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arXiv:1903.06633 · Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

Phases of melonic quantum mechanics

Frank D. Ferrari, Fidel I. Schaposnik Massolo

Published Jul 17, 2019• 44 citations
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Abstract

We explore in detail properties of two melonic quantum mechanical theories which can be formulated either as fermionic matrix quantum mechanics in the new large $D$ limit, or as disordered models. Both models have a mass parameter $m$ and the transition from the perturbative large $m$ region to the strongly coupled ``black-hole'' small $m$ region is associated with several interesting phenomena. One model, with $\mathrm{U}(n{)}^{2}$ symmetry and equivalent to complex Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev, has a line of first-order phase transitions terminating, for a strictly positive temperature, at a critical point having nontrivial, nonmean-field critical exponents for standard thermodynamical quantities. Quasinormal frequencies, as well as Lyapunov exponents associated with out-of-time-ordered four-point functions, are also singular at the critical point, leading to interesting new critical exponents. The other model, with reduced $\mathrm{U}(n)$ symmetry, has a quantum critical point at strictly zero temperature and positive critical mass ${m}_{*}$. For $0<m<{m}_{*}$, it flows to a new gapless IR fixed point, for which the standard scale invariance is spontaneously broken by the appearance of distinct scaling dimensions ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}}_{+}$ and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}}_{\ensuremath{-}}$ for the Euclidean two-point function when $t\ensuremath{\rightarrow}+\ensuremath{\infty}$ and $t\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\infty}$ respectively. We provide several detailed and pedagogical derivations, including rigorous proofs or simplified arguments for some results that were already known in the literature.

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.100.026007

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We study the Schwinger-Dyson equations of a fermionic planar matrix quantum mechanics [or tensor and Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) models] at leading melonic order. We find two solutions describing a high entropy, SYK black-hole-like phase and a low entropy one with trivial IR behavior. There is a line of first order phase transitions that terminates at a new critical point. Critical exponents are nonmean field and differ on the two sides of the transition. Interesting phenomena are also found in unstable and stable bosonic models, including Kazakov critical points and inconsistency of SYK-like solutions of the IR limit.
In this thesis, we discuss the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model and tensor models with similar properties. The SYK model is a quantum field theoretical model describing N interacting fermions, whose coupling constants are drawn from a Gaussian ensemble. Noteworthy properties of the SYK model include that it is analytically solvable in the large N limit, that it exhibits conformal symmetry at low energies and that it is maximally chaotic. These properties are remarkably similar to those of a 1 + 1 dimensional Schwarzschild black hole. It has been conjectured the SYK model is a holographic dual to the black hole. We introduce a set of Feynman rules for the SYK model. Using these rules, we show that in the large N limit the diagrams that contribute to the two-point function are all so-called iterated melonic diagrams. This allows us to derive a Schwinger-Dyson equation for the two-point function, which, in turn, can be solved exactly in the infrared limit. We also consider the four-point function. In the large N limit, the leading-order correction to the four-point function is given by so-called ladder diagrams. This allows us to derive an explicit expression for the four-point function. The SYK model can be generalized in a few different ways. In this thesis, we consider the generalization where the fermions act through q-fold interactions instead of quartic interactions present in the original SYK model. In particular, considerable simplifications can be achieved in the q → ∞ limit or q = 2 case, which we study. While the SYK model has many interesting properties, its random couplings limit its usability especially as a dual to a Schwarzschild black hole. We therefore also consider tensor models which do not have this drawback but manage to preserve the interesting properties of the SYK model. In the last chapter, we briefly inspect the chaotic behaviour of the SYK and tensor models and derive Lyapunov exponent for them. It can be shown that the expression saturates an upper bound for Lyapunov exponents of a large class of quantum systems, including large N systems.
An important yet largely unsolved problem in the statistical mechanics of disordered quantum systems is to understand how quenched disorder affects quantum phase transitions in systems of itinerant fermions. In the clean limit, continuous quantum phase transitions of the symmetry-breaking type in Dirac materials such as graphene and the surfaces of topological insulators are described by relativistic (2+1)-dimensional quantum field theories of the Gross-Neveu-Yukawa (GNY) type. We study the universal critical properties of the chiral Ising, XY, and Heisenberg GNY models perturbed by quenched random-mass disorder, both uncorrelated or with long-range power-law correlations. Using the replica method combined with a controlled triple epsilon expansion below four dimensions, we find a variety of new finite-randomness critical and multicritical points with nonzero Yukawa coupling between low-energy Dirac fields and bosonic order parameter fluctuations, and compute their universal critical exponents. Analyzing bifurcations of the renormalization-group flow, we find instances of the fixed-point annihilation scenario—continuously tuned by the power-law exponent of long-range disorder correlations and associated with an exponentially large crossover length—as well as the transcritical bifurcation and the supercritical Hopf bifurcation. The latter is accompanied by the birth of a stable limit cycle on the critical hypersurface, which represents the first instance of fermionic quantum criticality with emergent discrete scale invariance.
A brief survey of some random quantum models with infinite-range couplings is presented, ranging from the quantum Ising model to the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model was the first to realize an extensive zero temperature entropy without requiring an exponentially large ground state degeneracy. This phenomenon is closely linked to the absence of a particle-like interpretation of its low energy spectrum--its spectral functions are not those of bosons or fermions but are instead "Planckian", meaning they are universal functions of energy/temperature. A remarkable consequence of these properties is that the SYK model provides an effective low energy theory of non-supersymmetric charged or rotating black holes in 3+1 dimensions, leading to new results on the density of many-body quantum states of such black holes. For applications to non-quasiparticle metallic states of quantum materials, an extension of the SYK model, known as the two-dimensional Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, is required. The 2dYSYK model describes quantum phase transitions in metals with spatial inhomogeneity in the position of the quantum critical point. This extension has led to a universal theory of the strange metal state observed in numerous correlated electron compounds, including copper-oxide based high temperature superconductors.
We study the operators in the large NNN tensor models, focusing mostly on the fermionic quantum mechanics with O(N)3O(N{)}^{3}O(N)3 symmetry which may be either global or gauged. In the model with global symmetry, we study the spectra of bilinear operators, which are in either the symmetric traceless or the antisymmetric representation of one of the O(N)O(N)O(N) groups. In the symmetric traceless case, the spectrum of scaling dimensions is the same as in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model with real fermions; it includes the h=2h=2h=2 zero mode. For the operators antisymmetric in the two indices, the scaling dimensions are the same as in the additional sector found in the complex tensor and SYK models; the lowest h=0h=0h=0 eigenvalue corresponds to the conserved O(N)O(N)O(N) charges. A class of singlet operators may be constructed from contracted combinations of mmm symmetric traceless or antisymmetric two-particle operators. Their two-point functions receive contributions from mmm melonic ladders. Such multiple ladders are a new phenomenon in the tensor model, which does not seem to be present in the SYK model. The more typical 2k2k2k-particle operators do not receive any ladder corrections and have quantized large NNN scaling dimensions k/2k/2k/2. We construct pictorial representations of various singlet operators with low kkk. For larger kkk, we use available techniques to count the operators and show that their number grows as 2kk!{2}^{k}k!2kk!. As a consequence, the theory has a Hagedorn phase transition at the temperature which approaches zero in the large NNN limit. We also study the large NNN spectrum of low-lying operators in the Gurau-Witten model, which has O(N)6O(N{)}^{6}O(N)6 symmetry. We argue that it corresponds to one of the generalized SYK models constructed by Gross and Rosenhaus. Our paper also includes studies of the invariants in large NNN tensor integrals with various symmetries.
Quantum Phase Transitions Quantum phase transitions, in contrast to temperature-driven critical phenomena, occur due to a competition between different parameters describing the basic interactions of the system. Their specific feature is the quantum character of the critical fluctuations. This implies, through the uncertainty principle, that energy fluctuations and time are coupled. Then at zero temperature time plays a crucial and fundamental role, the static properties being entangled with the dynamics (Continentino, 1994a; Sondhi et al ., 1997; Sachdev, 1999). In this book we are mainly interested in quantum phase transitions that occur in electronic many-body systems and how scaling concepts can be useful to understand their properties close to these transitions (Continentino, 1994a). Even though a similar approach has been used in the case of interacting bosons (Fisher et al ., 1989) the fermionic problem has its own idiosyncrasies and difficulties. For example, there is no natural order parameter associated with the localisation transition in the electronic case, while bosons at zero temperature are either localised or superfluid so that the superfluid order parameter can be used to distinguish between both phases. If the results of the study of quantum phase transitions were restricted to zero temperature, this would be an interesting but purely academic area of research. What is really exciting about this subject is the effect of quantum critical points (QCP) in the finite temperature phase diagram of actual physical systems, even far away from the QCP (Freitas, 2015). As we will show, there is a special line in this phase diagram, the quantum critical trajectory , where the temperature dependence of the thermodynamic and transport properties is governed by the quantum critical exponents, i.e. those associated with the QCP. This and the observed crossover effects induced by temperature in the non-critical side of the phase diagram of a material with a QCP are sufficient to make the study of quantum phase transitions an inevitable subject. We start this chapter by introducing the scaling theory of quantum critical phenomena, since scaling concepts are used throughout this book.