In this master thesis the criticality of the 3D XY model with cubic anisotropy has been examined by the means of Monte Carlo simulation. The 3D XY model is a special case of the
O(n) spin-vector model which describe numerous phenomena's. Here,
n is the number of vector dimensions and for the XY model
n=2. The
O(n)-model is invariant for global rotations. This means that it is arbitrary which direction in the symmetry breaking occurs. In real system one should always expect perturbations from a perfect system, here it is done by adding a cubic anisotropy (order
p=4) then the symmetry of the Hamiltonian is lowered and it will be advantageous for the spins to be ordered in directions
90o apart. This symmetry is called
C4, which is a part of the cyclic group, and it restricts the symmetry breaking to one of these four directions. \n\nThe criticality of this model is when the spins suddenly align as the temperature is lowered to a critical temperature. Sufficiently close to the critical temperature quantities like the magnetization, which is the sum of spins, will show a power law growth characterised by critical exponents specified by the class of universality of the transition. The critical exponents can be obtained by finite-size scaling. By applying renormalization theory on the critical region one can show that some of parameters in the Hamiltonian are: relevant and effect the scaling, irrelevant and does not effect the scaling and dangerously irrelevant meaning that they only affect some of the critical exponents. Previous Monte Carlo and renormalization calculus show that anisotropy which is relevant for
p<4 becomes dangerously irrelevant for
pgeq4. The question of interest is what kind of effect the dangerously irrelevant parameter in the Hamiltonian has on the scaling. This is interesting because the effect of dangerously irrelevant parameters is hardly studied and anisotropy arise in many crystal systems because of the lattice geometry. \n\nThe results are obtained by Monte Carlo simulations and the critical slowing down close to the phase transition is solved by the method of parallel tempering. This method was chosen because it is simple to implement in a parallel code.\n\nThe Binder cumulant for different quantities and the peak of the magnetic susceptibility was used support a critical temperature
Tc=2.2019textnormalk for no field applied and no anisotropy. The known critical exponents for the no field and no anisotropy was used. The scaling made a good collapse, meaning that the right
Tc and the correct critical exponents where used. The scaling did not take into account a magnetic field and therefore a good collapse of curves where not obtained in this case. When the cubic anisotropy was added the critical exponent for the magnetic susceptibility and the cubic order parameter changed, while the other exponents where unchanged. This supports the view that cubic anisotropy is dangerously irrelevant for the 3D XY model. The scaling of the magnetic susceptibility showed a possible new kind of scaling, a scaling which is different on the two sides of the transition. Although a more accurate determination of the critical exponent in the ordered phase require more extensive simulations. It appears that this exponent is larger than the exponent in the disordered phase, where one recovered the isotropic exponent. The difference in the critical exponents has been predicted to increase with
p and an investigation of the hexagonal anisotropy
p=6 has been started.
We employ the Multiscale Entanglement Renormalization Ansatz (MERA) tensor network to investigate a critical line of continuous quantum phase transitions of the
Z3 chiral clock model. This critical line is believed to be described by a slow renormalization group flow from the 3-state Potts fixed point to another fixed point that features anisotropic scaling of space and time. We use the variational principle to construct a MERA representation of the model's ground state, from which we obtain the ground state energy and the set of scaling operators and their scaling dimensions. These scaling dimensions determine the critical exponents of the model, and we study these critical exponents and other scaling data as a function of the model's chiral parameter. We find a set of effective scaling data that smoothly varies starting from the Potts data as the chiral parameter is increased. Within the context of our approach, we discuss how this result may nevertheless be consistent with the two fixed point hypothesis provided the renormalization group flow is sufficiently slow. Our findings demonstrate MERA's effectiveness in capturing the complex low-energy physics of the chiral clock model and in extracting field theory data for an anisotropic continuum theory.
Renormalization group theory is a powerful and intriguing technique with a wide range of applications. One of the main successes of renormalization group theory is the description of continuous phase transitions and the development of scaling theory. Most courses on phase transitions focus on scaling and critical exponents, while less attention is paid to universality, renormalization group flow, and the existence of a unique fixed point, which are the ultimate reasons why scaling theory is so effective in describing continuous phase transitions. We use a combination of Monte Carlo simulations and real space renormalization group theory to determine the renormalization group flow and to show the existence of a universal fixed point in the context of the ferromagnetic Ising model.
We study the three-component ${\ensuremath{\phi}}^{4}$ model on the simple cubic lattice in the presence of a cubic perturbation. To this end, we perform Monte Carlo simulations in conjunction with a finite-size scaling analysis of the data. The analysis of the renormalization group (RG) flow of a dimensionless quantity provides us with the accurate estimate ${Y}_{4}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{2}=0.000\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}81(7)$ for the difference of the RG eigenvalue
Y4 at the
O(3)-symmetric fixed point and the correction exponent ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{2}$ at the cubic fixed point. We determine an effective exponent ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\text{eff}}$ of the correlation length that depends on the strength of the breaking of the
O(3) symmetry. Field theory predicts that depending on the sign of the cubic perturbation, the RG flow is attracted by the cubic fixed point, or runs to an ever increasing amplitude, indicating a fluctuation-induced first-order phase transition. We demonstrate directly the first-order nature of the phase transition for a sufficiently strong breaking of the O(3) symmetry. We obtain accurate results for the latent heat, the correlation length in the disordered phase at the transition temperature, and the interface tension for interfaces between one of the ordered phases and the disordered phase. We study how these quantities scale with the RG flow, allowing quantitative predictions for weaker breaking of the
O(3) symmetry.
The concept of renormalization group (RG) flow is one of the most novel and broad-reaching aspects of quantum field theory (QFT). The RG flow is implemented by constructing effective descriptions of a QFT at decreasing energy scales. One reason that RG flow is useful is that often one is interested in low-energy properties of theories with complicated short-distance structures. RG flows are subject to C theorems in relativistic QFT. The C theorems order the space of Lorentz-invariant QFTs. RG flows generically begin at scale-invariant fixed points known as conformal field theories (CFTs) and end in trivial massive theories. With tuning, the RG flows may end at non-trivial CFTs. Each CFT has an associated dimensionless C value. The C theorem states that under RG flow from a UV to an IR fixed point, the C value decreases. In this Dissertation I present the F-theorem, which is a C theorem in three spacetime dimensions. I show that the correct quantity to consider is the Euclidean free energy of the CFT conformally mapped to the three-sphere, known as the F value. After motivating the F-theorem, I develop tools for calculating the F value in a variety of CFTs, with and without supersymmetry, including free field theories and gauge theories with large numbers of flavors. I also show that the F value is itself a useful quantity for probing the gauge/gravity duality and understanding other aspects of CFT, such as the scaling dimensions of monopole operators. The F theorem is closely related to quantum entanglement entropy. At conformal fixed points, the F value is equal to minus the renormalized entanglement entropy (REE) in flat Minkowski space across a circle. Away from the fixed points, the REE is a monotonically decreasing function along the RG flow. I compute the REE in a variety of holographic and non-holographic theories. I conclude the Dissertation by discussing a somewhat surprising result: the REE is not stationary at conformal fixed points.
We study a generalized clock model on the simple cubic lattice. The parameter of the model can be tuned such that the amplitude of the leading correction to scaling vanishes. In the main part of the study, we simulate the model with
Z8 symmetry. At the transition, with increasing length scale,
O(2) symmetry emerges. We perform Monte Carlo simulations using a hybrid of local Metropolis and cluster algorithms of lattices with a linear size up to
L=512. The field variable requires less memory and the updates are faster than for a model with
O(2) symmetry at the microscopic level. Our finite-size scaling analysis yields accurate estimates for the critical exponents of the three-dimensional
XY-universality class. In particular, we get $\ensuremath{\eta}=0.03810(8),\ensuremath{\nu}=0.67169(7)$, and $\ensuremath{\omega}=0.789(4)$. Furthermore, we obtain estimates for fixed point values of phenomenological couplings and critical temperatures.