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Kosterlitz-Thouless transition

Hidetoshi Nishimori, Gerardo Ortíz

Published Dec 2, 2010• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract As the spatial dimensionality $d$ decreases, fluctuations become larger and the stability of the low-temperature ordered state deteriorates. The dimensionality where long-range order disappears is known as lower critical dimension. For instance, the Ising model in one dimension does not display long-range order at finite temperatures, however in two dimensions Peierls argument explains why the same model has an ordered phase below a certain critical temperature. If the basic variables and symmetries are continuous as in the $XY$ and Heisenberg models, the (long-range) ordered state at any finite temperature disappears already in two dimensions. This is the result of Mermin-Wagner's theorem. The $XY$ model nevertheless undergoes an unusual phase transition without an onset of long-range order in two dimensions, which is known as the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Gauge or local symmetries cannot spontaneously be broken as elucidated by Elitzur's theorem when applied to lattice gauge theories.

DOI
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577224.003.0007

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Abstract As the spatial dimensionality ddd decreases, fluctuations become larger and the stability of the low-temperature ordered state deteriorates. The dimensionality where long-range order disappears is known as lower critical dimension. For instance, the Ising model in one dimension does not display long-range order at finite temperatures, however in two dimensions Peierls argument explains why the same model has an ordered phase below a certain critical temperature. If the basic variables and symmetries are continuous as in the XYXYXY and Heisenberg models, the (long-range) ordered state at any finite temperature disappears already in two dimensions. This is the result of Mermin-Wagner's theorem. The XYXYXY model nevertheless undergoes an unusual phase transition without an onset of long-range order in two dimensions, which is known as the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Gauge or local symmetries cannot spontaneously be broken as elucidated by Elitzur's theorem when applied to lattice gauge theories.
Algebraically decaying interactions ∼1/rd+σ\sim 1/r^{d+σ}∼1/rd+σ can lead to nontrivial universality beyond short-range (SR) theories and spontaneous symmetry breaking in low-dimensional systems. We perform large-scale Monte Carlo simulations for the classical long-range (LR) Heisenberg model in two dimensions (2D) up to linear size L=8192L=8192L=8192. We show that the system enters a long-range-ordered phase through a single continuous phase transition for all σ≤2σ\leq 2σ≤2, including the marginal case σ=2σ=2σ=2. In contrast, for σ>2σ> 2σ>2 it recovers the SR asymptotically free behavior with no finite-temperature transition. This places the LR--SR crossover threshold at σ∗=2σ_* = 2σ∗​=2. To characterize the ordered phase, we introduce an LR simple random walk with a fixed total length L∼O(Ld)\mathcal{L} \sim\mathcal{O}(L^d)L∼O(Ld). This fixed-L\mathcal LL walk reproduces the finite-size scaling of the Goldstone-mode fluctuations in the LR Heisenberg model in both two and three dimensions, including the logarithmic scaling at σ=2σ= 2σ=2. These results further motivate a general criterion for the existence of finite-temperature long-range order in LR systems with continuous symmetry in any spatial dimension.
Spontaneous symmetry breaking of 2D isotropic Heisenberg magnet is restricted by Mermin-Wagner theorem at any finite temperature in presence of short-range exchange interaction.Kosterlitz and Thouless using XY spin model showed that how an order state could developed in 2D spin system in presence of short range isotropic interaction.Very recent discovery of several van der waals magnet revised and redefined our understanding on 2D Heisenberg magnet and its ground state properties.After a rigorous and careful study of several 2D magnetic material we have realized from both experimentally and numerically that the finite size of a 2D system has great impact on the ground state symmetry breaking.Because of that finite size effect more often an anisotropic residual magnetic moment is generated and trigger the spontaneous symmetry breaking at finite temperature(T) and even only presence of short-range interaction we observed the phase transition of that Heisenberg spin system.In this present work we have shown the basic role of finite size,anisotropy during the symmetry breaking of 2D Heisenberg XY magnet.Here we have simulated Kosterlitz-Thouless transition using classical Monte-carlo simulation and study the effect of anisotropy during the phase transition.We presented the behaviour of different thermodynamic properties of 2D XY spin model system during the Kosterlitz-Thouless(KT) transition.The generic characteristic of KT transition which make it distinct from other critical phenomena is that the peak of heat capacity is not diverging with increase of system size rather peak is decreasing with the increasing of system size near at transition temperature.Here we are observing that behaviour in our present simulation and that specific behaviour help us for classifying the present transition as Kosterlitz-Thouless(KT) transition.
The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition is the paradigmatic example of a topological phase transition without symmetry breaking, where a quasiordered phase, characterized by a power-law scaling of the correlation functions at low temperature, is disrupted by the proliferation of topological excitations above the critical temperature T_{BKT}. In this Letter, we consider the effect of long-range decaying couplings ∼r^{-2-σ} on the BKT transition. After pointing out the relevance of this nontrivial problem, we discuss the phase diagram, which is far richer than the corresponding short-range one. It features-for 7/4<σ<2-a quasiordered phase in a finite temperature range T_{c}<T<T_{BKT}, which occurs between a symmetry broken phase for T<T_{c} and a disordered phase for T>T_{BKT}. The transition temperature T_{c} displays unique universal features quite different from those of the traditional, short-range XY model. Given the universal nature of our findings, they may be observed in current experimental realizations in 2D atomic, molecular, and optical quantum systems.
Abstract The Mermin-Wagner theorem states that spontaneous continuous symmetry breaking is prohibited in systems with short-range interactions at spatial dimension D ≤ 2. For long-range interactions with a power-law form (1/ r α ), the theorem further forbids ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic order at finite temperature when α ≥ 2 D . However, the situation for α ∈ (2, 4) at D = 2 is not covered by the theorem. To address this, we conduct large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations and field theoretical analysis. Our findings show spontaneous breaking of S U (2) symmetry in the ferromagnetic Heisenberg model with 1/ r α -form long-range interactions at D = 2. We determine critical exponents through finite-size analysis for α < 3 (above the upper critical dimension with Gaussian fixed point) and 3 ≤ α < 4 (below the upper critical dimension with non-Gaussian fixed point). These results reveal new critical behaviors in 2D long-range Heisenberg models, encouraging further experimental studies of quantum materials with long-range interactions beyond the Mermin-Wagner theorem’s scope.
We study the critical properties of the Kitaev-Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice at finite temperatures that might describe the physics of the quasi-two-dimensional compounds, Na(2)IrO(3) and Li(2)IrO(3). The model undergoes two phase transitions as a function of temperature. At low temperature, thermal fluctuations induce magnetic long-range order by the order-by-disorder mechanism. This magnetically ordered state with a spontaneously broken Z(6) symmetry persists up to a certain critical temperature. We find that there is an intermediate phase between the low-temperature, ordered phase and the high-temperature, disordered phase. Finite-sized scaling analysis suggests that the intermediate phase is a critical Kosterlitz-Thouless phase with continuously variable exponents. We argue that the intermediate phase has been observed above the low-temperature, magnetically ordered phase in Na(2)IrO(3), and also, likely exists in Li(2)IrO(3).
The q-state clock model, sometimes called the discrete XY model, is known to show a second-order (symmetry-breaking) phase transition in two dimensions for q≤4 (q=2 corresponds to the Ising model). On the other hand, the q→∞ limit of the model corresponds to the XY model, which shows the infinite order (non-symmetry-breaking) Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition in two dimensions. Interestingly, the two-dimensional clock model with q≥5 is predicted to show three different phases and two associated phase transitions. There are varying opinions about the actual characters of phases and the associated transitions. In this work, we develop the basic and higher-order mean-field (MF) theories to study the q-state clock model systematically. Our MF calculations reaffirm that, for large q, there are three phases: (broken) Z_{q} symmetric ferromagnetic phase at the low temperature, emergent U(1) symmetric BKT phase at the intermediate temperature, and paramagnetic (disordered) phase at the high temperature. The phase transition at the higher temperature is found to be of the BKT type, and the other transition at the lower temperature is argued to be a large-order spontaneous symmetry-breaking type (the largeness of transition order yields the possibility of having some of the numerical characteristics of a BKT transition). The higher-order MF theory developed here better characterizes phases by estimating the spin-spin correlation between two neighbors.