We present a finite-size scaling approach for the calculations of the critical parameters of the few-body Schr\"odinger equation. This approach gives very accurate results for the critical parameters by using a systematic expansion in a finite basis set. To illustrate this approach we added detailed calculations for the critical screening length and the critical exponents for the Yukawa potential.
We present a finite-size scaling approach for the calculations of the critical parameters of the few-body Schr"odinger equation. This approach gives very accurate results for the critical parameters by using a systematic expansion in a finite basis set. To illustrate this approach we added detailed calculations for the critical screening length and the critical exponents for the Yukawa potential.
Finite size scaling for the Schrödinger equation is a systematic approach to calculate the quantum critical parameters for a given Hamiltonian. This approach has been shown to give very accurate results for critical parameters by using a systematic expansion with global basis-type functions. Recently, the finite-element method was shown to be a powerful numerical method for ab initio electronic-structure calculations with a variable real-space resolution. In this work, we demonstrate how to obtain quantum critical parameters by combining the finite-element method (FEM) with finite size scaling (FSS) using different ab initio approximations and exact formulations. The critical parameters could be atomic nuclear charges, internuclear distances, electron density, disorder, lattice structure, and external fields for stability of atomic, molecular systems and quantum phase transitions of extended systems. To illustrate the effectiveness of this approach we provide detailed calculations of applying FEM to approximate solutions for the two-electron atom with varying nuclear charge; these include Hartree-Fock, local density approximation, and an "exact" formulation using FEM. We then use the FSS approach to determine its critical nuclear charge for stability; here, the size of the system is related to the number of elements used in the calculations. Results prove to be in good agreement with previous Slater-basis set calculations and demonstrate that it is possible to combine finite size scaling with the finite-element method by using ab initio calculations to obtain quantum critical parameters. The combined approach provides a promising first-principles approach to describe quantum phase transitions for materials and extended systems.
We combine the finite-size scaling method with the mesh-free spectral method to calculate quantum critical parameters for a given Hamiltonian. The basic idea is to expand the exact wave function in a finite exponential basis set and extrapolate the information about system criticality from a finite basis to the infinite basis set limit. The used exponential basis set, though chosen intuitively, allows handling a very wide range of exponential decay rates and calculating multiple eigenvalues simultaneously. As a benchmark system to illustrate the combined approach, we choose the Hulthen potential. The results show that the method is very accurate and converges faster when compared with other basis functions. The approach is general and can be extended to examine near-threshold phenomena for atomic and molecular systems based on even-tempered exponential and Gaussian basis functions.
We combined the finite-size scaling method with the finite element method to provide a systematic procedure for obtaining quantum critical parameters for a quantum system. We present results for the Yukawa potential solved with the finite element approach. The finite-size scaling approach was then used to find the critical parameters of the system. The critical values lambda c, alpha, and nu were found to be 0.83990345, 2.0002, and 1.002, respectively, for l = 0. These results compare well with the theoretically exact values for alpha and nu and with the best numerical estimations for lambda c. The finite element method is general and can be extended to larger systems.
We compare two methods of obtaining critical parameters for a quantum Hamiltonian using a finite size scaling approach. A finite element and basis set method were used in conjunction with the finite size scaling to obtain the critical parameters for the Hulthen potential. The critical parameters obtained analytically were the coupling constant λc=12, the critical exponents for the energy α=2 and for the “correlation length” ν=1. The extrapolated results for finite size scaling with the basis set method are λc=0.49999, α=1.9960, and ν=0.99910. The results for the finite element solutions are λc=0.50184, α=1.99993, and ν=1.00079 for the linear interpolation and λc=0.50000, α=2.00011, and ν=1.00032 for the Hermite interpolation. The results for each method compare very well with the analytical results obtained for the Hulthen potential. However, the finite element method is easier to implement and may be combined with ab initio and density functional theory to obtain quantum critical parameters for more complex systems.
Calculations on finite (or partially finite) systems, such as Monte-Carlo simulations or the diagonalization of a finite transfer matrix, are often extrapolated to the thermodynamic limit by the use of scaling assumptions involving the finite sizes L of the system. It is shown here that these finite size scaling laws follow from the fact that : i) in the renormalization group flow equations the length L is not renormalized ; ii) there is no singularity at the fixed point. This second property fails in four (and above four) dimensions and finite size scaling does not hold there. An illustration of these points is presented, with detailed calculations of the large N limit of the N- vector model. As a consequence, the ε-expansion of finite size scaling properties is singular.
The study of phase transitions and critical phenomena is an area of great interest in science. Liquid to gas, ferromagnetic to paramagnetic, fluid to superfluid, insulator to conductor are a few examples of physical systems exhibiting phase transition and critical phenomena. Classical phase transitions have thermal fluctuations as the main driving force for the transition. In statistical mechanics phase transitions are associated with singularities in the free energy. These singularites only occur in the thermodynamic limit where the volume (V) and particles (N) go to infinity with the density held constant (N/V). By examining the partition function for a finite system, the function is a sum of a set number of terms. The partition function then would be analytical. It is only when an infinite number of terms are added is there a singularity in the partition function. The subject of Finite Size Scaling theory is the relation of the phenomena in a finite systems to the true phase transition of an infinite system. Finite Size Scaling theory provides a numerical method to obtain accurate results for infinite systems simply by studying corresponding small systems. The focus of this thesis is on transitions of a different nature. Quantum phase transitions (transitions that occur at absolute zero) have Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle as the driving force for the transition. In quantum mechanics, the finite size problem occurs when looking at the critical behaviour of the Hamiltonian as a function of a set of parameters. The interest is where the bound states energies become non-analytical. The size of the system is related to the number of elements in a complete basis set used to expand the exact wave function. In this thesis we present the use of the Finite Element Method (a numerical technique commonly used in engineering problems to solve partial differential equations or integral equations). Previous finite size scaling studies in quantum mechanics employed a basis set expansion of the wave function and the problem is solved variationally. Slater type basis sets were used for this purpose. In the effort to apply finite size scaling calculations for larger systems Gaussian type functions were employed however the a larger number of Gaussian functions are needed to obtain accurate results. The use of standard electronic structure packages was also explored, however, the lack of consistently increasing size for basis sets limits the application for finite size scaling purposes. We first apply the finite element element method (FEM) to solve for the short range Yukawa potential and obtained the critical parameters for the model potential. We develop the framework necessary to use FEM for finite size scaling. As mentioned before the 'size' of the system is the number of basis functions needed in the expansion of the wave function. However, using FEM the size of the system is the number of elements used. We then studied the Hulthen potential in comparison to the basis set results and also compare the results to the analytical solutions for the both methods. Finally we explore the use of FEM in combination with Hartree-Fock theory to solve 2 to 4 electron systems. The use of Hartree-Fock theory allows for the implementation of finite size scaling to larger systems. We used the FEM Hartree-Fock to calculate for the critical parameters of 2 to 4 electron systems. Although the results are not exact (as to be expected due to the use of Hartree-Fock theory) we get an estimate to the critical points of these systems. FEM can be combined with other electronic structure theories, which would allow for the study of larger systems exhibiting critical phenomena.