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International Journal of Modern Physics B

TOPOLOGICAL PHASE TRANSITIONS IN STRONGLY CORRELATED FERMI SYSTEMS

J. W. Clark, VICTOR A. KHODEL, MIKHAIL V. ZVEREV

Published Aug 20, 2009• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Opportunities for topological phase transitions in strongly correlated Fermi systems near a quantum critical point are explored as an alternative to collective scenarios for experimentally observed departures from standard Fermi-liquid behavior. Attention is focused on a quantum critical point at which the effective mass is divergent due to vanishing of the quasiparticle group velocity at the Fermi surface. Working within the original Landau quasiparticle theory, it is demonstrated that the quasiparticle picture can remain meaningful beyond the quantum critical point through rearrangements of the unstable normal Fermi surface and quasiparticle spectrum. Two possibilities emerge at zero temperature, depending on whether the quasiparticle interaction is regular or singular at zero momentum transfer. In the regular case, one type of topological phase transformation leads to a state with a multiconnected Fermi surface. In the singular case, another type of topological phase transition leads to an exceptional state containing a fermion condensate – the Fermi surface swells into a volume in momentum space, within which partial occupation prevails and quasiparticle energies are pinned to the chemical potential. As the temperature increases from zero to a characteristic value Tm, a crossover can occur from the state with multiple Fermi surfaces to that containing a fermion condensate.

DOI
10.1142/s0217979209063250

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Opportunities for topological phase transitions in strongly correlated Fermi systems near a quantum critical point are explored as an alternative to collective scenarios for experimentally observed departures from standard Fermi-liquid behavior. Attention is focused on a quantum critical point at which the effective mass is divergent due to vanishing of the quasiparticle group velocity at the Fermi surface. Working within the original Landau quasiparticle theory, it is demonstrated that the quasiparticle picture can remain meaningful beyond the quantum critical point through rearrangements of the unstable normal Fermi surface and quasiparticle spectrum. Two possibilities emerge at zero temperature, depending on whether the quasiparticle interaction is regular or singular at zero momentum transfer. In the regular case, one type of topological phase transformation leads to a state with a multiconnected Fermi surface. In the singular case, another type of topological phase transition leads to an exceptional state containing a fermion condensate – the Fermi surface swells into a volume in momentum space, within which partial occupation prevails and quasiparticle energies are pinned to the chemical potential. As the temperature increases from zero to a characteristic value Tm, a crossover can occur from the state with multiple Fermi surfaces to that containing a fermion condensate.
We examine the nature of phase transitions occurring in strongly correlated Fermi systems at the quantum critical point (QCP) associated with a divergent effective mass. Conventional scenarios for the QCP involving collective degrees of freedom are shown to have serious shortcomings. Working within the original Landau quasiparticle picture, we propose an alternative topological scenario for the QCP in systems that obey standard Fermi-liquid (FL) theory in advance of the QCP. Applying the technique of Poincar\'e mapping, we analyze the sequence of iterative maps generated by the Landau equation for the single-particle spectrum at zero temperature. It is demonstrated that the Fermi surface is subject to rearrangement beyond the QCP. If the sequence of maps converges, a multiconnected Fermi surface is formed. If it fails to converge, the Fermi surface swells into a volume that provides a measure of entropy associated with formation of an exceptional state of the system characterized by partial occupation of single-particle states and dispersion of their spectrum proportional to temperature. Based on this dual scenario, the thermodynamics of Fermi systems beyond the QCP exhibits striking departures from the predictions of standard FL theory. Mechanisms for the release of the entropy excess of the exceptional state are discussed.
Competing scenarios for quantum critical points (QCPs) of strongly interacting Fermi systems signaled by a divergent density of states at zero temperature are contrasted. The conventional scenario, which enlists critical fluctuations of a collective mode and attributes the divergence to a coincident vanishing of the quasiparticle strength zzz, is shown to be incompatible with identities arising from conservation laws prevailing in the fermionic medium. An alternative scenario, in which the topology of the Fermi surface is altered at the QCP, is found to explain the non-Fermi-liquid thermodynamic behavior observed experimentally in Yb-based compounds close to the QCP. It is suggested that combination of the topological scenario with the theory of quantum phase transitions will provide a proper foundation for analysis of the extended QCP region.
A quasiparticle pattern advanced in Landau’s first article on Fermi-liquid theory is adapted to elucidate the properties of a class of strongly correlated Fermi systems characterized by a Lifshitz phase diagram featuring a quantum critical point (QCP) where the density of states diverges. The necessary condition for stability of the Landau Fermi-Liquid state is shown to break down in such systems, triggering a cascade of topological phase transitions that lead, without symmetry violation, to states with multi-connected Fermi surfaces. The end point of this evolution is found to be an exceptional state whose spectrum of single-particle excitations exhibits a completely flat portion at zero temperature. Analysis of the evolution of the temperature dependence of the single-particle spectrum yields results that provide a natural explanation of classical behavior of this class of Fermi systems in the QCP region.
Competing scenarios for quantum critical points (QCPs) of strongly interacting Fermi systems signaled by a divergent density of states at zero temperature are contrasted. The conventional scenario, which enlists critical fluctuations of a collective mode and attributes the divergence to a coincident vanishing of the quasi-particle strength z , is shown to be incompatible with identities arising from conservation laws prevailing in the fermionic medium. An alternative scenario, in which the topology of the Fermi surface is altered at the QCP, is found to explain the non-Fermi-liquid thermodynamic behavior observed experimentally in Yb-based compounds close to the QCP. It is suggested that combination of the topological scenario with the theory of quantum phase transitions will provide a proper foundation for analysis of the extended QCP region.
The rearrangement of the Fermi surface in a diluted two-dimensional electron gas beyond the topological quantum critical point has been examined within an approach based on the Landau theory of Fermi liquid and a nonperturbative functional method. The possibility of a transition of the first order in the coupling constant at zero temperature between the states with a three-sheet Fermi surface and a transition of the first order in temperature between these states at a fixed coupling constant has been shown. It has also been shown that a topological crossover, which is associated with the joining of two sheets of the Fermi surface and is characterized by the maxima of the density of states N(T) and ratio C(T)/T of the specific heat to the temperature, occurs at a very low temperature T ⋄ determined by the structure of a state with the three-sheet Fermi surface. A momentum region where the distribution n(p, T) depends slightly on the temperature, which is manifested in the maximum of the specific heat C(T) near T *, appears through a crossover at temperatures T ∼ T * > T ⋄. It has been shown that the flattening of the single-particle spectrum of the strongly correlated two-dimensional electron gas results in the crossover from the Fermi liquid behavior to a non-Fermi liquid one with the density of states N(T) ∝ T −α with the exponent α }~ 2/3.
A quantum phase transition in strongly correlated Fermi systems beyond the topological quantum critical point has been studied using the Fermi liquid approach. The transition takes place between topologically equivalent states with three Fermi surface sheets, but one of them is characterized by a quasiparticle halo in the quasiparticle momentum distribution n ( p ), and the other one is characterized by a hole pocket. It has been found that the transition between these states is a first-order phase transition for the interaction constant g and temperature T . The phase diagram in the vicinity of this transition has been constructed.