No Arabic abstract
We extend the Hertz-Millis theory of quantum phase transitions in itinerant electron systems to phases with broken discrete symmetry. Using a set of coupled flow equations derived within the functional renormalization group framework, we compute the second order phase transition line T_c(delta), with delta a non-thermal control parameter, near a quantum critical point. We analyze the interplay and relative importance of quantum and classical fluctuations at different energy scales, and we compare the Ginzburg temperature T_G to the transition temperature T_c, the latter being associated with a non-Gaussian fixed-point.
We present a comprehensive analysis of quantum fluctuation effects in the superfluid ground state of an attractively interacting Fermi system, employing the attractive Hubbard model as a prototype. The superfluid order parameter, and fluctuations thereof, are implemented by a bosonic Hubbard-Stratonovich field, which splits into two components corresponding to longitudinal and transverse (Goldstone) fluctuations. Physical properties of the system are computed from a set of approximate flow equations obtained by truncating the exact functional renormalization group flow of the coupled fermion-boson action. The equations capture the influence of fluctuations on non-universal quantities such as the fermionic gap, as well as the universal infrared asymptotics present in every fermionic superfluid. We solve the flow equations numerically in two dimensions and compute the asymptotic behavior analytically in two and three dimensions. The fermionic gap Delta is reduced significantly compared to the mean-field gap, and the bosonic order parameter alpha, which is equivalent to Delta in mean-field theory, is suppressed to values below Delta by fluctuations. The fermion-boson vertex is only slightly renormalized. In the infrared regime, transverse order parameter fluctuations associated with the Goldstone mode lead to a strong renormalization of longitudinal fluctuations: the longitudinal mass and the bosonic self-interaction vanish linearly as a function of the scale in two dimensions, and logarithmically in three dimensions, in agreement with the exact behavior of an interacting Bose gas.
We study high frequency response functions, notably the optical conductivity, in the vicinity of quantum critical points (QCPs) by allowing for both detuning from the critical coupling and finite temperature. We consider general dimensions and dynamical exponents. This leads to a unified understanding of sum rules. In systems with emergent Lorentz invariance, powerful methods from conformal field theory allow us to fix the high frequency response in terms of universal coefficients. We test our predictions analytically in the large-N O(N) model and using the gauge-gravity duality, and numerically via Quantum Monte Carlo simulations on a lattice model hosting the interacting superfluid-insulator QCP. In superfluid phases, interacting Goldstone bosons qualitatively change the high frequency optical conductivity, and the corresponding sum rule.
We address the quantum-critical behavior of a two-dimensional itinerant ferromagnetic systems described by a spin-fermion model in which fermions interact with close to critical bosonic modes. We consider Heisenberg ferromagnets, Ising ferromagnets, and the Ising nematic transition. Mean-field theory close to the quantum critical point predicts a superconducting gap with spin-triplet symmetry for the ferromagnetic systems and a singlet gap for the nematic scenario. Studying fluctuations in this ordered phase using a nonlinear sigma model, we find that these fluctuations are not suppressed by any small parameter. As a result, we find that a superconducting quasi-long-range order is still possible in the Ising-like models but long-range order is destroyed in Heisenberg ferromagnets.
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 establish a scenario where fluctuations of new degrees of freedom at a quantum phase transition change the nature of a transition beyond the standard Landau-Ginzburg paradigm. To this end we study the quantum phase transition of gapless Dirac fermions coupled to a $mathbb{Z}_3$ symmetric order parameter within a Gross-Neveu-Yukawa model in 2+1 dimensions, appropriate for the Kekule transition in honeycomb lattice materials. For this model the standard Landau-Ginzburg approach suggests a first order transition due to the symmetry-allowed cubic terms in the action. At zero temperature, however, quantum fluctuations of the massless Dirac fermions have to be included. We show that they reduce the putative first-order character of the transition and can even render it continuous, depending on the number of Dirac fermions $N_f$. A non-perturbative functional renormalization group approach is employed to investigate the phase transition for a wide range of fermion numbers. For the first time we obtain the critical $N_f$, where the nature of the transition changes. Furthermore, it is shown that for large $N_f$ the change from the first to second order of the transition as a function of dimension occurs exactly in the physical 2+1 dimensions. We compute the critical exponents and predict sizable corrections to scaling for $N_f =2$.