The nature of phase transitions involving the questions why and how phase transitions take place has not been sufficiently touched in the literature. In contrast, the current attention to certain extent still focus on the description of critical phenomena and the classification of the associated phase transition along with the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson paradigm, where the key issue is to identify phenomenologically order parameters and related symmetries. This brings the question to topological phase transitions (TPTs), where no obvious order parameter and the broken symmetry are identified. Here we present a unified pattern description of the second-order quantum phase transition (QPT) and TPT, both involved in the one-dimensional anisotropic quantum XY model in a transverse field, which contains the transverse Ising model (TIM) as a limit case. Away from the TIM, the XY model enters the ferromagnetic phase (marked by a second-order QPT or a direct TPT) as increasing ferromagentic exchange coupling, a series of TPTs occur, which are absent in the TIM. The TPTs behave like the first-order QPTs. In the isotropic and large exchange coupling cases, the ground state of the XY model is dominated by two topologically different vortices along positive and negative direction of the transverse field. We confirm the above conclusion by analyzing the energy contributions of the patterns to the ground state and calculating the ground state pattern occupations of the XY model. The results have been obtained in a unified and self-evident way and answer the questions why and how the QPT and TPTs take place in the XY model.
The nature of phase transitions involving the questions why and how phase transitions take place has not been sufficiently touched in the literature. In contrast, the current attention to certain extent still focus on the description of critical phenomena and the classification of the associated phase transition along with the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson paradigm, where the key issue is to identify phenomenologically order parameters and related symmetries. This brings the question to topological phase transitions (TPTs), where no obvious order parameter and the broken symmetry are identified. Here we present a unified pattern description of the second-order quantum phase transition (QPT) and TPT, both involved in the one-dimensional anisotropic quantum XY model in a transverse field, which contains the transverse Ising model (TIM) as a limit case. Away from the TIM, the XY model enters the ferromagnetic phase (marked by a second-order QPT or a direct TPT) as increasing ferromagentic exchange coupling, a series of TPTs occur, which are absent in the TIM. The TPTs behave like the first-order QPTs. In the isotropic and large exchange coupling cases, the ground state of the XY model is dominated by two topologically different vortices along positive and negative direction of the transverse field. We confirm the above conclusion by analyzing the energy contributions of the patterns to the ground state and calculating the ground state pattern occupations of the XY model. The results have been obtained in a unified and self-evident way and answer the questions why and how the QPT and TPTs take place in the XY model.
Despite the fact that a complete theoretical description of critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions has been well established through the renormalization-group theory, the microscopic nature of the phase transitions remains to be understood in a satisfactory way. For example, how does the interaction between particle/spins drive the system across distinct phases as parameters vary, and how do these particle/spins respond to parameter variations during this transition process? In this work, we investigate these questions through the paradigmatic example of quantum phase transitions (QPT) in the one-dimensional transverse Ising model (TIM). We first introduce 2L collective structures, referred to as patterns, for the TIM with L ferromagnetically interacting spins, and then analyze the contributions of these patterns to the system's states, e.g., the ground state, the first excited state, and so on, from which the analog of the QPT process between the disordered phase in the weakly coupling regime and the ferromagnetic phase in the strongly coupling regime is clearly identified at the interaction strength J_{c}=1. We systematically explore this process for small lattice sizes of L=6,8,10,12, whose ground-state energies are identical to those obtained by directly numerical exact diagonalization. Increasing the system size up to L=128, the actual QPT point located at J_{c}=1 in the thermodynamical limit is gradually approached. Our results show that the pattern picture is not only able to provide a microscopic process of phase transitions, but also of practical interest in analyzing analogues of QPT in diverse quantum simulation platforms.
Abstract Investigations into first-order quantum phase transition (QPT) remain unclear in comparison to those of the second-order or continuous QPT, in which the order parameter and associated broken symmetry can be clearly identified and, at the same time, the concepts of universality class and critical scaling can be characterized by critical exponents. Here, we present a comparison study of these two kinds of QPT in the transverse Ising model; the emphasis is on the first-order QPT. In the absence of a longitudinal field, the ground state of the model exhibits a second-order QPT from the paramagnetic phase to the ferromagnetic phase, which is smeared out once the longitudinal field is applied. Surprisingly, the first excited state involves a first-order QPT as the longitudinal field increases, which has not been reported in the literature. Within the framework of the pattern picture, we clearly identify the difference between these two kinds of QPT: for the continuous QPT, only the pattern flavoring the ferromagnetic phase is always dominant over the others. By contrast, there are at least two competitive patterns in the first-order QPT, which is further indicated by the patterns’ occupancies, calculated by pattern projections on the ground- and first excited-state wavefunctions. Our results not only have a fundamental significance in the understanding of the nature of QPTs, but also a practical interest in quantum simulations used to test the present findings.
The quantum phase transitions of one-dimensional period-two anisotropic XY models in a transverse field with the Hamiltonian where the anisotropy parameters i take and alternately, are studied. The Hamiltonian can be reduced to the diagonal form by Jordan-Wigner and Bogoliubov transformations. The long-range correlations Cx and Cy are calculated numerically. The phase with Cx Cy0 (or Cy Cx0) is referred to as the ferromagnetic (FM) phase along the x (or y) direction, while the phase with Cx=Cy=0 is the paramagnetic (PM) phase. It is found that the phase diagrams with the ratio -1 and =-1 are different obviously. For the case with -1, the line h=hc1=1-[(1-)/2]2 separates an FM phase from a PM phase, while the line =0 is the boundary between a ferromagnetic phase along the x direction (FMx) and a ferromagnetic phase along the y direction (FMy). These are similar to those of the uniform XY chains in a transverse field (i.e., =1). When =-1, the FMx and FMy phases disappear and there appears a new FM phase. The line h=hc2=1-2 separates this new FM phase from the PM phase. The new phase is gapless with two zeros in single particle energy spectrum. This is due to the new symmetry in the system with =-1, i.e., the Hamiltonian is invariant under the transformation 2ix 2i+1y,2iy 2i+1x. The correlation function between the 2i-1 and 2i lattice points along the x (y) direction is equal to that between the 2i and 2i+1 lattice points along the y (x) direction. As a result, the long-range correlation functions along two directions are equivalent. In order to facilitate the description, we call this gapless phase the isotropic ferromagnetic (FMxx) phase. Finally, the relationship between quantum entanglement and quantum phase transitions of the system is studied. The scaling behaviour of the von Neumann entropy at each point in the FMxx phase is SL~1/3log2L+ Const, which is similar to that at the anisotropic phase transition point of the uniform XY model in a transverse field, and different from those in the FMx and FMy phases.
We study the Kitaev-Ising model, where ferromagnetic Ising interactions are added to the Kitaev model on a lattice. This model has two phases which are characterized by topological and ferromagnetic order. Transitions between these two kinds of order are then studied on a quasi-one-dimensional system, on a ladder, and on a two-dimensional periodic lattice, a torus. By exactly mapping the quasi-one-dimensional case to an anisotropic XY chain we show that the transition occurs at zero $\ensuremath{\lambda}$, where $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ is the strength of the ferromagnetic coupling. In the two-dimensional case the model is mapped to a two-dimensional Ising model in transverse field, where it shows a transition at a finite value of $\ensuremath{\lambda}$. A mean-field treatment reveals the qualitative character of the transition and an approximate value for the transition point. Furthermore with perturbative calculation, we show that the expectation value of Wilson loops behaves as expected in the topological and ferromagnetic phases.
Abstract A uniform longitudinal field applied to the transverse Ising model (TIM) distinguishes the antiferromagnetic Ising interaction from its ferromagnetic counterpart. While the ground state of the latter shows no quantum phase transition (QPT), the ground state of the former exhibits rich phases: paramagnetic, antiferromagnetic, and possibly disordered phases. Although the first two are clearly identified, the existence of the disordered phase remains controversial. Here, we use the pattern picture to explore the competition among the antiferromagnetic Ising interaction J , the transverse field h x and the longitudinal field h z , and uncover which patterns are responsible for these three competing energy scales, thereby determining the possible phases and the QPTs among them. The system size ranges from L = 8 to 128 and the transverse field h x is fixed at 1. Under these parameters, our results show the existence of the disordered phase. For a small h z , the system transitions from a disordered phase to an antiferromagnetic phase as J increases. For a large h z , the system undergoes two phase transitions: from paramagnetic to disordered, and then to antiferromagnetic phase. These results not only unveil the rich physics of this paradigmatic model but also stimulate quantum simulation by using currently available experimental platforms.
Abstract In this study, a spin-1/2 extended anisotropic XY chain has been introduced in which both time reversal and SU(2) symmetries are broken but Z 2 symmetry is preserved. Magnetic and topological phase diagrams in the parameter space have been drawn in the presence of transverse magnetic field. Entanglement measures like mutual information and quantum discord are also evaluated and it indicates that these transitions are second order in nature. Quantum phase transition is noted at zero magnetic field, as well as magnetic long range order is found to withstand magnetic field of any strength. Exact analytic results for spin-spin correlation functions have been obtained in terms of Jordan-Wigner fermionization. Existence of long range magnetic order has been investigated numerically by finding correlation functions as well as the Binder cumulant in the ground state. Dispersion relation, ground state energy, and energy gap are obtained analytically. In order to find the topologically nontrivial phase, sign of Pfaffian invariant and value of winding number have been evaluated. Both magnetic and topological phases are robust against the magnetic field and found to move coercively in the parameter space with the variation of its strength. Long range orders along two orthogonal directions and two different topological phases are found and their one-to-one correspondence has been found. Finally casting the spinless fermions onto Majorana fermions, properties of zero energy edge states are studied. Three different kinds of Majorana pairings are noted. In the trivial phase, next-nearest-neighbor Majorana pairing is found, whereas two different types of nearest-neighbor Majorana pairings are identified in the topological superconducting phase.