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arXiv:0802.2303 · Physical Review Letters

Theory of Smeared Quantum Phase Transitions

José A. Hoyos, Thomas Vojta

Published Jun 17, 2008• 78 citations
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Abstract

We present an analytical strong-disorder renormalization group theory of the quantum phase transition in the dissipative random transverse-field Ising chain. For Ohmic dissipation, we solve the renormalization flow equations analytically, yielding asymptotically exact results for the low-temperature properties of the system. We find that the interplay between quantum fluctuations and Ohmic dissipation destroys the quantum critical point by smearing. We also determine the phase diagram and the behavior of observables in the vicinity of the smeared quantum phase transition.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.100.240601

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We study the influence of Ohmic dissipation on the random transverse-field Ising chain by means of large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations. To this end, we first map the Hamiltonian onto a classical Ising model with long-range 1/τ21/τ^21/τ2 interaction in the time-like direction. We then apply the highly efficient cluster algorithm proposed by Luijten and Blöte for system with long-range interactions. Our simulations show that Ohmic dissipation destroys the infinite-randomness quantum critical point of the dissipationless system. Instead, the quantum phase transition between the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases is smeared. We compare our results to recent predictions of a strong-disorder renormalization group approach, and we discuss generalizations to higher dimensions as well as experiments.
The interplay between disorder, quantum fluctuations, and dissipation is studied in the random transverse Ising chain coupled to a dissipative Ohmic bath with a real space renormalization group. A typically very large length scale L* is identified above which the physics of frozen clusters dominates. Below L* a strong-disorder fixed point determines scaling at a pseudocritical point. In a Griffiths-McCoy region frozen clusters produce already a finite magnetization resulting in a classical low temperature behavior of the susceptibility and specific heat. These override the confluent singularities that are characterized by a continuously varying exponent z and are visible above a temperature T*approximately L*-z.
We develop a strong-disorder renormalization group to study quantum phase transitions with continuous O(N)O(N)O(N) symmetry order parameters under the influence of both quenched disorder and dissipation. For Ohmic dissipation, as realized in Hertz's theory of the itinerant antiferromagnetic transition or in the superconductor-metal transition in nanowires, we find the transition to be governed by an exotic infinite-randomness fixed point in the same universality class as the (dissipationless) random transverse-field Ising model. We determine the critical behavior and calculate key observables at the transition and in the associated quantum Griffiths phase. We also briefly discuss the cases of super-Ohmic and sub-Ohmic dissipations.
We study the effects of dissipation in the phase diagram of the random quantum Ashkin-Teller model by means of a generalization of the strong-disorder renormalization group combined with adiabatic renormalization. This model has three phases and three quantum phase transitions. We demonstrate that the combined effect of Ohmic dissipation and quenched disorder smears two out of the three quantum phase transitions. Our analytical theory allows us to understand why one of the phase transitions remains sharp. This is due to a cancellation of the dissipation effects on the nontrivial nature of the intertwined order parameter of one of the phases.
We study the effects of dissipation on a disordered quantum phase transition with O(N) order-parameter symmetry by applying a strong-disorder renormalization group to the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson field theory of the problem. We find that Ohmic dissipation results in a nonperturbative infinite-randomness critical point with unconventional activated dynamical scaling while super-Ohmic damping leads to conventional behavior. We discuss applications to the superconductor-metal transition in nanowires and to the Hertz theory of the itinerant antiferromagnetic transition.