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arXiv:0901.4758 · Physical Review B

Quantum criticality in dissipative quantum two-dimensional XY and Ashkin-Teller models: Application to the cuprates

Vivek Aji, Chandra Mohan Varma

Published May 1, 2009• 40 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In a recent paper [V. Aji and C. M. Varma, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 067003 (2007)] we have shown that the dissipation driven quantum phase transition of the two-dimensional $XY$ model represents a universality class where the correlations at criticality are local in space and power law in time. Here we provide a detailed analysis of the model. The local criticality is brought about by the decoupling of infrared singularities in space and time. The former leads to a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition whereby the excitations of the transverse component of the velocity field (vortices) unbind in space. The latter, on the other hand, leads to a transition among excitations (warps) in the longitudinal component of the velocity field, which unbind in time. The quantum Ashkin-Teller model, with which the observed loop order in the cuprates is described, maps in the critical regime to the quantum $XY$ model. We also discuss other models which are expected to have similar properties.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.79.184501

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In a recent paper [V. Aji and C. M. Varma, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 067003 (2007)] we have shown that the dissipation driven quantum phase transition of the two-dimensional XYXYXY model represents a universality class where the correlations at criticality are local in space and power law in time. Here we provide a detailed analysis of the model. The local criticality is brought about by the decoupling of infrared singularities in space and time. The former leads to a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition whereby the excitations of the transverse component of the velocity field (vortices) unbind in space. The latter, on the other hand, leads to a transition among excitations (warps) in the longitudinal component of the velocity field, which unbind in time. The quantum Ashkin-Teller model, with which the observed loop order in the cuprates is described, maps in the critical regime to the quantum XYXYXY model. We also discuss other models which are expected to have similar properties.
Earlier Monte Carlo calculations on the dissipative two-dimensional XY model are extended in several directions. We study the phase diagram and the correlation functions when dissipation is very small, where it has properties of the classical 3D-XY transition, i.e., one with a dynamical critical exponent z=1z=1z=1. The transition changes from z=1z=1z=1 to the class of criticality with $z\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ driven by topological defects, discovered earlier, beyond a critical dissipation. We also find that the critical correlations have power-law singularities as a function of tuning the ratio of the kinetic energy to the potential energy for fixed large dissipation, as opposed to essential singularities on tuning dissipation keeping the former fixed. A phase with temporal disorder but spatial order of the Kosterlitz-Thouless form is also further investigated. We also present results for the transition when the allowed Caldeira-Leggett form of dissipation and the allowed form of dissipation coupling to the compact rotor variables are both included. The nature of the transition is then determined by the Caldeira-Leggett form.
The dissipative XYXYXY model in two spatial dimensions belongs to a new universality class of quantum-critical phenomena with the remarkable property of the decoupling of the critical fluctuations in space and time. We have shown earlier that the quantum-critical point is driven by proliferation in time of topological configurations that we termed warps. We show here that a warp may be regarded as a configuration of a monopoles surrounded symmetrically by antimonopoles so that the total charge of the configuration is zero. Therefore the interaction with other warps is local in space. They, however, interact with other warps at the same spatial point logarithmically in time. As a function of dissipation warps unbind leading to a quantum phase transition. The critical fluctuations are momentum independent but have power-law correlations in time.
We use quantum Monte Carlo simulations to calculate the phase diagram and the correlation functions for the quantum phase transitions in the two-dimensional dissipative quantum XY model with and without fourfold anisotropy. Without anisotropy, the model describes the superconductor-to-insulator transition in two-dimensional dirty superconductors. With anisotropy, the model represents the loop-current order observed in the underdoped cuprates and its fluctuations, as well as the fluctuations near the ordering vector in simple models of two-dimensional itinerant ferromagnets and itinerant antiferromagnets. These calculations test an analytic solution of the model which reexpressed it in terms of topological excitations: the vortices with interactions only in space but none in time, and warps with leading interactions only in time but none in space, as well as subleading interactions which are both space and time dependent. For parameters where the proliferation of warps dominates the phase transition, the critical fluctuations as functions of the deviation of the dissipation parameter $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ on the disordered side from its critical value ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}$ are scale invariant in imaginary time $\ensuremath{\tau}$ as the correlation length in time ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}={\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}{e}^{{[{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}/({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha})]}^{1/2}}$ diverges, where ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}$ is a short-time cutoff. On the other hand, the spatial correlations develop with a correlation length ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{x}\ensuremath{\approx}{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{0}ln({\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}})$, with ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{0}$ of the order of a lattice constant. The dynamic correlation exponent zzz is therefore $\ensuremath{\infty}$. The Monte Carlo calculations also directly show warps and vortices. Their densities and correlations across the various transitions in the model are calculated and related to those of the order-parameter correlations in the dissipative quantum XY model.
This thesis present the recently theoretical and numerical results on 2D dissipative quantum XY model. The two-dimensional quantum XY model is applicable to the quantum critical properties of several experimental systems, such as superconductor to insulator transitions, ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic transitions in metals, and loop current order transition in the cuprates. Renormalization group methods are applied to solve the reformulated ac- tion of the original model in terms of two type topological excitations: vortices and warps. The calculations explain the extraordinary properties of the model studied through quan- tum Monte Carlo simulations: the separability of the correlation function in space and time, the correlation length in space proportional to logarithm of the correlation length in time near the transition from disordered phase to ordered phase. The running dynamical critical exponent is introduced to address the anisotropy between time and space. The effects of anisotropy fields have been examined through renormalization group method. The transi- tion from disordered phase to ordered phase of this model has been studied by quantum Monte Carlo. The divergence of temporal correlation length in function of (Kc − K)/Kc is examined by numerical simulation. The logarithmic relation between temporal correlation length and spacial correlation length is further confirmed. Also, the same logarithmic rela- tion for different correlation function with different space separation is found and implicitly confirmed the separability of correlation function in space and time.
The two-dimensional quantum XY model, with a Caldeira-Leggett form of dissipation, is applicable to the quantum-critical properties of diverse experimental systems, ranging from superconductor to insulator transitions, ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic transitions in metals, to the loop-current order transition in cuprates. We solve the reexpression of this model in terms of orthogonal topological excitations, vortices, and a variety of instantons, by renormalization group methods. The calculations explain the extraordinary properties of the model discovered in Monte Carlo calculations: the product form of the quantum-critical fluctuations in space and time, a spatial correlation length proportional to the logarithm of the temporal correlation length near the transition from a disordered to a fully ordered state, and the occurrence of a phase with spatial order without temporal order. They are intimately related to the flow of the metric of time in relation to the metric of space, i.e., of the dynamical critical exponent zzz. These properties appear to be essential in understanding the strange metallic phase found in a variety of quantum-critical transitions as well as the accompanying high-temperature superconductivity.
The statistical mechanics of the time-reversal and inversion symmetry breaking order parameter, possibly observed in the pseudogap region of the phase diagram of the cuprates, can be represented by the Ashkin-Teller model. We add kinetic energy and dissipation to the model for a quantum generalization and show that the spectrum of the quantum-critical fluctuations is of the form postulated in 1989 to give the marginal Fermi-liquid properties. The model solved and the methods devised are likely to be of interest also to other quantum phase transitions.