No Arabic abstract
Fidelity approach has been widely used to detect various types of quantum phase transitions, including some that are beyond the Landau symmetry breaking theory, in condensed matter models. However, challenges remain in locating the transition points with precision in several models with unconventional phases such as the quantum spin liquid phase in spin-1 Kitaev-Heisenberg model. In this work, we propose a novel approach, which we named the fidelity map, to detect quantum phase transitions with higher accuracy and sensitivity as compared to the conventional fidelity measures. Our scheme extends the fidelity concept from a single dimension quantity to a multi-dimensional quantity, and use a meta-heuristic algorithm to search for the critical points that globally maximized the fidelity within each phase. We test the scheme in three interacting condensed matter models, namely the spin-1 Kitaev Heisenberg model which consists of the quantum spin liquid phase and the topological Haldane phase, the spin-1/2 XXZ model which possesses a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, and the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model that exhibits a topological quantum phase transition. The result shows that the fidelity map can capture a wide range of phase transitions accurately, thus providing a new tool to study phase transitions in unseen models without prior knowledge of the systems symmetry.
We present some aspects of the fidelity approach to phase transitions based on lower and upper bounds on the fidelity susceptibility that are expressed in terms of thermodynamic quantities. Both commutative and non commutative cases are considered. In the commutative case, in addition, a relation between the fidelity and the nonequilibrium work done on the system in a process from an equilibrium initial state to an equilibrium final state has been obtained by using the Jarzynski equality.
We study the quantum fidelity approach to characterize thermal phase transitions. Specifically, we focus on the mixed-state fidelity induced by a perturbation in temperature. We consider the behavior of fidelity in two types of second-order thermal phase transitions (based on the type of non-analiticity of free energy), and we find that usual fidelity criteria for identifying critical points is more applicable to the case of $lambda$ transitions (divergent second derivatives of free energy). Our study also reveals limitations of the fidelity approach: sensitivity to high temperature thermal fluctuations that wash out information about the transition, and inability of fidelity to distinguish between crossovers and proper phase transitions. In spite of these limitations, however, we find that fidelity remains a good pre-criterion for testing thermal phase transitions, which we use to analyze the non-zero temperature phase diagram of the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model.
We use a recently proposed class of tensor-network states to study phase transitions in string-net models. These states encode the genuine features of the string-net condensate such as, e.g., a nontrivial perimeter law for Wilson loops expectation values, and a natural order parameter detecting the breakdown of the topological phase. In the presence of a string tension, a quantum phase transition occurs between the topological phase and a trivial phase. We benchmark our approach for $mathbb{Z}_2$ string nets and capture the second-order phase transition which is well known from the exact mapping onto the transverse-field Ising model. More interestingly, for Fibonacci string nets, we obtain first-order transitions in contrast with previous studies but in qualitative agreement with mean-field results.
Several experimental and theoretical studies indicate the existence of a critical point separating the underdoped and overdoped regions of the high-T_c cuprates phase diagram. There are at least two distinct proposals on the critical concentration and its physical origin. First one is associated with the pseudogap formation for p<p*, with p~0.2. Another one relies on the Hall effect measurements and suggests that the critical point and the quantum phase transition (QPT) take place at optimal doping, p_{opt}~0.16. Here we have performed a precise density of states calculation and found that there are two QPTs and the corresponding critical concentrations associated with the change of the Fermi surface topology upon doping.
A quantum critical point is approached by applying pressure in a number of magnetic metals. The observed dependence of Tc on pressure necessarily means that the magnetic energy is coupled to the lattice. A first order phase transition occurs if this coupling exceeds a critical value: this is inevitable if diverges as Tc approaches zero. It is argued that this is the cause of the first order transition that is observed in many systems. Using Landau theory we obtain expressions for the boundaries of the region where phase separation occurs that agree well with experiments done on MnSi and other materials. The theory can be used to obtain very approximate values for the temperature and pressure at the tricritical point in terms of quantities measured at ambient pressure and the measured values of along the second order line. The values of the tricritical temperature for various materials obtained from Landau theory are too low but it is shown that the predicted values will rise if the effects of fluctuations are included.