In this work we use field-theoretic and renormalization-group methods to study the finite-temperature ferromagnetic phase transition in the three-dimensional Hubbard model. We show that the nature of the ferromagnetic transition may strongly depend on the constraint imposed on the system. For example, if the system is allowed to exchange particles with a reservoir, the stability criterion for the occurrence of a continuous phase transition can be calculated using the mean-field approximation. On the other hand, if the total charge is conserved and charge- and spin-density fluctuations are considered in the theory, a different criterion, quite distinct from the mean-field one, is found, resulting in a fluctuation-induced renormalized Heisenberg tricritical point. The tricritical behavior is studied by calculating the one-loop renormalized free energy and using scaling analysis to determine the tricritical exponents. Finally, the exact solution of the model in the spherical limit and near the ferromagnetic transition is presented, in which case no fluctuation-induced tricritical point is found.
The random field Ising model (RFIM) has been investigated extensively both theoretically and experimentally in recent years [1–4]. Some questions, such as the lower critical dimension and the existence of a static phase transition, have already been solved from the theoretical point of view, but other questions, such as the existence of the tricritical point, are still open. However, it is now understood that the RFIM describes the essential physics of a rich class of experimentally accessible disordered systems. These include structural phase transitions in random alloys, commensurate charge-density-wave systems with impurity pinning, binary fluid mixtures in random porous media, and the melting of intercalates in layered compounds such as TiS2. The behavior of the RFIM is governed by the competing tendencies of the spins to align ferromagnetically under impetus of the exchange or to follow the local fields and thus be uncorrelated. The RFIM has been studied using different methods. One of the authors [5] of the present paper has developed a new version of effective field theory, which extends the approximation methods [6, 7] to random Ising systems, in which randomness can be described by discrete random variables and the geometry of the lattice can be easily taken into account. This method is based on the determination of the probability distribution of the discrete variables, which takes into account exactly the self-site correlations. This approach has been used to study cooperative phenomena and phase transitions in various systems, and gives useful qualitative and quantitative insights for the critical behavior of a wide variety of classical and quantum lattice spin systems [8–10]. In recent decades, the renormalization group theory of phase transitions and critical phenomena represents one of the most powerful tools of theoretical physics. Therefore, employing this theory (which can be applied for weak fields), the proof
Engineering long-range interactions in experimental platforms has been achieved with great success in a large variety of quantum systems in recent years. Inspired by this progress, we propose a generalization of the classical Hamiltonian mean-field model to fermionic particles. We study the phase diagram and thermodynamic properties of the model in the canonical ensemble for ferromagnetic interactions as a function of temperature and hopping. At zero temperature, small charge fluctuations drive the many-body system through a first-order quantum phase transition from an ordered to a disordered phase. At higher temperatures, the fluctuation-induced phase transition remains first order initially and switches to second-order only at a tricritical point. Our results offer an intriguing example of tricriticality in a quantum system with long-range couplings, which bears direct experimental relevance. The analysis is performed by exact diagonalization and mean-field theory.
We study the phase diagram of the one-dimensional Hubbard model with next-nearest-neighbor hopping using exact diagonalization, the density-matrix renormalization group, the Edwards variational ansatz, and an adaptation of weak-coupling calculations on the two-chain Hubbard model. We find that a substantial region of the strong-coupling phase diagram is ferromagnetic, and that three physically different limiting cases are connected in one ferromagnetic phase. At a point in the phase diagram at which there are two Fermi points at weak coupling, we study carefully the phase transition from the paramagnetic state to the fully polarized one as a function of the on-site Coulomb repulsion. We present evidence that the transition is second order and determine the critical exponents numerically. In this parameter regime, the system can be described as a Luttinger liquid at weak coupling. We extract the Luttinger-liquid parameters and show how their behavior differs from that of the nearest-neighbor Hubbard model. The general weak-coupling phase diagram can be mapped onto that of the two-chain Hubbard model. We exhibit explicitly the adapted phase diagram and determine its validity by numerically calculating spin and charge gaps using the density-matrix renormalization group.
We present an extensive study of the
AB2 polymeric Hubbard chains with experimental motivation in inorganic and organic compounds. In the half-filled strong-coupling limit, these systems can be mapped onto a quantum antiferromagnetic spin-
1/2AB2 Heisenberg model that presents a zero-temperature quantum phase transition to a ferrimagnetic ground state. We derive the spin-wave modes with the same correct ferromagnetic dispersion relation calculated through two different techniques. We also build an Euclidean integral formulation in the coherent state representation which naturally gives rise to Wess-Zumino terms of topological origin. The low-energy infrared behavior of the
AB2 chains is properly described through a renormalization group analysis by the semiclassical fixed point of a one-dimensional quantum nonrelativistic nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ model with critical dynamical exponent
z=2. Their low-temperature behavior is shown to be the same of a quantum ferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain, as evidenced by the temperature dependence of the correlation length, susceptibility, and specific heat. On the other hand, a quantum critical fixed point is also found, with the same zero-temperature critical behavior of a classical Heisenberg system in
D=d+z=3 dimensions. Its low-temperature critical properties are related to the latter through the crossover exponent $\ensuremath{\varphi}=z{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{3},$ where ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{3}$ is the correlation length exponent of the
D=3 classical Heisenberg model. Sufficiently strong quantum critical fluctuations destroy the ordered ground state of the quantum
z=2 nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ model (but not that of the quantum
AB2 Heisenberg spin systems, in agreement with a theorem by Lieb), giving rise to a quantum disordered phase at zero temperature. These results are supported by a connection between the quantum
AB2 Heisenberg and generalized quantum rotor models.
The ground state of the half-filled Hubbard model is studied using a real-space renormalization-group technique. We first study in detail the one-dimensional case. We find the ground state to be insulating for all finite coupling, in agreement with the exact solution. We compute the ground-state energy, localization length, energy gap, magnitude of the local moment, and spin-density autocorrelation function. For those quantities that are exactly known we find good agreement with the exact results. Using a simple extension of our one-dimensional calculation, we are able to study approximately two- and three-dimensional lattices. We find a Mott transition at finite interaction for these cases. The critical exponents for these transitions are found to satisfy an approximate interdimensional scaling law.
These lectures describe the physics of phase transitions and critical phenomena. After introducing the thermodynamics of phase transitions, these general considerations are made explicit by presenting statistical mechanical calculations on a lattice gas model in the mean-field approximation. Then the Landau theory of phase transitions is presented. The form of free energy in the Landau theory is motivated by an explicit mean field calculation for the Ising model. This is followed by a discussion of spatial correlations and the breakdown of the mean field theory due to increase of spatial fluctuations near the critical point. This calculation also brings out the role of dimension of the system for the critical behaviour. The basic ideas of Renormalization Group (RG) are then introduced and illustrated by a simple RG calculation for the one-dimensional Ising model. Real-space RG calculations are then applied to the two-dimensional Ising model on the triangular lattice, which, in fact, brings forth several key features of the RG technique. A discussion of more general aspects of the RG formalism, such as scaling for spatial correlation functions, relevant and irrelevant couplings, universality, upper critical dimension, etc. are introduced.