arXiv:1604.01111 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B
Phase diagram and correlation functions of the two-dimensional dissipative quantum XY model
Changtao Hou, Chandra Mohan Varma
Abstract
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 $z$. 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.