Quantum Phase Transition induced by Topological Frustration

Marić, Vanja; Giampaolo, Salvatore Marco; Franchini, Fabio (2020) Quantum Phase Transition induced by Topological Frustration. Communications physics, 3 (1). ISSN 2399-3650

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-020-00486-z

Abstract

In quantum many-body systems with local interactions, the effects of boundary conditions are considered to be negligible, at least for sufficiently large systems. Here we show an example of the opposite. We consider a spin chain with two competing interactions, set on a ring with an odd number of sites. When only the dominant interaction is antiferromagnetic, and thus induces topological frustration, the standard antiferromagnetic order (expressed by the magnetization) is destroyed. When also the second interaction turns from ferro to antiferro, an antiferromagnetic order characterized by a site-dependent magnetization which varies in space with an incommensurate pattern, emerges. This modulation results from a ground state degeneracy, which allows to break the translational invariance. The transition between the two cases is signaled by a discontinuity in the first derivative of the ground state energy and represents a quantum phase transition induced by a special choice of boundary conditions.

Item Type:

Article

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Frustration ; Quantum Phase Transition ; Spin Chain

Subjects:

NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics > Condensed Matter Physics

Divisions:

Theoretical Physics Division

Projects:

Project title	Project leader	Project code	Project type
Novel Characterizations of Classical and Quantum Many-Body Systems-ManyBodyCharacteriza	Fabio Franchini	IP-2016-06-3347	HRZZ
Frustrirani kompleksni sustavi-FCS	Salvatore Marco Giampaolo	IP-2019-04-3321	HRZZ
Provedba vrhunskih istraživanja u sklopu Znanstvenog centra izvrsnosti za kvantne i kompleksne sustave te reprezentacije Liejevih algebri-QuantiXLie	Hrvoje Buljan; Pavle Pandžić	KK.01.1.1.01.0004	EK