The spectrum of a six-state one-dimensional quantum chain with free boundaries at the critical point is studied. Using finite-size scaling and conformal invariance, they find a line in the plane of the coupling constants where the system has N=1 superconformal invariance with c=5/4.
The author considers one-dimensional n-state quantum chains having as symmetry an Abelian group A of order n (generalised Ising chain). These Hamiltonians depend on 2(n-1) coupling constants. For special values of the coupling constants the symmetry of the quantum chains is larger than A corresponding to a (in general non-Abelian) group G with m elements (m)n). For each element of G he finds explicitly a boundary condition which leaves the Hamiltonian translationally invariant. This problem is relevant in finite-size scaling studies at the critical point of a second-order phase transition.
Based on numerical analysis, the authors conjecture the operator content of the finite-size limit of the spectra of the Ashkin-Teller model with free boundary conditions. The same operator content is obtained from a Hamiltonian with a four-fermion interaction and a U(1) Kac-Moody Sugawara structure. For some special values of the coupling constant the model exhibits N=2 superconformal and Zamolodchikov-Fateev invariance. The operator content in these cases is expressed in terms of irreducible representations of the corresponding algebras.
We present the finite-size scaling theory of one-dimensional quantum critical systems in the presence of boundaries. While the finite-size spectrum in the conformal limit, namely of a conformal field theory with conformally invariant boundary conditions, is related to the dimensions of boundary operators by Cardy, the actual spectra of lattice models are affected by both bulk and boundary perturbations and contain non-universal boundary energies. We obtain a general expression of the finite-size energy levels in the presence of bulk and boundary perturbations. In particular, a generic boundary perturbation related to the energy-momentum tensor gives rise to a renormalization of the effective system size. We verify our field-theory formulation by comparing the results with the exact solution of the critical transverse-field Ising chain and with accurate numerical results on the critical three-state Potts chain obtained by Density-Matrix Renormalization Group.