In this set of lectures, I shall review some recent work on quantum critical phenomena which involve the changes in phase of the ground state of a quantum antiferromagnetic system when external parameters are varied through some critical values. I will also draw analogies between antiferromagnetic phase transitions and chiral phase transitions in lower (particularly 2 + l)-dimensional gauge theories and also some 2+1-dimensional four-fermi theories where chiral symmetry breaking patterns depend on the coupling constants and also the matter and gauge field content of the theory. I will begin by reviewing some arguments that, in the infrared limit, the dynamics of Goldstone bosons in the confining and chiral symmetry breaking phase of 2 + 1 dimensional QCD is identical to the effective spin wave dynamics in 2 dimensional generalized quantum antiferromagnets. I also discuss the possibility that certain quantum critical behaviors in generalized antiferromagnets can be analyzed using the principle of universality and are in the universality class of a particular type of relativistic quantum field theory with gauge and chiral symmetry. I show how the epsilon expansion can be used and argue that, for a large range of symmetry groups and other parameters, the phase transitions are expected to be fluctuation induced first order transitions. For the small range of parameters where they are second order, the epsilon expansion and universality give information about the critical behavior.
In this set of lectures, I shall review some recent work on quantum critical phenomena which involve the changes in phase of the ground state of a quantum antiferromagnetic system when external parameters are varied through some critical values. I will also draw analogies between antiferromagnetic phase transitions and chiral phase transitions in lower (particularly 2 + l)-dimensional gauge theories and also some 2+1-dimensional four-fermi theories where chiral symmetry breaking patterns depend on the coupling constants and also the matter and gauge field content of the theory. I will begin by reviewing some arguments that, in the infrared limit, the dynamics of Goldstone bosons in the confining and chiral symmetry breaking phase of 2 + 1 dimensional QCD is identical to the effective spin wave dynamics in 2 dimensional generalized quantum antiferromagnets. I also discuss the possibility that certain quantum critical behaviors in generalized antiferromagnets can be analyzed using the principle of universality and are in the universality class of a particular type of relativistic quantum field theory with gauge and chiral symmetry. I show how the epsilon expansion can be used and argue that, for a large range of symmetry groups and other parameters, the phase transitions are expected to be fluctuation induced first order transitions. For the small range of parameters where they are second order, the epsilon expansion and universality give information about the critical behavior.
We use the Wilson-Fisher ǫ expansion to study quantum critical behavior in gauged Yukawa matrix field theories with weak quenched disorder. We find that the resulting quantum critical behavior is in the universality class of the pure system. As in the pure system, the phase transition is typically first order, except for a limited range of parameters where it can be second order with computable critical exponents. Our results apply to the study of two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets with weak quenched disorder and provide an example for fluctuation-induced first order phase transitions in circumstances where naively none is expected. One of the most remarkable features of quantum spin systems is their relationship to gauge theories. This connection, which was originally used to study chiral symmetry breaking in QCD in the strong coupling limit [1], remains a powerful tool. Recently this analogy has been used to prove that certain gauge theories break chiral symmetry in the strong coupling limit [2-4]. Also, it has been further suggested [5] that the underlying analogy can be used in a much broader sense to account for the quasi-particle spectrum and other infrared features of two-dimensional (2D) quantum antiferromagnets and three-dimensional
Classical and quantum criticality In most cases the phases of quantum field theories, in particular those of interest in condensed matter physics, can be described in terms of the behavior of local observables, such as order parameters or currents that transform properly under the symmetries of the theory. Quantum and thermal phase transitions are characterized by the behavior of these observables as a function of temperature and of the coupling constants of the theory. The phase transitions themselves, quantum or thermal, are classified into universality classes, which are represented by the critical exponents which specify the scaling laws of the expectation values of the observables. Historically, the development of this approach to critical behavior goes back to the Landau theory of critical behavior. It acquired its most complete form with the development of the renormalization group (RG) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is the centerpiece of Wilson’s approach to quantum field theory, in which all local quantum field theories are defined by the scaling regime of a physical system near a continuous phase transition. From this point of view there is no fundamental difference between classical (or thermal) phase transitions, which are described by the theory of classical critical behavior, and quantum phase transitions. For example, the expectation value of a local order parameter M as the thermal phase transition is approached from below behaves as M ~ (Tc − T) β . Here T c is the critical temperature and β is a critical exponent that depends on the universality class of the thermal phase transition and on the dimensionality of space. While quantum mechanics can play a key role in the existence of the ordered phase, e.g. superfluidity and superconductivity are macroscopic manifestations of essentially quantum-mechanical phenomena, the thermal transition itself is governed entirely by classical statistical mechanics, and quantum mechanics plays a role in setting the value of non-universal quantities such as the critical temperature, etc. On the other hand, in the case of a quantum phase transition, the order parameter M has a similar scaling behavior as a function of the coupling constant, M~(gc−g)β˜, where g is the coupling constant, g c is the critical coupling constant, and β˜ is a critical exponent that depends on the universality class of the quantum phase transition. Here we assume that M has a non-vanishing expectation value only for g < g c .
This work deals with quantum phase transitions in Dirac systems where the symmetries involved play a key role in the nature of the transition and are enlarged at criticality. By using functional renormalization group (FRG) methods, we show that an emergent relativistic symmetry not present at the bare level is a common feature of several different kinds of phase transitions. In three different projects, the interplay of emergent symmetries and universality in critical phenomena are explored through FRG techniques. In the first project, we studied the relation between discrete symmetry breaking and the emergence of two diverging length scales with their respective critical exponents. A second project explored the relation between multicritical points where two adjacent symmetry-breaking phases are compatible and the possibility of a continuous, order-to-order transition. The third and final project was concerned with the persistence of chiral symmetry in three-dimensional quantum electrodynamics - here seen as an effective description of different condensed matter systems - for the lowest possible number of fermion flavours, as well as with a dual description that has the potential to provide exact results for this strongly correlated theory.
Classical and quantum spin systems are widely used models in both experimental and theoretical condensed matter physics. In many materials, the electronic interactions can be difficult to model exactly. However, in some insulators (Mott insulators), the magnetic (spin) interactions can be captured well with spin-only models. Several models are studied in this thesis. First, I report the solution of a long-standing issue in a classical frustrated spin model (i.e., where the quantum effects are neglected and the complexity is due to competing interactions): the nature of the thermal phase transition to a stripe state in the two dimensional (2D) J1-J2 model. Here J1 and J2 are nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor couplings. Monte Carlo simulations with single-spin updates are used for the calculations, and an extended-ensemble method, a generalization of the Wang-Landau algorithm, is also developed and tested. I focus on the study of "weak universality" behavior (continuously varying critical exponents, with one of the exponents staying fixed), for which I show a correspondence with a known class of conformal field theories with charge c = 1. Next, moving to quantum spins, to shed light on magnetic systems studied experimentally and to investigate new types of quantum states of interest in developing theories of quantum magnetism, I study the S = 1/2 Heisenberg model on the 2D square lattice with added six-spin interactions (the so-called J-Q3 model) as well as a set of 3D quantum antiferromagnets on dimerized lattices. Here I use the stochastic series expansion quantum Monte Carlo method. In the study of the J-Q3 model, I report on a similar weak-universality behavior as in the classical J1-J2 model, but with a mapping to a different known class of c = 1 conformal field theories. The critical behavior of the system again shows continuously changing exponents, in a way which corresponds to a gradual weakening of Z4 symmetry-breaking to an emergent U(1) symmetry. In the study of dimerized antiferromagnets, I report on a universal behavior of the Néel temperature TN, which can be related to ground state parameters independently of the microscopic interaction details in several different models.
Zero-temperature or quantum phase transitions in itinerant electronic systems both with and without quenched disordered are discussed. Phase transitions considered include, the ferromagnetic transition, the antiferromagnetic transition, the superconductor-metal transition, and various metal-insulator transitions. Emphasis is placed on how to determine the universal properties that characterize these quantum phase transitions. For the first three of the phase transitions listed above, one of the main physical ideas established is that in zero-temperature systems there are soft or slow modes that exist in addition to the soft order parameter fluctuations, and that these modes can couple to the critical modes. These extra soft modes are shown to have a profound effect on the quantum critical properties. For quantum phase transitions involving zero wavenumber order parameters, i.e., the ferromagnetic and superconductor-metal transitions, these extra modes effectively lead to long-ranged effective interactions between order parameter fluctuations, which in turn lead to exactly soluble critical behaviors. For the antiferromagnetic case, we argue that while in low enough dimensions disorder fluctuation effects tend to destroy long-range order, quantum fluctuations counteract this effect and in some parameter regions manage to re-establish antiferromagnetic long-range order. For the metal-insulator transition, some recent new ideas are reviewed. In particular, it is pointed out that for interacting disordered electrons, one expects that in high dimensions the metal-insulator transition is related to the phase transition that occurs in random-field magnets in high dimensions. If the analogy also holds in three dimensions this suggests that the metal-insulator transition might have glassy characteristics.
We use the epsilon expansion to explore a new universality class of second order quantum phase transitions associated with a four-dimensional Yukawa field theory coupled to a traceless Hermitian matrix scalar field. We argue that this class includes four-fermion modes in 2<D<4 dimensions with $\mathrm{SU}({N}_{F})\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\mathrm{U}(N)$ symmetry and a U(N) scalar, SU(NF) isovector four-fermion coupling. The epsilon expansion indicates that there is a second order phase transition for $N\ensuremath{\ge}{N}^{*}({N}_{F})$, where ${N}^{*}({N}_{F})\ensuremath{\simeq}{0.27N}_{F}\mathrm{if}{N}_{F}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$.