We investigate the combined influence of quenched randomness and dissipation on a quantum critical point with O(N) order-parameter symmetry. Utilizing a strong-disorder renormalization group, we determine the critical behavior in one space dimension
exactly. For superohmic dissipation, we find a Kosterlitz-Thouless type transition with conventional (power-law) dynamical scaling. The dynamical critical exponent depends on the spectral density of the dissipative baths. We also discuss the Griffiths singularities, and we determine observables.
We investigate the quantum phase transition in the random transverse-field Ising model under the influence of Ohmic dissipation. To this end, we numerically implement a strong-disorder renormalization-group scheme. We find that Ohmic dissipation dest
roys the quantum critical point and the associated quantum Griffiths phase by smearing. Our results quantitatively confirm a recent theory [Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 100}, 240601 (2008)] of smeared quantum phase transitions.
We present a large-N variational approach to describe the magnetism of insulating doped semiconductors based on a disorder-generalization of the resonating-valence-bond theory for quantum antiferromagnets. This method captures all the qualitative and
even quantitative predictions of the strong-disorder renormalization group approach over the entire experimentally relevant temperature range. Finally, by mapping the problem on a hard-sphere fluid, we could provide an essentially exact analytic solution without any adjustable parameters.
The effects of quenched disorder on nonequilibrium phase transitions in the directed percolation universality class are revisited. Using a strong-disorder energy-space renormalization group, it is shown that for any amount of disorder the critical be
havior is controlled by an infinite-randomness fixed point in the universality class of the random transverse-field Ising models. The experimental relevance of our results are discussed.
We present an analytical strong-disorder renormalization group theory of the quantum phase transition in the dissipative random transverse-field Ising chain. For Ohmic dissipation, we solve the renormalization flow equations analytically, yielding as
ymptotically exact results for the low-temperature properties of the system. We find that the interplay between quantum fluctuations and Ohmic dissipation destroys the quantum critical point by smearing. We also determine the phase diagram and the behavior of observables in the vicinity of the smeared quantum phase transition.
We study the effects of dissipation on a disordered quantum phase transition with O$(N)$ order parameter symmetry by applying a strong-disorder renormalization group to the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson field theory of the problem. We find that Ohmic dissip
ation results in a non-perturbative infinite-randomness critical point with unconventional activated dynamical scaling while superohmic damping leads to conventional behavior. We discuss applications to the superconductor-metal transition in nanowires and to Hertz theory of the itinerant antiferromagnetic transition.
Using strong-disorder renormalization group, numerical exact diagonalization, and quantum Monte Carlo methods, we revisit the random antiferromagnetic XXZ spin-1/2 chain focusing on the long-length and ground-state behavior of the average time-indepe
ndent spin-spin correlation function C(l)=upsilon l^{-eta}. In addition to the well-known universal (disorder-independent) power-law exponent eta=2, we find interesting universal features displayed by the prefactor upsilon=upsilon_o/3, if l is odd, and upsilon=upsilon_e/3, otherwise. Although upsilon_o and upsilon_e are nonuniversal (disorder dependent) and distinct in magnitude, the combination upsilon_o + upsilon_e = -1/4 is universal if C is computed along the symmetric (longitudinal) axis. The origin of the nonuniversalities of the prefactors is discussed in the renormalization-group framework where a solvable toy model is considered. Moreover, we relate the average correlation function with the average entanglement entropy, whose amplitude has been recently shown to be universal. The nonuniversalities of the prefactors are shown to contribute only to surface terms of the entropy. Finally, we discuss the experimental relevance of our results by computing the structure factor whose scaling properties, interestingly, depend on the correlation prefactors.
When a quantum many-particle system exists on a randomly diluted lattice, its intrinsic thermal and quantum fluctuations coexist with geometric fluctuations due to percolation. In this paper, we explore how the interplay of these fluctuations influen
ces the phase transition at the percolation threshold. While it is well known that thermal fluctuations generically destroy long-range order on the critical percolation cluster, the effects of quantum fluctuations are more subtle. In diluted quantum magnets with and without dissipation, this leads to novel universality classes for the zero-temperature percolation quantum phase transition. Observables involving dynamical correlations display nonclassical scaling behavior that can nonetheless be determined exactly in two dimensions.
