We reexamine the well-studied one-dimensional spin-1/2 XY model to reveal its nontrivial energy spectrum, in particular the energy gap between the ground state and the first excited state. In the case of the isotropic XY model, the XX model, the gap behaves very irregularly as a function of the system size at a second order transition point. This is in stark contrast to the usual power-law decay of the gap and is reminiscent of the similar behavior at the first order phase transition in the infinite-range quantum XY model. The gap also shows nontrivial oscillatory behavior for the phase transitions in the anisotropic model in the incommensurate phase. We observe a close relation between this anomalous behavior of the gap and the correlation functions. These results, those for the isotropic case in particular, are important from the viewpoint of quantum annealing where the efficiency of computation is strongly affected by the size dependence of the energy gap
We reexamine the well-studied one-dimensional spin-1/2 XY model to reveal its nontrivial energy spectrum, in particular the energy gap between the ground state and the first excited state. In the case of the isotropic XY model, the XX model, the gap behaves very irregularly as a function of the system size at a second order transition point. This is in stark contrast to the usual power-law decay of the gap and is reminiscent of the similar behavior at the first order phase transition in the infinite-range quantum XY model. The gap also shows nontrivial oscillatory behavior for the phase transitions in the anisotropic model in the incommensurate phase. We observe a close relation between this anomalous behavior of the gap and the correlation functions. These results, those for the isotropic case in particular, are important from the viewpoint of quantum annealing where the efficiency of computation is strongly affected by the size dependence of the energy gap
We reexamine the well-studied one-dimensional spin-1/2 XY model to reveal its nontrivial energy spectrum, in particular the energy gap between the ground state and the first excited state. In the case of the isotropic XY model, the XX model, the gap behaves very irregularly as a function of the system size at a second order transition point. This is in stark contrast to the usual power-law decay of the gap and is reminiscent of the similar behavior at the first order phase transition in the infinite-range quantum XY model. The gap also shows nontrivial oscillatory behavior for the phase transitions in the anisotropic model in the incommensurate phase. We observe a close relation between this anomalous behavior of the gap and the correlation functions. These results, those for the isotropic case in particular, are important from the viewpoint of quantum annealing where the efficiency of computation is strongly affected by the size dependence of the energy gap.
We show for the one-dimensional quantum XY model with s=1/2 that the energy gap between the ground and first excited states behaves anomalously as a function of the system size at the first-order quantum phase transition. Although it is generally the case that the energy gap closes exponentially at a quantum first-order transition, the gap in the present model behaves non-monotonically as a function of the system size, apparently very irregularly in some cases. This property of the gap is similar to that of the infinite-range quantum XY model, in which the gap closes polynomially, exponentially, or even factorially fast depending on the choice of the series of system sizes toward the thermodynamic limit. This observation is surprising in consideration of the apparent maturity of our understanding of the one-dimensional quantum XY model. Our result is also important from the viewpoint of quantum annealing, where the rate of gap closing determines the efficiency of computation.
We show that the rate of closing of the energy gap between the ground state and the first excited state, as a function of system size, behaves in many qualitatively different ways at first-order quantum phase transitions of the infinite-range quantum XY model. Examples include polynomial, exponential and even factorially fast closing of the energy gap, all of which coexist along a single axis of the phase diagram representing the transverse field. This variety emerges depending on whether or not the transverse field assumes a rational number as well as on how the series of system size is chosen toward the thermodynamic limit. We conclude that there is no generically applicable rule to relate the rate of gap closing and the order of quantum phase transitions as is often implied in many studies, in particular in relation to the computational complexity of quantum annealing in its implementation as quantum adiabatic computation.
We present an analysis based on the extrapolation of finite-size results to the infinite one-dimensional spin-(1/2) dimerized isotropic Heisenberg system for the whole range of the dimerization parameter \ensuremath{\delta} (\ensuremath{\Vert}\ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\Vert}\ensuremath{\le}1) at zero temperature. This system undergoes a transition at \ensuremath{\delta}=0, and a gap opens in the spectrum of elementary excitations. The exponent \ensuremath{\nu}, which characterizes the opening of the gap, is estimated with use of the finite-size results (with size up to N=18). We investigate two finite-size-scaling hypotheses, assuming a pure power-law behavior [case (1)], or taking into account logarithmic corrections [case (2)]. To estimate \ensuremath{\nu}, we use the derivative of the reciprocal of the gap, the derivative of the gap, and the Callan-Symanzik function. We show that the first of these is less affected by finite-size corrections than are the other two. Using it, we have obtained, in case (1), \ensuremath{\nu}=0.71\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01, in agreement with previous estimates, and in case (2), \ensuremath{\nu}=0.668\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.001, in very good agreement with the value \ensuremath{\nu}=(2/3) conjectured by den Nijs. We also show that, far from criticality, the ground-state energy per site may be described by the form \ensuremath{\Vert}\ensuremath{\delta}${\ensuremath{\Vert}}^{x}$ with x=1.34\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02. However, results for the derivative of this quantity show a different functional dependence upon \ensuremath{\delta}, at least for \ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.4. In fact, both the values of the ground-state energy and its derivative agree with the third-order perturbation theory of Harris, with agreement improving as \ensuremath{\delta} approaches 1.
The quantum phase transitions of one-dimensional period-two anisotropic XY models in a transverse field with the Hamiltonian where the anisotropy parameters i take and alternately, are studied. The Hamiltonian can be reduced to the diagonal form by Jordan-Wigner and Bogoliubov transformations. The long-range correlations Cx and Cy are calculated numerically. The phase with Cx Cy0 (or Cy Cx0) is referred to as the ferromagnetic (FM) phase along the x (or y) direction, while the phase with Cx=Cy=0 is the paramagnetic (PM) phase. It is found that the phase diagrams with the ratio -1 and =-1 are different obviously. For the case with -1, the line h=hc1=1-[(1-)/2]2 separates an FM phase from a PM phase, while the line =0 is the boundary between a ferromagnetic phase along the x direction (FMx) and a ferromagnetic phase along the y direction (FMy). These are similar to those of the uniform XY chains in a transverse field (i.e., =1). When =-1, the FMx and FMy phases disappear and there appears a new FM phase. The line h=hc2=1-2 separates this new FM phase from the PM phase. The new phase is gapless with two zeros in single particle energy spectrum. This is due to the new symmetry in the system with =-1, i.e., the Hamiltonian is invariant under the transformation 2ix 2i+1y,2iy 2i+1x. The correlation function between the 2i-1 and 2i lattice points along the x (y) direction is equal to that between the 2i and 2i+1 lattice points along the y (x) direction. As a result, the long-range correlation functions along two directions are equivalent. In order to facilitate the description, we call this gapless phase the isotropic ferromagnetic (FMxx) phase. Finally, the relationship between quantum entanglement and quantum phase transitions of the system is studied. The scaling behaviour of the von Neumann entropy at each point in the FMxx phase is SL~1/3log2L+ Const, which is similar to that at the anisotropic phase transition point of the uniform XY model in a transverse field, and different from those in the FMx and FMy phases.
The nature of phase transitions involving the questions why and how phase transitions take place has not been sufficiently touched in the literature. In contrast, the current attention to certain extent still focus on the description of critical phenomena and the classification of the associated phase transition along with the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson paradigm, where the key issue is to identify phenomenologically order parameters and related symmetries. This brings the question to topological phase transitions (TPTs), where no obvious order parameter and the broken symmetry are identified. Here we present a unified pattern description of the second-order quantum phase transition (QPT) and TPT, both involved in the one-dimensional anisotropic quantum XY model in a transverse field, which contains the transverse Ising model (TIM) as a limit case. Away from the TIM, the XY model enters the ferromagnetic phase (marked by a second-order QPT or a direct TPT) as increasing ferromagentic exchange coupling, a series of TPTs occur, which are absent in the TIM. The TPTs behave like the first-order QPTs. In the isotropic and large exchange coupling cases, the ground state of the XY model is dominated by two topologically different vortices along positive and negative direction of the transverse field. We confirm the above conclusion by analyzing the energy contributions of the patterns to the ground state and calculating the ground state pattern occupations of the XY model. The results have been obtained in a unified and self-evident way and answer the questions why and how the QPT and TPTs take place in the XY model.