Critical properties of dissipative quantum spin systems in finite dimensions

Abstract

We study the critical properties of finite-dimensional dissipative quantum spin systems with uniform ferromagnetic interactions. Starting from the transverse field Ising model coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators with Ohmic spectral density, we generalize its classical representation to classical spin systems with O(n) symmetry and then take the large-n limit to reduce the system to a spherical model. The exact solution to the resulting spherical model with long-range interactions along the imaginary time axis shows a phase transition with static critical exponents coinciding with those of the conventional short-range spherical model in dimensions, where d is the spatial dimensionality of the original quantum system. This implies that the dynamical exponent is z = 2. These conclusions are consistent with the results of Monte Carlo simulations and renormalization group calculations for dissipative transverse field Ising and O(n) models in one and two dimensions. The present approach therefore serves as a useful tool for analytically investigating the properties of quantum phase transitions of the dissipative transverse field Ising and other related models. Our method may also offer a platform to study more complex phase transitions in dissipative finite-dimensional quantum spin systems, which have recently received renewed interest in the context of quantum annealing in a noisy environment.