The aim of this book is to familiarise the reader with the rich collection of ideas, methods and results available in the theory of critical phenomena in systems with confined geometry. The existence of universal features of the finite-size effects arising due to highly correlated classical or quantum fluctuations is explained by the finite-size scaling theory. This theory (1) offers an interpretation of experimental results on finite-size effects in real systems; (2) gives the most reliable tool for extrapolation to the thermodynamic limit of data obtained by computer simulations; (3) reveals
Critical phenomena at finite temperature underpin a broad range of physical systems, yet their study remains challenging due to computational bottlenecks near phase transitions. Quantum annealers have attracted significant interest as a potential tool for accessing finite temperature criticality beyond classical reach, but their utility in precisely resolving criticality has remained limited by noise, hardware constraints, and thermal fluctuations. Here we overcome these challenges, introducing a sampling protocol that combines real-time temperature inference with fine control of the energy scales throughout experiments. A careful embedding strategy allows us to fully capture the finite-temperature critical behavior of the paradigmatic two-dimensional Ising ferromagnet on toroidal lattices up to 2640 spins. By tuning the energy scale of the system and mitigating device defects, we sample effective Boltzmann distributions extracting both the critical temperature and the associated universal critical exponents. Our approach opens the study of equilibrium and non-equilibrium critical phenomena in a broad class of systems at finite temperature.
The quantum-rotors model can be regarded as an effective model for the low-temperature behavior of the quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnets. Here, we consider a
d-dimensional model in the spherical approximation confined to a general geometry of the form ${L}^{d\ensuremath{-}{d}^{\ensuremath{'}}}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{\ensuremath{\infty}}^{{d}^{\ensuremath{'}}}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{L}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{z}$
(L-linear space size and ${L}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}$-temporal size) and subjected to periodic boundary conditions. Due to the remarkable opportunity it offers for rigorous study of finite-size effects at arbitrary dimensionality this model may play the same role in quantum critical phenomena as the popular Berlin-Kac spherical model in classical critical phenomena. Close to the zero-temperature quantum critical point, the ideas of finite-size scaling are utilized to the fullest extent for studying the critical behavior of the model. For different dimensions
1<d<3 and $0<~{d}^{\ensuremath{'}}<~d$ a detailed analysis, in terms of the special functions of classical mathematics, for the susceptibility and the equation of state is given. Particular attention is paid to the two-dimensional case.