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arXiv:2608.20501

Quantum critical behavior in chains of hindered dipolar planar rotors

Wenxue Zhang, Muhammad Shaeer Moeed, Estevão Oliveira Júnior, Hui Li, Pierre–Nicholas Roy

Published Aug 20, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study the ground-state properties of linear chains of dipolar planar rotors hindered by a six-fold on-site potential, a model motivated by water molecules confined in the hexagonal cavities of beryl. Using density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations, we locate the quantum phase transition between the disordered and ferroelectrically ordered phases using the von Neumann entanglement entropy and the Binder ratio of the polarization. A sweep of the six-fold pinning strength shows that increasing hindrance shifts the critical dipolar coupling gc to smaller values. These results suggest that crystal-field hindrance can promote, rather than suppress, dipolar ordering. This work has implications for ferroelectricity and quantum-device tuning in confined molecular rotors

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2608.20501

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In this work, we perform a density matrix renormalization group study of chains of planar rotors interacting via dipolar interactions. By exploring the ground state from weakly to strongly interacting rotors, we find the occurrence of a quantum phase transition between a disordered and a dipole-ordered quantum state. We show that the nature of the ordered state changes from ferroelectric to antiferroelectric when the relative orientation of the rotor planes varies and that this change requires no modification of the overall symmetry. The observed quantum phase transitions are characterized by critical exponents and central charges, which reveal different universality classes ranging from that of the (1 + 1)D Ising model to the 2D classical XY model.
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In this work, we develop a theoretical description of the collective behavior of interacting dipolar planar rotors by using time independent perturbation theory and a small angle quadratic approximation. The ground state properties for both the ordered and disordered quantum phases of the system are directly calculated and analyzed. Time-independent perturbation theory is shown to be appropriate for the disordered phase. For the ordered phase, we construct a quadratic approximation based on the stable equilibrium configurations of the dipolar ordering; we show that the inclusion of the quartic terms from the expansion of the potential energy are essential to correct the shift in the energy spectrum due to quantization ambiguities. Numerical techniques such as Exact Diagonalization and Density Matrix Renormalization Group are used for the benchmark the quality of both approximations.
Fullerene cages allow the confinement of single molecules and the construction of molecular assemblies whose properties strongly differ from those of free species. In this work, we employ the density-matrix renormalization group method to show that chains of fullerenes filled with polar molecules (LiF, HF, and H 2 O) can form dipole-ordered quantum phases. In symmetry broken environments, these ordered phases are ferroelectric, a property that makes them promising candidates for quantum devices. We demonstrate that for a given guest molecule, the occurrence of these quantum phases can be enforced or influenced either by changing the effective electric dipole moment or by isotopic substitution. In the ordered phase, all systems under consideration are characterized by universal behavior that depends only on the ratio of the effective electric dipole and of the rotational constant. A phase diagram is derived, and further molecules are proposed as candidates for dipole-ordered endofullerene chains.