Distinguished from the system with one order parameter, systems described by two or more order parameters will manifest more complex and much richer phase diagram and critical phenomena. In systems of two order parameters, the phase transition of one order parameter may influence the strength of another. Focus on the Landau's theory of continuous phase transitions, we give a general physcial quantity to decide the changing rate of the two order parameters based on a general formula of free energy. Taking two-mode Rabi model and the 1D Fermi Dicke model as the examples, we verify our analytical results and show how the superradiant phase transition manipulates the two-spin pairing strength and the superconductor band gap. Our work proposes the new paradigm to study the complex systems with two or more order parameters and provides novel avenue to enhancing or suppressing the desired physical effect by such interplay.
Distinguished from the system with one order parameter, systems described by two or more order parameters will manifest more complex and much richer phase diagram and critical phenomena. In systems of two order parameters, the phase transition of one order parameter may influence the strength of another. Focus on the Landau's theory of continuous phase transitions, we give a general physcial quantity to decide the changing rate of the two order parameters based on a general formula of free energy. Taking two-mode Rabi model and the 1D Fermi Dicke model as the examples, we verify our analytical results and show how the superradiant phase transition manipulates the two-spin pairing strength and the superconductor band gap. Our work proposes the new paradigm to study the complex systems with two or more order parameters and provides novel avenue to enhancing or suppressing the desired physical effect by such interplay.
The continuous phase transition, indicated by the macroscopic order parameter and the occurrence of the spontaneous symmetry breaking, is well illustrated based on the Ginzburg-Landau's paradigm. In systems described by one order parameter, the phase diagram is only composed of the normal phase and the ordered phase. However, in systems with two or more order parameters, much richer phase diagrams and critical phenomena may emerge. According to coupling terms of the free energy, we classify the systems with two order parameters into several categories, featuring different patterns of phase diagrams and critical scalings respectively. Our work propose the new avenue to studying and evaluating the complex systems only based on the coupling terms in expressions of free energy.
The controllability of current quantum technologies allows one to implement spin-boson models where two-photon couplings are the dominating terms of light-matter interaction. In this case, when the coupling strength becomes comparable with the characteristic frequencies, a spectral collapse can take place, i.e., the discrete system spectrum can collapse into a continuous band. Here, we analyze the thermodynamic limit of the two-photon Dicke model, which describes the interaction of an ensemble of qubits with a single bosonic mode. We find that there exists a parameter regime where two-photon interactions induce a superradiant phase transition, before the spectral collapse occurs. Furthermore, we extend the mean-field analysis by considering second-order quantum fluctuation terms, in order to analyze the low-energy spectrum and compare the critical behavior with the one-photon case.
We explore the quantum criticality of a two-site model combining quantum Rabi models with hopping interaction. Through a combination of analytical and numerical approaches, we find that the model allows the appearance of a superradiant quantum phase transition (QPT) even in the presence of strong A2 terms, preventing single-site superradiance. In the two-site model the effect of A2 terms can be surmounted by the photon delocalization from hopping, and a reversed superradiant QPT occurs as a consequence of the competition between A2 terms and the hopping interaction. We characterize the phase diagram and scaling functions and extract the critical exponents in the vicinity of the critical point, thus establishing the universal behavior of the second-order phase transition. Remarkably the effective hopping strength will be enhanced if more cavities are cascaded. We also prove that the multiqubit counterpart of the quantum Rabi dimer, i.e., the Dicke dimer, has the same properties in beating the A2 effect. Our work provides a path to the study of phase transitions in the presence of the A2 terms and offers the prospect of investigating quantum-criticality physics and quantum devices in many-body systems.
Abstract Phase transitions are both thermodynamically and quantum-mechanically ubiquitous in nature and laboratories, and their understanding remains one of the most active issues in modern physics and related disciplines. The Landau theory provides a general framework to describe phenomenologically phase transitions by introducing order parameters and associated symmetry breaking. This theory is also taken as a starting point to explore critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions in the renormalization group, which provides a complete theoretical description of behaviors close to critical points. In this context, the microscopic mechanism of phase transitions remains unclear. In this study, we explore the microscopic mechanism of the superradiant phase transition in the quantum Rabi model (QRM). First, we perform a diagonalization operation in an operator space to obtain three fundamental patterns, denoted as λ 1 , λ 2 , and λ 3 , involved in the QRM. Then, we explicitly analyze the energy evolutions of these patterns with increasing coupling strength. The observed characteristic behaviors reveal the microscopic mechanism of the superradiant phase transition as a consequence of competition between patterns due to different phase relations. In other words, with increasing coupling strength, the pattern λ 1 drives the phase transition, the pattern λ 2 exhibits a similar response speed but less energy compensation than the pattern λ 1 , and the pattern λ 3 exhibits a slow response speed but plays a key role in the balance between it and the pattern λ 1 , which stabilizes the new phase. This type of dissecting mechanism explains why and how the superradiant phase transition occurs in the QRM and paves the way for exploring the microscopic mechanism of phase transitions that occur frequently in nature.
Although the superradiant phase transition (SRPT) is prohibited in the paradigmatic quantum Rabi model due to the no-go theorem caused by the A2 term, we demonstrate two distinct types of SRPTs emerging from the normal phase in the anisotropic quantum Rabi model. A discontinuous phase transition between the two types of superradiant phases also emerges in the presence of a strong A2 term. Additionally, a rich phase diagram featuring a triple point, which connects first- and second-order phase transitions, is derived analytically and confirmed through numerical diagonalization at large effective system sizes. Finally, distinct critical behavior at the triple point is revealed and contrasted with that of a single continuous SRPT. This work may open a new avenue for observing SRPTs in their intrinsic form without altering the A2 term, while also offering a practical platform for exploring rich quantum phenomena.
We investigate a generalized Dicke model by introducing two interacting spin ensembles coupled with a single-mode bosonic field. Apart from the normal to superradiant phase transition induced by the strong spin-boson coupling, interactions between the two spin ensembles enrich the phase diagram by introducing ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases. The mean-field approach reveals a phase diagram comprising three phases: paramagnetic-normal phase, ferromagnetic-superradiant phase, and antiferromagnetic-normal phase. Ferromagnetic spin-spin interaction can significantly reduce the required spin-boson coupling strength to observe the superradiant phase, where the macroscopic excitation of the bosonic field occurs. Conversely, antiferromagnetic spin-spin interaction can strongly suppress the superradiant phase. To examine higher-order quantum effects beyond the mean-field contribution, we utilize the Holstein-Primakoff transformation, which converts the generalized Dicke model into three coupled harmonic oscillators in the thermodynamic limit. Near the critical point, we observe the close of the energy gap between the ground and the first excited states, the divergence of entanglement entropy and quantum fluctuation in certain quadrature. These observations further confirm the quantum phase transition and offer additional insights into critical behaviors.