Quantum critical points exist at zero temperature, yet, experimentally their influence seems to extend over a large part of the phase diagram of systems such as heavy-fermion compounds and high-temperature superconductors. Theoretically, however, it is generally not known over what range of parameters the physics is governed by the quantum critical point. We answer this question for the spin-density wave to Fermi-liquid quantum critical point in the two-dimensional Hubbard model. This problem is in the d =2, z =2 universality class. We use the two-particle self-consistent approach, which is accurate from weak to intermediate coupling, and whose critical behavior is the same as for the self-consistent-renormalized approach of Moriya. Despite the presence of logarithmic corrections, numerical results demonstrate that quantum critical scaling for the static magnetic susceptibility can extend up to very high temperatures but that the commensurate to incommensurate crossover leads to deviations to scaling.
We consider two-dimensional Fermi liquids in the vicinity of a quantum transition to a phase with commensurate, antiferromagnetic long-range order. Depending upon the Fermi-surface topology, mean-field spin-density-wave theory predicts two different types of such transitions, with mean-field dynamic critical exponents z=1 (when the Fermi surface does not cross the magnetic zone boundary, type A) and z=2 (when the Fermi surface crosses the magnetic zone boundary, type B). The type-A system only displays z=1 behavior at all energies and its scaling properties are similar (though not identical) to those of an insulating Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Under suitable conditions precisely stated in this paper, the type-B system displays a crossover from relaxational behavior at low energies to type-A behavior at high energies. A scaling hypothesis is proposed to describe this crossover: we postulate a universal scaling function which determines the entire, temperature-, wave-vector-, and frequency-dependent, dynamic, staggered spin susceptibility in terms of four experimentally measurable, T=0 parameters. The scaling function contains the full scaling behavior in all regimes for both type-A and -B systems. The crossover behavior of the uniform susceptibility and the specific heat is somewhat more complicated and is also discussed. Explicit computation of the crossover functions is carried out in a large N expansion on a mean-field model. Some new results for the critical properties on the ordered side of the transition are also obtained in a spin-density-wave formalism. The possible relevance of our results to the doped cuprate compounds is briefly discussed.
The interplay of magnetic and superconducting fluctuations in two-dimensional systems with van Hove singularities in the electronic spectrum is considered within the functional renormalization-group (fRG) approach. While the fRG flow has to be stopped at a certain minimal temperature
TRGmin, we study temperature dependence of magnetic and superconducting susceptibilities below
TRGmin to obtain the crossover temperatures to the regime with strong magnetic and superconducting fluctuations. Near half filling we obtain the largest crossover temperature, corresponding to a regime with strong commensurate magnetic fluctuations, which is replaced by a regime with strong incommensurate fluctuations further away from half filling. With further decreasing density the system undergoes quantum phase transition from incommensurate to paramagnetic phase. Similarly to results of Hertz-Moriya-Millis approach, the temperature dependence of the inverse (incommensurate) magnetic susceptibility at the magnetic quantum-critical point is found almost linear in temperature.
Plenty experimental evidence indicates that quantum critical phenomena give rise to much of the rich physics observed in strongly correlated itinerant electron systems such as the high temperature superconductors. A quantum critical point of particular interest is found at the zero-temperature onset of spin-density wave order in two- dimensional metals. The appropriate low-energy theory poses an exceptionally hard problem to analytic theory, therefore the unbiased and controlled numerical approach pursued in this thesis provides important contributions on the road to comprehensive understanding. After discussing the phenomenology of quantum criticality, a sign- problem-free determinantal quantum Monte Carlo approach is introduced and an extensive toolbox of numerical methods is described in a self-contained way. By the means of large-scale computer simulations we have solved a lattice realization of the universal effective theory of interest. The finite-temperature phase diagram, showing both a quasi-long-range spin-density wave ordered phase and a d-wave superconducting dome, is discussed in its entirety. Close to the quantum phase transition we find evidence for unusual scaling of the order parameter correlations and for non-Fermi liquid behavior at isolated hot spots on the Fermi surface.
We study scaling behavior in two-dimensional, square lattice, S=1/2 and S=1 Heisenberg antiferromagnets using the data on full q dependences of the equal-time structure factor and the static susceptibility, calculated through high-temperature series expansions. We also carry out comparisons with a model of two coupled S=1/2 Heisenberg planes with the interlayer exchange coupling tuned to the T=0 critical point (two-plane model hereafter). For both S=1/2 and S=1 models, we separately determine the spin-wave velocity c and mass m=c/\ensuremath{\xi}, in addition to the correlation length, \ensuremath{\xi}, and find that c is temperature dependent; only for temperatures below T\ensuremath{\lesssim}JS, where J is the exchange coupling, c approaches its known T=0 values,
c0. This nonuniversal lattice effect is caused by the quantum nature of spin, and is therefore not captured by the quantum nonlinear \ensuremath{\sigma} model.Despite this temperature dependence of the spin-wave velocity, full q and \ensuremath{\omega} dependences of the dynamical susceptibility \ensuremath{\chi}(q,\ensuremath{\omega}) agree with those of the universal scaling function, computable for the \ensuremath{\sigma} model, for temperatures up to
T0\ensuremath{\sim}0.6
c0/a, and their further analysis leads us to the inference that below
T0 the S=1 model is in the renormalized classical (RC) regime, the two-plane model is in the quantum critical (QC) regime in agreement with earlier work, and the S=1/2 model exhibits a RC-QC crossover, centered around crossover and for the two-plane model at all T=0.55J. In particular, for the S=1/2 model above the RC-QC temperatures where calculated, the obtained spin-wave mass m=c/\ensuremath{\xi} is in excellent agreement with the known universal QC prediction, m\ensuremath{\simeq}1.04T. In contrast, for the S=1/2 model below the RC-QC crossover, and for the S=1 model at all temperatures, the behavior agrees with the exact RC expression. for all three models, nonuniversal behavior occurs above T\ensuremath{\sim}0.6
c0/a. Our results strongly support the conjecture by Chubukov and Sachdev that the S=1/2 model is close enough to the T=0 critical point to exhibit QC behavior at intermediate temperatures.
A key component of the phase diagram of many iron-based superconductors and electron-doped cuprates is believed to be a quantum critical point (QCP), delineating the onset of antiferromagnetic spin-density wave order in a quasi-two-dimensional metal. The universality class of this QCP is believed to play a fundamental role in the description of the proximate non-Fermi liquid behavior and superconducting phase. A minimal model for this transition is the O(3) spin-fermion model. Despite many efforts, a definitive characterization of its universal properties is still lacking. Here, we numerically study the O(3) spin-fermion model and extract the scaling exponents and functional form of the static and zero-momentum dynamical spin susceptibility. We do this using a Hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC) algorithm with a novel auto-tuning procedure, which allows us to study unprecedentedly large systems of 80 × 80 sites. We find a strong violation of the Hertz-Millis form, contrary to all previous numerical results. Furthermore, the form that we do observe provides good evidence that the universal scaling is actually governed by the analytically tractable fixed point discovered near perfect "hot-spot'" nesting, even for a larger nesting window. Our predictions can be directly tested with neutron scattering. Additionally, the HMC method we introduce is generic and can be used to study other fermionic models of quantum criticality, where there is a strong need to simulate large systems.
We analyze exciting recent measurements [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 037202 (2015)] of the magnetization, differential susceptibility and specific heat on one dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnetic insulator Cu(C
4H
4N
2)(NO
3)
2 (CuPzN) subjected to strong magnetic fields. Our main finding is that the thermodynamic properties are defined by quantum spin liquid formed with spinons, while the magnetic field tunes the insulator towards quantum critical point related to so-called fermion condensation quantum phase transition (FCQPT) at which the spinon effective mass diverges kinematically. We show that the FCQPT concept permits to reveal the scaling behavior of thermodynamic characteristics, describe the experimental results quantitatively, and derive for the first time the
T−H (temperature---magnetic field) phase diagram, that contains Landau-Fermi-liquid, crossover and non-Fermi liquid parts, thus resembling that of heavy-fermion compounds.