Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1908.02774 · Nature Communications

Universality and quantum criticality in quasiperiodic spin chains

Utkarsh Agrawal, Sarang Gopalakrishnan, Romain Vasseur

Published May 6, 2020• 53 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quasiperiodic systems are aperiodic but deterministic, so their critical behavior differs from that of clean systems and disordered ones as well. Quasiperiodic criticality was previously understood only in the special limit where the couplings follow discrete quasiperiodic sequences. Here we consider generic quasiperiodic modulations; we find, remarkably, that for a wide class of spin chains, generic quasiperiodic modulations flow to discrete sequences under a real-space renormalization-group transformation. These discrete sequences are therefore fixed points of a functional renormalization group. This observation allows for an asymptotically exact treatment of the critical points. We use this approach to analyze the quasiperiodic Heisenberg, Ising, and Potts spin chains, as well as a phenomenological model for the quasiperiodic many-body localization transition.

DOI
10.1038/s41467-020-15760-5

Related papers

Quantum Criticality in the 2D Quasiperiodic Potts Model

Utkarsh Agrawal, Sarang Gopalakrishnan, Romain Vasseur

Quantum critical points in quasiperiodic magnets can realize new universality classes, with critical properties distinct from those of clean or disordered systems. Here, we study quantum phase transitions separating ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases in the quasiperiodic q-state Potts model in 2+1D. Using a controlled real-space renormalization group approach, we find that the critical behavior is largely independent of q, and is controlled by an infinite-quasiperiodicity fixed point. The correlation length exponent is found to be ν=1, saturating a modified version of the Harris-Luck criterion.

arXiv:2008.11742•Physical Review Letters•Dec 23, 2020•10 citations

Topological quantum criticality in the quasiperiodic cluster Ising chain

Sheng Yang, Hai-Qing Lin, Xue-Jia Yu

Topological classifications of quantum critical systems have recently attracted growing interest, as they go beyond the traditional paradigms of condensed matter and statistical physics. However, such classifications remain largely unexplored in aperiodic environments, particularly under quasiperiodic modulations. In this Letter, we uncover a family of topological quasiperiodic fixed points with critical scalings intermediate between the clean and infinite-randomness limits. By exactly solving the quasiperiodic cluster-Ising chain, we demonstrate that all phase boundaries separating quasiperiodically modulated phases are governed by topological Ising-like fixed points unique to strongly modulated quasiperiodic systems. Although their local bulk critical properties match those of conventional quasiperiodic Ising critical points reported before, these fixed points host robust topological edge degeneracies and exhibit a distinct symmetry-enriched realization of the quasiperiodic Ising criticality, as further supported by complementary lattice simulations.

arXiv:2602.01223•Physical Review Letters•Oct 26, 2026•0 citations

Quasiperiodic Quantum Ising Transitions in 1D

Philip J. D. Crowley, Anushya Chandran, Chris R. Laumann

Unlike random potentials, quasiperiodic modulation can induce localization-delocalization transitions in one dimension. In this Letter, we analyze the implications of this for symmetry breaking in the quasiperiodically modulated quantum Ising chain. Although weak modulation is irrelevant, strong modulation induces new ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases which are fully localized and gapless. The quasiperiodic potential and localized excitations lead to quantum criticality that is intermediate to that of the clean and randomly disordered models with exponents of ν=1^{+} (exact) and z≈1.9, Δ_{σ}≈0.16, and Δ_{γ}≈0.63 (up to logarithmic corrections). Technically, the clean Ising transition is destabilized by logarithmic wandering of the local reduced couplings. We conjecture that the wandering coefficient w controls the universality class of the quasiperiodic transition and show its stability to smooth perturbations that preserve the quasiperiodic structure of the model.

arXiv:1801.07269•Physical Review Letters•Apr 24, 2018•32 citations

Strong-disorder renormalization group study of aperiodic quantum Ising chains

Fleury J Oliveira Filho, Maicon S Faria, André P. Vieira

We employ an adaptation of a strong-disorder renormalization group technique in order to analyze the ferro–paramagnetic quantum phase transition of Ising chains with aperiodic but deterministic couplings under the action of a transverse field. In the presence of marginal or relevant geometric fluctuations induced by aperiodicity, for which the critical behavior is expected to depart from the Onsager universality class, we derive analytical and asymptotically exact expressions for various critical exponents (including the correlation length and the magnetization exponents, which are not easily obtainable by other methods), and shed light onto the nature of the ground-state structures in the neighborhood of the critical point. The main results obtained by this approach are confirmed by finite-size scaling analyses of numerical calculations based on the free-fermion method.

arXiv:1112.5141•Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment•Mar 12, 2012•12 citations

Finite-size scaling analysis of the many-body localization transition in quasiperiodic spin chains

Adith Sai Aramthottil, Titas Chanda, Piotr Sierant +1 more

We analyze the finite-size scaling of the average gap ratio and the entanglement entropy across the many-body localization (MBL) transition in one dimensional Heisenberg spin chain with quasiperiodic (QP) potential. By using the recently introduced cost-function approach, we compare different scenarios for the transition using exact diagonalization of systems up to 22 lattice sites. Our findings suggest that the MBL transition in the QP Heisenberg chain belongs to the class of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, the same as in the case of uniformly disordered systems as advocated in recent studies. Moreover, we observe that the critical disorder strength shows a clear sublinear drift with the system size as compared to the linear drift seen in random disordered models, suggesting that the finite-size effects in the MBL transition for the QP systems are less severe than that in the random disordered scenario. Moreover, deep in the ergodic regime, we find an unexpected double-peak structure of distribution of on-site magnetizations that can be traced back to the strong correlations present in the QP potential.

arXiv:2109.08408•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Dec 2, 2021•48 citations

Contribution à l’étude des chaînes de spin quantique avec une perturbation aléatoire ou apériodique

Dimitrios Voliotis

In the present thesis, the critical and off-critical behaviors of quantum spin chains in presence of a random or an aperiodic perturbation of the couplings is studied. The critical behavior of the Ising and Potts random quantum chains is known to be governed by the same Infinite-Disorder Fixed Point. We have implemented a numerical version of the Strong-Disorder Renormalization Group (SDRG) to test this prediction. We then studied the quantum random Ashkin-Teller chain by Density Matrix Renormalization Group. The phase diagram, previously obtained by SDRG, is confirmed by estimating the location of the peaks of the integrated autocorrelation times of both the spin-spin and polarization-polarization autocorrelation functions and of the disorder fluctuations of magnetization and polarization. Finally, the existence of a double-Griffiths phase is shown by a detailed study of the decay of the off-critical autocorrelation functions. As expected, a divergence of the dynamical exponent is observed along the two transition lines. In the aperiodic case, we studied both the Ising and Potts quantum chains. Using numerical SDRG, we confirmed the known analytical results for the Ising chains and proposed a new estimate of the magnetic scaling dimension.For the quantum q-state Potts chain, we estimated the magnetic scaling dimension for various aperiodic sequences and showed that it is independent of q for all sequences with a vanishing wandering exponent. However, we observed that the dynamical exponent is finite and increases with the number of states q. In contrast, for the Rudin-Shapiro sequence, the results are compatible with an Infinite-Disorder Fixed Point with a diverging dynamical exponent, equipe de renormalization

•Dec 5, 2016•0 citations
Quasiperiodic systems are aperiodic but deterministic, so their critical behavior differs from that of clean systems and disordered ones as well. Quasiperiodic criticality was previously understood only in the special limit where the couplings follow discrete quasiperiodic sequences. Here we consider generic quasiperiodic modulations; we find, remarkably, that for a wide class of spin chains, generic quasiperiodic modulations flow to discrete sequences under a real-space renormalization-group transformation. These discrete sequences are therefore fixed points of a functional renormalization group. This observation allows for an asymptotically exact treatment of the critical points. We use this approach to analyze the quasiperiodic Heisenberg, Ising, and Potts spin chains, as well as a phenomenological model for the quasiperiodic many-body localization transition.
Quantum critical points in quasiperiodic magnets can realize new universality classes, with critical properties distinct from those of clean or disordered systems. Here, we study quantum phase transitions separating ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases in the quasiperiodic q-state Potts model in 2+1D. Using a controlled real-space renormalization group approach, we find that the critical behavior is largely independent of q, and is controlled by an infinite-quasiperiodicity fixed point. The correlation length exponent is found to be ν=1, saturating a modified version of the Harris-Luck criterion.
Topological classifications of quantum critical systems have recently attracted growing interest, as they go beyond the traditional paradigms of condensed matter and statistical physics. However, such classifications remain largely unexplored in aperiodic environments, particularly under quasiperiodic modulations. In this Letter, we uncover a family of topological quasiperiodic fixed points with critical scalings intermediate between the clean and infinite-randomness limits. By exactly solving the quasiperiodic cluster-Ising chain, we demonstrate that all phase boundaries separating quasiperiodically modulated phases are governed by topological Ising-like fixed points unique to strongly modulated quasiperiodic systems. Although their local bulk critical properties match those of conventional quasiperiodic Ising critical points reported before, these fixed points host robust topological edge degeneracies and exhibit a distinct symmetry-enriched realization of the quasiperiodic Ising criticality, as further supported by complementary lattice simulations.
Unlike random potentials, quasiperiodic modulation can induce localization-delocalization transitions in one dimension. In this Letter, we analyze the implications of this for symmetry breaking in the quasiperiodically modulated quantum Ising chain. Although weak modulation is irrelevant, strong modulation induces new ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases which are fully localized and gapless. The quasiperiodic potential and localized excitations lead to quantum criticality that is intermediate to that of the clean and randomly disordered models with exponents of ν=1^{+} (exact) and z≈1.9, Δ_{σ}≈0.16, and Δ_{γ}≈0.63 (up to logarithmic corrections). Technically, the clean Ising transition is destabilized by logarithmic wandering of the local reduced couplings. We conjecture that the wandering coefficient w controls the universality class of the quasiperiodic transition and show its stability to smooth perturbations that preserve the quasiperiodic structure of the model.
We employ an adaptation of a strong-disorder renormalization group technique in order to analyze the ferro–paramagnetic quantum phase transition of Ising chains with aperiodic but deterministic couplings under the action of a transverse field. In the presence of marginal or relevant geometric fluctuations induced by aperiodicity, for which the critical behavior is expected to depart from the Onsager universality class, we derive analytical and asymptotically exact expressions for various critical exponents (including the correlation length and the magnetization exponents, which are not easily obtainable by other methods), and shed light onto the nature of the ground-state structures in the neighborhood of the critical point. The main results obtained by this approach are confirmed by finite-size scaling analyses of numerical calculations based on the free-fermion method.
We analyze the finite-size scaling of the average gap ratio and the entanglement entropy across the many-body localization (MBL) transition in one dimensional Heisenberg spin chain with quasiperiodic (QP) potential. By using the recently introduced cost-function approach, we compare different scenarios for the transition using exact diagonalization of systems up to 22 lattice sites. Our findings suggest that the MBL transition in the QP Heisenberg chain belongs to the class of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, the same as in the case of uniformly disordered systems as advocated in recent studies. Moreover, we observe that the critical disorder strength shows a clear sublinear drift with the system size as compared to the linear drift seen in random disordered models, suggesting that the finite-size effects in the MBL transition for the QP systems are less severe than that in the random disordered scenario. Moreover, deep in the ergodic regime, we find an unexpected double-peak structure of distribution of on-site magnetizations that can be traced back to the strong correlations present in the QP potential.
In the present thesis, the critical and off-critical behaviors of quantum spin chains in presence of a random or an aperiodic perturbation of the couplings is studied. The critical behavior of the Ising and Potts random quantum chains is known to be governed by the same Infinite-Disorder Fixed Point. We have implemented a numerical version of the Strong-Disorder Renormalization Group (SDRG) to test this prediction. We then studied the quantum random Ashkin-Teller chain by Density Matrix Renormalization Group. The phase diagram, previously obtained by SDRG, is confirmed by estimating the location of the peaks of the integrated autocorrelation times of both the spin-spin and polarization-polarization autocorrelation functions and of the disorder fluctuations of magnetization and polarization. Finally, the existence of a double-Griffiths phase is shown by a detailed study of the decay of the off-critical autocorrelation functions. As expected, a divergence of the dynamical exponent is observed along the two transition lines. In the aperiodic case, we studied both the Ising and Potts quantum chains. Using numerical SDRG, we confirmed the known analytical results for the Ising chains and proposed a new estimate of the magnetic scaling dimension.For the quantum q-state Potts chain, we estimated the magnetic scaling dimension for various aperiodic sequences and showed that it is independent of q for all sequences with a vanishing wandering exponent. However, we observed that the dynamical exponent is finite and increases with the number of states q. In contrast, for the Rudin-Shapiro sequence, the results are compatible with an Infinite-Disorder Fixed Point with a diverging dynamical exponent, equipe de renormalization