Long-range order and quantum criticality in a dissipative spin chain

Abstract

Environmental interaction is a fundamental consideration in any controlled quantum system. While interaction with a dissipative bath can lead to decoherence, it can also provide desirable emergent effects including induced spin-spin correlations. In this paper we show that under quite general conditions, a dissipative bosonic bath can induce a long-range ordered phase, without the inclusion of any additional direct spin-spin couplings. Through a quantum-to-classical mapping and classical Monte Carlo simulation, we investigate the $T=0$ quantum phase transition of an Ising chain embedded in a bosonic bath with Ohmic dissipation. We show that the quantum critical point is continuous, Lorentz invariant with a dynamical critical exponent $z=1.07(9)$, has correlation length exponent $\nu=0.80(5)$, and anomalous exponent $\eta=1.02(6)$, thus the universality class distinct from the previously studied limiting cases. The implications of our results on experiments in ultracold atomic mixtures and qubit chains in dissipative environments are discussed.