Two-dimensional Quantum Critical Point Research Articles

Closure of the entanglement gap at quantum criticality: The case of the quantum spherical model

The study of entanglement spectra is a powerful tool to detect or elucidate universal behaviour in quantum many-body systems. We investigate the scaling of the entanglement (or Schmidt) gap $\delta\xi$, i.e., the lowest laying gap of the entanglement spectrum, at a two-dimensional quantum critical point. We focus on the paradigmatic quantum spherical model, which exhibits a second-order transition, and is mappable to free bosons with an additional external constraint. We analytically show that the Schmidt gap vanishes at the critical point, although only logarithmically. For a system on a torus and the half-system bipartition, the entanglement gap vanishes as $\pi^2/\ln(L)$, with $L$ the linear system size. The entanglement gap is nonzero in the paramagnetic phase and exhibits a faster decay in the ordered phase. The rescaled gap $\delta\xi\ln(L)$ exhibits a crossing for different system sizes at the transition, although logarithmic corrections prevent a precise verification of the finite-size scaling. Interestingly, the change of the entanglement gap across the phase diagram is reflected in the zero-mode eigenvector of the spin-spin correlator. At the transition quantum fluctuations give rise to a non-trivial structure of the eigenvector, whereas in the ordered phase it is flat. We also show that the vanishing of the entanglement gap at criticality can be qualitatively but not quantitatively captured by neglecting the structure of the zero-mode eigenvector.

Interplay of interactions and disorder at the superfluid-insulator transition: A dirty two-dimensional quantum critical point

We study the stability of the Wilson-Fisher fixed point of the quantum $\mathrm{O}(2N)$ vector model to quenched disorder in the large-$N$ limit. While a random mass is strongly relevant at the Gaussian fixed point, its effect is screened by the strong interactions of the Wilson-Fisher fixed point. This enables a perturbative renormalization group study of the interplay of disorder and interactions about this fixed point. We show that, in contrast to the spiralling flows obtained in earlier double-$\epsilon$ expansions, the theory flows directly to a quantum critical point characterized by finite disorder and interactions. The critical exponents we obtain for this transition are in remarkable agreement with numerical studies of the superfluid-Mott glass transition. We additionally discuss the stability of this fixed point to scalar and vector potential disorder and use proposed boson-fermion dualities to make conjectures regarding the effects of weak disorder on dual Abelian Higgs and Chern-Simons-Dirac fermion theories when $N=1$.

Thermal Ising transitions in the vicinity of two-dimensional quantum critical points

The scaling of the transition temperature into an ordered phase close to a quantum critical point as well as the order parameter fluctuations inside the quantum critical region provide valuable information about universal properties of the underlying quantum critical point. Here, we employ quantum Monte Carlo simulations to examine these relations in detail for two-dimensional quantum systems that exhibit a finite-temperature Ising-transition line in the vicinity of a quantum critical point that belongs to the universality class of either (i) the three-dimensional Ising model for the case of the quantum Ising model in a transverse magnetic field on the square lattice or (ii) the ${\it chiral}$ Ising transition for the case of a half-filled system of spinless fermions on the honeycomb lattice with nearest-neighbor repulsion. While the first case allows large-scale simulations to assess the scaling predictions to a high precision in terms of the known values for the critical exponents at the quantum critical point, for the later case we extract values of the critical exponents $\nu$ and $\eta$, related to the order parameter fluctuations, which we discuss in relation to other recent estimates from ground state quantum Monte Carlo calculations as well as analytical approaches.

Anomalous spectral features of a neutral bilayer graphene.

Graphene and its bilayer are two-dimensional systems predicted to show exciting many-body effects near the neutrality point. The ideal tool to investigate spectrum reconstruction effects is angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) as it probes directly the band structure with information about both energy and momentum. Here we reveal, by studying undoped exfoliated bilayer graphene with ARPES, two essential aspects of its many-body physics: the electron-phonon scattering rate has an anisotropic k-dependence and the type of electronic liquid is non-Fermi liquid. The latter behavior is evident from an observed electron-electron scattering rate that scales linearly with energy from 100 meV to 600 meV and that is associated with the proximity of bilayer graphene to a two-dimensional quantum critical point of competing orders.

Entanglement at a two-dimensional quantum critical point: a T = 0 projector quantum Monte Carlo study

Although the leading-order scaling of entanglement entropy is non-universal at a quantum critical point (QCP), sub-leading scaling can contain universal behaviour. Such universal quantities are commonly studied in non-interacting field theories, however it typically requires numerical calculation to access them in interacting theories. In this paper, we use large-scale T = 0 quantum Monte Carlo simulations to examine in detail the second Rényi entropy of entangled regions at the QCP in the transverse-field Ising model in 2 + 1 space–time dimensions—a fixed point for which there is no exact result for the scaling of entanglement entropy. We calculate a universal coefficient of a vertex-induced logarithmic scaling for a polygonal entangled subregion, and compare the result to interacting and non-interacting theories. We also examine the shape-dependence of the Rényi entropy for finite-size toroidal lattices divided into two entangled cylinders by smooth boundaries. Remarkably, we find that the dependence on cylinder length follows a shape-dependent function calculated previously by Stephan et al (2013 New J. Phys. 15 015004) at the QCP corresponding to the 2 + 1 dimensional quantum Lifshitz free scalar field theory. The quality of the fit of our data to this scaling function, as well as the apparent cutoff-independent coefficient that results, presents tantalizing evidence that this function may reflect universal behaviour across these and other very disparate QCPs in 2 + 1 dimensional systems.

Spectral functions of the Higgs mode near two-dimensional quantum critical points

We study the Higgs excitation in the Goldstone phase of the relativistic O(N) model in two spatial dimensions at zero temperature. The response functions of the order parameter, and its magnitude-squared, become universal functions of frequency in the vicinity of the quantum critical point described by the Wilson-Fisher fixed point, and we compute them to next-to-leading order in 1/N. The Higgs particle has an infrared singular decay to gapless Goldstone excitations, and its response functions are characterized by a pole in the lower-half of the complex frequency plane. The pole acquires a non-zero real part only at next-to-leading order in 1/N, demonstrating that the Higgs excitation has an oscillatory component even in the scaling limit. Both the real and imaginary parts of the pole position vanish with the correlation length exponent \nu upon approaching the critical point. We present evidence that the spectral density of the O(N)-invariant amplitude-squared of the order parameter has a peak at a non-zero frequency in the scaling limit. We connect our results to recent experimental studies of the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition of ultracold bosonic atoms in optical lattices.

Thermodynamic singularities in the entanglement entropy at a two-dimensional quantum critical point

We study the bipartite entanglement entropy of the 2D transverse-field Ising model in the thermodynamic limit. Series expansions are developed for the Renyi entropy around both the small-field and large-field limits, allowing the separate calculation of the entanglement associated with lines and corners at the boundary between subsystems. Series extrapolations are used to extract power laws and logarithmic singularities as the quantum critical point is approached, giving access to new universal quantities. In 1D, we find excellent agreement with exact results as well as quantum Monte Carlo simulations. In 2D, we find compelling evidence that the entanglement at a corner is significantly different from a free boson field theory. These results demonstrate the power of the series expansion method for calculating entanglement entropy in interacting systems, a fact that will be particularly useful in searches for exotic quantum criticality in models with and without the sign problem.

Dynamics at and near conformal quantum critical points

We explore the dynamical behavior at and near a special class of two-dimensional quantum critical points. Each is a conformal quantum critical point (CQCP), where in the scaling limit the equal-time correlators are those of a two-dimensional conformal field theory. The critical theories include the square-lattice quantum dimer model, the quantum Lifshitz theory, and a deformed toric code model. We show that under generic perturbation the latter flows toward the ordinary Lorentz-invariant (2+1) dimensional Ising critical point, illustrating that CQCPs are generically unstable. We exploit a correspondence between the classical and quantum dynamical behavior in such systems to perform an extensive numerical study of two lines of CQCPs in a quantum eight-vertex model, or equivalently, two coupled deformed toric codes. We find that the dynamical critical exponent z remains 2 along the U(1)-symmetric quantum Lifshitz line, while it continuously varies along the line with only Z_2 symmetry. This illustrates how two CQCPs can have very different dynamical properties, despite identical equal-time ground-state correlators. Our results equally apply to the dynamics of the corresponding purely classical models.

Spin-density-wave order in cuprates

We study the nature of the two-dimensional quantum critical point separating two phases with and without long-range spin-density-wave order, which has been recently observed in cuprate superconductors. We consider the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson Hamiltonian associated with the spin-density critical modes, perform a mean-field analysis of the phase diagram, and study the corresponding renormalization-group flow in two different perturbative schemes at five and six loops, respectively. The analysis supports the existence of a stable fixed point in the full theory whose basin of attraction includes systems with collinear spin-density-wave order, as observed in experiments. The stable fixed point is characterized by an enlarged $\mathrm{O}(4)\ensuremath{\bigotimes}\mathrm{O}(3)$ symmetry. The continuous transition observed in experiments is expected to belong to this universality class. The corresponding critical exponents are $\ensuremath{\nu}=0.9(2)$ and $\ensuremath{\eta}=0.15(10)$.

Residual resistivity near a two-dimensional metamagnetic quantum critical point

The behavior of the residual (impurity-dominated) resistivity is computed for a material near a two dimensional quantum critical point characterized by a divergent $q=0$ susceptibility. A singular renormalization of the amplitude for back-scattering of an electron off of a single impurity is found. When the correlation length of the quantum critical point exceeds the mean free path, the singular renormalization is found to convert the familiar `Altshuler-Aronov' logarithmic correction to the conductivity into a squared-logarithmic form. Impurities can induce unconventional Friedel oscillations, which may be observable in scanning tunnelling microscope experiments. Possible connections to the metamagnetic quantum critical end point recently proposed for the material $Sr_{3}Ru_{2}O_{7}$ are discussed.

Universal relaxational dynamics near two-dimensional quantum critical points

We describe the nonzero temperature (T), low frequency (\omega) dynamics of the order parameter near quantum critical points in two spatial dimensions (d), with a special focus on the regime \hbar\omega << k_B T. For the case of a `relativistic', O(n)-symmetric, bosonic quantum field theory we show that, for small \epsilon=3-d, the dynamics is described by an effective classical model of waves with a quartic interaction. We provide analytical and numerical analyses of the classical wave model directly in d=2. We describe the crossover from the finite frequency, "amplitude fluctuation", gapped quasiparticle mode in the quantum paramagnet (or Mott insulator), to the zero frequency "phase" (n >= 2) or "domain wall" (n=1) relaxation mode near the ordered state. For static properties, we show how a surprising, duality-like transformation allows an exact treatment of the strong-coupling limit for all n. For n=2, we compute the universal T dependence of the superfluid density below the Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature, and discuss implications for the high temperature superconductors. For n=3, our computations of the dynamic structure factor relate to neutron scattering experiments on La_{1.85}Sr_{0.15}CuO_4, and to light scattering experiments on double layer quantum Hall systems. We expect that closely related effective classical wave models will apply also to other quantum critical points in d=2.

Nonzero-temperature transport near fractional quantum Hall critical points

In an earlier work, Damle and the author [Phys. Rev. B 56, 8714 (1997)] demonstrated the central role played by incoherent, inelastic processes in transport near two-dimensional quantum critical points. This paper extends these results to the case of a quantum transition between a fractional quantized Hall state and an insulator, induced by varying the strength of an external periodic potential. We use the quantum field theory for this transition introduced by Chen, Fisher, and Wu [Phys. Rev. B 48, 13 749 (1993)]. The longitudinal and Hall conductivities at the critical point are both ${e}^{2}/h$ times nontrivial, fully universal functions of $\ensuremath{\Elzxh}\ensuremath{\omega}{/k}_{B}T$ (\ensuremath{\omega} is the measuring frequency). These functions are computed using a combination of perturbation theory on the Kubo formula, and the solution of a quantum Boltzmann equation for the anyonic quasiparticles and quasiholes. The results include the values of the dc conductivities $(\ensuremath{\Elzxh}\ensuremath{\omega}{/k}_{B}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{T}0);$ earlier work was restricted strictly to $T=0,$ and therefore computed only the high frequency ac conductivities with $\ensuremath{\Elzxh}\ensuremath{\omega}{/k}_{B}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{T}\ensuremath{\infty}.$

Nonzero-temperature transport near quantum critical points

We describe the nature of charge transport at non-zero temperatures ($T$) above the two-dimensional ($d$) superfluid-insulator quantum critical point. We argue that the transport is characterized by inelastic collisions among thermally excited carriers at a rate of order $k_B T/\hbar$. This implies that the transport at frequencies $\omega \ll k_B T/\hbar$ is in the hydrodynamic, collision-dominated (or `incoherent') regime, while $\omega \gg k_B T/\hbar$ is the collisionless (or `phase-coherent') regime. The conductivity is argued to be $e^2 / h$ times a non-trivial universal scaling function of $\hbar \omega / k_B T$, and not independent of $\hbar \omega/k_B T$, as has been previously claimed, or implicitly assumed. The experimentally measured d.c. conductivity is the hydrodynamic $\hbar \omega/k_B T \to 0$ limit of this function, and is a universal number times $e^2 / h$, even though the transport is incoherent. Previous work determined the conductivity by incorrectly assuming it was also equal to the collisionless $\hbar \omega/k_B T \to \infty$ limit of the scaling function, which actually describes phase-coherent transport with a conductivity given by a different universal number times $e^2 / h$. We provide the first computation of the universal d.c. conductivity in a disorder-free boson model, along with explicit crossover functions, using a quantum Boltzmann equation and an expansion in $\epsilon=3-d$. The case of spin transport near quantum critical points in antiferromagnets is also discussed. Similar ideas should apply to the transitions in quantum Hall systems and to metal-insulator transitions. We suggest experimental tests of our picture and speculate on a new route to self-duality at two-dimensional quantum critical points.