Quantum Phase Transitions In Systems Research Articles

Controlling Matter Phases beyond Markov.

Controlling phase transitions in quantum systems via coupling to reservoirs has been mostly studied for idealized memory-less environments under the so-called Markov approximation. Yet, most quantum materials and experiments in the solid state, atomic, molecular and optical physics are coupled to reservoirs with finite memory times. Here, using the spectral theory of non-Markovian dissipative phase transitions developed in the companion paper [Debecker, Martin, and Damanet (to be published)], we show that memory effects can be leveraged to reshape matter phase boundaries, but also reveal the existence of dissipative phase transitions genuinely triggered by non-Markovian effects.

Theory of Dynamical Phase Transitions in Quantum Systems with Symmetry-Breaking Eigenstates.

We present a theory for the two kinds of dynamical quantum phase transitions, termed DPT-I and DPT-II, based on a minimal set of symmetry assumptions. In the special case of collective systems with infinite-range interactions, both are triggered by excited-state quantum phase transitions. For quenches below the critical energy, the existence of an additional conserved charge, identifying the corresponding phase, allows for a nonzero value of the dynamical order parameter characterizing DPTs-I, and precludes the main mechanism giving rise to nonanalyticities in the return probability, trademark of DPTs-II. We propose a statistical ensemble describing the long-time averages of order parameters in DPTs-I, and provide a theoretical proof for the incompatibility of the main mechanism for DPTs-II with the presence of this additional conserved charge. Our results are numerically illustrated in the fully connected transverse-field Ising model, which exhibits both kinds of dynamical phase transitions. Finally, we discuss the applicability of our theory to systems with finite-range interactions, where the phenomenology of excited-state quantum phase transitions is absent. We illustrate our findings by means of numerical calculations with experimentally relevant initial states.

Poisson-Dirichlet distributions and weakly first-order spin-nematic phase transitions

We provide a quantitative characterization of generic weakly first-order thermal phase transitions out of planar spin-nematic states in three-dimensional spin-one quantum magnets, based on calculations using Poisson-Dirichlet distributions (PD) within a universal loop model formulation, combined with large-scale quantum Monte Carlo calculations. In contrast to earlier claims, the thermal melting of the nematic state is not continuous, instead a weakly first-order transition is identified from both thermal properties and the distribution of the nematic order parameter. Furthermore, based on PD calculations, we obtain exact results for the order parameter distribution and Binder cumulants at the discontinuous melting transition. Our findings establish the thermal melting of planar spin-nematic states as a generic platform for quantitative approaches to weakly first-order phase transitions in quantum systems with a continuous SU(2) internal symmetry.

Random Quantum Circuits

Quantum circuits—built from local unitary gates and local measurements—are a new playground for quantum many-body physics and a tractable setting to explore universal collective phenomena far from equilibrium. These models have shed light on longstanding questions about thermalization and chaos, and on the underlying universal dynamics of quantum information and entanglement. In addition, such models generate new sets of questions and give rise to phenomena with no traditional analog, such as dynamical phase transitions in quantum systems that are monitored by an external observer. Quantum circuit dynamics is also topical in view of experimental progress in building digital quantum simulators that allow control of precisely these ingredients. Randomness in the circuit elements allows a high level of theoretical control, with a key theme being mappings between real-time quantum dynamics and effective classical lattice models or dynamical processes. Many of the universal phenomena that can be identified in this tractable setting apply to much wider classes of more structured many-body dynamics.

Tuning the universality class of phase transitions by feedback: Open quantum systems beyond dissipation

We shift the paradigm of feedback control from the control of quantum states to the control of phase transitions in quantum systems. We show that feedback allows tuning the universality class of phase transitions via modifying its critical exponent. We expand our previous treatment [D. A. Ivanov, T. Yu. Ivanova, S. F. Caballero-Benitez, and I. B. Mekhov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 010603 (2020)] of Dicke model and go beyond the approximation of adiabatically eliminated light field. Both linearized and nonlinear models of spin ensembles are considered. The tunability of quantum fluctuations near the critical point by the feedbacks of nontrivial shapes is explained by considering the fluctuation spectra and the system behavior at single quantum trajectories.

Z2 topological order and first-order quantum phase transitions in systems with combinatorial gauge symmetry

We study a generalization of the two-dimensional transverse-field Ising model, combining both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic two-body interactions, that hosts exact global and local Z2 gauge symmetries. Using exact diagonalization and stochastic series expansion quantum Monte Carlo methods, we confirm the existence of the topological phase in line with previous theoretical predictions. Our simulation results show that the transition between the confined topological phase and the deconfined paramagnetic phase is of first-order, in contrast to the conventional Z2 lattice gauge model in which the transition maps onto that of the standard Ising model and is continuous. We further generalize the model by replacing the transverse field on the gauge spins with a ferromagnetic XX interaction while keeping the local gauge symmetry intact. We find that the Z2 topological phase remains stable, while the paramagnetic phase is replaced by a ferromagnetic phase. The topological-ferromagnetic quantum phase transition is also of first-order. For both models, we discuss the low-energy spinon and vison excitations of the topological phase and their avoided level crossings associated with the first-order quantum phase transitions.

Quantum phase transitions in Dirac fermion systems

A key problem in the field of quantum criticality is to understand the nature of quantum phase transitions in systems of interacting itinerant fermions, motivated by experiments on a variety of strongly correlated materials. Much attention has been paid in recent years to two-dimensional (2D) materials in which itinerant fermions acquire a pseudo-relativistic Dirac dispersion, such as graphene, topological insulator surfaces, and certain spin liquids. This article reviews the phenomenology and theoretical description of quantum phase transitions in systems of 2D Dirac fermions.

Random-mass disorder in the critical Gross-Neveu-Yukawa models

An important yet largely unsolved problem in the statistical mechanics of disordered quantum systems is to understand how quenched disorder affects quantum phase transitions in systems of itinerant fermions. In the clean limit, continuous quantum phase transitions of the symmetry-breaking type in Dirac materials such as graphene and the surfaces of topological insulators are described by relativistic (2+1)-dimensional quantum field theories of the Gross-Neveu-Yukawa (GNY) type. We study the universal critical properties of the chiral Ising, XY, and Heisenberg GNY models perturbed by quenched random-mass disorder, both uncorrelated or with long-range power-law correlations. Using the replica method combined with a controlled triple epsilon expansion below four dimensions, we find a variety of new finite-randomness critical and multicritical points with nonzero Yukawa coupling between low-energy Dirac fields and bosonic order parameter fluctuations, and compute their universal critical exponents. Analyzing bifurcations of the renormalization-group flow, we find instances of the fixed-point annihilation scenario—continuously tuned by the power-law exponent of long-range disorder correlations and associated with an exponentially large crossover length—as well as the transcritical bifurcation and the supercritical Hopf bifurcation. The latter is accompanied by the birth of a stable limit cycle on the critical hypersurface, which represents the first instance of fermionic quantum criticality with emergent discrete scale invariance.

Identifying quantum phase transitions via geometric measures of nonclassicality

In this article, we provide theoretical support for the use of geometric measures of nonclassicality as a general tool to identify quantum phase transitions. We argue that divergences in the susceptibility of any geometric measure of nonclassicality are sufficient conditions to identify phase transitions at arbitrary temperature. This establishes that geometric measures of nonclassicality, in any quantum resource theory, are generic tools to investigate phase transitions in quantum systems. At zero temperature, we show that geometric measures of quantum coherence are especially useful for identifying first order quantum phase transitions, and can be a particularly robust alternative to other approaches employing measures of quantum correlations.

Real-space visualization of quantum phase transitions by network topology.

We demonstrate that with appropriate quantum correlation function, a real-space network model can be constructed to study the phase transitions in quantum systems. For a three-dimensional bosonic system, a single-particle density matrix is adopted to construct an adjacency matrix. We show that a Bose-Einstein condensate transition can be interpreted as a transition into a small-world network, which is accurately captured by a small-world coefficient. For a one-dimensional disordered system, using the electron diffusion operator to build the adjacency matrix, we find that Anderson localized states create many weakly linked subgraphs, which significantly reduces the clustering coefficient and lengthens the shortest path. We show that the crossover from delocalized to localized regimes as a function of the disorder strength can be identified as a loss of global connection, which is revealed by the small-world coefficient as well as other independent measures such as robustness, efficiency, and algebraic connectivity. Our results suggest that quantum phase transitions can be visualized in real space and characterized by network analysis with suitable choices of quantum correlation functions.

Excited-state quantum phase transitions in systems with two degrees of freedom. III. Interacting boson systems

The series of articles [Ann. Phys. 345, 73 (2014) and 356, 57 (2015)] devoted to excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in systems with $f=2$ degrees of freedom is continued by studying the interacting boson model of nuclear collective dynamics as an example of a truly many-body system. The intrinsic Hamiltonian formalism with angular momentum fixed to $L=0$ is used to produce a generic first-order ground-state quantum phase transition with an adjustable energy barrier between the competing equilibrium configurations. The associated ESQPTs are shown to result from various classical stationary points of the model Hamiltonian, whose analysis is more complex than in previous cases because of (i) a non-trivial decomposition to kinetic and potential energy terms and (ii) the boundedness of the associated classical phase space. Finite-size effects resulting from a partial separability of both degrees of freedom are analyzed. The features studied here are inherent in a great majority of interacting boson systems.

Phase transition in phase transition lines of quantum XY model

Phase transitions in quantum systems, including symmetry breaking and topological types, always associate with gap closing and opening. We analyze the topological features of the quantum phase boundary of the XY model in a transverse magnetic field. Based on the results from graphs in the auxiliary space, we find that gapless ground states at boundary have different topological characters. On the other hand, in the framework of Majorana representation, the Majorana lattice is shown to be two coupled SSH chains. The analysis of the quantum fidelity for the Majorana eigen vector, which is shown to be identical to the square of that for ground states of the XY model, indicates the signature of the gapless phase transition (GPT). Furthermore analytical and numerical results for second-order derivative of groundstate energy density show that such a GPT obeys scaling behavior.

Dynamical quantum phase transitions in systems with broken continuous time and space translation symmetries

Spontaneous breaking of continuous time translation symmetry into a discrete one is related to time crystal formation. While the phenomenon is not possible in the ground state of a time-independent many-body system, it can occur in an excited eigenstate. Here, we concentrate on bosons on a ring with attractive contact interactions and analyze a quantum quench from the time crystal regime to the non-interacting regime. We show that dynamical quantum phase transitions can be observed where the return probability of the system to the initial state before the quench reveals a non-analytical behavior in time. The problem we consider constitutes an example of the dynamical quantum phase transitions in a system where both time and space continuous translation symmetries are broken.

Dynamical quantum phase transitions in systems with continuous symmetry breaking

Interacting many-body systems that are driven far away from equilibrium can exhibit phase transitions between dynamically emerging quantum phases, which manifest as singularities in the Loschmidt echo. Whether and under which conditions such dynamical transitions occur in higher-dimensional systems with spontaneously broken continuous symmetries is largely elusive thus far. Here, we study the dynamics of the Loschmidt echo in the three dimensional O(N) model following a quantum quench from a symmetry breaking initial state. The O(N) model exhibits a dynamical transition in the asymptotic steady state, separating two phases with a finite and vanishing order parameter, that is associated with the broken symmetry. We analytically calculate the rate function of the Loschmidt echo and find that it exhibits periodic kink singularities when this dynamical steady-state transition is crossed. The singularities arise exactly at the zero-crossings of the oscillating order parameter. As a consequence, the appearance of the kink singularities in the transient dynamics is directly linked to a dynamical transition in the order parameter. Furthermore, we argue, that our results for dynamical quantum phase transitions in the O(N) model are general and apply to generic systems with continuous symmetry breaking.

Experimental Determination of Dynamical Lee-Yang Zeros.

Statistical physics provides the concepts and methods to explain the phase behavior of interacting many-body systems. Investigations of Lee-Yang zeros-complex singularities of the free energy in systems of finite size-have led to a unified understanding of equilibrium phase transitions. The ideas of Lee and Yang, however, are not restricted to equilibrium phenomena. Recently, Lee-Yang zeros have been used to characterize nonequilibrium processes such as dynamical phase transitions in quantum systems after a quench or dynamic order-disorder transitions in glasses. Here, we experimentally realize a scheme for determining Lee-Yang zeros in such nonequilibrium settings. We extract the dynamical Lee-Yang zeros of a stochastic process involving Andreev tunneling between a normal-state island and two superconducting leads from measurements of the dynamical activity along a trajectory. From the short-time behavior of the Lee-Yang zeros, we predict the large-deviation statistics of the activity which is typically difficult to measure. Our method paves the way for further experiments on the statistical mechanics of many-body systems out of equilibrium.

Variational tensor network renormalization in imaginary time: Two-dimensional quantum compass model at finite temperature

Progress in describing thermodynamic phase transitions in quantum systems is obtained by noticing that the Gibbs operator $e^{-\beta H}$ for a two-dimensional (2D) lattice system with a Hamiltonian $H$ can be represented by a three-dimensional tensor network, the third dimension being the imaginary time (inverse temperature) $\beta$. Coarse-graining the network along $\beta$ results in a 2D projected entangled-pair operator (PEPO) with a finite bond dimension $D$. The coarse-graining is performed by a tree tensor network of isometries. The isometries are optimized variationally --- taking into account full tensor environment --- to maximize the accuracy of the PEPO. The algorithm is applied to the isotropic quantum compass model on an infinite square lattice near a symmetry-breaking phase transition at finite temperature. From the linear susceptibility in the symmetric phase and the order parameter in the symmetry-broken phase the critical temperature is estimated at ${\cal T}_c=0.0606(4)J$, where $J$ is the isotropic coupling constant between $S=1/2$ pseudospins.

Excited-state quantum phase transitions in systems with two degrees of freedom: II. Finite-size effects

This article extends our previous analysis Stránský et al. (2014) of Excited-State Quantum Phase Transitions (ESQPTs) in systems of dimension two. We focus on the oscillatory component of the quantum state density in connection with ESQPT structures accompanying a first-order ground-state transition. It is shown that a separable (integrable) system can develop rather strong finite-size precursors of ESQPT expressed as singularities in the oscillatory component of the state density. The singularities originate in effectively 1-dimensional dynamics and in some cases appear in multiple replicas with increasing excitation energy. Using a specific model example, we demonstrate that these precursors are rather resistant to proliferation of chaotic dynamics.

Dynamical quantum phase transitions in systems with broken-symmetry phases.

In this Letter it is shown that dynamical quantum phase transitions in Loschmidt echos control the nonequilibrium dynamics of the order parameter after particular quantum quenches in systems with broken-symmetry phases. A direct connection between Loschmidt echos and the order parameter dynamics is established which links nonequilibrium microscopic probabilities to the system's macroscopic dynamical properties. These concepts are illustrated numerically using exact diagonalization for quantum quenches in the XXZ chain with initial Néel states. An outlook is given on how to explore these predictions experimentally with ultracold gases in optical lattices.

Excited-state quantum phase transitions in systems with two degrees of freedom: Level density, level dynamics, thermal properties

Quantum systems with a finite number of freedom degrees f develop robust singularities in the energy spectrum of excited states as the system’s size increases to infinity. We analyze the general form of these singularities for low f, particularly f=2, clarifying the relation to classical stationary points of the corresponding potential. Signatures in the smoothed energy dependence of the quantum state density and in the flow of energy levels with an arbitrary control parameter are described along with the relevant thermodynamical consequences. The general analysis is illustrated with specific examples of excited-state singularities accompanying the first-order quantum phase transition.

Universal nonequilibrium quantum dynamics in imaginary time

We propose a method to study dynamical response of a quantum system by evolving it with an imaginary-time-dependent Hamiltonian. The leading nonadiabatic response of the system driven to a quantum-critical point is universal and characterized by the same exponents in real and imaginary time. For a linear quench protocol, the fidelity susceptibility and the geometric tensor naturally emerge in the response functions. Beyond linear response, we extend the finite-size scaling theory of quantum phase transitions to nonequilibrium setups. This allows, e.g., for studies of quantum phase transitions in systems of fixed finite size by monitoring expectation values as a function of the quench velocity. Nonequilibrium imaginary-time dynamics is also amenable to quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations, with a scheme that we introduce here and apply to quenches of the transverse-field Ising model to quantum-critical points in one and two dimensions. The QMC method is generic and can be applied to a wide range of models and nonequilibrium setups.