Ground state fidelity and quantum phase transitions in free Fermi systems
Paolo Zanardi A, Cozzini, M, Giorda, P
Abstract
We compute the fidelity between the ground states of general quadratic fermionic hamiltonians and analyze its connections with quantum phase transitions. Each of these systems is characterized by a $L\\times L$ real matrix whose polar decomposition, into a non-negative $\\Lambda$ and a unitary $T$, contains all the relevant ground state (GS) information. The boundaries between different regions in the GS phase diagram are given by the points of, possibly asymptotic, singularity of $\\Lambda$. This latter in turn implies a critical drop of the fidelity function. We present general results as well as their exemplification by a model of fermions on a totally connected graph.