Europhysics Letters (EPL)
Quantum correlation and phase transitions in a two-dimensional doubly decorated Ising-Heisenberg model
Z.-Y. Sun, Lu Li, Neng Li, K.L. Yao, J. Liu, Bo Luo, G.-H. Du, Hong-Nian Li
Abstract
We investigate the pairwise quantum correlation, characterized by quantum entanglement (QE) and quantum discord (QD), of a two-dimensional Ising-Heisenberg model on a planar doubly decorated lattice. At zero temperature, the concurrence (a measurement of pairwise entanglement) and the QD are related to the correlation function q xx and the staggered magnetization δ S z , respectively, and both of them indicate the quantum phase transition (QPT) of the system. However, in a finite-temperature phase transition, all the pairwise entanglement vanishes thus it fails to detect the critical temperature T C , while the derivative of QD diverges at T C . This shows clearly that QD can capture the signal of phase transition in a separable state, thus it has a broader scope of application than QE in detecting phase transitions.