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arXiv:cond-mat/9801083 · Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Dual theory of the superfluid-Bose-glass transition in the disordered Bose-Hubbard model in one and two dimensions

Igor F. Herbut

Published Jun 1, 1998• 44 citations
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Abstract

I study the zero-temperature phase transition between the superfluid and the insulating ground states of the Bose-Hubbard model in a random chemical potential and at large integer average number of particles per site. Duality transformation maps the pure Bose-Hubbard model onto the sine-Gordon theory in one dimension (1D), and onto the three dimensional Higgs electrodynamics in two dimensions (2D). In 1D the random chemical potential in the dual theory couples to the space derivative of the dual field, and appears as a random magnetic field along the imaginary time direction in 2D. I show that the transition from the superfluid state both in 1D and 2D is always controlled by the random critical point. This arises due to a coupling constant in the dual theory with replicas that becomes generated at large distances by the random chemical potential, and represents a relevant perturbation at the pure superfluid-Mott insulator fixed point. At large distances the dual theory in 1D becomes equivalent to Haldane's macroscopic representation of a disordered quantum fluid, where the generated term is identified with the random backscattering. In 2D the generated coupling corresponds to the random mass of the complex field that represents vortex loops. I calculate the critical exponents at the superfluid-Bose-glass fixed point in 2D to be $\ensuremath{\nu}=1.38$ and $z=1.93$, and the universal conductivity at the transition ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{c}{=0.25e}_{*}^{2}/h$, using the one-loop field-theoretic renormalization group in fixed dimension.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.57.13729

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In this dissertation, we study the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition in disordered boson systems. Recently, there has been considerable controversy over the validity of the scaling relations of the superfluid--Bose-glass quantum phase transition in three dimensions. Results from experimental and numerical studies on disordered quantum magnets contradict the scaling relations and the associated conventional scaling hypothesis for the singular part of the free energy. We determine various critical exponents of the superfluid--Bose-glass quantum phase transition in three-dimensional disordered Bose-Hubbard model through extensive Monte Carlo simulations. Our numerical study shows the previous studies on disordered quantum magnets were performed outside the quantum critical region, and our results for the critical exponents are in perfect agreement with previous theoretical predictions. We next move to study theoretically and numerically the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition in one-dimensional disordered boson systems. While the superfluid-insulator transition in the weak disorder limit is well understood through the perturbative renormalization group study by Giamarchi and Schulz, transitions in the strong disorder regime are beyond the reach of this method. This problem was recently attacked by Altman et al. with the real space renormalization group method. They reached the conclusion that the superfluid-insulator transition in the strong disorder regime can be explained by the Coulomb blockade physics of weak links. However, their method is actually uncontrolled. Taking account of the crucial role of the hydrodynamic renormalization of weak links, finally, Pollet et al. put forward an asymptotically exact renormalization group theory of the superfluid-insulator transition. Based on this theory, we are able to provide an accurate description of the interplay between the well-known Giamarchi-Schulz criticality and the new weak-link criticality. A significant part of the ground-state phase diagram of one-dimensional disordered Bose-Hubbard model at unit filling is also determined numerically. In particular, we established the position of the multicritical point beyond which the new weak-link criticality takes over of the Giamarchi–Schulz criticality.

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I study the zero-temperature phase transition between the superfluid and the insulating ground states of the Bose-Hubbard model in a random chemical potential and at large integer average number of particles per site. Duality transformation maps the pure Bose-Hubbard model onto the sine-Gordon theory in one dimension (1D), and onto the three dimensional Higgs electrodynamics in two dimensions (2D). In 1D the random chemical potential in the dual theory couples to the space derivative of the dual field, and appears as a random magnetic field along the imaginary time direction in 2D. I show that the transition from the superfluid state both in 1D and 2D is always controlled by the random critical point. This arises due to a coupling constant in the dual theory with replicas that becomes generated at large distances by the random chemical potential, and represents a relevant perturbation at the pure superfluid-Mott insulator fixed point. At large distances the dual theory in 1D becomes equivalent to Haldane's macroscopic representation of a disordered quantum fluid, where the generated term is identified with the random backscattering. In 2D the generated coupling corresponds to the random mass of the complex field that represents vortex loops. I calculate the critical exponents at the superfluid-Bose-glass fixed point in 2D to be \ensuremathν=1.38\ensuremath{\nu}=1.38\ensuremathν=1.38 and z=1.93z=1.93z=1.93, and the universal conductivity at the transition \ensuremathσc=0.25e∗2/h{\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{c}{=0.25e}_{*}^{2}/h\ensuremathσc​=0.25e∗2​/h, using the one-loop field-theoretic renormalization group in fixed dimension.
The continuum version of the dual theory for a system of two-dimensional quantum disordered bosons with statistical particle-hole symmetry and at T=0T\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0T=0 admits a new disordered critical point within the renormalization group calculation at fixed dimension. We obtain the universal conductivity and the critical exponents at the superfluid-Bose glass transition in the system: ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{c}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.25(2e{)}^{2}/h$, $\ensuremath{\nu}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1.38$, and z=1.93z\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1.93z=1.93, to the lowest order in fixed-point values of the dual coupling constants.
The phase diagrams and phase transitions of bosons with short-ranged repulsive interactions moving in periodic and/or random external potentials at zero temperature are investigated with emphasis on the superfluid-insulator transition induced by varying a parameter such as the density. Bosons in periodic potentials (e.g., on a lattice) at T=0 exhibit two types of phases: a superfluid phase and Mott insulating phases characterized by integer (or commensurate) boson densities, by the existence of a gap for particle-hole excitations, and by zero compressibility. Generically, the superfluid onset transition in d dimensions from a Mott insulator to superfluidity is ``ideal,'' or mean field in character, but at special multicritical points with particle-hole symmetry it is in the universality class of the (d+1)-dimensional XY model. In the presence of disorder, a third, ``Bose glass'' phase exists. This phase is insulating because of the localization effects of the randomness and analogous to the Fermi glass phase of interacting fermions in a strongly disordered potential.The Bose glass phase is characterized by a finite compressibility, no gap, but an infinite superfluid susceptibility. In the presence of disorder the transition to superfluidity is argued to occur only from the Bose glass phase, and never directly from the Mott insulator. This zero-temperature superfluid-insulator transition is studied via generalizations of the Josephson scaling relation for the superfluid density at the ordinary \ensuremath{\lambda} transition, highlighting the crucial role of quantum fluctuations. The transition is found to have a dynamic critical exponent z exactly equal to d and correlation length and order-parameter correlation exponents \ensuremath{\nu} and \ensuremath{\eta} which satisfy the bounds \ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\ge}2/d and \ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\le}2-d, respectively. It is argued that the superfluid-insulator transition in the presence of disorder may have an upper critical dimension dc{d}_{c}dc​ which is infinite, but a perturbative renormalization-group calculation wherein the critical exponents have mean-field values for weak disorder above d=4 is also discussed. Many of these conclusions are verified by explicit calculations on a model of one-dimensional bosons in the presence of both random and periodic potentials. The general results are applied to experiments on 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He absorbed in porous media such as Vycor. Some measurable properties of the superfluid onset are predicted exactly [e.g., the exponent x relating the \ensuremath{\lambda} transition temperature to the zero-temperature superfluid density is found to be d/2(d-1)], while stringent bounds are placed on others. Analysis of preliminary data is consistent with these predictions.
We study the superfluid-insulator transition in a one-dimensional system of interacting bosons, modeled as a disordered Josephson array, using a strong-randomness real-space renormalization-group technique. Unlike perturbative methods, this approach does not suffer from run-away flows and allows us to study the complete phase diagram. We show that the superfluid-insulator transition is always Kosterlitz-Thouless like in the way that length and time scales diverge at the critical point. Interestingly however, we find that the transition at strong disorder occurs at a nonuniversal value of the Luttinger parameter, which depends on the disorder strength. This result places the transition in a universality class different from the weak disorder transition first analyzed by Giamarchi and Schulz [Europhys. Lett. 3, 1287 (1987)]. While the details of the disorder potential are unimportant at the critical point, the type of disorder does influence the properties of the insulating phases. We find three classes of insulators which arise for different classes of disorder potential. For disorder only in the charging energies and Josephson coupling constants, at integer filling we find an incompressible but gapless Mott-glass phase. If both integer and half-integer filling factors are allowed then the corresponding phase is a random-singlet insulator, which has a divergent compressibility. Finally in a generic disorder potential the insulator is a Bose glass with a finite compressibility.
We study the zero-temperature phase transition of a two-dimensional disordered boson Hubbard model. The phase diagram is constructed in terms of the disorder strength and the chemical potential. Via Monte Carlo simulations, we find a multicritical line separating the weak-disorder regime, where the Mott-insulator-to-superfluid transition occurs, from the strong-disorder regime, where the Bose-glass-to-superfluid transition occurs. On the multicritical line, the insulator-to-superfluid transition has the dynamical critical exponent $z\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1.35\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05$ and the correlation length critical exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.67\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03$. We suggest that the proliferation of the particle-hole pairs screens out the weak-disorder effects.
We consider a one-dimensional system of interacting bosons in a random potential. At zero temperature, it can be either in the superfluid or in the insulating phase. We study the transition at weak disorder and moderate interaction. Using a systematic approach, we derive the renormalization group equations at two-loop order and discuss the phase diagram. We find the universal form of the correlation functions at the transitions and compute the logarithmic corrections to the main universal power-law behavior. In order to mimic large density fluctuations on a single site, we study a simplified model of disordered two-leg bosonic ladders with correlated disorder across the rung. Contrarily to the single-chain case, the latter system exhibits a transition between a superfluid and a localized phase where the exponents of the correlation functions at the transition do not take universal values.
In this dissertation, we study the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition in disordered boson systems. Recently, there has been considerable controversy over the validity of the scaling relations of the superfluid--Bose-glass quantum phase transition in three dimensions. Results from experimental and numerical studies on disordered quantum magnets contradict the scaling relations and the associated conventional scaling hypothesis for the singular part of the free energy. We determine various critical exponents of the superfluid--Bose-glass quantum phase transition in three-dimensional disordered Bose-Hubbard model through extensive Monte Carlo simulations. Our numerical study shows the previous studies on disordered quantum magnets were performed outside the quantum critical region, and our results for the critical exponents are in perfect agreement with previous theoretical predictions. We next move to study theoretically and numerically the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition in one-dimensional disordered boson systems. While the superfluid-insulator transition in the weak disorder limit is well understood through the perturbative renormalization group study by Giamarchi and Schulz, transitions in the strong disorder regime are beyond the reach of this method. This problem was recently attacked by Altman et al. with the real space renormalization group method. They reached the conclusion that the superfluid-insulator transition in the strong disorder regime can be explained by the Coulomb blockade physics of weak links. However, their method is actually uncontrolled. Taking account of the crucial role of the hydrodynamic renormalization of weak links, finally, Pollet et al. put forward an asymptotically exact renormalization group theory of the superfluid-insulator transition. Based on this theory, we are able to provide an accurate description of the interplay between the well-known Giamarchi-Schulz criticality and the new weak-link criticality. A significant part of the ground-state phase diagram of one-dimensional disordered Bose-Hubbard model at unit filling is also determined numerically. In particular, we established the position of the multicritical point beyond which the new weak-link criticality takes over of the Giamarchi–Schulz criticality.