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International Journal of Modern Physics B

Quantum information and quantum phase transitions in atom–molecule conversion systems

Zheng-Da Hu, Wei Zhong, Jicheng Wang, Yun Zhu, Yixiao Huang

Published Dec 9, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum phase transition is a fundamental physical phenomenon in a quantum many-body system. This work aims to explore the quantum phase transition in an atom–molecule conversion system through quantum information tools. We show that the ground state of the system undergoes significant changes in the quantum critical region, with both atomic number fluctuation and the quantum information embedded in the ground state exhibiting drastic alterations. As the rescaled phase transition parameter increases, the atomic state sharply transits into the molecular state in the critical region. Even for finite total number, the phase transition point can be accurately predicted through finite-size scaling laws. Our study confirms that the finite-size scaling analysis based on quantum coherence and quantum Fisher information is a reliable method for studying critical phenomena in the atom–molecule system from a quantum information perspective.

DOI
10.1142/s0217979226500049

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Quantum phase transition is a fundamental physical phenomenon in a quantum many-body system. This work aims to explore the quantum phase transition in an atom–molecule conversion system through quantum information tools. We show that the ground state of the system undergoes significant changes in the quantum critical region, with both atomic number fluctuation and the quantum information embedded in the ground state exhibiting drastic alterations. As the rescaled phase transition parameter increases, the atomic state sharply transits into the molecular state in the critical region. Even for finite total number, the phase transition point can be accurately predicted through finite-size scaling laws. Our study confirms that the finite-size scaling analysis based on quantum coherence and quantum Fisher information is a reliable method for studying critical phenomena in the atom–molecule system from a quantum information perspective.
Abstract We adopt a modified spin-boson model to investigate the quantum phase transition in an ultracold atom-molecule conversion system involving molecule–molecule interaction. We explore the properties of ground state, entanglement entropy, and many-body dynamics, which confirm that the system exhibits a second-order phase transition from a pure atom phase to a mixed atom-molecule phase when the energy detuning is below a critical value. We obtain three scaling laws and the corresponding two critical exponents to characterize the phase transition. In particular, we discuss the effects of both the speed of ground-state dynamical evolution and the strength of molecular interaction on the phase transition. The adiabatic evolution condition is obtained as well. Our results show that the molecular interaction can greatly reduce the upper bound of the adiabatic condition, which provides a theoretical basis for easier observation of the phase transition in experiments.
Phase transitions happen at critical values of the controlling parameters, such as the critical temperature in classical phase transitions, and system critical parameters in the quantum case. However, true criticality happens only at the thermodynamic limit, when the number of particles goes to infinity with constant density. To perform the calculations for the critical parameters, a finite-size scaling approach was developed to extrapolate information from a finite system to the thermodynamic limit. With the advancement in the experimental and theoretical work in the field of ultra-cold systems, particularly trapping and controlling single atomic and molecular systems, one can ask: do finite systems exhibit quantum phase transition? To address this question, finite-size scaling for finite systems was developed to calculate the quantum critical parameters. The recent observation of a quantum phase transition in a single trapped 171 Yb+ ion indicates the possibility of quantum phase transitions in finite systems. This perspective focuses on examining chemical processes at ultra-cold temperatures, as quantum phase transitions—particularly the formation and dissociation of chemical bonds—are the basic processes for understanding the whole of chemistry.
The single-mode Dicke model is well known to undergo a quantum phase transition from the so-called normal phase to the superradiant phase (hereinafter called the 'superradiant quantum phase transition'). Normally, quantum phase transitions can be identified by the critical behavior of quantities such as entanglement, quantum fluctuations, and fidelity. In this paper, we study the role of the quantum Fisher information (QFI) of both the field mode and the atoms in the ground state of the Dicke Hamiltonian. For a finite but large number of atoms, our numerical results show that near the critical atom-field coupling, the QFI of the atomic and the field subsystems can surpass their classical limits, due to the appearance of nonclassical quadrature squeezing. As the coupling increases far beyond the critical point, each subsystem becomes a highly mixed state, which degrades the QFI and hence the ultimate phase sensitivity. In the thermodynamic limit, we present the analytical results of the QFI and their relationship with the reduced variances of the field mode and the atoms. For each subsystem, we find that there is a singularity in the derivative of the QFI at the critical point, a clear signature of the quantum criticality in the Dicke model.
The interplay of quantum and thermal fluctuations in the vicinity of a quantum critical point characterizes the physics of strongly correlated systems. Here we investigate this interplay from a quantum information perspective presenting the universal phase diagram of the quantum Fisher information at a quantum phase transition. Different regions in the diagram are identified by characteristic scaling laws of the quantum Fisher information with respect to temperature. This feature has immediate consequences on the thermal robustness of quantum coherence and multipartite entanglement. We support the theoretical predictions with the analysis of paradigmatic spin systems showing symmetry-breaking quantum phase transitions and free-fermion models characterized by topological phases. In particular we show that topological systems are characterized by the survival of large multipartite entanglement, reaching the Heisenberg limit at finite temperature.
Advances in atomic physics have led to the possibility of a coherent transformation between ultracold atoms and molecules including between completely bosonic condensates. Such transformations are enabled by the magneto-association of atoms at a Feshbach resonance which results in a passage through a quantum critical point. In this study, we show that the presence of generic interaction between the constituent atoms and molecules can fundamentally alter the nature of the critical point, change the yield of the reaction and the order of the consequent phase transition. We find that the correlations introduced by this interaction induce nontrivial many-body physics such as coherent oscillations between atoms and molecules, and a selective formation of squeezed molecular quantum states and quantum cat states. We provide analytical and numerical descriptions of these effects, along with scaling laws for the reaction yield in non-adiabatic regimes.
Quantum phase transitions are sudden changes in the ground-state wavefunction of a many-body system that can occur as a control parameter such as a concentration or a field strength is varied. They are driven purely by the competition between quantum fluctuations and mutual interactions among constituents of the system, not by thermal fluctuations; hence they can occur even at zero temperature. Examples of quantum phase transitions in many-body physics may be found in systems ranging from high-temperature superconductors to topological insulators. A quantum phase transition usually can be characterized by nonanalyticity/discontinuity in certain order parameters or divergence of the ground state energy eigenvalue and/or its derivatives with respect to certain physical quantities. Here in a circular one-dimensional spin model with Heisenberg XY interaction and no magnetic field, we observe critical phenomena for the n0=1/N→0n_0=1/N\rightarrow0n0​=1/N→0 Mott insulator caused by a qualitative change of the boundary condition. We demonstrate in the vicinity of the transition point a sudden change in ground-state properties accompanied by an avoided level-crossing between the ground and the first excited states. Notably, our result links conventional quantum phase transitions to microscopic boundary conditions, with significant implications for quantum information, quantum control, and quantum computing.