To demonstrate the role played by the von Neumann entropy (vNE) spectra in quantum phase transitions we investigate the one-dimensional anisotropic SU(2) spin–orbital model with negative exchange parameter. In the case of classical Ising orbital interactions we discover an unexpected novel phase with Majumdar–Ghosh-like spin–singlet dimer correlations triggered by spin–orbital entanglement (SOE) and having orbital correlations, while all the other phases are disentangled. For anisotropic XXZ orbital interactions both SOE and spin–dimer correlations extend to the antiferro-spin/alternating-orbital phase. This quantum phase provides a unique example of two coupled order parameters which change the character of the phase transition from first-order to continuous. Hereby we have established the vNE spectral function as a valuable tool to identify the change of ground state degeneracies and of the SOE of elementary excitations in quantum phase transitions.
To demonstrate the role played by the von Neumann entropy (vNE) spectra in quantum phase transitions we investigate the one-dimensional anisotropic SU(2) spin–orbital model with negative exchange parameter. In the case of classical Ising orbital interactions we discover an unexpected novel phase with Majumdar–Ghosh-like spin–singlet dimer correlations triggered by spin–orbital entanglement (SOE) and having orbital correlations, while all the other phases are disentangled. For anisotropic XXZ orbital interactions both SOE and spin–dimer correlations extend to the antiferro-spin/alternating-orbital phase. This quantum phase provides a unique example of two coupled order parameters which change the character of the phase transition from first-order to continuous. Hereby we have established the vNE spectral function as a valuable tool to identify the change of ground state degeneracies and of the SOE of elementary excitations in quantum phase transitions.
We investigate the phase diagram and the spin-orbital entanglement of a one-dimensional $\mathrm{SU}(2)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\text{XXZ}$ model with SU(2) spin exchange and anisotropic XXZ orbital exchange interactions and negative exchange coupling constant. As a unique feature, the spin-orbital entanglement entropy in the entangled ground states increases here linearly with system size. In the case of Ising orbital interactions, we identify an emergent phase with long-range spin-singlet dimer correlations triggered by a quadrupling of correlations in the orbital sector. The peculiar translational-invariant spin-singlet dimer phase has finite von Neumann entanglement entropy and survives when orbital quantum fluctuations are included. It even persists in the isotropic $\mathrm{SU}(2)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\text{SU}$(2) limit. Surprisingly, for finite transverse orbital coupling, the long-range spin-singlet correlations also coexist in the antiferromagnetic spin and alternating orbital phase making this phase also unconventional. Moreover, we also find a complementary orbital singlet phase that exists in the isotropic case but does not extend to the Ising limit. The nature of entanglement appears essentially different from that found in the frequently discussed model with positive coupling. Furthermore, we investigate the collective spin and orbital wave excitations of the disentangled ferromagnetic-spin/ferro-orbital ground state and explore the continuum of spin-orbital excitations. Interestingly, one finds among the latter excitations two modes of exciton bound states. Their spin-orbital correlations differ from the remaining continuum states and exhibit logarithmic scaling of the von Neumann entropy with increasing system size. We demonstrate that spin-orbital excitons can be experimentally explored using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, where the strongly entangled exciton states can be easily distinguished from the spin-orbital continuum.
We consider the low-energy excitations of one-dimensional spin-orbital models which consist of spin waves, orbital waves, and joint spin-orbital excitations. Among the latter we identify strongly entangled spin-orbital bound states and spin-orbital quasiparticle states which appear as peaks in the von Neumann entropy spectral function introduced in this work. We present the scaling of the von Neumann entropy with system size and find a qualitatively different behavior for the bound state and the quasiparticle---the strong entanglement of these states is manifested by a universal logarithmic scaling of the von Neumann entropy with system size, while the entropy saturates for other spin-orbital excitations. We suggest that spin-orbital entanglement can be experimentally explored by the measurement of the dynamical spin-orbital correlations using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, where strong spin-orbit coupling associated with the core hole plays a role.
Quantum phase transitions are driven by quantum fluctuations due to the uncertainty principle in many-body physics. In quantum phase transitions, the ground-state changes dramatically. The quantum entanglement, specific heat, magnetization and other physical quantities diverge according to certain functions, and show specific scaling behaviors. In addition, there is a topological quantum phase transition beyond the conventional Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm, which is relevant to emergent phenomena in strongly correlated electron systems, with topological nonlocal order parameters as a salient feature. Thus, topological order is a new paradigm in the study of topological quantum phase transitions. To investigate competition mechanism of the different quantum spin interactions, in this paper, the one-dimensional spin-1 bond-alternating Heisenberg model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction is considered. The DM interaction drives the quantum fluctuations resulting in a phase transition. By using the one-dimensional infinite matrix product state algorithm in tensor network representation, the quantum entanglement entropy and order parameters are calculated from the ground-state function. The numerical result shows that with the change of bond alternating strength, there is a quantum phase transition from the topological ordered Haldane phase to the local ordered dimer phase. Based on the von Neumann entropy and order parameter, the phase diagram of this model is obtained. There is a critical line that separates the Haldane and the dimer phase. The DM interaction inhibits the dimerization of the quantum spin system and finally breaks the fully dimerization. Due to the fact that the structurally symmetry of system is broken, the local dimer order exists in the whole parameter range when the bond-alternative strength parameter changes. The first derivative of the local dimer order behaves as a peak corresponding to the critical point. Furthermore, from the numerical scaling of the first derivative of dimer order and the non-local string order near the phase transition point, the characteristic critical exponents α and β are obtained, respectively. It shows that the characteristic critical exponent α decreases, and β increases gradually with the interaction strength of DM increasing. The resulting state i.e. the anti-symmetric anisotropic DM interaction produced by spin-orbit coupling, affects the critical properties of the system in the phase transition. This reveals that the competition mechanism of the quantum spin interaction, also provides some guidance for the future study of the critical behavior in topological quantum phase transition with the DM interaction.
Spin-orbital entanglement in quantum spin-orbital systems is quantified by a specifically reduced von Neumann entropy and is calculated for the ground state of a coupled spin-orbital chain with $\mathrm{SU}(2)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\mathrm{SU}(2)$ symmetry. By analyzing the discontinuity and local extreme of the reduced entropy, we deduce a rich phase diagram describing quantum phase transitions in this system with complex correlations between multiple degrees of freedom.
The characterization of the quantum phase transition in a lowdimensional system has attracted a considerable amount of attention in quantum manybody systems. As one of the fundamental models in quantum magnetism, spin-1 models have richer phase diagrams and show more complex physical phenomena. In the spin-1 antiferromagnetic XXZ model, the Haldane phase and the Nel phase are the gapped topologic phases which cannot be characterized by the local order parameters. To characterize the nature in such phases, one has to calculate the non-local long range order parameters. Normally, the non-local order parameter in the topological phase is obtained from the extrapolation of finite-sized system in numerical study. However, it is difficult to extract the critical exponents with such an extrapolated non-local order parameter due to the numerical accuracy. In a recently developed tensor network representation, i.e., the infinite matrix product state (iMPS) algorithm, it was shown that the non-local order can be directly calculated from a very large lattice distance in an infinite-sized system rather than an extrapolated order parameter in a finite-sized system. Therefore, it is worthwhile using this convenient technique to study the non-local orders in the topological phases and characterize the quantum criticalities in the topological quantum phase transitions. In this paper, by utilizing the infinite matrix product state algorithm based on the tensor network representation and infinite time evolving block decimation method, the quantum entanglement, fidelity, and critical exponents of the topological phase transition are investigated in the one-dimensional infinite spin-1 bond-alternating XXZ Heisenberg model. It is found that there is always a local dimerization order existing in the whole parameter range when the bond-alternative strength parameter changes from 0 to 1. Also, due to the effect of the bond-alternating, there appears a quantum phase transition from the long-rang ordering topological Nel phase to the local ordering dimerization phase. The von Neumann entropy, fidelity per lattice site, and order parameters all give the same phase transition point at c = 0.638. To identify the type of quantum phase transition, the central charge c 0.5 is extracted from the ground state von Neumann entropy and the finite correlation length, which indicates that the phase transition belongs to the two-dimensional Ising universality class. Furthermore, it is found that the Nel order and the susceptibility of Nel order have power-law relations to |-c|. From the numerical fitting of the Nel order and its susceptibility, we obtain the characteristic critical exponents ' = 0.236 and ' = 0.838. It indicates that such critical exponents from our method characterize the nature of the quantum phase transition. Our critical exponents from the iMPS method can provide guidance for studying the properties of the phase transition in quantum spin systems.
Motivated by recent experiments on quasi-one-dimensional vanadium oxides, we study quantum phase transitions in a one-dimensional spin-orbital model describing a Haldane chain and a classical Ising chain locally coupled by the relativistic spin-orbit interaction. By employing a field-theoretical approach, we analyze the topology of the ground-state phase diagram and identify the nature of the phase transitions. In the strong coupling limit, a long-range N\'eel order of entangled spin and orbital angular momenta appears in the ground state. We find that, depending on the relative scales of the spin and orbital gaps, the linear chain follows two distinct routes to reach the N\'eel state. First, when the orbital exchange is the dominating energy scale, a two-stage ordering takes place in which the magnetic transition is followed by melting of the orbital Ising order; both transitions belong to the two-dimensional Ising universality class. In the opposite limit, the low-energy orbital modes undergo a continuous reordering transition which represents a line of Gaussian critical points. On this line the orbital degrees of freedom form a Tomonaga--Luttinger liquid. We argue that the emergence of the Gaussian criticality results from merging of the two Ising transitions in the strong hybridization region where the characteristic spin and orbital energy scales become comparable. Finally, we show that, due to the spin-orbit coupling, an external magnetic field acting on the spins can induce an orbital Ising transition.