A study is made of the ground-state energy of a spin-one-half particle in a field
B and interacting with a phonon bath. The infrared-sensitive case of acoustic phonons with point coupling in three dimensions is characterized by two parameters, a coupling constant and
B. Units are used where the high-momentum phonon cutoff is unity. There is a curve (
B) separating a symmetry-breaking region with a long-range phonon field from a normal region. Two simple, well-known, approximations are compared. The source theory yields discontinuities in the first derivatives of the energy with respect to
B and when
B>
e
–1 and an infinite-order transition when
B<
e
–1, but is trivial in the large- region. The classical theory yields discontinuities in the second derivatives but is trivial in the small- region. An improved variationally fixed ground-state wave function is analyzed. It gives a new (
B) curve with an infinite-order transition with continuous energy derivatives when
B<
e/(
e
2–1/4) and with discontinuous derivatives when
B is larger than this value. It is nontrivial in the entire (
B) plane. The crossover to classical behavior occurs near =1/2 for
B1. But the wave function does not describe quantum fluctuations in the large- phase. A second way of combining source and classical effects is described. It yields a second-order transition (near =1/2 for
B1) everywhere. These theories are special cases of a symmetry-breaking transformation together with a one-mode treatment of quantum fluctuations. The transition is viewed in terms of a single mode with a variable length, coupled dynamically to the spin.
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