arXiv:quant-ph/0612194 · Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences
Geometric phases and critical phenomena in a chain of interacting spins
Moritz E Reuter, Michael J Hartmann, Martin Bodo Plenio
Abstract
The geometric phase can act as a signature for critical regions of interacting spin chains in the limit where the corresponding circuit in parameter space is shrunk to a point and the number of spins is extended to infinity; for finite circuit radii or finite spin chain lengths, the geometric phase is always trivial (a multiple of 2 π ). In this work, two related signatures of criticality are proposed which obey finite-size scaling and which circumvent the need for assuming any unphysical limits. They are based on the notion of the Bargmann invariant, whose phase may be regarded as a discretized version of the Berry phase. As circuits are considered which are composed of a discrete finite set of vertices in parameter space, they are able to pass directly through a critical point, rather than having to circumnavigate it. The proposed mechanism is shown to provide a diagnostic tool for criticality in the case of a given non-solvable one-dimensional spin chain with nearest-neighbour interactions in the presence of an external magnetic field.