Quantum spherical model with competing interactions

Abstract

We analyse the phase diagram of a quantum mean spherical model in terms of the temperature T, a quantum parameter g, and the ratio p=−J2/J1, where J1>0 refers to ferromagnetic interactions between first-neighbour sites along the d directions of a hypercubic lattice, and J2<0 is associated with competing antiferromagnetic interactions between second neighbours along m≤d directions. We regain a number of known results for the classical version of this model, including the topology of the critical line in the g=0 space, with a Lifshitz point at p=1/4, for d>2, and closed-form expressions for the decay of the pair correlations in one dimension. In the T=0 phase diagram, there is a critical border, gc=gc(p) for d≥2, with a singularity at the Lifshitz point if d<(m+4)/2. We also establish upper and lower critical dimensions, and analyse the quantum critical behavior in the neighborhood of p=1/4.