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arXiv:1703.01420 · Physical review. E

Exact phase boundaries and topological phase transitions of the XYZ spin chain

Somaye Jafari

Published Jul 31, 2017• 6 citations

Abstract

Within the block spin renormalization group, we give a very simple derivation of the exact phase boundaries of the XYZ spin chain. First, we identify the Ising order along x[over ̂] or y[over ̂] as attractive renormalization group fixed points of the Kitaev chain. Then, in a global phase space composed of the anisotropy λ of the XY interaction and the coupling Δ of the Δσ^{z}σ^{z} interaction, we find that the above fixed points remain attractive in the two-dimesional parameter space. We therefore classify the gapped phases of the XYZ spin chain as: (1) either attracted to the Ising limit of the Kitaev-chain, which in turn is characterized by winding number ±1, depending on whether the Ising order parameter is along x[over ̂] or y[over ̂] directions; or (2) attracted to the charge density wave (CDW) phases of the underlying Jordan-Wigner fermions, which is characterized by zero winding number. We therefore establish that the exact phase boundaries of the XYZ model in Baxter's solution indeed correspond to topological phase transitions. The topological nature of the phase transitions of the XYZ model justifies why our analytical solution of the three-site problem that is at the core of the present renormalization group treatment is able to produce the exact phase boundaries of Baxter's solution. We argue that the distribution of the winding numbers between the three Ising phases is a matter of choice of the coordinate system, and therefore the CDW-Ising phase is entitled to host appropriate form of zero modes. We further observe that in the Kitaev-chain the renormalization group flow can be cast into a geometric progression of a properly identified parameter. We show that this new parameter is actually the size of the (Majorana) zero modes.

DOI: 10.1103/physreve.96.012159

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Within the block spin renormalization group, we give a very simple derivation of the exact phase boundaries of the XYZ spin chain. First, we identify the Ising order along x[over ̂] or y[over ̂] as attractive renormalization group fixed points of the Kitaev chain. Then, in a global phase space composed of the anisotropy λ of the XY interaction and the coupling Δ of the Δσ^{z}σ^{z} interaction, we find that the above fixed points remain attractive in the two-dimesional parameter space. We therefore classify the gapped phases of the XYZ spin chain as: (1) either attracted to the Ising limit of the Kitaev-chain, which in turn is characterized by winding number ±1, depending on whether the Ising order parameter is along x[over ̂] or y[over ̂] directions; or (2) attracted to the charge density wave (CDW) phases of the underlying Jordan-Wigner fermions, which is characterized by zero winding number. We therefore establish that the exact phase boundaries of the XYZ model in Baxter's solution indeed correspond to topological phase transitions. The topological nature of the phase transitions of the XYZ model justifies why our analytical solution of the three-site problem that is at the core of the present renormalization group treatment is able to produce the exact phase boundaries of Baxter's solution. We argue that the distribution of the winding numbers between the three Ising phases is a matter of choice of the coordinate system, and therefore the CDW-Ising phase is entitled to host appropriate form of zero modes. We further observe that in the Kitaev-chain the renormalization group flow can be cast into a geometric progression of a properly identified parameter. We show that this new parameter is actually the size of the (Majorana) zero modes.

Within the real space renormalization group we obtain the phase portrait of the anisotropic quantum

XY

model on square lattice in presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. The model is characterized by two parameters, $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ corresponding to

XY

anisotropy, and

D

corresponding to the strength of DM interaction. The flow portrait of the model is governed by two global Ising-Kitaev attractors at $(\ensuremath{\lambda}=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1,D=0)$ and a repeller line, $\ensuremath{\lambda}=0$. This line itself is characterized by an attractor at

D=0

. Renormalization flow of concurrence suggests that the $\ensuremath{\lambda}=0$ line corresponds to a topological phase transition. The gap starts at zero on this repeller line corresponding to superfluid phase of underlying bosons; and flows towards a finite value at the Ising-Kitaev points. At these two fixed points the spin fields become purely classical, and hence the resulting Ising degeneracy can be interpreted as topological degeneracy of dual degrees of freedom. The state of affairs at the Ising-Kitaev fixed point is consistent with the picture of a

p

-wave pairing of strength $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ of Jordan-Wigner fermions coupled with Chern-Simons gauge fields.

We investigate the nature of the topological quantum phase transition between the gapless and gapped Kitaev quantum spin liquid phases away from the exactly solvable point. The transition is driven by anisotropy of the Kitaev couplings. At the critical point, the two Dirac points of the gapless Majorana modes merge, resulting in the formation of a semi-Dirac point with quadratic and linear band touching directions. We derive an effective Gross-Neveu-Yukawa-type field theory that describes the topological phase transition in the presence of additional magnetic interactions. We obtain the infrared scaling form of the propagator of the dynamical Ising order parameter field and perform a renormalization-group analysis. The universality of the transition is found to be different from that of symmetry-breaking phase transitions of semi-Dirac electrons. However, as in the electronic case, the Majorana fermions acquire an anomalous dimension, indicative of the breakdown of the fractionalized quasiparticle description.

Dimerized antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chains and ladders demonstrate quantum critical phase transition, the existence or absence of which is dependent on the dimerization and the dimerization pattern of the chain and the ladder, respectively. The gapped phases can not be distinguished by the conventional Landau long-range order parameters. However, they possess non-local topological string order parameters which can be used to classify different phases. We utilize the self-consistent free fermionic approximation and some standard results for exactly solved models to analytically calculate the string order parameters of dimerized spin chains. As a complement parameter the gapped phases possess the topological number, called the winding number and they are characterized by different integer values of the winding number. In order to calculate the string order parameters and winding numbers in dimerized spin chains and two-leg ladders we use analytical methods such as the Jordan-Wigner transformation, mean-field approximation, duality transformations, and some standard results available for the exactly 1D solve models. It is shown that the winding number provides the complementary framework to the string order parameter to characterize the topological gapped phases.

Using the density-matrix renormalization-group algorithm (DMRG) and a finite-size scaling analysis, we study the properties of the one-dimensional completely-anisotropic spin-1/2 XYZ model with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interactions. The model shows a rich phase diagram: depending on the value of the coupling constants, the system can display different kinds of ferromagnetic order and Luttinger-liquid behavior. Transitions from ferromagnetic to Luttinger-liquid phases are first order. We thoroughly discuss the transition between different ferromagnetic phases, which, in the absence of DM interactions, belongs to the XX universality class. We provide evidence that the DM exchange term turns out to split this critical line into two separated Ising-like transitions and that in between a disordered phase may appear. Our study sheds light on the general problem of strongly-interacting spin-orbit-coupled bosonic gases trapped in an optical lattice and can be used to characterize the topological properties of superconducting nanowires in the presence of an imposed supercurrent and of interactions.

We present an exactly solvable extension of the quantum XY chain with longer range multi-spin interactions. Topological phase transitions of the model are classified in terms of the number of Majorana zero modes which are in turn related to an integer winding number. We further find a general relation between the winding number and the number of Majorana fermions at the ends of an open chain. The present class of exactly solvable models belong to the BDI class in the Altland-Zirnbauer classification (A. Altland, M. R. Zirnbauer, Phys. Rev. B (1997) 55 1142) of topological superconductors. We show that time reversal (TR) symmetry of the spin variables translates into a peculiar particle-hole transformation in the language of Jordan-Wigner (JW) fermions that is accompanied by a {\pi} shift in the wave vector (

\pi

PH). Presence of

\pi

PH symmetry restricts the winding number of TR symmetric extensions of XY to odd integers. The {\pi}PH operator may serve in further detailed classification of topological superconductors.

The Hubbard and spinless fermion chains are paradigms of strongly correlated systems, very well understood using the Bethe ansatz, density matrix renormalization group (DMRG), and field theory/renormalization group (RG) methods. They have been applied to one-dimensional materials and have provided important insights for understanding higher-dimensional cases. Recently, an interacting fermion model has been introduced, with possible applications to topological materials. It has a single Majorana fermion operator on each lattice site and interactions with the shortest possible range that involve four sites. We present a thorough analysis of the phase diagram of this model in one dimension using field-theory/RG and DMRG methods. It includes a gapped supersymmetric region and a gapless phase with coexisting Luttinger liquid and Ising degrees of freedom. In addition to a first-order transition, three critical points occur: tricritical Ising, Lifshitz, and a generalization of the commensurate-incommensurate transition. We also survey various gapped phases of the system that arise when the translation symmetry is broken by dimerization and find both trivial and topological phases with 0, 1, and 2 Majorana zero modes bound to the edges of the chain with open boundary conditions.