Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Condensed Matter Physics

University of Kentucky

Series

2016

Quantum phase transitions

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physics

First-Order Superfluid To Valence-Bond Solid Phase Transitions In Easy-Plane Su(N) Magnets For Small N, Jonathan D'Emidio, Ribhu K. Kaul Feb 2016

First-Order Superfluid To Valence-Bond Solid Phase Transitions In Easy-Plane Su(N) Magnets For Small N, Jonathan D'Emidio, Ribhu K. Kaul

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We consider the easy-plane limit of bipartite SU(N) Heisenberg Hamiltonians, which have a fundamental representation on one sublattice and the conjugate to fundamental on the other sublattice. For N = 2 the easy plane limit of the SU(2) Heisenberg model is the well-known quantum XY model of a lattice superfluid. We introduce a logical method to generalize the quantum XY model to arbitrary N, which keeps the Hamiltonian sign-free. We show that these quantum Hamiltonians have a world-line representation as the statistical mechanics of certain tightly packed loop models of N colors in which neighboring loops are …


Collective Bulk And Edge Modes Through The Quantum Phase Transition In Graphene At Ν = 0, Ganpathy Murthy, Efrat Shimshoni, H. A. Fertig Jan 2016

Collective Bulk And Edge Modes Through The Quantum Phase Transition In Graphene At Ν = 0, Ganpathy Murthy, Efrat Shimshoni, H. A. Fertig

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Undoped graphene in a strong, tilted magnetic field exhibits a radical change in conduction upon changing the tilt angle, which can be attributed to a quantum phase transition from a canted antiferromagnetic (CAF) to a ferromagnetic (FM) bulk state at filling factor ν = 0. This behavior signifies a change in the nature of the collective ground state and excitations across the transition. Using the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approximation, we study the collective neutral (particle-hole) excitations in the two phases, both in the bulk and on the edge of the system. The CAF has gapless neutral modes in the bulk, whereas …