The main objective of this paper is to provide a systematic theoretical study on quantum phase transitions associated with the Bose-Einstein condensates, the superfluidity and the su-perconductivity. First, we indicate that there are only two types of phase transitions: dynamical phase transitions and topologi-cal phase transitions (TPTs). A TPT refers to the transition in its topological structure in the physical space of the system, and quantum phase transitions (QPTs) belong to the category of TPTs. Second, the basic physical characteristics of a QPT are precisely formulated. In particular, a QPT is a transition between quantum states, which are described by the wave functions ψ, and the control parameters are non-thermal. Third, we derive the topological structure equations for QPTs, so that the basic geometric theory of incompressible flows can be readily applied. In particular, a topo-logical index for the supercurrent can be defined, leading to precise information on the topological structure and its transitions in the physical space for the underlying system. Fourth, we derive then the basic theory for different TPTs, leading to transparent physical pictures of various condensates. Finally, we derive the microscopic mechanism for the Meissner effect of superconductivity: below the critical temperature, under the applied magnetic field, spin J = 1 Cooper pairs reversely parallel to the applied field can form and are stable, and the total magnetic moment of all Cooper pairs, together with the surface supercurrent, can cancel out the magnetism induced by the applied field and resists the applied field from entering its body.
The main objective of this paper is to provide a systematic theoretical study on quantum phase transitions associated with the Bose-Einstein condensates, the superfluidity and the su-perconductivity. First, we indicate that there are only two types of phase transitions: dynamical phase transitions and topologi-cal phase transitions (TPTs). A TPT refers to the transition in its topological structure in the physical space of the system, and quantum phase transitions (QPTs) belong to the category of TPTs. Second, the basic physical characteristics of a QPT are precisely formulated. In particular, a QPT is a transition between quantum states, which are described by the wave functions ψ, and the control parameters are non-thermal. Third, we derive the topological structure equations for QPTs, so that the basic geometric theory of incompressible flows can be readily applied. In particular, a topo-logical index for the supercurrent can be defined, leading to precise information on the topological structure and its transitions in the physical space for the underlying system. Fourth, we derive then the basic theory for different TPTs, leading to transparent physical pictures of various condensates. Finally, we derive the microscopic mechanism for the Meissner effect of superconductivity: below the critical temperature, under the applied magnetic field, spin J = 1 Cooper pairs reversely parallel to the applied field can form and are stable, and the total magnetic moment of all Cooper pairs, together with the surface supercurrent, can cancel out the magnetism induced by the applied field and resists the applied field from entering its body.
Quantum states of matter at zero temperature are called quantum phases, which are characterized by their symmetries and topology. If two quantum phases cannot be related by symmetry-preserving continuous transformations, they are defined to be topologically distinct. The zero-temperature transitions among quantum phases are quantum phase transitions. Quantum phase transitions that happen among topologically distinct phases are called topological quantum phase transitions. The study of topological quantum phases and topological quantum phase transitions is a central topic in condensed matter physics.My research on quantum phases has been focused on the theoretical study of topologically nontrivial quantum phases in the crystals governed by non-interacting Hamiltonians, including topological insulator phases, topological semimetal phases, topological superconductor phases, and so on. First, we proposed a sufficient criterion that can efficiently determine whether a three-dimensional crystal is a topological semimetal or not, based on the compatibility of different expressions for a special topological invariant, the quantized bulk average value of the effective axion field. Second, we predicted the existence of various topological insulator phases and topological semimetal phases in half-Heusler materials. Third, we proposed the magnetic-resonance-induced current as a feasible experimental probe of a special kind of topological insulators, called the axion insulators. Fourth, we proposed a new pairing mixing mechanism, the singlet-quintet mixing, for superconductors with spin-3/2 fermions, demonstrated the topological superconductor phase induced by it, and studied various properties of it, including spin-susceptibility, upper critical field, stability against the disorder, and surface Majorana flat bands.Besides the topological quantum phases, I have also worked on quantum phase transitions. First, we constructed the first theoretical model for the emergent supersymmetry at a discontinuous quantum phase transition and proposed to realize it on the surface of a topological superconductor. Second, we proposed the discontinuous change of piezoelectricity as a probe of two-dimensional topological quantum phase transitions between insulating phases, through a systematic study of all the relevant gap closing cases. In this dissertation, I first briefly introduce the basic concepts in the field of topological quantum phases and topological quantum phase transitions with a focus on the crystals governed by noninteracting Hamiltonians. Then, I review in detail all my first-authored research works mentioned above. My other research works are briefly mentioned.
The superconducting ground state in many two-dimensional materials can be created or destroyed through quantum phase transitions (QPTs) controlled by non-thermal parameters such as carrier density or magnetic field. While various mechanisms for these QPTs have been proposed, it remains unclear which, if any, are applicable to a specific two-dimensional superconducting system. Here, we find that a pair-breaking mechanism which suppresses the Cooper pair density gives a unifying description of magnetic-field-driven QPTs in amorphous MoGe, Pb and TaN films, and the high-temperature superconductor La1.92Sr0.08CuO4. This transition occurs within the superconducting subsystem and is masked by the dominant non-critical contribution of normal electrons. The discovery was enabled by the development of a QPT model that goes beyond the conventional determination of the critical exponents and incorporates into the analysis a microscopic length scale characterizing the transitions. We found that in the materials studied, and MoGe nanowires, this scale corresponds to the size of a Cooper pair. The model has also been successfully applied to QPTs in Josephson junction arrays and various non-superconducting materials. The observation that microscopic scales are encoded in the scaled experimental data of QPTs likely extends beyond equilibrium condensed matter physics and may reveal underlying principles of critical phenomena in a wide variety of systems.
Superfluids and superconductors can be either fully gapped or gapless with nodal structures in momentum space. Both the gapped and nodal phases can be topologically protected and possess nontrivial topological invariants. Topological quantum phase transitions exist at zero temperature between different gapped phases or between gapped and nodal phases. These phase transitions can be driven by chemical potential and/or spin exchange fields. The two phases separated by the phase transition can have the same local order but differ in global topology. Thus, these topological quantum phase transitions cannot be described by the Landau paradigm of symmetry breaking. Although some aspects of these transitions, such as the change of topological invariants and gapless boundary states, have been discussed before, a complete theory of these transitions has yet to be developed. In this dissertation, we construct effective field theories to study the universality and thermodynamic signatures of these transitions. We find four different universality classes in superfluids and superconductors. Certain thermodynamic quantities, such as compressibility or spin susceptibility, change non-analytically across the transitions. For certain time-reversal symmetry breaking fields that lead to bulk phase transitions, there also exist topological phase transitions on the surface. All the topological phase transitions studied in this dissertation only exist at zero temperature. At finite temperature, different states are connected by smooth crossovers. There exists a quantum critical region at finite temperature near the quantum critical point (QCP). In this quantum critical region, thermodynamic quantities have universal scaling dependence on temperature dictated by the universality class of the QCP. We argue that these scaling properties can be used to probe and differentiate these QCPs. These bulk and surface topological quantum phase transitions are discussed in various concrete models, such as chiral and time-reversal invariant p-wave superfluids, topological superconductors of emergent Dirac fermions, and topological superconducting model of CuₓBi₂Se₃.
Discussing quantum phase transition and quantum critical point Main Viewpoints and Conclusions: In physics, a quantum phase transition (QPT) is a phase transition between different quantum phases (phases of matter at zero temperature). Contrary to classical phase transitions, quantum phase transitions can only be accessed by varying a physical parameter—such as magnetic field or pressure—at absolute zero temperature. The transition describes an abrupt change in the ground state of a many-body system due to its quantum fluctuations.[1] In fact and details, the study of the quantum phase transition and quantum critical point, is the study about of a material in a condition which with a definite electromagnetic and pressure environment, and when the temperature continues change to lower, until reaches absolute zero temperature, the properties changing of this material with the changes of the environment temperature (whether it is a single kind of atom or more kinds of atoms of the crystal compound, and especially with regards to solid material). With a definite electromagnetic and pressure environment, the environment temperature continues change to lower, until reaches absolute zero temperature, in the process, the material lost its energy continuously, so, the energy both of the all extranuclear charges and all nucleuses (main is π-mesons body) of the material also is go into further lower continuously. Meanwhile, the volume density, natural frequency and energy level of the extranuclear charges go into further lower continuously; the difference of the volume charge density, natural frequency and energy level between all parts of the material becomes to smaller, and reaches the same and consistency at absolute zero temperature. In the state, all atoms of the material at the same and lowest energy level of their ground state, the extranuclear-charges of all atoms with the same density and polymerized into a single complete whole and agglomerate together with all nucleuses, namely, the material is being its Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC).[2][3][4][5] The process of the volume density, natural frequency and energy level of the extranuclear charges go into further lower continuously; the difference of the volume charge density, natural frequency and energy level between all parts of the material becomes smaller, also is a process that the energy levels of every parts of the extranuclear charges goes into more lower state which higher than the lowest energy level-ground state, and this is the weak first-order quantum phase transition which we called that the energy levels from higher to lower but still higher than the lowest energy level-ground state yet; further, we called the quantum state transition is second-order quantum phase transition which the energy levels of every parts of the extranuclear charges from many different higher energy levels goes into the same and lowest energy level-ground state after the material reaches into and at its Bose-Einstein condensate; and the environment condition (combined effect generated by magnetic-field, pressure and temperature) that is the quantum phase dividing line or called quantum critical point which makes the material reaches into its Bose-Einstein condensate and the all extranuclear charges from the state with many different volume charge densities, natural frequencies and energy levels transform into a single complete whole body which with the same and unique volume charge density, natural frequency and energy level at its ground state; or, in other words, the quantum critical point is the dividing line of the two state that the all extranuclear charges with many different volume charge densities, natural frequencies and energy levels or the all extranuclear charges with the same and unique volume charge density, natural frequency and energy level at its ground state. Contrary to the case of a material into its Bose-Einstein condensate, after temperature rise and beyond the quantum critical point, the material would deviate from its Bose-Einstein condensate, the extranuclear charge-body separates from the all nucleuses, and the all nucleuses returns to their free states. Same time, the volume density of every parts of the extranuclear charge-body whether combined into atomic bonds or not, all changes into and at non same and unique state, the energy levels of the extranuclear charge-body appear as separate and in a discrete state, and then restoration and presentation quantum behaviors in the microscopic scale of the material. References & Related stories [1] Quantum phase transition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_phase_transition [2] Bose-Einstein condensate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose%E2%80%93Einstein_condensate [3] A New Model of Atomic Structure http://vixra.org/abs/1401.0147 [4] The Causes and Mechanism of Atomic Energy Levels quantum http://vixra.org/abs/1402.0104 [5] The Structure, State and Properties of Matter in Bose-Einstein Condensate http://vixra.org/abs/1509.0184 [6] Critical behavior at a dynamic vortex insulator-to-metal transition Science, 2015; 349 (6253): 1202 Doi: 10.1126/science.1260507 [7] Inhomogeneity of charge-density-wave order and quenched disorder in a high-Tc superconductor Nature, 525, 359–362 (17 September 2015) Doi: 10.1038/nature14987 [8] The mechanism of charge density wave in Pt-based layered superconductors: SrPt2As2 and LaPt2Si2 Nature, scientific Reports 5, 15052(2015) Doi: 10.1038/srep15052 YuQuan Road, Zhao Feng Yuan Section, 3rd block, Feng Tai District, Beijing, CHINA
Aim and Scope of this Book A plethora of systems exhibit phase transitions as the temperature or some other parameter is changed. Examples range from the ice-water phase transition observed in our daily life to the loss of ferromagnetism in iron or to the more sophisticated Mott insulator-superfluid phase transition observed in optical lattices [343]. The last five decades have witnessed a tremendous upsurge in the studies of phase transitions at finite temperature [727, 149, 333, 136, 494, 541, 556]. The success of Landau-Ginzburg theories and the concepts of spontaneous symmetry breaking and the renormalization group [27, 410, 821, 578] in explaining many of the finite temperature phase transitions occurring in nature has been spectacular. In this book, we will consider only a subclass of phase transitions called quantum phase transitions (QPTs) [154, 658, 725, 799, 185, 63, 62, 66, 141, 744] and we will discuss these mainly from the view point of recent studies of information and dynamics. QPTs are zero temperature phase transitions which are driven by quantum fluctuations and are usually associated with a non-analyticity in the ground state energy density of a quantum many-body Hamiltonian. We will focus on continuous QPTs where the order parameter vanishes continuously at the quantum critical point (QCP) at some value of the parameters which characterize the Hamiltonian. We will not discuss first order quantum phase transitions associated with an abrupt change in the order parameter. Usually, a first order phase transition is characterized by a finite discontinuity in the first derivative of the ground state energy density. A continuous QPT is similarly characterized by a finite discontinuity, or divergence, in the second derivative of the ground state energy density, assuming that the first derivative is continuous. This is of course the classical definition; we will later mention some QPTs where the ground state energy density is not necessarily singular.
The main objective of this paper is to introduce a new quantum mechanism of condensates and superconductivity based on a new interpretation of quantum mechanical wavefunctions, and on recent developments in quantum physics and statistical physics. First, we postulate that the wavefunction [Formula: see text]e[Formula: see text] is the common wavefunction for all particles in the same class determined by the external potential V(x), [Formula: see text](x)[Formula: see text] represents the distribution density of the particles, and [Formula: see text] is the velocity field of the particles. Although the new interpretation does not alter the basic theories of quantum mechanics, it is an entirely different interpretation from the classical Bohr interpretation, removes all absurdities and offers new insights for quantum physics and for condensed matter physics. Second, we show that the key for condensation of bosonic particles is that their interaction is sufficiently weak to ensure that a large collection of boson particles are in a state governed by the same condensation wavefunction field [Formula: see text] under the same bounding potential V. For superconductivity, the formation of superconductivity comes down to conditions for the formation of electron pairs, and for the electron pairs to share a common wavefunction. Thanks to the recently developed principle of interaction dynamics (PID) interaction potential of electrons and the average-energy level formula of temperature, these conditions for superconductivity are explicitly derived. Furthermore, we obtain both microscopic and macroscopic formulas for the critical temperature. The field and topological phase transition equations for condensates are also derived.