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arXiv:1908.09245 · Annalen der Physik

Variational Study of the Two‐Impurity Spin–Boson Model with a Common Ohmic Bath: Ground‐State Phase Transitions

Nengji Zhou, Yuyu Zhang, Zhiguo Lü, Yang Zhao

Published Sep 17, 2018• 15 citations
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Abstract

Abstract By means of a trial wave function, the multi‐D1 ansatz, extensive variational calculations with more than 10 000 parameters are carried out to study quantum phase transitions in the ground states of a two‐impurity system embedded in a common Ohmic bath of bosons. Quantum criticality in both the impurity system and the Ohmic bosonic bath is investigated with relevant transition points and critical exponents determined accurately. With the linear grid of the Ohmic spectral density, numerical calculations herein produce a much better description of the ground states with lower energies than other calculations employing a logarithmic grid with a discretization factor far greater than unity. This offers a possible resolution to the considerable controversy on the critical coupling in the literature. Moreover, the ground‐state phase transition is inferred to be of first order in the presence of strong antiferromagnetic spin–spin coupling, at variance with that in the ferromagnetic regime or in the absence of spin–spin coupling where the transition belongs to the Kosterlitz–Thouless universality class.

DOI
10.1002/andp.201800120

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Abstract By means of a trial wave function, the multi‐D1 ansatz, extensive variational calculations with more than 10 000 parameters are carried out to study quantum phase transitions in the ground states of a two‐impurity system embedded in a common Ohmic bath of bosons. Quantum criticality in both the impurity system and the Ohmic bosonic bath is investigated with relevant transition points and critical exponents determined accurately. With the linear grid of the Ohmic spectral density, numerical calculations herein produce a much better description of the ground states with lower energies than other calculations employing a logarithmic grid with a discretization factor far greater than unity. This offers a possible resolution to the considerable controversy on the critical coupling in the literature. Moreover, the ground‐state phase transition is inferred to be of first order in the presence of strong antiferromagnetic spin–spin coupling, at variance with that in the ferromagnetic regime or in the absence of spin–spin coupling where the transition belongs to the Kosterlitz–Thouless universality class.
By employing a variational approach, the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG), the exact diagonalization, and symmetry and mean-field analyses, the ground-state properties of the two-bath spin-boson model with simultaneous diagonal and off-diagonal coupling are systematically studied in the sub-Ohmic regime. A quantum phase transition from a doubly degenerate ``localized phase'' to the other doubly degenerate ``delocalized phase'' is uncovered. Via the multi-D1{\mathrm{D}}_{1}D1​ Ansatz as the variational wave function, transition points are determined accurately, consistent with the results from DMRG and exact diagonalization. An effective spatial dimension deff=2.37(6){d}_{\mathrm{eff}}=2.37(6)deff​=2.37(6) is then estimated, which is found to be compatible with the mean-field prediction. Furthermore, the quantum phase transition is inferred to be of first order for the baths described by a continuous spectral density function. In the single-mode case, however, the transition is softened.
Quantum phase transitions (QPTs) in the spin-boson model with/without the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) are systematically investigated through variational calculations using a sub-Ohmic bath with high spectral density. Four cases involving different system-environment interactions are examined, where transition points and critical exponents are accurately determined across varying tunneling strengths. Contrary to prior work, a rich phase diagram is revealed in the tunneling-coupling plane even at the low spectral exponent s<1/2s<1/2s<1/2, with a novel U(1)-symmetric phase being identified. As coupling increases, a multi-stage QPT sequence arises for the tunneling 0<Δ<Δ∗=0.074(1)0<Δ< Δ^*=0.074(1)0<Δ<Δ∗=0.074(1), whereas a single transition occurs beyond this range. Furthermore, an odd-parity phase is found to emerge even under the positive tunneling, exhibiting distinct characteristics relative to the prototype model.
A generalized trial wave function termed as the ``multi-D1{D}_{1}D1​ ansatz'' has been developed to study the ground state of the spin-boson model with simultaneous diagonal and off-diagonal coupling in the sub-Ohmic regime. Ground-state properties including energy and spin polarization are investigated, and the results are consistent with those from exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group approaches for the cases involving two oscillators and two baths described by a continuous spectral density function. Breakdown of the rotational and parity symmetries along the continuous quantum phase transition separating the localized phase from the critical phase has been uncovered. Moreover, the phase boundary is determined accurately with the corresponding rotational- and parity-symmetry parameters. A critical value of the spectral exponent s∗=0.49(1){s}^{*}=0.49(1)s∗=0.49(1) is predicted in the weak coupling limit, which is in agreement with the mean-field prediction of 1/21/21/2, but much smaller than the earlier literature estimate of 0.75(1)0.75(1)0.75(1).
By employing the spin-boson model in a dense limit of environmental modes, quantum entanglement and correlation of sub-Ohmic and Ohmic baths for dissipative quantum phase transitions are numerically investigated based on the variational principle. With several measures borrowed from quantum information theory, three different types of singularities are found for the first-order, second-order, and Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transitions, respectively, and the values of transition points and critical exponents are accurately determined. Besides, the scaling form of the quantum discord in the Ohmic case is identified, quite different from that in the sub-Ohmic regime. In a two-spin model, two distinct behaviors of the quantum discord are uncovered: one is related to the quantum entanglement between two spins and the other is decided by the correlation function in the position space rather than the entanglement.
The effectiveness of the variational approach \`a la Feynman is proved in the spin-boson model, i.e., the simplest realization of the Caldeira-Leggett model able to reveal the quantum phase transition from delocalized to localized states and the quantum dissipation and decoherence effects induced by a heat bath. After exactly eliminating the bath degrees of freedom, we propose a trial, nonlocal in time, interaction between the spin and itself simulating the coupling of the two-level system with the bosonic bath. It stems from a Hamiltonian where the spin is linearly coupled to a finite number of harmonic oscillators whose frequencies and coupling strengths are variationally determined. We show that a very limited number of these fictitious modes is enough to get a remarkable agreement, up to very low temperatures, with the data obtained by using an approximation-free Monte Carlo approach, predicting (1) in the Ohmic regime, a Berezinski-Thouless-Kosterlitz quantum phase transition exhibiting the typical universal jump at the critical value; and (2) in the sub-Ohmic regime ($s\ensuremath{\le}0.5$), mean-field quantum phase transitions, with logarithmic corrections for s=0.5s=0.5s=0.5.
We study the competition between Kondo physics and dissipation within an Anderson model of a magnetic impurity level that hybridizes with a metallic host and is also coupled, via the impurity charge, to the displacement of a bosonic bath having a spectral density proportional to ${\ensuremath{\omega}}^{s}$. As the impurity-bath coupling increases from zero, the effective Coulomb interaction between two electrons in the impurity level is progressively renormalized from its repulsive bare value until it eventually becomes attractive. For weak hybridization, this renormalization in turn produces a crossover from a conventional spin-sector Kondo effect to a charge Kondo effect. At particle-hole symmetry, and for sub-Ohmic bath exponents 0<s<10<s<10<s<1, further increase in the impurity-bath coupling results in a continuous zero-temperature transition to a broken-symmetry phase in which the ground-state impurity occupancy ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{n}}_{d}$ acquires an expectation value ${⟨{\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{n}}_{d}⟩}_{0}\ensuremath{\ne}1$. The response of the impurity occupancy to a locally applied electric potential features the hyperscaling of critical exponents and $\ensuremath{\omega}∕T$ scaling that are expected at an interacting critical point. The numerical values of the critical exponents suggest that the transition lies in the same universality class as that of the sub-Ohmic spin-boson model. For the Ohmic case s=1s=1s=1, the transition is instead of Kosterlitz-Thouless type. Away from particle-hole symmetry, the quantum phase transition is replaced by a smooth crossover but signatures of the symmetric quantum critical point remain in the physical properties at elevated temperatures and/or frequencies.