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Physical Review Letters

Conformal Operator Flows of the Deconfined Quantum Criticality from SO ( 5 ) to O ( 4 )

Shuai Yang, Liangdong Hu, Chao Han, W. Zhu, Yan Chen

Published Feb 2, 2026• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP), which separates two distinct symmetry-broken phases, was conjectured to be an example of (2+1)D criticality beyond the standard Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm. However, this hypothesis has been met with challenges and remains elusive. Here, we perform a systematic study of a microscopic model realizing the DQCP with a global symmetry tunable from SO(5) to O(4). Through the lens of fuzzy sphere regularization, we uncover the key information on the renormalization group flow of conformal operators. We reveal O(4) primaries decomposed from original SO(5) primaries by tracing conformal operator content and identifying the "avoided level crossing" in the operator flows. In particular, we find that the existence of a scalar operator, in support of the nature of pseudo-criticality, remains relevant, persisting from SO(5) to O(4) DQCP. This Letter not only uncovers the nature of O(4) DQCP but also demonstrates that the fuzzy sphere scheme offers a unique perspective on the renormalization group flow of operators in the study of critical phenomena.

DOI
10.1103/l6vw-6z79

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The deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP), which separates two distinct symmetry-broken phases, was conjectured to be an example of (2+1)D criticality beyond the standard Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm. However, this hypothesis has been met with challenges and remains elusive. Here, we perform a systematic study of a microscopic model realizing the DQCP with a global symmetry tunable from SO(5) to O(4). Through the lens of fuzzy sphere regularization, we uncover the key information on the renormalization group flow of conformal operators. We reveal O(4) primaries decomposed from original SO(5) primaries by tracing conformal operator content and identifying the "avoided level crossing" in the operator flows. In particular, we find that the existence of a scalar operator, in support of the nature of pseudo-criticality, remains relevant, persisting from SO(5) to O(4) DQCP. This Letter not only uncovers the nature of O(4) DQCP but also demonstrates that the fuzzy sphere scheme offers a unique perspective on the renormalization group flow of operators in the study of critical phenomena.
Conformal Operator Flows of the Deconfined Quantum Criticality from SO(5)\mathrm{SO}(5)SO(5) to O(4)\mathrm{O}(4)O(4)
The deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP), which separates two distinct symmetry-broken phases, was conjectured to be an example of (2+1)D criticality beyond the standard Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm. However, this hypothesis has been met with challenges and remains elusive. Here, we perform a systematic study of a microscopic model realizing the DQCP with a global symmetry tunable from SO(5)\mathrm{SO}(5)SO(5) to O(4)\mathrm{O}(4)O(4). Through the lens of fuzzy sphere regularization, we uncover the key information on the renormalization group flow of conformal operators. We reveal O(4) primaries decomposed from original SO(5) primaries by tracing conformal operator content and identifying the ``avoided level crossing'' in the operator flows. In particular, we find that the existence of a scalar operator, in support of the nature of pseudo-criticality, remains relevant, persisting from SO(5)\mathrm{SO}(5)SO(5) to O(4)\mathrm{O}(4)O(4) DQCP. This work not only uncovers the nature of O(4) DQCP but also demonstrates that the fuzzy sphere scheme offers a unique perspective on the renormalization group flow of operators in the study of critical phenomena.
The deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) is an example of phase transitions beyond the Landau symmetry-breaking paradigm that attracts wide interest. However, its nature has not been settled after decades of study. In this paper, we apply the recently proposed fuzzy-sphere regularization to study the SO(5) nonlinear sigma model with a topological Wess-Zumino-Witten term, which serves as a dual description of the DQCP with an exact SO(5) symmetry. We demonstrate that the fuzzy sphere functions as a powerful microscope, magnifying and revealing a wealth of crucial information about the DQCP, ultimately paving the way toward its final answer. In particular, through exact diagonalization, we provide clear evidence that the DQCP exhibits approximate conformal symmetry. The evidence includes the existence of a conserved SO(5) symmetry current, a stress tensor, and integer-spaced levels between conformal primaries and their descendants. Most remarkably, we identify 23 primaries and 76 conformal descendants. Furthermore, by examining the renormalization group flow of the lowest symmetry singlet as well as other primaries, we provide numerical evidence in favor of DQCP being pseudo-critical, with the approximate conformal symmetry plausibly emerging from nearby complex fixed points. The primary spectrum we compute also has important implications, including the conclusion that the SO(5) DQCP cannot describe a direct transition from the Néel to valence bond solid phase on the honeycomb lattice. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Novel critical phenomena beyond the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm have been long sought after. Among many candidate scenarios, the deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) constitutes the most fascinating one, and its lattice model realization has been debated over the past two decades. Following the pioneering works with the fuzzy sphere methods [W. Zhu, et al, Phys. Rev. X 13, 021009], we apply the spherical Landau level regularization to study the effective (2+1)D SO(5) non-linear sigma model with a topological term and the potential DQCP therein. Utilizing the state-of-the-art density matrix renormalization group method with explicit SU(2)spin×U(1)charge×U(1)angular-momentum\text{SU(2)}_\text{spin}\times\text{U(1)}_\text{charge}\times\text{U(1)}_\text{angular-momentum}SU(2)spin​×U(1)charge​×U(1)angular-momentum​ symmetry as well as exact diagonalization simulations, we provide a comprehensive phase diagram for the model with a SO(5) continuous transition line -- extension of the previous identified SO(5) multicritical point [arXiv:2307.05307] -- while tuning interaction length. The state-operator correspondence with the conformal tower structure is used to identify the emergent conformal symmetry with the best scaling dimension of relevant primary fields and they match well with the critical exponents obtained from the crossing point analysis of the correlation ratio. Our results thus further support the rich structure of the phase diagram of the SO(5) model.
Critical phenomena beyond the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm have been long sought after. Among many candidate scenarios, the deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) constitutes the most fascinating one, and its lattice model realization has been debated over the past two decades. Following pioneering works with the fuzzy sphere methods [Zhu et al., Phys. Rev. X 13, 021009 (2023); Hu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 031601 (2023); Han et al., arXiv:2312.04047; Zhou et al., Phys. Rev. X 14, 021044 (2024)], we apply the spherical Landau level regularization to study the effective (2+1)D(2+1)\mathrm{D}(2+1)D SO(5) nonlinear sigma model with a topological term and the potential DQCP therein. Utilizing the state-of-the-art density matrix renormalization group method with explicit ${\text{SU(2)}}_{\text{spin}}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{\text{U(1)}}_{\text{charge}}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{\text{U(1)}}_{\text{angular-momentum}}$ symmetry as well as exact diagonalization simulations, we provide a comprehensive phase diagram for the model with a SO(5) continuous transition line---extension of the previous identified SO(5) multicritical point [Chen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 246503 (2024)]---while tuning interaction length. The state-operator correspondence with the conformal tower structure is used to identify the emergent conformal symmetry with the best scaling dimension of relevant primary fields, and they match well with the critical exponents obtained from the crossing point analysis of the correlation ratio. Our results thus further support the rich structure of the phase diagram of the SO(5) model.
The deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) provides a prominent example of the unconventional phase transitions beyond the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm and its nature has been controversial for decades. The DQCP has been extensively studied and the results lead to two opposite scenarios with pseudo-criticality or multicriticality. The pseudo-criticality is a prevailing scenario of DQCP which interprets the approximately scale invariant numerical results with the walking behavior near complex fixed points. In contrast, the multicriticality scenario conjectures the DQCP is a unitary fixed point with a relevant SO(5)SO(5)SO(5) singlet scalar. In this work we provide substantial evidence for the multicriticality scenario using conformal bootstrap. We start with the observation that the large scale Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) results nearly saturate the bootstrap bounds. After imposing suitable sparseness condition the bootstrap bound forms a sharp cone in the three-dimensional parameter space. The bootstrap cone is close to the QMC data. We use the navigator algorithm to locate the apex of the cone and extract the extremal solutions. We find striking consistencies between the bootstrap solutions and the fuzzy sphere data of DQCP, including the coefficients in the operator product expansions (OPEs) and the higher spectrum! The bootstrap cone unifies the QMC and the fuzzy sphere data into a unitary conformal field theory with a relevant SO(5)SO(5)SO(5) singlet scalar, thus strongly supporting the multicriticality scenario of DQCP. The agreement between the conformal bootstrap, QMC and fuzzy sphere results is a surprise towards solving DQCP and decoding the profound phase diagram of the two-dimensional quantum magnets.
Novel critical phenomena beyond the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm have been long sought after. Among many candidate scenarios, the deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) constitutes the most fascinating one, and its lattice model realization has been debated over the past two decades. Here we apply the spherical Landau level regularization upon the exact (2+1)D SO(5) nonlinear sigma model with a topological term to study the potential DQCP therein. We perform a density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulation with SU(2)_{spin}×U(1)_{charge}×U(1)_{angular-momentum} symmetries explicitly implemented. Using crossing point analysis for the critical properties of the DMRG data, accompanied by quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we accurately obtain the comprehensive phase diagram of the model and find various novel quantum phases, including Néel, ferromagnet (FM), valence bond solid (VBS), valley polarized (VP) states and a gapless quantum disordered phase occupying an extended area of the phase diagram. The VBS-disorder and Néel-disorder transitions are continuous with non-Wilson-Fisher exponents. Our results show the VBS and Néel states are separated by either a weakly first-order transition or the disordered region with a multicritical point in between, thus opening up more interesting questions on the two-decade long debate on the nature of the DQCP.