No Arabic abstract
The Shastry-Sutherland model, which consists of a set of spin 1/2 dimers on a 2-dimensional square lattice, is simple and soluble, but captures a central theme of condensed matter physics by sitting precariously on the quantum edge between isolated, gapped excitations and collective, ordered ground states. We compress the model Shastry-Sutherland material, SrCu2(BO3)2, in a diamond anvil cell at cryogenic temperatures to continuously tune the coupling energies and induce changes in state. High-resolution x-ray measurements exploit what emerges as a remarkably strong spin-lattice coupling to both monitor the magnetic behavior and the absence or presence of structural discontinuities. In the low-pressure spin-singlet regime, the onset of magnetism results in an expansion of the lattice with decreasing temperature, which permits a determination of the pressure dependent energy gap and the almost isotropic spin-lattice coupling energies. The singlet-triplet gap energy is suppressed continuously with increasing pressure, vanishing completely by 2 GPa. This continuous quantum phase transition is followed by a structural distortion at higher pressure.
Two-dimensional systems may admit a hexatic phase and hexatic-liquid transitions of different natures. The determination of their phase diagrams proved challenging, and indeed those of hard-disks, hard regular polygons, and inverse power-law potentials, have been only recently clarified. In this context, the role of attractive forces is currently speculative, despite their prevalence at both the molecular and colloidal scale. Here we demonstrate, via numerical simulations, that attraction promotes a discontinuous melting scenario with no hexatic phase. At high-temperature, Lennard-Jones particles and attractive polygons follow the shape-dominated melting scenario observed in hard-disks and hard polygons, respectively. Conversely, all systems melt via a first-order transition with no hexatic phase at low temperature, where attractive forces dominate. The intermediate temperature melting scenario is shape-dependent. Our results suggest that, in colloidal experiments, the tunability of the strength of the attractive forces allows for the observation of different melting scenario in the same system.
Theoretical studies of quantum phase transitions have suggested critical points with higher symmetries than those of the underlying Hamiltonian. Here we demonstrate a surprising emergent symmetry of the coexistence state at a strongly discontinuous phase transition between two ordered ground states. We present a quantum Monte Carlo study of a two-dimensional $S=1/2$ quantum magnet hosting the antiferromagnetic (AFM) and plaquette-singlet solid (PSS) states recently detected in SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$. We observe that the O(3) symmetric AFM order and the Z$_2$ symmetric PSS order form an O(4) vector at the transition. The control parameter $g$ (a coupling ratio) rotates the vector between the AFM and PSS sectors and there are no energy barriers between the two at the transition point $g_c$. This phenomenon may be observable in SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$.
The Kondo-necklace model can describe magnetic low-energy limit of strongly correlated heavy fermion materials. There exist multiple energy scales in this model corresponding to each phase of the system. Here, we study quantum phase transition between the Kondo-singlet phase and the antiferromagnetic long-range ordered phase, and show the effect of anisotropies in terms of quantum information properties and vanishing energy gap. We employ the perturbative continuous unitary transformations approach to calculate the energy gap and spin-spin correlations for the model in the thermodynamic limit of one, two, and three spatial dimensions as well as for spin ladders. In particular, we show that the method, although being perturbative, can predict the expected quantum critical point, where the gap of low-energy spectrum vanishes, which is in good agreement with results of other numerical and Greens function analyses. In addition, we employ concurrence, a bipartite entanglement measure, to study the criticality of the model. Absence of singularities in the derivative of concurrence in two and three dimensions in the Kondo-necklace model shows that this model features multipartite entanglement. We also discuss crossover from the one-dimensional to the two-dimensional model via the ladder structure.
We study the Kitaev-Heisenberg-$Gamma$ model with antiferromagnetic Kitaev exchanges in the strong anisotropic (toric code) limit to understand the phases and the intervening phase transitions between the gapped $Z_2$ quantum spin liquid and the spin-ordered (in the Heisenberg limit) as well as paramagnetic phases (in the pseudo-dipolar, $Gamma$, limit). We find that the paramagnetic phase obtained in the large $Gamma$ limit has no topological entanglement entropy and is proximate to a gapless critical point of a system described by an equal superposition of differently oriented stacked one-dimensional $Z_2times Z_2$ symmetry protected topological phases. Using a combination of exact diagonalization calculations and field-theoretic analysis we map out the phases and phase transitions to reveal the complete phase diagram as a function of the Heisenberg, the Kitaev, and the pseudo-dipolar interactions. Our work shows a rich plethora of unconventional phases and phase transitions and provides a comprehensive understanding of the physics of anisotropic Kitaev-Heisenberg-$Gamma$ systems along with our recent paper [Phys. Rev. B 102, 235124 (2020)] where the ferromagnetic Kitaev exchange was studied.
We consider the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a bilayer honeycomb lattice including interlayer frustration in the presence of an external magnetic field. In the vicinity of the saturation field, we map the low-energy states of this quantum system onto the spatial configurations of hard hexagons on a honeycomb lattice. As a result, we can construct effective classical models (lattice-gas as well as Ising models) on the honeycomb lattice to calculate the properties of the frustrated quantum Heisenberg spin system in the low-temperature regime. We perform classical Monte Carlo simulations for a hard-hexagon model and adopt known results for an Ising model to discuss the finite-temperature order-disorder phase transition that is driven by a magnetic field at low temperatures. We also discuss an effective-model description around the ideal frustration case and find indications for a spin-flop like transition in the considered isotropic spin model.