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arXiv:1910.10409 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Critical behavior of Anderson transitions in three-dimensional orthogonal classes with particle-hole symmetries

Xunlong Luo, Baolong Xu, Tomi Ohtsuki, Ryuichi Shindou

Published Jan 21, 2020• 15 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Identifying unconventional quantum phase transitions is one of the most fundamental subjects in quantum physics. To this end, critical exponents in disorder-driven quantum phase transitions in Weyl semimetals and symmetry-protected topological phases have been extensively studied in recent years. In this Rapid Communication, we provide precise critical exponent of the Anderson metal-insulator transition in three-dimensional (3D) orthogonal class with particle-hole symmetry, class CI, as $\ensuremath{\nu}=1.16\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02$. We further study disorder-driven quantum phase transitions in the 3D nodal line Dirac semimetal model, which belongs to class BDI, and estimate the critical exponent as $\ensuremath{\nu}=0.80\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02$. From a comparison of the exponents, we conclude that a disorder-driven reentrant insulator-metal transition from the topological insulator phase in the class BDI to the metal phase belongs to the same universality class as the Anderson transition in the 3D class BDI. We also argue that small disorder drives the nodal line Dirac semimetal in the clean limit to the metal.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.101.020202

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Identifying unconventional quantum phase transitions is one of the most fundamental subjects in quantum physics. To this end, critical exponents in disorder-driven quantum phase transitions in Weyl semimetals and symmetry-protected topological phases have been extensively studied in recent years. In this Rapid Communication, we provide precise critical exponent of the Anderson metal-insulator transition in three-dimensional (3D) orthogonal class with particle-hole symmetry, class CI, as \ensuremathν=1.16\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.02\ensuremath{\nu}=1.16\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02\ensuremathν=1.16\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.02. We further study disorder-driven quantum phase transitions in the 3D nodal line Dirac semimetal model, which belongs to class BDI, and estimate the critical exponent as \ensuremathν=0.80\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.02\ensuremath{\nu}=0.80\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02\ensuremathν=0.80\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.02. From a comparison of the exponents, we conclude that a disorder-driven reentrant insulator-metal transition from the topological insulator phase in the class BDI to the metal phase belongs to the same universality class as the Anderson transition in the 3D class BDI. We also argue that small disorder drives the nodal line Dirac semimetal in the clean limit to the metal.
The quantum phase transition between the three dimensional Dirac semimetal and the diffusive metal can be induced by increasing disorder. Taking the system of a disordered Z2 topological insulator as an important example, we compute the single particle density of states by the kernel polynomial method. We focus on three regions: the Dirac semimetal at the phase boundary between two topologically distinct phases, the tricritical point of the two topological insulator phases and the diffusive metal, and the diffusive metal lying at strong disorder. The density of states obeys a novel single parameter scaling, collapsing onto two branches of a universal scaling function, which correspond to the Dirac semimetal and the diffusive metal. The diverging length scale critical exponent ν and the dynamical critical exponent z are estimated, and found to differ significantly from those for the conventional Anderson transition. Critical behavior of experimentally observable quantities near and at the tricritical point is also discussed.
We study a non-Anderson disorder driven quantum phase transition in a semi-infinite Dirac semimetal with a flat boundary. The conformally invariant boundary conditions, which include those that are time-reversal invariant, lead to nodal-like surface states on the boundary. In this case the boundary becomes metallic at a critical disorder that is weaker than that for the semimetal-diffusive metal transition in the bulk. The latter transition takes place in the presence of a metallic surface; in the language of surface critical phenomena this corresponds to the so-called extraordinary transition. The lines of the surface and the extraordinary transitions meet at the special transition point. To elucidate universal properties at different transitions on the phase diagram, we employ renormalization group methods and compute the corresponding surface critical exponents using $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$ expansion.
We discuss the effects of disorder in time-reversal-invariant topological insulators and superconductors in three spatial dimensions. For three-dimensional topological insulator in the symplectic (AII) symmetry class, the phase diagram in the presence of disorder and a mass term, which drives a transition between trivial and topological insulator phases, is computed numerically by the transfer matrix method. The numerics is supplemented by a field-theory analysis (the large-Nf{N}_{f}Nf​ expansion, where Nf{N}_{f}Nf​ is the number of valleys or Dirac cones), from which we obtain the correlation length exponent, and several anomalous dimensions at a nontrivial critical point separating a metallic phase and a Dirac semimetal. A similar-field theory approach is developed for disorder-driven transitions in symmetry classes AIII, CI, and DIII. For these three symmetry classes, where topological superconductors are characterized by integer topological invariant, a complementary description is given in terms of the nonlinear sigma model supplemented with a topological term, which is a three-dimensional analog of the Pruisken term in the integer quantum Hall effect.
In electronic band structure of solid state material, two band touching points with linear dispersion appear in pair in the momentum space. When they annihilate with each other, the system undergoes a quantum phase transition from three-dimensional Weyl semimetal (WSM) phase to a band insulator phase such as Chern band insulator (CI) phase. The phase transition is described by a new critical theory with a `magnetic dipole' like object in the momentum space. In this paper, we reveal that the critical theory hosts a novel disorder-driven quantum multicritical point, which is encompassed by three quantum phases, renormalized WSM phase, CI phase, and diffusive metal (DM) phase. Based on the renormalization group argument, we first clarify scaling properties around the band touching points at the quantum multicritical point as well as all phase boundaries among these three phases. Based on numerical calculations of localization length, density of states and critical conductance distribution, we next prove that a localization-delocalization transition between the CI phase with a finite zero-energy density of states (zDOS) and DM phase belongs to an ordinary 3D unitary class. Meanwhile, a localization-delocalization transition between the Chern insulator phase with zero zDOS and a renormalized Weyl semimetal (WSM) phase turns out to be a direct phase transition whose critical exponent ν=0.80±0.01\nu=0.80\pm 0.01ν=0.80±0.01. We interpret these numerical results by a renormalization group analysis on the critical theory.
Progress in the understanding of quantum critical properties of itinerant electrons has been hindered by the lack of effective models which are amenable to controlled analytical and numerically exact calculations. Here we establish that the disorder-driven semimetal to metal quantum phase transition of three-dimensional massless Dirac fermions could serve as a paradigmatic toy model for studying itinerant quantum criticality, which is solved in this work by exact numerical and approximate field-theoretic calculations. As a result, we establish the robust existence of a non-Gaussian universality class, and also construct the relevant low-energy effective field theory that could guide the understanding of quantum critical scaling for many strange metals. Using the kernel polynomial method (KPM), we provide numerical results for the calculated dynamical exponent (zzz) and correlation length exponent ($\ensuremath{\nu}$) for the disorder-driven semimetal (SM) to diffusive metal (DM) quantum phase transition at the Dirac point for several types of disorder, establishing its universal nature and obtaining the numerical scaling functions in agreement with our field-theoretical analysis.
We study quantum phase transitions of three-dimensional disordered systems in the chiral classes (AIII and BDI) with and without weak topological indices. We show that the systems with a nontrivial weak topological index universally exhibit an emergent thermodynamic phase where wave functions are delocalized along one spatial direction but exponentially localized in the other two spatial directions, which we call the quasilocalized phase. Our extensive numerical study clarifies that the critical exponent of the Anderson transition between the metallic and quasilocalized phases, as well as that between the quasilocalized and localized phases, are different from that with no weak topological index, signaling the new universality classes induced by topology. The quasilocalized phase and concomitant topological Anderson transition manifest themselves in the anisotropic transport phenomena of disordered weak topological insulators and nodal-line semimetals, which exhibit the metallic behavior in one direction but the insulating behavior in the other directions.