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Physical Review Letters

Critical Behavior in Disordered Quantum Systems Modified by Broken Time-Reversal Symmetry

Mahir Saleh Hussein, Mauricio Porto Pato

Published Feb 2, 1998• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is shown that the maximum entropy principle provides a natural basis for construction of an interpolating ensemble between any pair of the universality classes of random matrix theory. As an application, the Gaussian unitary ensemble to Gaussian orthogonal ensemble transition is worked out in detail. Transitions from these two ensembles to a Poisson distribution, of relevance to the metal-insulator transition in disordered metals, is also discussed in detail and the ``universal critical ensemble'' was found to depend on the time-reversal symmetry.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.80.1003

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Comment on “Critical Behavior in Disordered Quantum Systems Modified by Broken Time-Reversal Symmetry”

Martin Janßen, Boris Shapiro, Imre Varga

In a recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 1003 (1998)] Hussein and Pato employed the maximum entropy principle (MEP) in order to derive interpolating ensembles between any pair of universality classes in random matrix theory. They apply their formalism also to the transition from random matrix to Poisson statistics of spectra that is observed for the case of the Anderson-type metal-insulator transition. We point out the problems with the latter procedure.

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Thermal quantum Hall effect in disordered superconductors

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We study the symmetry class for localization which arises from models of noninteracting quasiparticles in disordered superconductors that have neither time-reversal nor spin-rotation invariance. Twodimensional systems in this category, which is known as class D, can display phases with three different types of quasiparticle dynamics: metallic, localized, or with a quantized (thermal) Hall conductance. Correspondingly, they can show a variety of delocalization transitions. We illustrate this behavior by investigating numerically the phase diagrams of network models with the appropriate symmetry and show the appearance of the metallic phase. We also study level statistics for this symmetry class and find that the nearest neighbor spacing distribution (NNSD) at the critical energy follows the Wigner’s surmise for Gaussian Unitary Ensembles (GUE), reflecting therefore only basic discrete symmetries of the system (time reversal violation) and ignoring particle-hole symmetries and other finer details (criticality). In the localized regime level repulsion is suppressed.

•Jan 1, 2004•0 citations
It is shown that the maximum entropy principle provides a natural basis for construction of an interpolating ensemble between any pair of the universality classes of random matrix theory. As an application, the Gaussian unitary ensemble to Gaussian orthogonal ensemble transition is worked out in detail. Transitions from these two ensembles to a Poisson distribution, of relevance to the metal-insulator transition in disordered metals, is also discussed in detail and the ``universal critical ensemble'' was found to depend on the time-reversal symmetry.
We study a physical system consisting of noninteracting quasiparticles in disordered superconductors that have neither time-reversal nor spin-rotation invariance. This system belongs to class D within the recent classification scheme of random matrix ensembles, and its phase diagram contains three different phases: metallic and two distinct localized phases with different quantized thermal Hall conductances. We find that critical exponents describing different transitions (insulator-to-insulator and insulator-to-metal) are identical within the error of numerical calculations and also find that critical disorder of the insulator-to-metal transition is energy-independent.
Level statistics for two classes of disordered systems at criticality are analyzed in terms of different realizations of the Chalker-Coddington network model. These include: 1) Re-examination of the standard U(1) model describing dynamics of electrons on the lowest Landau level in the quantum Hall effect, where it is shown that after proper local unfolding the nearest-neighbor spacing distribution (NNSD) at the critical energy follows the Wigner surmise for Gaussian unitary ensembles (GUE). 2) Quasi-particles in disordered superconductors with broken time reversal and spin rotation invariance (in the language of random matrix theory this system is a representative of symmetry class D in the classification scheme of Altland and Zirnbauer). Here again the NNSD obeys the Wigner surmise for GUE, reflecting therefore only “basic” discrete symmetries of the system (time reversal violation) and ignoring particle-hole symmetries and other finer details (criticality). In the localized regime level repulsion is suppressed.
We investigate the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition of one-dimensional bosons with off-diagonal disorder by means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. For weak disorder, we find the transition to be in the same universality class as the superfluid-Mott insulator transition of the clean system. The nature of the transition changes for stronger disorder. Beyond a critical disorder strength, we find nonuniversal, disorder-dependent critical behavior. We compare our results to recent perturbative and strong-disorder renormalization group predictions. We also discuss experimental implications as well as extensions of our results to other systems.
Abstract We show that for a system governed by a random-matrix Hamiltonian (a member of the time-reversal invariant Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) of random matrices of dimension N), all functions Tr ( A ρ ( t ) ) in the ensemble thermalize: For N → ∞ every such function tends to the value Tr ( A ρ eq ( ∞ ) ) + Tr ( A ρ ( 0 ) ) g 2 ( t ) . Here ρ ( t ) is the time-dependent density matrix of the system, A is a Hermitean operator standing for an observable, and ρ eq ( ∞ ) is the equilibrium density matrix at infinite temperature. The oscillatory function g(t) is the Fourier transform of the average GOE level density and falls off as 1 / | t | 3 / 2 for large t. With g ( t ) = g ( − t ) , thermalization is symmetric in time. Analogous results, including the symmetry in time of thermalization, are derived for the time-reversal non-invariant Gaussian Unitary Ensemble of random matrices. Comparison with the ‘eigenstate thermalization hypothesis’ of (Srednicki 1999 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 32 1163) shows overall agreement but raises significant questions.
We study the symmetry class for localization which arises from models of noninteracting quasiparticles in disordered superconductors that have neither time-reversal nor spin-rotation invariance. Twodimensional systems in this category, which is known as class D, can display phases with three different types of quasiparticle dynamics: metallic, localized, or with a quantized (thermal) Hall conductance. Correspondingly, they can show a variety of delocalization transitions. We illustrate this behavior by investigating numerically the phase diagrams of network models with the appropriate symmetry and show the appearance of the metallic phase. We also study level statistics for this symmetry class and find that the nearest neighbor spacing distribution (NNSD) at the critical energy follows the Wigner’s surmise for Gaussian Unitary Ensembles (GUE), reflecting therefore only basic discrete symmetries of the system (time reversal violation) and ignoring particle-hole symmetries and other finer details (criticality). In the localized regime level repulsion is suppressed.