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arXiv:1003.2347 · Physical Review Letters

Nonequivalence of Ensembles for Long-Range Quantum Spin Systems in Optical Lattices

Michael Kästner

Published Jun 16, 2010• 60 citations
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Abstract

Motivated by the anisotropic long-range nature of the interactions between cold dipolar atoms or molecules in an optical lattice, we study the anisotropic quantum Heisenberg model with Curie-Weiss-type long-range interactions. Absence of a heat bath in optical lattice experiments suggests a study of this model within the microcanonical ensemble. The microcanonical entropy is calculated analytically and nonequivalence of microcanonical and canonical ensembles is found for a range of anisotropy parameters. From the shape of the entropy it follows that the Curie-Weiss Heisenberg model is indistinguishable from the Curie-Weiss Ising model in canonical thermodynamics, although their microcanonical thermodynamics differs. Qualitatively, the observed features of nonequivalent ensembles are expected to be relevant for long-range quantum spin systems realized in optical lattice experiments.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.104.240403

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Motivated by the anisotropic long-range nature of the interactions between cold dipolar atoms or molecules in an optical lattice, we study the anisotropic quantum Heisenberg model with Curie-Weiss-type long-range interactions. Absence of a heat bath in optical lattice experiments suggests a study of this model within the microcanonical ensemble. The microcanonical entropy is calculated analytically and nonequivalence of microcanonical and canonical ensembles is found for a range of anisotropy parameters. From the shape of the entropy it follows that the Curie-Weiss Heisenberg model is indistinguishable from the Curie-Weiss Ising model in canonical thermodynamics, although their microcanonical thermodynamics differs. Qualitatively, the observed features of nonequivalent ensembles are expected to be relevant for long-range quantum spin systems realized in optical lattice experiments.
The microcanonical entropy s ( e , m ) as a function of the energy e and the magnetization m is computed analytically for the anisotropic quantum Heisenberg model with Curie–Weiss-type interactions. The result shows a number of interesting properties which are peculiar to long-range interacting systems, including nonequivalence of ensembles and partial equivalence. Furthermore, from the shape of the entropy it follows that the Curie–Weiss Heisenberg model is indistinguishable from the Curie–Weiss Ising model in canonical thermodynamics, although they do in general differ in microcanonical thermodynamics. The possibility of experimentally realizing quantum spin models with long-range interactions in a microcanonical setting by means of cold dipolar gases in optical lattices is discussed.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT:In this thesis we discuss some of the anomalies present in systems with long-range interactions, for instance negative specifc heat and negative magnetic susceptibility, and show how they can be related to the convexity properties of the thermodynamic potentials and nonequivalence of ensembles. We also discuss the possibility of engineering long-range quantum spin systems with cold atoms in optical lattices to experimentally verify the existence of nonequivalence of ensembles. We then formulate an expression for the density of states when the energy and magnetisation correspond to a pair of non-commuting operators. Finally we analytically compute the entropy s(;m) as a function of energy, and magnetisation, m, for the anisotropic Heisenberg model with Curie-Weiss type interactions. The results show that the entropy is non-concave in terms of magnetisation under certain circumstances which in turn indicates that the microcanonical and canonical ensembles are not equivalent and that the magnetic susceptibility is negative. After making an appropriate change of variables we show that a second-order phase transition can be present at negative temperatures in the microcanonical ensemble which cannot be represented in the canonical ensemble.
Ensemble inequivalence, where a system's thermodynamic properties depend on the statistical ensemble used to describe it, is a well-established phenomenon in classical systems with long-range interactions. Here, we present a detailed analysis of a quantum ferromagnet spin model that exhibits this same behavior. We find that the microcanonical and canonical phase diagrams are identical at zero temperature ( T = 0 ), but differ significantly at finite temperatures. Our results highlight a breakdown of ensemble equivalence in this quantum long-range model, contrasting with what is observed for short range. These findings have important implications for the study and manipulation of long-range interacting quantum platforms, such as those used in atomic, molecular, and optical physics.
We study equilibrium states of quantum spin systems with nonadditive long-range interactions by adopting an appropriate scaling of the interaction strength, i.e., the so-called Kac prescription. In classical spin systems, it is known that the equilibrium free energy is obtained by minimizing the free-energy functional over the coarse-grained magnetization. Here we show that it is also true for quantum spin systems. From this observation, it is found that when the canonical ensemble and the microcanonical ensemble are not equivalent in some parameter region, it is not necessarily justified to replace the actual long-range interaction by the infinite-range interaction (Curie-Weiss-type interaction). On the other hand, in the parameter region where the two ensembles are equivalent, this replacement is always justified. We examine the Heisenberg XXZ model as an illustrative example and discuss the relation to experiments.
We introduce two variants of the Blume--Emery--Griffiths model with long-range, mean-field-like interactions and quenched disorder. Although the two variants are described by different Hamiltonians, they yield the same free energy. Moreover, both Hamiltonians lead to the same average energy and hence to the same microcanonical entropy. The canonical and microcanonical phase boundaries differ markedly, and so does the multicritical behaviour of the two ensembles. In the microcanonical ensemble, tricritical points appear for any fraction of active spins, whereas in the canonical ensemble they emerge only when this fraction is sufficiently large. At lower fractions, canonical critical endpoints arise instead. We also report the formation of gaps in the entropy as a function of magnetization, another manifestation of ensemble inequivalence.
Ensemble inequivalence, i.e., the possibility of observing different thermodynamic properties depending on the statistical ensemble which describes the system, is one of the hallmarks of long-range physics, which has been demonstrated in numerous classical systems. Here, an example of ensemble inequivalence of a long-range quantum ferromagnet is presented. While the T=0 microcanonical quantum phase-diagram coincides with that of the canonical ensemble, the phase diagrams of the two ensembles are different at finite temperature. This is in contrast with the common lore of statistical mechanics of systems with short-range interactions where thermodynamic properties are bound to coincide for macroscopic systems described by different ensembles. The consequences of these findings in the context of atomic, molecular, and optical setups are delineated.