation for the ground-state wavefunction of the molecular crystal model (MCM) on a lattice. We discuss the two-site MCM and the MCM in one, two and three dimensions. For all cases we find a transition to a self-trapped state. The results seem to support our recent Monte Carlo investigations. Our variational results for the two-site MCM, including the presence of the phase transition, are in exact agreement with the rigorous solution for this model.     

The absence of phase transition for the classical XY-model on Sierpiński pyramid with fractal dimension D=2

For the spin models with continuous symmetry on regular lattices and finite range of interactions, the lower critical dimension is d?=?2. In two dimensions the classical XY-model displays Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless (BKT) transition associated with unbinding of topological defects (vortices and antivortices). We perform a Monte Carlo study of the classical XY-model on Sierpiński pyramids (SPs) whose fractal dimension is D = log?4/log?2?=?2 and the average coordination number per site is ≈ 7. The specific heat does not depend on the system size which indicates the absence of a long-range order. From the dependence of the helicity modulus on the cluster size and on boundary conditions, we draw a conclusion that in the thermodynamic limit there is no BKT transition at any finite temperature. This conclusion is also supported by our results for linear magnetic susceptibility. The lack of finite temperature phase transition is presumably caused by the finite order of ramification of SP.     

A Stochastic Model for Wound Healing

We present a discrete stochastic model which represents many of the salient features of the biological process of wound healing. The model describes fronts of cells invading a wound. We have numerical results in one and two dimensions. In one dimension we can give analytic results for the front speed as a power series expansion in a parameter, p, that gives the relative size of proliferation and diffusion processes for the invading cells. In two dimensions the model becomes the Eden model for p ≈ 1. In both one and two dimensions for small p, front propagation for this model should approach that of the Fisher-Kolmogorov equation. However, as in other cases, this discrete model approaches Fisher-Kolmogorov behavior slowly.     

Asymmetric metal-insulator transition in disordered ferromagnetic films

We present experimental data and a theoretical interpretation of the conductance near the metal-insulator transition in thin ferromagnetic Gd films of thickness b ≈ 2-10 nm. A large phase relaxation rate caused by scattering of quasiparticles off spin-wave excitations renders the dephasing length L(?) ? b in the range of sheet resistances considered, so that the effective dimension is d = 3. The conductivity data at different stages of disorder obey a fractional power-law temperature dependence and collapse onto two scaling curves for the metallic and insulating regimes, indicating an asymmetric metal-insulator transition with two distinctly different critical exponents; the best fit is obtained for a dynamical exponent z ≈ 2.5 and a correlation (localization) length critical exponent ν- ≈ 1.4 (ν+ ≈ 0.8) on the metallic (insulating) side.     

Ferromagnetic phase transition for the spanning-forest model (q-->0 limit of the Potts model) in three or more dimensions

We present Monte Carlo simulations of the spanning-forest model (q-->0 limit of the ferromagnetic Potts model) in spatial dimensions d=3, 4, 5. We show that, in contrast to the two-dimensional case, the model has a ferromagnetic second-order phase transition at a finite positive value w(c). We present numerical estimates of w(c) and of the thermal and magnetic critical exponents. We conjecture that the upper critical dimension is 6.     

Does hard core interaction change absorbing-type critical phenomena?

It has been generally believed that hard core interaction is irrelevant to absorbing-type critical phenomena because the particle density is so low near an absorbing phase transition. We study the effect of hard core interaction on the N-species branching annihilating random walks with two offspring and report that hard core interaction drastically changes the absorbing-type critical phenomena in a nontrivial way. Through a Langevin equation-type approach, we predict analytically the values of the scaling exponents, nu( perpendicular) = 2, z = 2, alpha = 1/2, and beta = 2 in one dimension for all N>1. Direct numerical simulations confirm our prediction. When the diffusion coefficients for different species are not identical, nu( perpendicular) and beta vary continuously with the ratios between the coefficients.     

Entanglement entropy of 2D conformal quantum critical points: hearing the shape of a quantum drum

The entanglement entropy of a pure quantum state of a bipartite system A union or logical sumB is defined as the von Neumann entropy of the reduced density matrix obtained by tracing over one of the two parts. In one dimension, the entanglement of critical ground states diverges logarithmically in the subsystem size, with a universal coefficient that for conformally invariant critical points is related to the central charge of the conformal field theory. We find that the entanglement entropy of a standard class of z=2 conformal quantum critical points in two spatial dimensions, in addition to a nonuniversal "area law" contribution linear in the size of the AB boundary, generically has a universal logarithmically divergent correction, which is completely determined by the geometry of the partition and by the central charge of the field theory that describes the critical wave function.     

Topological insulators and C-algebras: Theory and numerical practice

We apply ideas from C^∗-algebra to the study of disordered topological insulators. We extract certain almost commuting matrices from the free Fermi Hamiltonian, describing band projected coordinate matrices. By considering topological obstructions to approximating these matrices by exactly commuting matrices, we are able to compute invariants quantifying different topological phases. We generalize previous two dimensional results to higher dimensions; we give a general expression for the topological invariants for arbitrary dimension and several symmetry classes, including chiral symmetry classes, and we present a detailed K-theory treatment of this expression for time reversal invariant three dimensional systems. We can use these results to show non-existence of localized Wannier functions for these systems.We use this approach to calculate the index for time-reversal invariant systems with spin–orbit scattering in three dimensions, on sizes up to 12³, averaging over a large number of samples. The results show an interesting separation between the localization transition and the point at which the average index (which can be viewed as an “order parameter” for the topological insulator) begins to fluctuate from sample to sample, implying the existence of an unsuspected quantum phase transition separating two different delocalized phases in this system. One of the particular advantages of the C^∗-algebraic technique that we present is that it is significantly faster in practice than other methods of computing the index, allowing the study of larger systems. In this paper, we present a detailed discussion of numerical implementation of our method.     

Experimental observation of oscillating and interacting matter wave dark solitons

We report on the generation, subsequent oscillation and interaction of a pair of matter-wave dark solitons. These are created by releasing a Bose-Einstein condensate from a double well potential into a harmonic trap in the crossover regime between one dimension and three dimensions. Multiple oscillations and collisions of the solitons are observed, in quantitative agreement with simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. An effective particle picture is developed and confirms that the deviation of the observed oscillation frequencies from the asymptotic prediction nu(z)/sqrt 2, where nu(z) is the longitudinal trapping frequency, results from the dimensionality of the system and the soliton interactions.     

Langevin description of critical phenomena with two symmetric absorbing states

On the basis of general considerations, we propose a Langevin equation accounting for critical phenomena occurring in the presence of two symmetric absorbing states. We study its phase diagram by mean-field arguments and direct numerical integration in physical dimensions. Our findings fully account for and clarify the intricate picture known so far from the aggregation of partial results obtained with microscopic models. We argue that the direct transition from disorder to one of two absorbing states is best described as a (generalized) voter critical point and show that it can be split into an Ising and a directed percolation transition in dimensions larger than one.     

Anomalous scaling at the quantum critical point in itinerant antiferromagnets

We show that the Hertz phi(4) theory of quantum criticality is incomplete as it misses anomalous nonlocal contributions to the interaction vertices. For antiferromagnetic quantum transitions, we found that the theory is renormalizable only if the dynamical exponent z=2. The upper critical dimension is still d=4 - z=2; however, the number of marginal vertices at d=2 is infinite. As a result, the theory has a finite anomalous exponent already at the upper critical dimension. We show that for d<2 the Gaussian fixed point splits into two non-Gaussian fixed points. For both fixed points, the dynamical exponent remains z=2.     

Superfluid to Mott-insulator transition in Bose-Hubbard models

We study the superfluid-insulator transition in Bose-Hubbard models in one-, two-, and three-dimensional cubic lattices by means of a recently proposed variational wave function. In one dimension, the variational results agree with the expected Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless scenario of the interaction-driven Mott transition. In two and three dimensions, we find evidence that, across the transition, most of the spectral weight is concentrated at high energies, suggestive of preformed Mott-Hubbard sidebands. This result is compatible with the experimental data by Stoferle et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 130403 (2004)].     

Melting and unzipping of DNA

Existing experimental studies of the thermal denaturation of DNA yield sharp steps in the melting curve suggesting that the melting transition is first order. This transition has been theoretically studied since the early sixties, mostly within an approach in which the microscopic configurations of a DNA molecule consist of an alternating sequence of non-interacting bound segments and denaturated loops. Studies of these models neglect the repulsive, self-avoiding, interaction between different loops and segments and have invariably yielded continuous denaturation transitions. In the present study we take into account in an approximate way the excluded-volume interaction between denaturated loops and the rest of the chain. This is done by exploiting recent results on scaling properties of polymer networks of arbitrary topology. We also ignore the heterogeneity of the polymer. We obtain a first-order melting transition in d = 2 dimensions and above, consistent with the experimental results. We also consider within our approach the unzipping transition, which takes place when the two DNA strands are pulled apart by an external force acting on one end. We find that the under equilibrium condition the unzipping transition is also first order. Although the denaturation and unzipping transitions are thermodynamically first order, they do exhibit critical fluctuations in some of their properties. For instance, the loop size distribution decays algebraically at the transition and the length of the denaturated end segment diverges as the transition is approached. We evaluate these critical properties within our approach. Received 21 August 2001 and Received in final form 26 January 2002     

Transitions to the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov phases at low temperature in two dimensions

We explore the nature of the transition to the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin- Ovchinnikov superfluid phases in the low temperature range in two dimensions, for the simplest isotropic BCS model. This is done by applying the Larkin-Ovchinnikov approach to this second order transition. We show that there is a succession of transitions toward ever more complex order parameters when the temperature goes to zero. This gives rise to a cascade with, in principle, an infinite number of transitions. Except for one case, the order parameter at the transition is a real superposition of cosines with equal weights. The directions of these wavevectors are equally spaced angularly, with a spacing which goes to zero when the temperature goes to zero. This singular behaviour in this T = 0 limit is deeply linked to the two-dimensional nature of the problem.