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arXiv:0903.5153 · Physical Review Letters

Critical Behavior and Scaling in Trapped Systems

Massimo Campostrini B, Ettore Vicari

Published Jun 15, 2009• 73 citations
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Abstract

We study the scaling properties of critical particle systems confined by a potential. Using renormalization-group arguments, we show that their critical behavior can be cast in the form of a trap-size scaling, resembling finite-size scaling theory, with a nontrivial trap critical exponent theta, which describes how the correlation length xi scales with the trap size l, i.e., xi approximately l;{theta} at T_{c}. theta depends on the universality class of the transition, the power law of the confining potential, and on the way it is coupled to the critical modes. We present numerical results for two-dimensional lattice gas (Ising) models with various types of harmonic traps, which support the trap-size scaling scenario.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.102.240601

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We study the scaling properties of critical particle systems confined by a potential. Using renormalization-group arguments, we show that their critical behavior can be cast in the form of a trap-size scaling, resembling finite-size scaling theory, with a nontrivial trap critical exponent theta, which describes how the correlation length xi scales with the trap size l, i.e., xi approximately l;{theta} at T_{c}. theta depends on the universality class of the transition, the power law of the confining potential, and on the way it is coupled to the critical modes. We present numerical results for two-dimensional lattice gas (Ising) models with various types of harmonic traps, which support the trap-size scaling scenario.
We investigate the critical properties of cold bosonic gases in three dimensions, confined by an external quadratic potential coupled to the particle density, and realistically described by the Bose-Hubbard (BH) model. The trapping potential is often included in experiments with cold atoms and modifies the critical finite-size scaling of the homogeneous system in a nontrivial way. The trap-size scaling (TSS) theory accounts for this effect through the exponent $\ensuremath{\theta}$. We perform extensive simulations of the BH model at the critical temperature, in the presence of harmonic traps. We find that the TSS predictions are universal once we account for the effective way in which the trap locally modifies the chemical potential $\ensuremath{\mu}$ of the system. The trap exponent for the BH model at $\ensuremath{\mu}=0$ is the one corresponding to an effective quartic potential. At positive $\ensuremath{\mu}$, evidence suggests that TSS breaks down sufficiently far from the center of the trap, as the system encounters an effective phase boundary.
We study the quantum (zero-temperature) critical behaviors of confined particle systems described by the one-dimensional (1D) Bose-Hubbard model in the presence of a confining potential, at the Mott insulator to superfluid transitions, and within the gapless superfluid phase. Specifically, we consider the hard-core limit of the model, which allows us to study the effects of the confining potential by exact and very accurate numerical results. We analyze the quantum critical behaviors in the large trap-size limit within the framework of the trap-size scaling (TSS) theory, which introduces a new trap exponent $\ensuremath{\theta}$ to describe the dependence on the trap size. This study is relevant for experiments of confined quasi-1D cold atom systems in optical lattices. At the low-density Mott transition, TSS can be shown analytically within the spinless fermion representation of the hard-core limit. The trap-size dependence turns out to be more subtle in the other critical regions, when the corresponding homogeneous system has a nonzero filling fff, showing an infinite number of level crossings of the lowest states when increasing the trap size. At the n=1n=1n=1 Mott transition, this gives rise to a modulated TSS: The TSS is still controlled by the trap-size exponent $\ensuremath{\theta}$, but it gets modulated by periodic functions of the trap size. Modulations of the asymptotic power-law behavior is also found in the gapless superfluid region, with additional multiscaling behaviors.
Abstract Complex systems consisting of N agents can be investigated from the aspect of principal fluctuation modes of agents. From the correlations between agents, an N × N correlation matrix C can be obtained. The principal fluctuation modes are defined by the eigenvectors of C. Near the critical point of a complex system, we anticipate that the principal fluctuation modes have the critical behaviors similar to that of the susceptibity. With the Ising model on a two-dimensional square lattice as an example, the critical behaviors of principal fluctuation modes have been studied. The eigenvalues of the first 9 principal fluctuation modes have been invesitigated. Our Monte Carlo data demonstrate that these eigenvalues of the system with size L and the reduced temperature t follow a finite-size scaling form λ n (L, t) = L γ/ν f n (tL 1/ν ), where γ is critical exponent of susceptibility and ν is the critical exponent of the correlation length. Using eigenvalues λ 1 , λ 2 and λ 6 , we get the finite-size scaling form of the second moment correlation length ξ ( L , t ) = L ξ ˜ ( t L 1 / ν ) . It is shown that the second moment correlation length in the two-dimensional square lattice is anisotropic.
We investigate the critical behavior of trapped particle systems at the low-temperature superfluid transition. In particular, we consider the three-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model in the presence of a trapping harmonic potential coupled with the particle density, which is a realistic model of cold bosonic atoms in optical lattices. We present a numerical study based on quantum Monte Carlo simulations, analyzed in the framework of the trap-size scaling (TSS). We show how the critical parameters can be derived from the trap-size dependencies of appropriate observables, matching them with TSS. This provides a systematic scheme which is supposed to exactly converge to the critical parameters of the transition in the large-trap-size limit. Our numerical analysis may provide a guide for experimental investigations of trapped systems at finite-temperature and quantum transitions, showing how critical parameters may be determined by looking at the scaling of the critical modes with respect to the trap size, i.e., by matching the trap-size dependence of the experimental data with the expected TSS ansatz.
The influence of a thermodynamic constraint on the critical finite-size scaling behavior of three-dimensional Ising and XY models is analyzed by Monte-Carlo simulations. Within the Ising universality class constraints lead to Fisher renormalized critical exponents, which modify the asymptotic form of the scaling arguments of the universal finite-size scaling functions. Within the XY universality class constraints lead to very slowly decaying corrections inside the scaling arguments, which are governed by the specific heat exponent alpha. If the modification of the scaling arguments is properly taken into account in the scaling analysis of the data, finite-size scaling functions are obtained, which are independent of the constraint as anticipated by analytic theory.