In the present thesis, the critical and off-critical behaviors of quantum spin chains in presence of a random or an aperiodic perturbation of the couplings is studied. The critical behavior of the Ising and Potts random quantum chains is known to be governed by the same Infinite-Disorder Fixed Point. We have implemented a numerical version of the Strong-Disorder Renormalization Group (SDRG) to test this prediction. We then studied the quantum random Ashkin-Teller chain by Density Matrix Renormalization Group. The phase diagram, previously obtained by SDRG, is confirmed by estimating the location of the peaks of the integrated autocorrelation times of both the spin-spin and polarization-polarization autocorrelation functions and of the disorder fluctuations of magnetization and polarization. Finally, the existence of a double-Griffiths phase is shown by a detailed study of the decay of the off-critical autocorrelation functions. As expected, a divergence of the dynamical exponent is observed along the two transition lines. In the aperiodic case, we studied both the Ising and Potts quantum chains. Using numerical SDRG, we confirmed the known analytical results for the Ising chains and proposed a new estimate of the magnetic scaling dimension.For the quantum q-state Potts chain, we estimated the magnetic scaling dimension for various aperiodic sequences and showed that it is independent of q for all sequences with a vanishing wandering exponent. However, we observed that the dynamical exponent is finite and increases with the number of states q. In contrast, for the Rudin-Shapiro sequence, the results are compatible with an Infinite-Disorder Fixed Point with a diverging dynamical exponent, equipe de renormalization
Contribution à l’étude des chaînes de spin quantique avec une perturbation aléatoire ou apériodique Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons étudié le comportement critique de chaînes de spins quantiques en présence de couplages désordonnés ou répartis de manière apériodique. Il est bien établi que le comportement critique des chaînes de spins quantiques d’Ising et de Potts est gouverné par le même point fixe de désordre infini. Nous avons implémenté́ une version numérique de la technique de renormalisation de désordre infini (SDRG) afin de tester cette prédiction. Dans un second temps, nous avons étudié la chaîne quantique d’Ashkin-Teller désordonnée par renormalisation de la matrice densité́ (DMRG). Nous confirmons le diagramme de phase précédemment proposé en déterminant la position des pics du temps d’autocorrélation intégré des corrélations spin-spin et polarisation-polarisation ainsi que ceux des fluctuations de l’aimantation et de la polarisation. Enfin, l’existence d’une double phase de Griffiths est confirmée par une étude détaillée de la décroissance des fonctions d’autocorrélation en dehors des lignes critiques. Comme attendu, l’exposant dynamique diverge à l’approche de ces lignes. Dans le cas apériodique, nous avons étudié les chaînes quantiques d’Ising et de Potts. En utilisant la méthode SDRG, nous avons confirmé les résultats connus pour la chaîne d’Ising et proposé des estimations de la dimension d’échelle magnétique. Dans le cas du modèle de Potts à q états, nous avons estimé l’exposant magnétique et observé qu’il était indépendant du nombre d’états q pour toutes les séquences dont l’exposant de divagation est nul. Toutefois, nous montrons que l’exposant dynamique est fini et augmente avec le nombre d’états q. En revanche, pour la séquence de Rudin-Shapiro, les résultats sont compatibles avec un point fixe de désordre infini et donc un exposant dynamique infini.
We employ an adaptation of a strong-disorder renormalization group technique in order to analyze the ferro–paramagnetic quantum phase transition of Ising chains with aperiodic but deterministic couplings under the action of a transverse field. In the presence of marginal or relevant geometric fluctuations induced by aperiodicity, for which the critical behavior is expected to depart from the Onsager universality class, we derive analytical and asymptotically exact expressions for various critical exponents (including the correlation length and the magnetization exponents, which are not easily obtainable by other methods), and shed light onto the nature of the ground-state structures in the neighborhood of the critical point. The main results obtained by this approach are confirmed by finite-size scaling analyses of numerical calculations based on the free-fermion method.
We study the effects of quenched disorder in a class of quantum chains with (
p+1)-multispin interactions exhibiting a free fermionic spectrum, paying special attention to the case
p=2. Depending if disorder couples to (i) all the couplings or just to (ii) some of them, we have two distinct physical scenarios. In case (i), we find that the transitions of the model are governed by a universal infinite-randomness critical point surrounded by quantum Griffiths phases similarly as happens to the random transverse-field Ising chain. In case (ii), we find that quenched disorder becomes an irrelevant perturbation: the clean critical behavior is stable and Griffiths phases are absent. Beyond the perturbative regime, disorder stabilizes a line of finite-randomness critical points (with nonuniversal critical exponents), that ends in a multicritical point of infinite-randomness type. In that case, quantum Griffiths phases also appear surrounding the finite-disorder transition point. We have characterized the correlation functions and the low-temperature thermodynamics of these chains. Our results are derived from a strong-disorder renormalization-group technique and from finite-size scaling analysis of the spectral gap computed exactly (up to sizes $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{7}$) via an efficient new numerical method recently introduced in the literature [Phys. Rev. B 104, 174206 (2021)].
Entanglement measures are useful tools in characterizing otherwise unknown quantum phases and indicating transitions between them. Here we examine the concurrence and entanglement entropy in quantum spin chains with random long-range couplings, spatially decaying with a power-law exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. Using the strong disorder renormalization group (SDRG) technique, we find by analytical solution of the master equation a strong disorder fixed point, characterized by a fixed point distribution of the couplings with a finite dynamical exponent, which describes the system consistently in the regime $\ensuremath{\alpha}>\frac{1}{2}$. A numerical implementation of the SDRG method yields a power-law spatial decay of the average concurrence, which is also confirmed by exact numerical diagonalization. However, we find that the lowest-order SDRG approach is not sufficient to obtain the typical value of the concurrence. We therefore implement a correction scheme which allows us to obtain the leading-order corrections to the random singlet state. This approach yields a power-law spatial decay of the typical value of the concurrence, which we derive both by a numerical implementation of the corrections and by analytics. Next, using numerical SDRG, the entanglement entropy (EE) is found to be logarithmically enhanced for all $\ensuremath{\alpha}$, corresponding to a critical behavior with an effective central charge
c=ln(2), independent of $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. This is confirmed by an analytical derivation. Using numerical exact diagonalization (ED), we confirm the logarithmic enhancement of the EE and a weak dependence on $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. For a wide range of partition size
l, the EE fits a critical behavior with a central charge close to
c=1, which is the same as for the clean Haldane-Shastry model with a power-law-decaying interaction with $\ensuremath{\alpha}=2$. Only for small $l\ensuremath{\ll}L$, in a range which increases with the number of spins
N, we find deviations which are rather consistent with the strong disorder fixed point central charge
c=ln(2). Furthermore, we find using ED that the concurrence shows power-law decay, albeit with smaller power exponents than obtained by SDRG. We also present results obtained with DMRG and find agreement with ED for sufficiently small $\ensuremath{\alpha}<2$, whereas for larger $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ DMRG tends to underestimate the entanglement entropy and finds a faster decaying concurrence.
Quasiperiodic systems are aperiodic but deterministic, so their critical behavior differs from that of clean systems and disordered ones as well. Quasiperiodic criticality was previously understood only in the special limit where the couplings follow discrete quasiperiodic sequences. Here we consider generic quasiperiodic modulations; we find, remarkably, that for a wide class of spin chains, generic quasiperiodic modulations flow to discrete sequences under a real-space renormalization-group transformation. These discrete sequences are therefore fixed points of a functional renormalization group. This observation allows for an asymptotically exact treatment of the critical points. We use this approach to analyze the quasiperiodic Heisenberg, Ising, and Potts spin chains, as well as a phenomenological model for the quasiperiodic many-body localization transition.
We study the scaling properties of entanglement entropy (EE) near the quantum critical points in interacting random antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin chains. Using density-matrix renormalization group, we compute the half-chain EE near the topological phase transition between the Haldane and random singlet phases in a disordered spin-1 chain. It is found to diverge logarithmically in system size with an effective central charge
ceff=1.17(4) at the quantum critical point (QCP). Moreover, a scaling analysis of EE yields the correlation length exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}=2.28(5)$. Our unbiased calculation establishes that the QCP is in the universality class of the infinite-randomness fixed point predicted by previous studies based on the strong disorder renormalization group technique. However, in the disordered spin-1/2 Majumdar-Ghosh chain, where a valence bond solid phase is unstable to disorder, the crossover length exponent obtained from a scaling analysis of EE disagrees with the expectation based on the Imry-Ma argument. We provide a possible explanation.