No Arabic abstract
We analyze the scaling theory of two-dimensional metallic electron systems in the presence of critical bosonic fluctuations with small wave vectors, which are either due to a U(1) gauge field, or generated by an Ising nematic quantum critical point. The one-loop dynamical exponent z=3 of these critical systems was shown previously to be robust up to three-loop order. We show that the cancellations preventing anomalous contributions to z at three-loop order have special reasons, such that anomalous dynamical scaling emerges at four-loop order.
To assess the strength of nematic fluctuations with a finite wave vector in a two-dimensional metal, we compute the static d-wave polarization function for tight-binding electrons on a square lattice. At Van Hove filling and zero temperature the function diverges logarithmically at q=0. Away from Van Hove filling the ground state polarization function exhibits finite peaks at finite wave vectors. A nematic instability driven by a sufficiently strong attraction in the d-wave charge channel thus leads naturally to a spatially modulated nematic state, with a modulation vector that increases in length with the distance from Van Hove filling. Above Van Hove filling, for a Fermi surface crossing the magnetic Brillouin zone boundary, the modulation vector connects antiferromagnetic hot spots with collinear Fermi velocities.
We study the Neel-paramagnetic quantum phase transition in two-dimensional dimerized $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnets using finite-size scaling of quantum Monte Carlo data. We resolve the long standing issue of the role of cubic interactions arising in the bond-operator representation when the dimer pattern lacks a certain symmetry. We find non-monotonic (monotonic) size dependence in the staggered (columnar) dimerized model, where cubic interactions are (are not) present. We conclude that there is an irrelevant field in the staggered model that is not present in the columnar case, but, at variance with previous claims, it is not the leading irrelevant field. The new exponent is $omega_2 approx 1.25$ and the prefactor of the correction $L^{-omega_2}$ is large and comes with a different sign from that of the formally leading conventional correction with exponent $omega_1 approx 0.78$. Our study highlights the possibility of competing scaling corrections at quantum critical points.
We study the effect of the Chern-Simons gauge fields on the possible transition from two decoupled composite fermion metals to the interlayer coherent composite fermion state proposed by Alicea et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 256403 (2009)] in a symmetrically doped quantum Hall bilayer with total Landau level filling fraction $ u_{tot} = 1$. In this transition, interlayer Coulomb repulsion leads to excitonic condensation of composite fermions which are then free to tunnel coherently between layers. We find that this coherent tunneling is strongly suppressed by the layer-dependent Aharonov-Bohm phases experienced by composite fermions as they propagate through the fluctuating gauge fields in the system. This suppression is analyzed by treating these gauge fluctuations within the random-phase approximation and calculating their contribution to the energy cost for forming an exciton condensate of composite fermions. This energy cost leads to (1) an increase in the critical interlayer repulsion needed to drive the transition; and (2) a discontinuous jump in the energy gaps to out-of-phase excitations (i.e., excitations involving currents with opposite signs in the two layers) at the transition.
We study chiral phase transition and confinement of matter fields in (2+1)-dimensional U(1) gauge theory of massless Dirac fermions and scalar bosons. The vanishing scalar boson mass, $r=0$, defines a quantum critical point between the Higgs phase and the Coulomb phase. We consider only the critical point $r=0$ and the Coulomb phase with $r > 0$. The Dirac fermion acquires a dynamical mass when its flavor is less than certain critical value $N_{f}^{c}$, which depends quantitatively on the flavor $N_{b}$ and the scalar boson mass $r$. When $N_{f} < N_{f}^{c}$, the matter fields carrying internal gauge charge are all confined if $r eq 0$ but are deconfined at the quantum critical point $r = 0$. The system has distinct low-energy elementary excitations at the critical point $r=0$ and in the Coulomb phase with $r eq 0$. We calculate the specific heat and susceptibility of the system at $r=0$ and $r eq 0$, which can help to detect the quantum critical point and to judge whether dynamical fermion mass generation takes place.
We classify symmetry fractionalization and anomalies in a (3+1)d U(1) gauge theory enriched by a global symmetry group $G$. We find that, in general, a symmetry-enrichment pattern is specified by 4 pieces of data: $rho$, a map from $G$ to the duality symmetry group of this $mathrm{U}(1)$ gauge theory which physically encodes how the symmetry permutes the fractional excitations, $ uinmathcal{H}^2_{rho}[G, mathrm{U}_mathsf{T}(1)]$, the symmetry actions on the electric charge, $pinmathcal{H}^1[G, mathbb{Z}_mathsf{T}]$, indication of certain domain wall decoration with bosonic integer quantum Hall (BIQH) states, and a torsor $n$ over $mathcal{H}^3_{rho}[G, mathbb{Z}]$, the symmetry actions on the magnetic monopole. However, certain choices of $(rho, u, p, n)$ are not physically realizable, i.e. they are anomalous. We find that there are two levels of anomalies. The first level of anomalies obstruct the fractional excitations being deconfined, thus are referred to as the deconfinement anomaly. States with these anomalies can be realized on the boundary of a (4+1)d long-range entangled state. If a state does not suffer from a deconfinement anomaly, there can still be the second level of anomaly, the more familiar t Hooft anomaly, which forbids certain types of symmetry fractionalization patterns to be implemented in an on-site fashion. States with these anomalies can be realized on the boundary of a (4+1)d short-range entangled state. We apply these results to some interesting physical examples.