We study quantum Ising spins placed on small-world networks. A simple model is considered in which the coupling between any given pair of spins is a nonzero constant if they are linked in the small-world network, and zero otherwise. By applying a transverse magnetic field, we have investigated the effect of quantum fluctuations. Our numerical analysis shows that the quantum fluctuations do not alter the universality class at the ferromagnetic phase transition, which is of the mean-field type. The transition temperature is reduced by the quantum fluctuations and eventually vanishes at the critical transverse field Delta(c). With increasing rewiring probability, Delta(c) is shown to be enhanced.
We study quantum Ising spins placed on small-world networks. A simple model is considered in which the coupling between any given pair of spins is a nonzero constant if they are linked in the small-world network, and zero otherwise. By applying a transverse magnetic field, we have investigated the effect of quantum fluctuations. Our numerical analysis shows that the quantum fluctuations do not alter the universality class at the ferromagnetic phase transition, which is of the mean-field type. The transition temperature is reduced by the quantum fluctuations and eventually vanishes at the critical transverse field Delta(c). With increasing rewiring probability, Delta(c) is shown to be enhanced.
We study the effect of quantum fluctuations on the critical behavior of the Ising ferromagnetic phase transitions that do not belong to the mean-field universality class. A model system is considered, in which Ising spins are placed on the nodes of a scale-free network. Our Monte Carlo analysis shows that the critical exponents differ from those of mean-field phase transitions when degree exponent gamma is in the range 3<gamma<5 . This confirms earlier analytic calculations based on ansatzes and approximation methods. As we apply quantum fluctuations by means of a magnetic field perpendicular to the Ising spin direction, the transition temperature T(c) decreases with increasing magnetic field strength. We find, however, that the quantum fluctuations do not alter the critical exponents and the universality class remains unchanged.
The small-world effect is a universal feature used to explain many different phenomena like percolation, diffusion, and consensus. Starting from any regular lattice of N sites, the small-world effect can be attained by rewiring randomly an O(N) number of links or by superimposing an equivalent number of new links onto the system. In a classical system this procedure is known to change radically its critical point and behavior, the new system being always effectively mean-field. Here, we prove that at the quantum level the above scenario does not apply: when an O(N) number of new couplings are randomly superimposed onto a quantum Ising chain, its quantum critical point and behavior both remain unchanged. In other words, at zero temperature quantum fluctuations destroy any small-world effect. This exact result sheds new light on the significance of the quantum critical point as a thermodynamically stable feature of nature that has no analogy at the classical level and essentially prevents a naive application of network theory to quantum systems. The derivation is obtained by combining the quantum-classical mapping with a simple topological argument.
For a system at absolute zero temperature, all thermal fluctuations are frozen out, while quantum fluctuations prevail.These microscopic quantum fluctuations can induce a quantum phase transition (QPT) in the ground state of a many-body system when the relative strength of two competing energy terms is varied across a critical value.This paper presents a detailed and quantitative study of the magnetic properties of Ising two-spin system at zero temperature in the presence of longitudinal, transverse and mixed fields, and also at finite temperatures.At the critical longitudinal magnetic field, the system is found to undergo a QPT to a ferromagnetic state.For this system, an infinitesimal departure from zero transverse field is found to trigger off QPT and also remove the degeneracies that persisted even in the presence of longitudinal field.These quantum fluctuations, leading to QPT are more evident in the mixed field than the separate effect of longitudinal and transverse fields.The observed quantum effects at zero temperature for this system are found to be completely wiped out at finite temperatures due to thermal fluctuations.A temperature increase favours antiferromagnetic alignment of spins, while a decrease in temperature favours ferromagnetic alignment.
The quantum Ising model is perhaps the simplest possible model of a quantum magnetic material. Despite its simplicity, its versatility and wide range of applications, from quantum computation, to combinatorial optimization, to biophysics, make it one of the most important models of modern physics. In this thesis, we develop a general framework for studying quantum Ising systems with an arbitrary single ion Hamiltonian, with emphasis on the effects of quantum fluctuations, and the quantum phase transition between paramagnetic and ferromagnetic states that occurs when a magnetic field is applied transverse to the easy axis of the system. The magnetic insulating crystal LiHoF₄ is a physical realization of the quantum Ising model, with the additional features that the dominant coupling between spins is the long range dipolar interaction, and each electronic spin is strongly coupled to a nuclear degree of freedom. These nuclear degrees of freedom constitute a spin bath environment acting on the system. In this thesis, we present an effective low temperature Hamiltonian for LiHoF₄ that incorporates both these features, and we analyze the effects of the nuclear spin bath on the system. We find the lowest energy crystal field excitation in the system is gapped at the quantum critical point by the presence of the nuclear spins, with spectral weight being transferred down to a lower energy electronuclear mode that fully softens to zero at the quantum critical point. Furthermore, we present a toy model, the spin half spin half model, that illustrates the effects of an anisotropic hyperfine interaction on a quantum Ising system. We find the critical transverse field is increased when the longitudinal hyperfine coupling is dominant, as well as an enhancement of both the longitudinal electronic susceptibility and an applied longitudinal field. In addition, we present a field theoretic formalism for incorporating the effects of fluctuations beyond the random phase approximation in general quantum Ising systems. We find that any regular on site interaction, such as a nuclear spin bath, does not fundamentally alter the critical properties of a quantum Ising system. This formalism is used to calculate corrections to the magnetization of LiHoF₄.
We study the critical behavior of the transverse-field quantum Ising model on a fractal structure, namely the Sierpinski carpet. When a magnetic field Δ is applied perpendicular to the Ising spin direction, quantum fluctuations affect the transition between the ferromagnetic and the paramagnetic phases. Employing the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo simulation method and the finite-size scaling analysis, we investigate the interplay between the quantum fluctuations and the exotic dimensionality of the fractal structure and its effect on the critical behavior. As the transverse magnetic field increases, the critical temperature monotonically decreases until it apparently vanishes at a critical field Δ(c), beyond which the system becomes paramagnetic at all temperatures. However, the critical exponents are independent of Δ and remain the same as in the purely classical(Δ=0) case.
In this work we study the effects of quantum fluctuations in a disordered magnetic system. We consider a cluster-spin Ising model with antiferromagnetic short range interactions (J0) and disordered long range interactions (J) between clusters, where the system is under the influence of a transverse magnetic field Γ. The analytic treatment of the model is done by the replica method and Trotter formalism, in which a cluster mean field, replica symmetric and static approximations are used. This allows us to obtain an effective model of a single cluster that is exactly diagonalized. Thermodynamic quantities like order parameter and free energy are obtained then, the phase diagrams are analyzed. They are shown in temperature versus J0=J phase diagrams for some intensities of Γ. With Γ = 0, when we decrease the temperature (for lower intensities of J0=J) a continuous phase transition between the paramagnetic and cluster spin glass state (CSG) is found. When we increase the ratio J0=J, the system presents the antiferromagnetic phase (AF). The CSG state and the AF phase are separated by first order transitions. In the intermediate region of disorder, there exist a small interval in the AF-PM transition that is first order. When Γ is increased, the transitions PM-AF and PM-VSC decrease toward critical points in the lower and higher disorder, respectively. It is worth to note, in the intermediate range of disorder, that the transition CSG-AF disappears, letting a PM phase between them, even for zero temperature. Besides that, the first-order region, in the PM-AF transition, turns into a second order phase transition, changing its criticality in the low temperature regime. Our results show that quantum fluctuations affects the phase transitions of the model being capable to suppress and/or change his criticality. The present work suggests a model and a mechanism of the change in the criticality away from the quantum critical point, helping the investigation of this interesting and recent topic.