New universality classes in two-dimensional critical phenomena have recently been discovered using methods of quantum field theory and conformal invariance. These can equally well describe classical two-dimensional systems at their critical temperature or one-dimensional gapless quantum systems at (or near) zero temperature. (The two types of systems are related by the transfer matrix or Feynman path integral.) It is argued that isotropic one-dimensional antiferromagnets are realizations of these new universality classes. Exact predictions for the low temperature specific heat, susceptibility, correlation length, and other critical properties are made. These agree exactly with exactly solveable models and well with experimental results on CuCl2⋅2(NC5H5).
New universality classes in two-dimensional critical phenomena have recently been discovered using methods of quantum field theory and conformal invariance. These can equally well describe classical two-dimensional systems at their critical temperature or one-dimensional gapless quantum systems at (or near) zero temperature. (The two types of systems are related by the transfer matrix or Feynman path integral.) It is argued that isotropic one-dimensional antiferromagnets are realizations of these new universality classes. Exact predictions for the low temperature specific heat, susceptibility, correlation length, and other critical properties are made. These agree exactly with exactly solveable models and well with experimental results on CuCl2⋅2(NC5H5).
We investigate two-dimensional spin models and begin with an introduction to critical phenomena with emphasis on classical systems with boundaries and conformal invariance. Then we introduce the antiferromagnetic quantum Heisenberg model with frustrating interactions. Conformal invariance of a statistical mechanical system at criticality has powerful implications in two dimensions. With the use of conformal field theory, we investigate finite-size and boundary effects for a class of N-critical models that describe the simplest type of multicritical behaviour. In Papers I and II, correlation functions for the order parameter and other operators of these multicritical Ising models are derived for restricted domains (semi-infinite plane, infinite strip, disc and rectangle) with free or fixed boundary conditions. These yield the corresponding universal surface exponents and allow for a detailed analysis of correlations lengths, structure factors and response functions. The interplay between duality and boundary conditions is also made explicit. In Paper III, we analyse structure factors at criticality and show how apparent power- law scaling at intermediate momenta - induced by finite size and boundaries - depends on the boundary conditions applied. The predictions are confirmed by using correlation functions calculated in Papers I and II. Two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnets have attracted much attention because of their relation to high-Tc superconductors. The second part of the thesis (Papers IV and V) treats spin-1/2 antiferromagnets defined on square- and honeycomb lattices with frustrating interactions. By using a Schwinger-boson mean-field theory, we calculate low-temperature quantum corrections to thermodynamic parameters, such as spin-wave velocity and transverse susceptibility. Their dependence on frustration is explicated and used to estimate the stability of the Néel state via a mapping to the nonlinear .sigma. model that describes the low-energy limit of the antiferromagnet.
Determining whether an additional local symmetry affects the universality class of a sta-tistical model is an important issue in the theory of critical phenomena. A basic example is provided by the RP N −1 model, in which N -component spin variables at each lattice site interact through an Hamiltonian invariant under global O(N ) rotations and local spin re-versals. The local symmetry makes the difference with the usual O(N ) model and amounts to the head-tail symmetry characteristic of liquid crystals. In three dimensions, the weak first order transition observed in numerical simulations of the ferromagnetic model is con-sistent with the mean field scenario. On the other hand, in the two-dimensional case –the one we focus on in this thesis – fluctuations are stronger and minimize the reliability of mean field predictions, as illustrated by the phase transition of the three-state Potts model, which becomes continuous on planar lattices. For the RP N −1 model, the absence of spontaneous breaking of continuous symmetry in two dimensions generically suggests that criticality is limited to zero temperature, and Monte Carlo studies for T → 0 showed a fast growth of the correlation length which made particularly hard to reach the asymp-totic limit and draw conclusions. On the other hand, the possibility of finite temperature topological transitions similar to the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) one – which should definitely occur for RP 1 ∼ O(2) – and mediated by ”disclination” defects has also been debated in numerical studies. While two-dimensional criticality has allowed for an impressive amount of exact solutions thanks to lattice integrability and conformal field theory, models with local symmetries traditionally remained outside the range of application of these methods. In this thesis, however, we show how the renormalization group fixed points of the RP N −1 model and of its complex generalization, the CP N −1 model, can be accessed in an exact way. This is achieved in the scale invariant scattering framework which, as we review in the introductory part of the thesis, implements in the basis of particle excitations the infinite-dimensional conformal symmetry characteristic of critical points in two dimensions and has provided in the last few years new results for pure and disordered systems. In the last part of the thesis, we will exploit the generality of the scale invariant scattering method to progress with another long standing problem of two-dimensional criticality, namely that of spin clusters in Potts correlated percolation. It has been known for long time that the problem can be addressed considering two coupled Potts models, but the need to consider the number of states of one of these models as a continuous variable has severely limited the analytical or numerical study of the critical points. Also here, the ability of the scattering method to enforce conformal invariance for the internal symmetry characteristic of the universality class will allow us to obtain exact equations for the critical points and to determine their solutions in the relevant limits.
Abstract For a number of quantum critical points in one dimension quantum field theory has provided exact results for the scaling of spatial and temporal correlation functions. Experimental realizations of these models can be found in certain quasi one dimensional antiferromagnetic materials. Measuring the predicted scaling laws experimentally presents formidable technical challenges. In many cases it only became possible recently, thanks to qualitative progress in the development of inelastic neutron scattering techniques and to the discovery of new model compounds. Here we review some of the recent experimental studies of this type.
We exploit mappings between quantum and classical systems in order to obtain a class of two-dimensional classical systems characterised by long-range interactions and with critical properties equivalent to those of the class of one-dimensional quantum systems treated by the authors in a previous publication. In particular, we use three approaches: the Trotter-Suzuki mapping, the method of coherent states, and a calculation based on commuting the quantum Hamiltonian with the transfer matrix of a classical system. This enables us to establish universality of certain critical phenomena by extension from the results in the companion paper for the classical systems identified.
This article outlines a tutorial review of some recent progress in the theory of phase transitions and criticality. Topics mentioned are: |φ|6 field theories in (d=3)-dimensional space which correspond to the limits of tricriticality in spherical models; the desirability of finding real systems displaying critical endpoints, etc., in a magnetic field; scaling theories for first-order magnetic transitions in block and cylinder geometries, including spin-wave contributions, ϵ=4 - d expansions for finite-size effects at and near criticality; the universal correlation length amplitude for critical-point correlations in a finite cylinder and its evaluation in d = 2 dimensions on the basis of conformal covariance; the predictions of conformal covariance for other finite-size and surface critical-point properties; the implications, stemming from field theory, of conformal covariance and unitarity for general criticality in two dimensions, including infinitely many sets of exact critical exponents for Ising-like, three-state Potts-like, … systems; the discovery of new, exactly soluble two-dimensional, “restricted solid-on-solid” models which display all the predicted conformally covariant multicritical points and a second infinite set as well!
Although the two-dimensional spin- 1 / 2 Ising model was solved in zero field in 1944, no exact results are yet available for the spin-1 model. This model should have the same dominant critical exponents as the spin- 1 / 2 model, but appears to exhibit non-analytic corrections to scaling as expected for a phi 4 model and unlike the spin- 1 / 2 model. In this paper new 45-term low temperature series for the magnetisation, specific heat and susceptibility of the spin-1 model on the square lattice are presented and analysed. A new 24-term staggered susceptibility series for the hard square model is presented and the extant order parameter series for this model (which is also in the phi 4 universality class) are also considered. For both models a non-analytic confluent correction with exponent 1.0< Delta 1 <1.3 is found. The validity of this result is enhanced by a comparison with the S= 1 / 2 case.