No Arabic abstract
We employ an adaptation of a strong-disorder renormalization-group technique in order to analyze the ferro-paramagnetic quantum phase transition of Ising chains with aperiodic but deterministic couplings under the action of a transverse field. In the presence of marginal or relevant geometric fluctuations induced by aperiodicity, for which the critical behavior is expected to depart from the Onsager universality class, we derive analytical and asymptotically exact expressions for various critical exponents (including the correlation-length and the magnetization exponents, which are not easily obtainable by other methods), and shed light onto the nature of the ground state structures in the neighborhood of the critical point. The main results obtained by this approach are confirmed by finite-size scaling analyses of numerical calculations based on the free-fermion method.
We study the entanglement entropy of blocks of contiguous spins in non-periodic (quasi-periodic or more generally aperiodic) critical Heisenberg, XX and quantum Ising spin chains, e.g. in Fibonacci chains. For marginal and relevant aperiodic modulations, the entanglement entropy is found to be a logarithmic function of the block size with log-periodic oscillations. The effective central charge, c_eff, defined through the constant in front of the logarithm may depend on the ratio of couplings and can even exceed the corresponding value in the homogeneous system. In the strong modulation limit, the ground state is constructed by a renormalization group method and the limiting value of c_eff is exactly calculated. Keeping the ratio of the block size and the system size constant, the entanglement entropy exhibits a scaling property, however, the corresponding scaling function may be nonanalytic.
We consider semi-infinite two-dimensional layered Ising models in the extreme anisotropic limit with an aperiodic modulation of the couplings. Using substitution rules to generate the aperiodic sequences, we derive functional equations for the surface magnetization. These equations are solved by iteration and the surface magnetic exponent can be determined exactly. The method is applied to three specific aperiodic sequences, which represent different types of perturbation, according to a relevance-irrelevance criterion. On the Thue-Morse lattice, for which the modulation is an irrelevant perturbation, the surface magnetization vanishes with a square root singularity, like in the homogeneous lattice. For the period-doubling sequence, the perturbation is marginal and the surface magnetic exponent varies continuously with the modulation amplitude. Finally, the Rudin-Shapiro sequence, which corresponds to the relevant case, displays an anomalous surface critical behavior which is analyzed via scaling considerations: Depending on the value of the modulation, the surface magnetization either vanishes with an essential singularity or remains finite at the bulk critical point, i.e., the surface phase transition is of first order.
We revisit perturbative RG analysis in the replicated Landau-Ginzburg description of the Random Field Ising Model near the upper critical dimension 6. Working in a field basis with manifest vicinity to a weakly-coupled Parisi-Sourlas supersymmetric fixed point (Cardy, 1985), we look for interactions which may destabilize the SUSY RG flow and lead to the loss of dimensional reduction. This problem is reduced to studying the anomalous dimensions of leaders -- lowest dimension parts of $S_n$-invariant perturbations in the Cardy basis. Leader operators are classified as non-susy-writable, susy-writable or susy-null depending on their symmetry. Susy-writable leaders are additionally classified as belonging to superprimary multiplets transforming in particular $textrm{OSp}(d | 2)$ representations. We enumerate all leaders up to 6d dimension $Delta = 12$, and compute their perturbative anomalous dimensions (up to two loops). We thus identify two perturbations (with susy-null and non-susy-writable leaders) becoming relevant below a critical dimension $d_c approx 4.2$ - $4.7$. This supports the scenario that the SUSY fixed point exists for all $3 < d leq 6$, but becomes unstable for $d < d_c$.
Using a new approximate strong-randomness renormalization group (RG), we study the many-body localized (MBL) phase and phase transition in one-dimensional quantum systems with short-range interactions and quenched disorder. Our RG is built on those of Zhang $textit{et al.}$ [1] and Goremykina $textit{et al.}$ [2], which are based on thermal and insulating blocks. Our main addition is to characterize each insulating block with two lengths: a physical length, and an internal decay length $zeta$ for its effective interactions. In this approach, the MBL phase is governed by a RG fixed line that is parametrized by a global decay length $tilde{zeta}$, and the rare large thermal inclusions within the MBL phase have a fractal geometry. As the phase transition is approached from within the MBL phase, $tilde{zeta}$ approaches the finite critical value corresponding to the avalanche instability, and the fractal dimension of large thermal inclusions approaches zero. Our analysis is consistent with a Kosterlitz-Thouless-like RG flow, with no intermediate critical MBL phase.
We study a quantum spin-1/2 chain that is dual to the canonical problem of non-equilibrium Kawasaki dynamics of a classical Ising chain coupled to a thermal bath. The Hamiltonian is obtained for the general disordered case with non-uniform Ising couplings. The quantum spin chain (dubbed Ising-Kawasaki) is stoquastic, and depends on the Ising couplings normalized by the baths temperature. We give its exact ground states. Proceeding with uniform couplings, we study the one- and two-magnon excitations. Solutions for the latter are derived via a Bethe Ansatz scheme. In the antiferromagnetic regime, the two-magnon branch states show intricate behavior, especially regarding their hybridization with the continuum. We find that that the gapless chain hosts multiple dynamics at low energy as seen through the presence of multiple dynamical critical exponents. Finally, we analyze the full energy level spacing distribution as a function of the Ising coupling. We conclude that the system is non-integrable for generic parameters, or equivalently, that the corresponding non-equilibrium classical dynamics are ergodic.