Quantum Phase Transitions in <Emphasis Type="Italic">s</Emphasis> = 1/2 Ising Chain in a Regularly Alternating Transverse Field

We consider the ground-state properties of the s = 1/2 Ising chain in a transverse field which varies regularly along the chain having a period of alternation 2. Such a model, similarly to its uniform counterpart, exhibits quantum phase transitions. However, the number and the position of the quantum phase transition points depend on the strength of transverse field modulation. The behaviour in the vicinity of the critical field in most cases remains the same as for the uniform chain (i.e. belongs to the square-lattice Ising model universality class). However, a new critical behaviour may also arise. We report the results for critical exponents obtained partially analytically and partially numerically for very long chains consisting of a few thousand sites.     

Random and aperiodic quantum spin chains: A comparative study

According to the Harris-Luck criterion the relevance of a fluctuating interaction at the critical point is connected to the value of the fluctuation exponent . Here we consider different types of relevant fluctuations in the quantum Ising chain and investigate the universality class of random as well as deterministic-aperiodic models. At the critical point the random and aperiodic systems behave similarly, due to the same type of extreme broad distribution of the energy scales at low energies. The critical exponents of some averaged quantities are found to be a universal function of , but some others do depend on other parameters of the distribution of the couplings. In the off-critical region there is an important difference between the two systems: there are no Griffiths singularities in aperiodic models. Received: 18 November 1997 / Received in final form: 24 November 1997 / Accepted: 8 January 1997     

Continuously infinite commensurate-incommensurate phase transition of a two-dimensional competing Ising model

We consider the critical behavior of a two-dimensional competing axial Ising model including interactions up to third nearest neighbors in one direction. On the basis of a low-temperature analysis relating the transfer matrix of this model with the Hamiltonian of theS = 1/2XXZ chain, it is shown that the usual square root singularity dominating commensurate-incommensurate phase transitions of two-dimensional systems merges into a continuously infinite transition for certain relations among the coupling parameters. The conjectured equivalence between the maximum eigenstate of the transfer matrix associated with this model and the ground state of theXXZ chain is tested numerically for lattice widths up to 18 sites.     

Persistent currents in mesoscopic rings and conformal invariance

The effect of point defects on persistent currents in mesoscopic rings is studied in a simple tight-binding model. Using an analogy with the treatment of the critical quantum Ising chain with defects, conformal invariance techniques are employed to relate the persistent current amplitude to the Hamiltonian spectrum just above the Fermi energy. From this, the dependence of the current on the magnetic flux is found exactly for a ring with one or two point defects. The effect of an aperiodic modulation of the ring, generated through a binary substitution sequence, on the persistent current is also studied. The flux-dependence of the current is found to vary remarkably between the Fibonacci and the Thue-Morse sequences. Received: 4 March 1998 / Revised: 20 April 1998 / Accepted: 30 April 1998     

Aperiodic extended surface perturbations in the Ising model

We study the influence of an aperiodic extended surface perturbation on the surface critical behaviour of the two-dimensional Ising model in the extreme anisotropic limit. The perturbation decays as a power of the distance l from the free surface with an oscillating amplitude where follows some aperiodic sequence with an asymptotic density equal to 1/2 so that the mean amplitude vanishes. The relevance of the perturbation is discussed by combining scaling arguments of Cordery and Burkhardt for the Hilhorst-van Leeuwen model and Luck for aperiodic perturbations. The relevance-irrelevance criterion involves the decay exponent , the wandering exponent which governs the fluctuation of the sequence and the bulk correlation length exponent . Analytical results are obtained for the surface magnetization which displays a rich variety of critical behaviours in the -plane. The results are checked through a numerical finite-size-scaling study. They show that second-order effects must be taken into account in the discussion of the relevance-irrelevance criterion. The scaling behaviours of the first gap and the surface energy are also discussed. Received 1 December 1998     

Phase transition in the 2D random Potts model in the large-q limit

Phase transition in the two-dimensional q-state Potts model with random ferromagnetic couplings is studied in the large-q limit by a combinatorial optimization algorithm and by approximate mappings. We conjecture that the critical behavior of the model is controlled by the isotropic version of the infinite randomness fixed point of the random transverse-field Ising spin chain and the critical exponents are exactly given by beta=(3-sqrt[5])/4, beta(s)=1/2, and nu=1. The specific heat has a logarithmic singularity, but at the transition point there are very strong sample-to-sample fluctuations. Discretized randomness results in discontinuities in the internal energy.     

Effect of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on heat conductivity in one-dimensional quantum Ising chains

The effect of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction on the heat conduction in the quantum Ising chain has been studied by solving the Lindblad master equation. The chain is subject to a uniform transverse field h, while the exchange couplings {J _m } between the nearest-neighbor spins are either uniform, random or quasi-periodic. The average energy-density profile and the average energy current in the non-equilibrium steady state have been numerically calculated. The ballistic transport is observed in the uniform Ising chain with DM interaction. For the random Ising chain with DM interaction, the energy gradient is observed in the bulk of the spin chain whose energy current appears to scale as the system size ⟨Q⟩ ∼ exp(βN) with β < 0. For the quasi-periodic Ising chain with DM interaction, the J _m takes the two values J _A and J _B arranged in the Fibonacci sequence. The energy gradient also exists in the spin chain and the energy current behaves as ⟨Q⟩ ∼ N ^α with α < 0. By increasing the strength of the DM interaction D, a non-trivial transition from the thermal insulator heat transport to anomalous heat conduction is found in the Fibonacci Ising chain with large ratio of couplings λ = J _A /J _B . A rough phase diagram of λ vs. D is given in this paper as well.     

Equivalence of random and competing nonrandom bonds for Edwards Anderson spin-glass

We map the Edwards Anderson Hamiltonian onto an effective Hamiltonian for Ising spins with nonrandom competing couplings. A high-temperature series is used to calculate the coupling constants to 20th, 16th, and 12th order for two, three, and four dimensions, respectively. We conclude the lower critical dimension to be close to three and find the correlation-length and susceptibility critical exponents to be twice as large as for thed=3 Ising model.     

Scaling theory and finite systems

A renormalization group transformation is introduced with the help of which critical properties of infinite systems can be related to finite systems. As a numerical example the method is applied to the two-dimensional Ising model. The critical point and critical point exponent are computed in addition to the amplitude of the logarithmic singularity in the specific heat.     

Anomalous Universality in the Anisotropic Ashkin–Teller Model

The Ashkin–Teller (AT) model is a generalization of Ising 2–d to a four states spin model; it can be written in the form of two Ising layers (in general with different couplings) interacting via a four–spin interaction. It was conjectured long ago (by Kadanoff and Wegner, Wu and Lin, Baxter and others) that AT has in general two critical points, and that universality holds, in the sense that the critical exponents are the same as in the Ising model, except when the couplings of the two Ising layers are equal (isotropic case). We obtain an explicit expression for the specific heat from which we prove this conjecture in the weakly interacting case and we locate precisely the critical points. We find the somewhat unexpected feature that, despite universality, holds for the specific heat, nevertheless nonuniversal critical indexes appear: for instance the distance between the critical points rescale with an anomalous exponent as we let the couplings of the two Ising layers coincide (isotropic limit); and so does the constant in front of the logarithm in the specific heat. Our result also explains how the crossover from universal to nonuniversal behaviour is realized.Partially supported by NSF Grant DMR 01–279–26     

Q-Dependent Susceptibilities in Ferromagnetic Quasiperiodic Z-Invariant Ising Models

We study the q-dependent susceptibility χ(q) of a series of quasiperiodic Ising models on the square lattice. Several different kinds of aperiodic sequences of couplings are studied, including the Fibonacci and silver-mean sequences. Some identities and theorems are generalized and simpler derivations are presented. We find that the q-dependent susceptibilities are periodic, with the commensurate peaks of χ(q) located at the same positions as for the regular Ising models. Hence, incommensurate everywhere-dense peaks can only occur in cases with mixed ferromagnetic–antiferromagnetic interactions or if the underlying lattice is aperiodic. For mixed-interaction models the positions of the peaks depend strongly on the aperiodic sequence chosen. Supported in part by NSF Grant No. PHY 01-00.     

Infrared behaviour and the bare Pomeron intercept in a Reggeon Field Theory including the Pomeron and thef-pole

An extension of the critical Reggeon Field Theory that includes both the Pomeron and thef-Reggeon fields is constructed. The quantum numbers of thef-Reggeon allows specific Reggeon-Pomeron couplings that have not been considered previously in standard works on secondary trajectories. We show the existence of a single fully stable fixed point among a total of 11 points. Unfortunately this point does not satisfy the factorization requirements imposed by thef-dominance of the Pomeron hypothesis and, in consequence, the critical Pomeron can not bef-dominated in aP+f model. We have also evaluated the value of the intercept of the bare critical Pomeron, using the method of integral representations of the propagators. The value obtained is clearly higher than the one previously obtained without thef-Pomeron interplay. With an adequate choice of the values of the bare coupling constants its value is in good agreement with the phenomenological one.     

Critical behavior of geometric measure of quantum discord when approaching the critical points via different paths

We investigate the critical behavior of geometric measure of quantum discord (GMQD) in a one-dimensional transverse XY spin chain. The critical and the scaling behavior of the ground state GMQD are investigated both at the multi-critical and Ising critical points. Our results show that the behavior of GMQD at muti-critical point (MCP) has close relation with the path, which is determined by the parameter α, that approaching the MCP. For α < 2, the GMQD and its first derivation show oscillation behavior. For α ≥ 2, no oscillation behavior is observed. This indicates that the GMQD can not describe exactly the multi-critical point of the XY model. However, at the Ising critical point, the path parameter has no influence on the critical behavior. The GMQD (first derivation of GMQD) shows peaks (dips) and indicates exactly the position of Ising critical point. The results also show that the path parameter influences much to the scaling behavior near the MCP, but less to that of Ising critical point. Our results may provide reference to the exploration of relationships between GMQD and quantum phase transitions.     

Non-equilibrium relaxation study of the ±J Ising model with biquadratic exchange interaction

The spin-1 ±J Ising model with uniform biquadratic couplings on a simple cubic lattice is studied by the Monte Carlo simulation using the non-equilibrium relaxation method. The reentrant phase transition induced by competition between the bilinear and biquadratic couplings is eliminated gradually with increasing randomness of bilinear couplings and disappears entirely in the strong random system. The dynamic exponent of ferromagnetic transition shows non-universal behavior with changing randomness, while this behavior is not observed in the case of staggered quadrupolar transition.     

Low-energy properties of aperiodic quantum spin chains

We investigate the low-energy properties of antiferromagnetic quantum XXZ spin chains with couplings following two-letter aperiodic sequences, by an adaptation of the Ma-Dasgupta-Hu renormalization-group method. For a given aperiodic sequence, we argue that, in the easy-plane anisotropy regime, intermediate between the XX and Heisenberg limits, the general scaling form of the thermodynamic properties is essentially given by the exactly known XX behavior, providing a classification of the effects of aperiodicity on XXZ chains. As representative illustrations, we present analytical and numerical results for the low-temperature thermodynamics and the ground-state correlations for couplings following the Fibonacci quasiperiodic structure and a binary Rudin-Shapiro sequence, whose geometrical fluctuations are similar to those induced by randomness.     

Ground-state entanglement in a three-spin transverse Ising model with energy current

The ground-state entanglement associated with a three-spin transverse Ising model is studied. By introducing an energy current into the system, a quantum phase transition to energy-current phase may be presented with the variation of external magnetic field; and the ground-state entanglement varies suddenly at the critical point of quantum phase transition. In our model, the introduction of energy current makes the entanglement between any two qubits become maximally robust.     

Residual entropy of the one-dimensional Ising antiferromagnet with general spin

We have calculated the ground-state degeneracy and the concominant residual entropy of the one-dimensional Ising antiferromagnet in a critical magnetic field. We demonstrate that the results obtained can be related to the ground-state properties of the q-state Potts antiferromagnet in the corresponding external field.     

Heat capacity of a Cr2O3 antiferromagnet near the critical temperature

The heat capacity of a Cr₂O₃ antiferromagnet near the critical temperature is precisely measured by ac calorimetry. The critical behavior of the heat capacity is examined. The regularities of variations in the universal critical parameters near the critical point are determined, and their values are calculated. A crossover from the Heisenberg (n=3) to the Ising (n=1) critical behavior is revealed.     

On the susceptibility of the one-dimensional Ising chain

The elements of the tensor of the susceptibility and the staggered susceptibility of a one-dimensional I Ising chain, with xx couplings between the spins are investigated in the presence of a magnetic field b parallel with or perpendicular to the x direction. Exact expressions are given for all susceptibilities, apart from the parallel susceptibilities in a transverse field which are evaluated by perturbation calculation. Special attention is paid to the conditions under which a susceptibility can have a minimum for b = 0. Furthermore, a system with weakly coupled Ising chains is considered on the basis of a model hamiltonian with separable interchain interactions.     

The effective-field theory studies of critical phenomena in a mixed spin-1 and spin-2 Ising model on honeycomb and square lattices

An effective-field theory with correlations has been used to study critical behaviors of a mixed spin-1 and spin-2 Ising system on a honeycomb and square lattices in the absence and presence of a longitudinal magnetic field. The ground-state phase diagram of the model is obtained in the longitudinal magnetic field (h) and a single-ion potential or crystal-field interaction (Δ) plane. The thermal behavior of the sublattice magnetizations of the system are investigated to characterize the nature of (continuous and discontinuous) of the phase transitions and obtain the phase transition temperature. The phase diagrams are presented in the (Δ/|J|, k_BT/|J|) plane. The susceptibility, internal energy and specific heat of the system are numerically examined and some interesting phenomena in these quantities are found due to the absence and presence of the applied longitudinal magnetic field. Moreover, the system undergoes second- and first-order phase transition; hence, the system gives a tricritical point. The system also exhibits reentrant behavior.