This thesis focuses on the study of the thermodynamics of fermionic systems on lattices, from the point of view of the C*-algebraic formulation of quantum mechanics, and on the application of the so-called \"catastrophe theory\" to the analysis of the phase diagram of an explicit fermionic model. The first chapter is devoted to the introduction of some of the basic and most important properties of C*-algebras, and also to the study of its representations and its set of states. The second chapter is devoted to the development of some important results of catastrophe theory. The results derived in the chapter allows one to analyze the behavior of the minima of members of a family of functions around a degenerate critical point, and they will be used to study the behavior of the thermodynamic pressure for a given fermionic lattice model. The third chapter presents some of the formalism developed in [4], that concerns the existence of the thermodynamics and equilibrium states of lattice fermi systems subject to a suitable set of long-range interactions (i.e., interactions containing mean-field terms). Finally, in the last chapter, using all the formalisms and results already studied in the previous chapters, the thermodynamics of an explicit BCS-like model is analyzed. With the help of catastrophe theory, it is shown that such model exhibits a coexistence of magnetic and superconducting phases for a suitable choice of parameters, and through a perturbative analysis it is also shown that the coexistence still holds when a small kinetic term is added into the model.
This Ph.D. thesis in mathematical physics concerns systems of interacting fermions with strong correlations. For these systems the physical properties can only be described in terms of the collective behavior of the fermions. Moreover, they are often characterized by a close competition between fermion localization versus delocalization, which can result in complex and exotic physical phenomena. Strongly correlated fermion systems are usually modelled by many-body Hamiltonians for which the kinetic- and interaction energy have the same order of magnitude. This makes them challenging to study as the application of conventional computational methods, like mean field- or perturbation theory, often gives unreliable results. Of particular interest are Hubbard-type models, which provide minimal descriptions of strongly correlated fermions. The research of this thesis focuses on such models defined on two-dimensional square lattices. One motivation for this is the so-called high-Tc problem of the cuprate superconductors. A main hypothesis is that there exists an underlying Fermi surface with nearly flat parts, i.e. regions where the surface is straight. It is shown that a particular continuum limit of the lattice system leads to an effective model amenable to computations. This limit is partial in that it only involves fermion degrees of freedom near the flat parts. The result is an effective quantum field theory that is analyzed using constructive bosonization methods. Various exactly solvable models of interacting fermions in two spatial dimensions are also derived and studied.
In this thesis, several cases of non-equilibrium phenomena and quantum phase transitions in strongly correlated electron systems are analyzed. The unconventional critical behavior near magnetic quantum phase transitions in various heavy-fermion metals has triggered proposals on the breakdown of the Kondo effect at the critical point. In part I, we investigate, within one specific scenario, the fate of such a zero-temperature transition upon coupling of the electronic to lattice degrees of freedom. We study a Kondo-Heisenberg model with volume-dependent Kondo coupling � this model displays both Kondo volume collapse and Kondo-breakdown transitions. Within a large-N treatment, we find that the Kondo breakdown transition remains of second order except for very soft lattices. Finally, we relate our findings to current heavy-fermion experiments. Using non-equilibrium Green�s functions, we derive transport equations for the degrees of freedom participating in the quantum critical region of the Kondo breakdown transition. We discuss conditions under which the transport of electrical charge is described by the independent motion of conduction electrons and auxiliary bosons. Under these conditions, we derive a semiclassical transport equation for the bosons and quantitatively discuss the electrical conductivity of the whole system. Motivated by pressure experiments on FeAs-122 superconductors, in part II we propose a scenario based on local-moment physics to explain salient features at the magnetic phase boundary of CaFe2As2. In this scenario, the low-pressure magnetic phase derives from Fe moments, which become screened in the paramagnetic high-pressure phase. The quantum phase transition can be described as an orbital-selective Mott transition, which is rendered first order by coupling to the lattice. These ideas are illustrated by a suitable mean-field analysis of an Anderson lattice model. An analytical description of non-equilibrium phenomena in interacting quantum systems is rarely possible. In part III we present one example where such a description can be achieved, namely the ferromagnetic Kondo model. In equilibrium, this model is tractable via perturbative renormalization-group techniques. We employ a recently developed extension of the flow-equation method to calculate the non-equilibrium decay of the local magnetization at zero temperature. The flow equations admit analytical solutions which become exact at short and long times, in the latter case revealing that the system always retains a memory of its initial state. Finally, in part IV we analyze the Nernst effect resulting from normal state quasiparticles in the cuprates in presence of various types of translational symmetry breaking. In the electron-doped cuprates, the Nernst signal resulting from a reconstruction of the Fermi surface due to spin density wave order is discussed. An order parameter consistent with the reconstruction of the Fermi surface detected in electron-doped materials is shown to sharply enhance the Nernst signal close to optimal doping. Within a semiclassical treatment, the obtained magnitude and position of the enhanced Nernst signal agrees with Nernst measurements in electron-doped cuprates. In the hole-doped cuprates, we discuss relations between the normal-state Nernst effect and stripe order. We find that Fermi pockets caused by translational symmetry breaking lead to a strongly enhanced Nernst signal with a sign depending on the modulation period of the ordered state and other details of the Fermi surface. This implies differences between antiferromagnetic and charge-only stripes. We compare our findings with recent data from La1.6−xNd0.4SrxCuO4 and YBa2Cu3Oy.
In this thesis exotic phases of models preserving the symmetries of the one-dimensional quantum Ising and three-state Potts chains are considered, the natural habitats of Majorana fermions and parafermions, respectively. Along with numerical techniques, conformal field theory (CFT) is used to study the resulting physics. Chapter 1 gives an introduction to the field and explains the basics of the numerical techniques to be used throughout the thesis. CFT is briefly introduced in Chapter 2 before the key results necessary for the thesis are given. In Chapter 3, self-dual interactions are added to the critical Ising model, giving a range of different phases. A tricritical Ising point separates the Ising phase from an order-disorder coexistence phase on the chirally symmetric line, while a supersymmetric line provides the transition to an incommensurate phase in the general model. The model is solved exactly on a free-fermionic line giving insight into the points where only numerical analysis can be performed. This is supplemented by Appendix A, where the qualitative difference between similar perturbations is considered. Chapters 4 and 5 consider models with the symmetries of the three-state Potts model. Various phases are found including an order-disorder coexistence phase, a second critical Potts phase, a "not-A" phase, and a representation symmetry protected topological phase. The effect of lattice momentum on the stability of phases and the connection with conformal field theory operators is studied. Lattice realizations of several CFTs are found, such as the tricritical Potts CFT and a CFT expressible in two different forms, either in terms of a boson and fermion, or Potts and tricritical Ising CFTs.
This PhD thesis is concerned with the investigation of Extended Hubbard Models on one-dimensional lattices (chains); the approach used to such investigation is that of determining exact results. The extended Hubbard models are models of correlated electrons on lattices; they are the extensions of a model proposed by Hubbard in \\cite{HUB} to explain the metal-insulator transition in
d-transition compounds as the effect of electronic correlations, usually neglected in band theories. Later on, a need for extensions of such model was first felt within the context of high-temperature superconductivity; indeed, the different behaviour of doped cuprates with respect to conventional superconductors suggested that a microscopic theory of this phenomenon could be formulated in terms of electron-electron interaction, without explicitly invoking the phonon coupling, like in BCS theory. Although an exhaustive microscopic formulation for cuprate superconductivity has not been achieved yet, the Extended Hubbard Models have been in the meanwhile applied to other problems in condensed matter; they are actually considered the reference paradigm for treating all those systems in which electronic correlations cannot be neglected. \\\\As observed above, this thesis focuses in particular on 1-D chains: indeed in last years the progress in technological synthesization and small-scale observations has shown that there are many classes of materials exhibiting a strong one-dimensional character, such as organic (super)conductors, linear-chain polymers, quantum wires, quantum-dot chains, one-dimensional cuprates. Many experimental results confirm that such materials exhibit a quite rich behaviour, with different phases, charge-spin separation, as well as a strong electronic correlations. However, a sufficient understanding of these phenomena on a theoretical point of view has not been reached yet. This is due to the fact the usual theoretical methods can be shown to fail in D=1, and theoreticians are thus forced to develop new schemes for approaching the problem of many interacting fermions in such dimension. The latter therefore represents a fascinating challenge. Some progress has been made and many aspects are nowadays more clear; nevertheless, due to the lack of traditional techniques, the need for a comparison with exact results is perhaps more urgent in D=1 than in higher dimensions. The aim of this thesis is to provide some results to the research in this field. The present work is organized as follows: the two first chapters are introductory, while chapters 3 and 4 mostly contain the author's original contribution. More explicitly, {\\bf chapter 1} is an introduction to the Hubbard models (both the ordinary and the Extended) and is meant for the reader who is non-familiar with these models. We tried to emphasize the motivation that historically led to their introduction and the physical contexts in which they are applied, not necessarily in one-dimension. \\\\{\\bf Chapter 2} is instead devoted to general problematics of one dimensional physics. We have tried to stress that there is a number of physically interesting materials that can be regarded as actual 1-D systems; we give a brief account of the difficulties leading the usual theoretical approaches, such as mean-field and Fermi Liquid, to fail in D=1. While briefly describing the important results of the proposed alternative formulations (Luttinger Liquid, Renormalization Group), we also point out the points that are still unsatisfactory, and emphasize the importance that exactly integrable models have in this field. \\\\Matching the subjects of chapter 1 and 2, the subsequent ones contain the results of our investigation of exactly solvable Extended Hubbard model on 1-D chains. \\\\We wish to emphasize to the reader non familiar with integrable systems that the literature on this subject is often strongly concerned with the mathematical aspects of the involved methods, leaving the determination of the physical features of the derived integrable models as a secondary issue. On the contrary, we believe that both aspects of the research deserve a relevant role in the study. For these reasons, while chapter 3 contains new results about the general formulation of integrability for fermionic systems, chapter 4 is devoted to the investigation of the physical features for some models whose integrability has been proved in the previous chapter. \\\\More explicitly, in {\\bf chapter 3} (apart from a preliminary introduction of sec.3.1) the theory of integrable {\\it fermionic} systems has been developed within the frame of the Quantum Inverse Scattering Method (QISM). The latter is a technique for obtaining integrable models, traditionally formulated with success for spin systems; its more recent application to electron systems was leaving many unsatisfactory aspects. To overcome this weaknesses, in sec.3.2 we both clarify the theory of matrix representation for fermionic operators, and describe a method for obtaining integrable models of fermions (straightforwardly readable in terms of fermion operators), starting from the the solutions of a
mathbbC-number equation (known as Yang-Baxter Equation). In sec.3.3 we first work out a general method of search for solutions of such equation; secondly we explicitly find 96 solutions, corresponding to 96 integrable Extended Hubbard models (most of which are new) for which a set of mutually commuting operators is proved to exist. In sec.3.4 we formulate a general theorem concerning the symmetries of the integrable models in QISM, and widely discuss the symmetries and supersymmetries for the class of extended Hubbard Models.\\\\ {\\bf Chapter 4} is devoted to the investigation of the physical properties of the integrable Extended Hubbard models found in chapter 3. We introduce a technique, called Sutherland's species technique, that, when applicable, yields an effective reduction of the Hilbert space and considerably simplifies the problem of diagonalizing the Hamiltonian. In fact, such technique is proved to be applicable to all the 96 models found above, and is used to determine the exact ground state phase diagram and the thermodynamics of the models. In particular we both recover in a quite straightforward way the phase diagram of a known model, and that of two new models (Model 2 and Model 3) that were not known before. \\\\The phase diagram exhibit structured forms with respect to the filling (density of electrons) and the on-site Coulomb repulsion (
U); the pressure and the compressibility in the ground state are also calculated. Model 2 exhibits a superconducting phase particularly enhanced towards positive values of
U, as well as a band-controlled insulator-superconductor transition at half filling; model 3 is the first example of exactly solved model with an asymmetric shape with respect to half-filling, due to the absence of particle-hole invariance of the Hamiltonian; a filling controlled metal-insulator transition is found to occur for this model. Generalizations to the other cases are also discussed. \\\\As to the thermodynamics, we compute the exact partition function of Model 3, which we believe to be particular worth of interest due to the above asymmetry. We then derive the exact specific heat of the model as a function of the temperature, which exhibits an interesting two-peak behaviour as well as a nearly universal crossing point. These results are discussed and compared with similar ones present in the literature. The chapters are of course linked each to another according to the above scheme; nevertheless, it has been a purpose of the author to make them as independently readable as possible. In particular, the reader who is more interested in the physical aspects of the models rather than in the general formalism of fermionic QISM can skip chapter 3 (at least in a first-sight reading) and pass directly to chapter 4; apart from some references to previous formulas the understanding should not be affected.\\\\{\\it \\noindent \\underline{Notational Remark:}} The customary symbol to denote the electron filling is
n; this has in fact been used throughout the two first introductory chapters. Nevertheless, in order to avoid possible misunderstanding with other extensive quantities, in chapter 3~and~4~the~symbol~has been changed into
rhoAbstract Chapter 16 explores the statistical mechanics of discrete lattice models and their use in describing critical phenomena. The chapter begins with a review of phase diagrams, coexistence curves, crititical points, and the behavior of certain thermodynamic quantities in the neighborhood of a critical point. The notion of universality classes is introduced. To set up the class of lattice models, magnetic systems are described; simplifications are made to these models to yield the so-called Ising model. Solution of this model is demonstrated within the mean-field theory approximation, which is shown to yield a qualitative description of critical behavior. Exact solutions are derived in one and two dimensions, and predictions of critical exponents from them are obtained. Following this, the renormalization group is introduced, and approaches for understanding critical behavior and universality from renormalization group transformations are discussed. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the use of discrete models in areas ranging from molecular crystals to tissue morphogenesis