Critical properties of U(1) symmetric gauge theories are studied in 2+1 dimensions, analytically through duality transformations and numerically through Monte Carlo simulations. Physical applications range from quantum phase transitions in two dimensional insulating materials to super uid and superconducting properties of light atoms such as hydrogen under extreme pressure. A novel finite size scaling method, utilizing the third moment M3 of the action, is developed. Finite size scaling analysis of M3 yields the ratio (1 + α)=/ υ and 1= /v separately, so that critical exponents α and v can be obtained independently without invoking hyperscaling. This thesis contains eight research papers and an introductory part covering some basic concepts and techniques.
Critical properties of U(1) symmetric gauge theories are studied in 2+1 dimensions, analytically through duality transformations and numerically through Monte Carlo simulations. Physical applications range from quantum phase transitions in two dimensional insulating materials to super uid and superconducting properties of light atoms such as hydrogen under extreme pressure. A novel finite size scaling method, utilizing the third moment M3 of the action, is developed. Finite size scaling analysis of M3 yields the ratio (1 + α)=/ υ and 1= /v separately, so that critical exponents α and v can be obtained independently without invoking hyperscaling. This thesis contains eight research papers and an introductory part covering some basic concepts and techniques.
We have studied the critical properties of three-dimensional U(1)-symmetric lattice gauge theories. The models apply to various physical systems such as insulating phases of strongly correlated electron systems as well as superconducting and superfluid states of liquid metallic hydrogen under extreme pressures. This thesis contains an introductory part and a collection of research papers of which seven are published works and one is submitted for publication.\n\nPaper I: Critical properties of the 2+1-dimensional compact abelian Higgs model with gauge charge q=2 are studied. We introduce a novel method of computing the third moment M3 of the action which allows us to extract correlation length and specific heat critical exponents ν and α without invoking hyperscaling. Finite-size scaling analysis of M3 yields the ratio (1+α)/ν and 1/ν separately. We find that α and ν vary along the critical line of the theory, which however exhibits a remarkable resilience of Z2 criticality. We conclude that the model is a fixed-line theory, which we propose to characterize the zero temperature quantum phase transition from a Mott-Hubbard insulator to a charge fractionalized insulator in two spatial dimensions.\n\nPaper II: Large scale Monte Carlo simulations are employed to study phase transitions in the three-dimensional compact abelian Higgs model in adjoint representations of the matter field, labeled by an integer q, for q=2,3,4,5. We also study various limiting cases of the model, such as the Zq lattice gauge theory, dual to the 3DZq spin model, and the 3D xy spin model which is dual to the Zq lattice gauge theory in the limit q → ∞. In addition, for benchmark purposes, we study the 2D square lattice 8-vertex model, which is exactly solvable and features non-universal critical exponents. The critical exponents α and ν are calculated from finite size scaling of the third moment of the action, and the method is tested thoroughly on models with known values for these exponents. We have found that for q=3, the three-dimensional compact abelian Higgs model exhibits a second order phase transition line which joins a first order phase transition line at a tricritical point. The results for q=2 in Paper I are reported with a higher lever of detail.\n\nPaper III: This paper is based on a talk by F. S. Nogueira in the Aachen HEP 2003 conference where a review of the results for the compact abelian Higgs model from Paper I and Paper II was presented, as well as the results for the q=1 case studied by F. S. Nogueira, H. Kleinert and A. Sudbø.\n\nPaper IV: We study the effects of a Chern-Simons (CS) term in the phase structure of two different abelian gauge theories in three dimensions. By duality transformations we show how the compact U(1) gauge theory with a CS term for certain values of the CS coupling can be written as a gas of vortex loops interacting through steric repulsion. This theory is known to exhibit a phase transition governed by proliferation of vortex loops. We also employ Monte Carlo simulations to study the non-compact U(1) abelian Higgs model with a CS term. Finite size scaling of the third moment of the action yields critical exponents α and ν that vary continuously with the strength of the CS term, and a comparison with available analytical results is made.\n\nPaper V: The critical properties of N-component Ginzburg-Landau theory are studied in d=2+1 dimensions. The model is dualized to a theory of N vortex fields interacting through a Coulomb and a screened potential. The model with N=2 shows two anomalies in the specific heat. From Monte Carlo simulations we calculate the critical exponents α and ν and the mass of the gauge field. We conclude that one anomaly corresponds to an inverted 3D xy fixed point, while the other corresponds to a 3D xy fixed point. There are N fixed points, namely one corresponding to an inverted 3D xy fixed point, and N-1corresponding to neutral 3D xy fixed points. Applications are briefly discussed.\n\nPaper VI: The phase diagram and critical properties of the N-component London superconductor are studied both analytically and through large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations in d=2+1 dimensions. The model with different bare phase stiffnesses for each flavor is a model of superconductivity which should arise out of metallic phases of light atoms under extreme pressure. A projected mixture of electronic and protonic condensates in liquid metallic hydrogen under extreme pressure is the simplest example, corresponding to N=2 with individually conserved matter fields. We compute critical exponents α and ν for N=2 and N=3. The results from Paper V are presented at a higher level of detail. For the arbitrary N case, there are N fixed points,namely one charged inverted 3D xy fixed point, and N-1 neutral 3D xy fixed points. We explicitly identify one charged vortex mode and N-1 neutral vortex modes. The model for N=2 and equal bare phase stiffnesses corresponds to a field theoretical description of an easy-plane quantum antiferromagnet. In this case, the critical exponents are computed and found to be non 3D xy values. Furthermore, we study the model in an external magnetic field, and find a novel feature, namely N-1 superfluid phases arising out of N charged condensates. In particular, for N=2 we point out the possibility of two novel types of field-induced phase transitions in ordered quantum fluids: i) A phase transition from a superconductor to a superfluid or vice versa, driven by tuning an external magnetic field. This identifies the superconducting phase of liquid metallic hydrogen as a novel quantum fluid. ii) A phase transition corresponding to a quantum fluid analogue of sublattice melting, where a composite field-induced Abrikosov vortex lattice is decomposed and disorders the phases of the constituent condensate with lowest bare phase stiffness. Both transitions belong to the 3D xy universality class.\n\nPaper VII: We consider the vortex superconductor with two individually conserved condensates in a finite magnetic field. The ground state is a lattice of cocentered vortices in both order parameters. We find two novel phase transitions when temperature is increased at fixed magnetic field. i) A "vortex sublattice melting" transition where vortices in the field with lowest phase stiffness ("light vortices") loose cocentricity with the vortices with large phase stiffness ("heavy vortices"), entering a liquid state (the structure factor of the light vortex sublattice vanishes continuously.) This transition is in the 3D xy universality class. ii) A first order melting transition of the lattice of heavy vortices in a liquid of light vortices.\n\nPaper VIII: We report on large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of a novel type of a vortex matter phase transition which should take place in a three dimensional two-component superconductor. We identify the regime where first, at a certain temperature a field-induced lattice of co-centered vortices of both order parameters melts, causing the system to loose superconductivity. In this state the two-gap system retains a broken composite symmetry and we observe that at a higher temperature it undergoes an extra phase transition where the disordered composite one-flux-quantum vortex lines are "ionized" into a "plasma" of constituent fractional flux vortex lines in individual order parameters. This is the hallmark of the superconductor-to-superfluid-to-normal fluid phase transitions projected to occur in e.g. liquid metallic hydrogen.
We consider relativistic U(1) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions, with Nb species of complex bosons and Nf species of Dirac fermions at finite temperature. The quantum phase transition between the Higgs and Coulomb phases is described by a conformal field theory (CFT). At large Nb and Nf, but for arbitrary values of the ratio Nb∕Nf, we present computations of various critical exponents and universal amplitudes for these CFTs. We make contact with the different spin liquids, charge liquids, and deconfined critical points of quantum magnets that these field theories describe. We compute physical observables that may be measured in experiments or numerical simulations of insulating and doped quantum magnets.
In three research articles we have studied the critical properties of effective lattice models for strongly correlated electron systems by Monte Carlo simulations. A similar model is used in a fourth article for investigating thermal fluctuations of vortices in a rotating Bose–Einstein condensate. In the first part of this thesis we review the necessary background and introduce the models one by one. The last part is a collection of the papers.\n\nPaper I [1]: We consider the scaling of the mean square dipole moment in a plasma with logarithmic interactions in a two- and three-dimensional system. In both cases, we establish the existence of a low-temperature regime where the mean square dipole moment does not scale with system size and a hightemperature regime does scale with system size. Thus, there is a nonanalytic change in the polarizability of the system as a function of temperature, and hence a metal-insulator transition in both cases. The relevance of this transition in three dimensions to quantum phase transitions in 2 + 1-dimensional systems is briefly discussed.\n\nPaper II [2]: The existence of a discontinuity in the inverse dielectric constant of the two-dimensional Coulomb gas is demonstrated on purely numerical grounds. This is done by expanding the free energy in an applied twist and performing a finite-size scaling analysis of the coefficients of higher-order terms. The phase transition, driven by unbinding of dipoles, corresponds to the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in the 2D XY model. The method developed is also used for investigating the possibility of a Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition in a threedimensional system of point charges interacting with a logarithmic pair-potential, a system related to effective theories of low-dimensional strongly correlated systems. We also contrast the finite-size scaling of the fluctuations of the dipole moments of the two-dimensional Coulomb gas and the three-dimensional logarithmic system to those of the three-dimensional Coulomb gas.\n\nPaper III [3]: We perform large-scale Monte Carlo simulations on an effective gauge theory for an easy plane quantum anti-ferromagnet, including a Berry phase term that projects out the S = 1/2 sector. Without a Berry phase term, the model exhibits a phase transition in the 3DXY universality class associated with proliferation of gauge-charge neutral U(1) vortices. The instantons that eliminate the phase transition in the gauge-charged sector are cancelled by the Berry phases. The result is a first order phase transition. This gauge theory therefore does not exhibit deconfined criticality.\n\nPaper IV [4]: We perform Monte Carlo studies of vortices in three dimensions in a cylindrical confinement, with uniform and nonuniform density. The former is relevant to rotating 4He, the latter is relevant to a rotating trapped Bose condensate. In the former case we find dominant angular thermal vortex fluctuations close to the cylinder wall. For the latter case, a novel effect is that at low temperatures the vortex solid close to the center of the trap crosses directly over to a tension-less vortex tangle near the edge of the trap. At higher temperatures an intermediate tensionful vortex liquid located between the vortex solid and the vortex tangle, may exist.
In chapter one, we explain briefly the continuum limit, scaling, and high temperature expansion of critical phenomena, Monte Carlo algorithms and fitting. In chapter two, different continuum limits of the Ising model in dimensions (D) 2, 3 and 4 are investigated numerically. The data indicate that triviality occurs for D = 4 and fails for D < 4 in each limit. In chapter three, a relation between the critical exponents of the leading and confluent scaling terms is derived using the finite size scaling argument. We also determine the new scaling variable of the 4D Ising model based on a new Monte Carlo simulation data. In chapter four, a Monte Carlo study of two dimensional diluted Ising systems is reported. It is shown that regular dilution does not affect critical exponents, while a random one does, with critical exponents varying continuously with impurity concentration. The importance of fluctuations in producing such effects is emphasized. In chapter five, a different point of view regarding the critical exponent of the specific heat of the 3D Ising model is presented. Based on the analysis of high temperature expansion, finite size scaling and Monte Carlo data in the symmetric phase of the 3D Ising model, it is shown that logarithmic scaling behavior of specific heat is more consistent than power scaling behavior.
This thesis explores the effect of interactions in several low-dimensional field theories with the help of both perturbative and non-perturbative analytic field-theory techniques. Our primary focus is on planar condensed matter physics systems and their interaction-induced, thermal or quantum, phase transitions. The latter are characterized by anomalous dimensions, or equivalently critical exponents, which are universal physical observables calculable with multiloop Feynman diagram techniques. A first part is devoted to the study of elastic fluctuations in several statistical field theories associated with the flat phase of polymerized membranes, ubiquitous in physics. We explore their critical mechanical properties, in particular the anomalous stiffness induced by long-range correlations that we compute at high loop order. A variant including disorder is also considered through the technique of replicas, unveiling a new wrinkling transition towards a glassy phase. A second part examines several abelian gauge field theories in low dimensions, which are particularly useful to describe strongly correlated planar fermionic quantum systems like graphene at low energies. We also consider a minimally supersymmetric extension in relation with a potential supergraphene material. For these models, we compute their critical exponents, in the loop or Nf expansion, and address the possibility of a metallic to insulating phase transition through the generation of a dynamical mass for the electron.
At a quantum critical point the ground state of a many-particle quantum system undergoes a phase transition when some control parameters such as pressure, magnetic field, or chemical composition is varied. The universal behaviour characteristic for such quantum phase transitions often affects a wide temperature range and gives rise to novel material properties. This chapter gives a short overview over five lectures held during the Les Houches summer school ‘Quantum theory from small to large scales’ in 2010. After an introductory chapter, field driven magnetic quantum phase transitions of insulators are used as an example to discuss some of the concepts underlying quantum phase transitions. Both experimentally and theoretically, quantum phase transitions in metals are much less understood compared to insulating systems. After a brief review of the standard approach to describe those systems, the importance of multiple time scales and associated multiple critical exponents z are discussed. Finally, emergent gauge theories close to critical points are investigated. As an example, it discusses why a gauge theory describes the (classical) phase transitions of a nematic, if topological defects are suppressed.