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CRC Press eBooks

Yang-Lee Theory of Phase Transition

Biman Bagchi

Published Jul 6, 2018• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Overview This brief chapter contains one of the most beautiful and at the same time most important results of Statistical Mechanics, obtained by Yang and Lee in 1952. This work served to settle some of the lingering doubts on the ability of Statistical Mechanics to describe phase transition in general. In the process this work provided some of the far reaching results, and even created language (like zeros of partition function) of SM.

DOI
10.1201/9781315113951-20

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Lee-Yang theory and large deviation statistics of interacting many-body systems

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The collective behavior of large numbers of interacting particles may give rise to a phase transition. A continuing challenge is to identify the underlying principles of this phenomenon emerging in many important systems in nature and characterize the critical behavior of interacting many-body systems. In this thesis, we present a theoretical and methodological framework for predicting the phase properties of a macroscopic system based on the behavior of just a few of its constituents. To this end, we devise a direct pathway from the detection of partition function zeros by measuring or simulating fluctuating observables in systems of finite size to the characterization of criticality and large deviation statistics in interacting many-body systems. Our approach combines ideas and concepts from the finite-size scaling analysis with the Lee-Yang formalism and theories of high cumulants and large deviations, and it can be applied in a wide range of critical systems from physics, chemistry, and biology, both in theory and experiment. The thesis consists of four publications. In publications I and II, we report a novel method that makes it possible to extract the partition function zeros in interacting many-body systems of finite size solely from the fluctuations of thermodynamic observables without any prior knowledge of the partition function. To illustrate the feasibility of our approach, we use the Fisher zeros and their relation to the energy fluctuations as a tool for probing criticality in Ising models in two and three dimensions. In particular, we suggest an alternative way of extracting the universal critical exponents from measured fluctuations in finite-size systems away from the phase transition. In publications III and IV, we develop a scaling analysis of the partition function zeros to investigate the criticality in higher dimensions where the hyperscaling breaks down. We also show that even if the system does not exhibit a sharp phase transition, the partition function zeros carry important information about the large-deviation statistics of the system and its symmetry properties. To this end, we determine the rare magnetization fluctuations from the asymptotic behavior of the Lee-Yang zeros, i.e., from the Yang-Lee edge singularities. This finding may constitute a profound connection between Lee-Yang theory and large-deviation statistics.

•Jan 1, 2020•0 citations
Overview This brief chapter contains one of the most beautiful and at the same time most important results of Statistical Mechanics, obtained by Yang and Lee in 1952. This work served to settle some of the lingering doubts on the ability of Statistical Mechanics to describe phase transition in general. In the process this work provided some of the far reaching results, and even created language (like zeros of partition function) of SM.
By an extension of the Yang-Lee picture of phase transitions to the case of two complex variables, we have been able to study the properties of a ferromagnetic system in the vicinity of the critical point. A linear approximation is used, which yields a satisfactory result close to that point. Especially, we see how a critical point and a phase boundary can arise from statistical mechanical laws. It is shown that scaling laws are generally valid, although there may be special cases when they are not.
Phase Transition is associated with a drastic change in some observable (ordered parameter) of the system when the controlled parameter is tuned smoothly. Lee-Yang theory of phase transition is discussed which is related to the accumulation of singularities of free energy, equivalently complex roots of Grand Partition function (Partition function) at points on positive real axis in complex fugacity plane; and more general (p+1) phase system is discussed, and also the case when (w+2) phases coexist together. Comparison to Mayer's theory is also presented.
We study the Yang-Lee theory in quantum phase transitions from the perspective of quantum entanglement in one-dimensional many-body systems. We primarily focus on the distribution of Yang-Lee zeros and its associated Yang-Lee edge singularity of two prototypical models: the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and the XXZ spin chain. By taking the zero-temperature limit, we show how the Yang-Lee zeros approach the quantum phase transition points on the complex plane of parameters. To characterize the edge singularity induced by Yang-Lee zeros in a quantum phase transition, we introduce the entanglement entropy of the ground state to show that the edges of Yang-Lee zeros lead to the ground-state entanglement transition. We further show that our results are also applicable to the general noninteracting parity-time-symmetric Hamiltonians.
The collective behavior of large numbers of interacting particles may give rise to a phase transition. A continuing challenge is to identify the underlying principles of this phenomenon emerging in many important systems in nature and characterize the critical behavior of interacting many-body systems. In this thesis, we present a theoretical and methodological framework for predicting the phase properties of a macroscopic system based on the behavior of just a few of its constituents. To this end, we devise a direct pathway from the detection of partition function zeros by measuring or simulating fluctuating observables in systems of finite size to the characterization of criticality and large deviation statistics in interacting many-body systems. Our approach combines ideas and concepts from the finite-size scaling analysis with the Lee-Yang formalism and theories of high cumulants and large deviations, and it can be applied in a wide range of critical systems from physics, chemistry, and biology, both in theory and experiment. The thesis consists of four publications. In publications I and II, we report a novel method that makes it possible to extract the partition function zeros in interacting many-body systems of finite size solely from the fluctuations of thermodynamic observables without any prior knowledge of the partition function. To illustrate the feasibility of our approach, we use the Fisher zeros and their relation to the energy fluctuations as a tool for probing criticality in Ising models in two and three dimensions. In particular, we suggest an alternative way of extracting the universal critical exponents from measured fluctuations in finite-size systems away from the phase transition. In publications III and IV, we develop a scaling analysis of the partition function zeros to investigate the criticality in higher dimensions where the hyperscaling breaks down. We also show that even if the system does not exhibit a sharp phase transition, the partition function zeros carry important information about the large-deviation statistics of the system and its symmetry properties. To this end, we determine the rare magnetization fluctuations from the asymptotic behavior of the Lee-Yang zeros, i.e., from the Yang-Lee edge singularities. This finding may constitute a profound connection between Lee-Yang theory and large-deviation statistics.