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Journal of Physics C Solid State Physics

Quantum effects in the renormalization group approach to phase transitions

A. P. Young

Published Aug 7, 1975• 108 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The renormalization group approach to critical phenomena is developed for quantum mechanical problems with non-commuting operators. Applying the theory to the spin 1 / 2 Ising model with a transverse field Gamma it is found that the critical exponents are those of the Ising model with Gamma =0 if the transition occurs at T>0. However, for transitions at T=0 the critical behaviour of the d-dimensional transverse system corresponds to that of the (d+1)-dimensional Ising model with Gamma =0, in agreement with series expansion predictions. At T=0 the dynamic, as well as static, critical behaviour is given by mean field theory for d>3.

DOI
10.1088/0022-3719/8/15/001

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Journal of Physics C Solid State Physics•Sep 28, 1978•27 citations
The renormalization group approach to critical phenomena is developed for quantum mechanical problems with non-commuting operators. Applying the theory to the spin 1 / 2 Ising model with a transverse field Gamma it is found that the critical exponents are those of the Ising model with Gamma =0 if the transition occurs at T>0. However, for transitions at T=0 the critical behaviour of the d-dimensional transverse system corresponds to that of the (d+1)-dimensional Ising model with Gamma =0, in agreement with series expansion predictions. At T=0 the dynamic, as well as static, critical behaviour is given by mean field theory for d>3.
A newly developed zero-temperature real-space renormalization-group method is applied to the quantum Ising model with a transverse field on different two-dimensional lattices: hexagonal, triangular, and quadratic. The order parameter, spin-spin correlation functions, the critical fields, and the critical exponents describing the low-field-large-field transition are calculated. The influence of size and shape of the spin blocks used in the iterative process is discussed. The results for triangular and hexagonal lattices are new; for the quadratic lattice the calculations show an encouraging agreement with previous series-expansion results. The expected equivalence to the critical behavior of the three-dimensional Ising model is discussed: A reasonable agreement is obtained for the hexagonal lattice.
These lectures describe the physics of phase transitions and critical phenomena. After introducing the thermodynamics of phase transitions, these general considerations are made explicit by presenting statistical mechanical calculations on a lattice gas model in the mean-field approximation. Then the Landau theory of phase transitions is presented. The form of free energy in the Landau theory is motivated by an explicit mean field calculation for the Ising model. This is followed by a discussion of spatial correlations and the breakdown of the mean field theory due to increase of spatial fluctuations near the critical point. This calculation also brings out the role of dimension of the system for the critical behaviour. The basic ideas of Renormalization Group (RG) are then introduced and illustrated by a simple RG calculation for the one-dimensional Ising model. Real-space RG calculations are then applied to the two-dimensional Ising model on the triangular lattice, which, in fact, brings forth several key features of the RG technique. A discussion of more general aspects of the RG formalism, such as scaling for spatial correlation functions, relevant and irrelevant couplings, universality, upper critical dimension, etc. are introduced.
The phenomenological renormalisation group transformation, introduced by Nightingale (1976), is extended to a form suitable for the study of a quantum mechanical system at T=0. The spin- 1 / 2 Ising model in a transverse field Gamma , in one and two dimensions, is considered. The new scaling form, called phenomenological time scaling, is derived by exploiting the connection between a d dimensional quantum mechanical system at T=0 and a (d+1) dimensional classical system in the anisotropic limit of weakly coupled chains. Estimates are made of the critical field Gamma c and the exponent nu associated with the vanishing of the first excitation energy at T=0. These results also provide some information about the thermal critical behaviour of the anisotropic three-dimensional Ising model.
The Landau-Ginsburg free-energy functional (effective Hamiltonian) is derived for compressible Ising systems where the Ising spins are coupled with quantum phonon fields and a transverse field is present. In the zero transverse field case, the phonon dynamical modes also disappear from the effective Hamiltonian, which then compares with those studied by Sak and De Moura et al. in the non-quantum compressible Ising systems. In the presence of dynamics in the spin system (compressible transverse Ising system), the phonon modes get effectively coupled in the Hamiltonian and while at non-zero temperatures this does not affect the critical behaviour (which remains the same as in the non-quantum case), the presence of these dynamical modes effectively increases the lattice dimensionality by unity at zero-temperature transitions (T c =0) where one observes the critical behaviour corresponding to a d+1 dimensional non-quantum compressible Ising model. The critical behaviour of a cooperative Jahn-Teller phase transition when T c to 0 is also discussed.
The quantum-classical crossover critical behaviour of the Ising model in a transverse field Gamma is first studied in one dimension where exact results are obtained. The correspondence between the quantum-classical crossover behaviour of this d-dimensional quantum model and the finite-size crossover behaviour of an equivalent (d+1)-dimensional classical model exact for d=1 is extended to higher dimensions. The crossover depends strongly on the relative magnitude of the crossover exponent phi and of the critical line-shift exponent Psi . In particular, if Pi > Psi approaches the critical line along a path of constant transverse field less than the critical field Gamma c and a low temperature, only classical behaviour is seen, quantum effects do not show up. There is some controversy about the value of Psi . Experiments are suggested to give an answer.
The d-dimensional, quantum-mechanical Ising model in a transverse field Gamma displays a critical line, Gamma = Gamma c (T), which terminates in a multicritical point, ( Gamma ,T)=( Gamma c (0),0), with the exponents of the (d+1)-dimensional, nonquantal Ising model. Analogous behaviour is found for a nonquantal, (d+1)-dimensional n-component model of finite thickness, L in the last dimension, with the replacement Gamma to T,T to 1/L. A field theoretic method is used to study crossover behaviour in the vicinity of the multicritical point, for 3<d<4, where the multicritical exponents are mean-field-like. Multicritical behaviour is found to be governed by a Gaussian-like fixed point of the renormalisation group, yielding the crossover exponent, phi T = 1 / 2 (4-d). Crossover scaling functions are constructed to first order in epsilon =4-d for the longitudinal susceptibility and specific heat.