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arXiv:2512.19523 · Physical Review Letters

Boundary Criticality at the Nishimori Multicritical Point

Anonymous, Xinyu Sun, Shao-Kai Jian

Published Jul 13, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study boundary criticality at the Nishimori multicritical point of the two-dimensional (2D) random-bond Ising model. Using tensor-network methods, we construct a family of microscopic boundary conditions that incorporates both boundary-spin rotation and boundary disorder. We identify three conformal boundary fixed points, corresponding to free, fixed, and random boundary conditions, and map out the boundary renormalization group flows among them. We extract the corresponding boundary conformal data, including the boundary entropies and the scaling dimensions of boundary primary operators, which characterize the boundary universality class. At the free boundary fixed point, we uncover the multifractal scaling of boundary-spin fields. We further complement the numerical results with a controlled renormalization group analysis. Finally, we connect the boundary conformal data to quantum error-correcting codes, establishing a bridge between boundary universality class and boundary decoding threshold.

DOI
10.1103/khwm-xzvw

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We study boundary criticality at the Nishimori multicritical point of the two-dimensional (2D) random-bond Ising model. Using tensor-network methods, we construct a family of microscopic boundary conditions that incorporates both boundary-spin rotation and boundary disorder. We identify three conformal boundary fixed points, corresponding to free, fixed, and random boundary conditions, and map out the boundary renormalization group flows among them. We extract the corresponding boundary conformal data, including the boundary entropies and the scaling dimensions of boundary primary operators, which characterize the boundary universality class. At the free boundary fixed point, we uncover the multifractal scaling of boundary-spin fields. We further complement the numerical results with a controlled renormalization group analysis. Finally, we connect the boundary conformal data to quantum error-correcting codes, establishing a bridge between boundary universality class and boundary decoding threshold.
The edge of a quantum critical system can exhibit multiple distinct types of boundary criticality. We use a numerical real-space renormalization group (RSRG) to study the boundary criticality of a 2d quantum Ising model with random exchange couplings and transverse fields, whose bulk exhibits an infinite randomness critical point. This approach enables an asymptotically numerically exact extraction of universal scaling data from very large systems with many thousands of spins that cannot be efficiently simulated directly. We identify three distinct classes of boundary criticality, and extract key scaling exponents governing boundary-boundary and boundary-bulk correlations and dynamics. We anticipate that this approach can be generalized to studying a broad class of (disordered) boundary criticality, including symmetry-enriched criticality and edge modes of gapless symmetry-protected topological states, in contexts were other numerical methods are restricted to one-dimensional chains.
The ±J Ising model is a simple frustrated spin model, where the exchange couplings independently take the discrete value -J with probability p and +J with probability 1-p. It is especially appealing due to its connection to quantum error correcting codes. Here, we investigate the nonequilibrium critical behavior of the two-dimensional ±J Ising model, after a quench from different initial conditions to a critical point T_{c}(p) on the paramagnetic-ferromagnetic (PF) transition line, especially above, below, and at the multicritical Nishimori point (NP). The dynamical critical exponent z_{c} seems to exhibit nonuniversal behavior for quenches above and below the NP, which is identified as a preasymptotic feature due to the repulsive fixed point at the NP, whereas for a quench directly to the NP, the dynamics reaches the asymptotic regime with z_{c}≃6.02(6). We also consider the geometrical spin clusters (of like spin signs) during the critical dynamics. Each universality class on the PF line is uniquely characterized by the stochastic Loewner evolution with corresponding parameter κ. Moreover, for the critical quenches from the paramagnetic phase, the model, irrespective of the frustration, exhibits an emergent critical percolation topology at the large length scales.
Understanding the universality class of continuous phase transition is of central importance in condensed matter physics. In one spatial dimension, the universal properties are encoded in the conformal field theory (CFT), which is in turn specified by the conformal data. In this thesis, we propose a systematic method to extract complete and accurate conformal data from the critical quantum spin chain based on the operator-state correspondence, thus completing the project initiated by Cardy and others in the 80's. \n \nOur method is based on the low-energy eigenstates of the critical quantum spin chain with periodic boundary conditions. First, scaling dimensions and conformal spins are extracted by the energies and momenta. Second, the primary states and conformal towers are identified by using the Koo-Saleur lattice Virasoro generators. Third, we propose a systematic way of identifying lattice operators with CFT operators, which enables us to compute operator product expansion coefficients from the low-energy eigenstates. Finally, the whole approach is generalized to critical quantum spin chains with antiperiodic boundary condition. In order to reduce finite-size corrections, we put forward the periodic uniform matrix product state (puMPS) algorithm which enables us to compute low-energy eigenstates of a critical quantum spin chain up to several hundreds of spins. Our method also enables us to study nonperturbatively the renormalization group flow between two CFTs as well as explore the emergence of extended symmetries beyond conformal symmetry. \n \nWe test our method with the Ising model and its generalization due to O'Brien and Fendley. The latter model is featured by a tricritical point described by the tricritical Ising CFT and a line of critical points interpolating between the Ising CFT and the tricritical Ising CFT. We extract complete conformal data from the two models and find excellent agreement with analytical results. Furthermore, we study the spectral renormalization group flow between the two CFTs nonperturbatively. At the tricritical point, the underlying CFT has an extended symmetry, the superconformal symmetry. We propose lattice operators that correspond to supervirasoro generators and verify their action on low-energy eigenstates. In this way we study the emergence of superconformal symmetry in critical quantum spin chains.
We numerically study the phase diagram and critical properties of the two-dimensional disordered O(n) loop model by using the transfer matrix and the worm Monte Carlo methods. The renormalization group flow is extracted from the landscape of the effective central charge obtained by the transfer matrix method based on the Zamolodchikov's C-theorem. We find a line of random fixed points (FPs) for nc<n<1n_c < n <1nc​<n<1, with nc∼0.5n_c \sim 0.5nc​∼0.5, for which the central charge and critical exponents agree well with the results of the 1−n1-n1−n perturbative expansion. Furthermore, for n>ncn> n_cn>nc​, we find a line of multicritical FPs at strong randomness. The FP at n=1n=1n=1 has c=0.4612(4)c=0.4612(4)c=0.4612(4), which suggests that it belongs to the universality class of the Nishimori point in the ±J\pm J±J random-bond Ising model. For n>2n>2n>2, we find another critical line that connects the hard-hexagon FP in the pure model to a finite-randomness zero-temperature FP.
In circuit-based quantum state preparation, qubit loss and coherent errors are circuit imperfections that imperil the formation of long-range entanglement beyond a certain threshold. The critical theory at the threshold is a continuous entanglement transition known to be described by a ( 2 + 0 ) -dimensional nonunitary conformal field theory which, for the two types of imperfections of certain circuits, is described by either percolation or Nishimori criticality, respectively. Here we study the threshold behavior when the two types of errors occur and show that, when moving away from the Clifford regime of projective stabilizer measurements, the percolation critical point becomes unstable and the critical theory flows to Nishimori universality. We track this critical renormalization group (RG) crossover flow by mapping out the entanglement phase diagrams, parametrized by the probability and strength of random weak measurements, of two dual protocols preparing surface code or GHZ-class cat states from a parent cluster state via constant-depth circuits. Extensive numerical simulations, using hybrid Gaussian fermion and tensor network/Monte Carlo sampling techniques on systems with more than a million qubits, demonstrate that an infinitesimal deviation from the Clifford regime leads to a sudden, strongly nonmonotonic entanglement growth at the incipient nonunitary RG flow. We argue that spectra of scaling dimensions of both the percolation and Nishimori fixed points exhibit . For percolation, we provide the exact (nonquadratic) multifractal spectrum of exponents, while for the Nishimori fixed point we show high-precision numerical results for five leading exponents characterizing multifractality.
Abstract The Nishimori point of the random bond Ising model is a prototype of renormalization group fixed points with strong disorder. We show that the exact correlation length and crossover critical exponents at this point can be identified in two and three spatial dimensions starting from properties of the Nishimori line. These are the first exact exponents for frustrated random magnets, a circumstance to be also contrasted with the fact that the exact exponents of the Ising model without disorder are not known in three dimensions. Our considerations extend to higher dimensions and models other than Ising.