We investigate the combined influence of quenched randomness and dissipation on a quantum critical point with O(N) order-parameter symmetry. Utilizing a strong-disorder renormalization group, we determine the critical behavior in one space dimension exactly. For superohmic dissipation, we find a Kosterlitz-Thouless type transition with conventional (power-law) dynamical scaling. The dynamical critical exponent depends on the spectral density of the dissipative baths. We also discuss the Griffiths singularities, and we determine observables.
We investigate the quantum phase transition in the random transverse-field Ising model under the influence of Ohmic dissipation. To this end, we numerically implement a strong-disorder renormalization-group scheme. We find that Ohmic dissipation destroys the quantum critical point and the associated quantum Griffiths phase by smearing. Our results quantitatively confirm a recent theory [Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 100}, 240601 (2008)] of smeared quantum phase transitions.
We develop a strong-disorder renormalization group to study quantum phase transitions with continuous O$(N)$ symmetry order parameters under the influence of both quenched disorder and dissipation. For Ohmic dissipation, as realized in Hertz theory of the itinerant antiferromagnetic transition or in the superconductor-metal transition in nanowires, we find the transition to be governed by an exotic infinite-randomness fixed point in the same universality class as the (dissipationless) random transverse-field Ising model. We determine the critical behavior and calculate key observables at the transition and in the associated quantum Griffiths phase. We also briefly discuss the cases of superohmic and subohmic dissipations.
We present an analytical strong-disorder renormalization group theory of the quantum phase transition in the dissipative random transverse-field Ising chain. For Ohmic dissipation, we solve the renormalization flow equations analytically, yielding asymptotically exact results for the low-temperature properties of the system. We find that the interplay between quantum fluctuations and Ohmic dissipation destroys the quantum critical point by smearing. We also determine the phase diagram and the behavior of observables in the vicinity of the smeared quantum phase transition.
We study the effects of dissipation on a disordered quantum phase transition with O$(N)$ order parameter symmetry by applying a strong-disorder renormalization group to the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson field theory of the problem. We find that Ohmic dissipation results in a non-perturbative infinite-randomness critical point with unconventional activated dynamical scaling while superohmic damping leads to conventional behavior. We discuss applications to the superconductor-metal transition in nanowires and to Hertz theory of the itinerant antiferromagnetic transition.
When a quantum many-particle system exists on a randomly diluted lattice, its intrinsic thermal and quantum fluctuations coexist with geometric fluctuations due to percolation. In this paper, we explore how the interplay of these fluctuations influences the phase transition at the percolation threshold. While it is well known that thermal fluctuations generically destroy long-range order on the critical percolation cluster, the effects of quantum fluctuations are more subtle. In diluted quantum magnets with and without dissipation, this leads to novel universality classes for the zero-temperature percolation quantum phase transition. Observables involving dynamical correlations display nonclassical scaling behavior that can nonetheless be determined exactly in two dimensions.
