arXiv:2012.07470 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B
Mixed-order transition in the antiferromagnetic quantum Ising chain in a field
Péter Lajkó, Ferenc Iglói
Abstract
The antiferromagnetic quantum Ising chain has a quantum critical point which belongs to the universality class of the transverse Ising model (TIM). When a longitudinal field ($h$) is switched on, the phase transition is preserved, which turns to first order for $h/\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}, \mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$ being the strength of the transverse field. Here we will re-examine the critical properties along the phase transition line. During a quantum block renormalization group calculation, the TIM fixed point for $h/\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}>0$ is found to be unstable. Using DMRG techniques, we calculated the entanglement entropy and the spin-spin correlation function, both of which signaled a divergent correlation length at the transition point with the TIM exponents. At the same time, the bulk correlation function has a jump and the end-to-end correlation function has a discontinuous derivative at the transition point. Consequently for finite $h/\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$ the transition is of mixed order.