Dimensional reduction at a quantum critical point

Nature Materials, 2013

The diverse phenomena associated with the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) that occurs at oxide interfaces include, among others, exceptional carrier mobilities, magnetism and superconductivity. Although these have mostly been the focus of interest for potential future applications, they also offer an opportunity for studying more fundamental quantum many-body effects. Here, we examine the magnetic-field-driven quantum phase transition that occurs in electrostatically gated superconducting LaTiO 3 /SrTiO 3 interfaces. Through a finite-size scaling analysis, we show that it belongs to the (2 + 1)D XY model universality class. The system can be described as a disordered array of superconducting puddles coupled by a 2DEG and, depending on its conductance, the observed critical behaviour is single (corresponding to the long-range phase coherence in the whole array) or double (one related to local phase coherence, the other one to the array). A phase diagram illustrating the dependence of the critical field on the 2DEG conductance is constructed, and shown to agree with theoretical proposals. Moreover, by retrieving the coherence-length critical exponent ν, we show that the quantum critical behaviour can be clean or dirty according to the Harris criterion, depending on whether the phase-coherence length is smaller or larger than the size of the puddles.

Physical review letters, 2018

We study the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity in a system composed of critical spin chains interacting with three-dimensional conduction electrons and driven to criticality via an external magnetic field. The relevant experimental system is Yb_{2}Pt_{2}Pb, a metal where itinerant electrons coexist with localized moments of Yb ions which can be described in terms of effective S=1/2 spins with a dominantly one-dimensional exchange interaction. The spin subsystem becomes critical in a relatively weak magnetic field, where it behaves like a Luttinger liquid. We theoretically examine a Kondo lattice with different effective space dimensionalities of the two interacting subsystems. We characterize the corresponding non-Fermi liquid behavior due to the spin criticality by calculating the electronic relaxation rate and the dc resistivity and establish its quasilinear temperature dependence.

The European Physical Journal B

Proximity to magnetic order as well as low dimensionality are both beneficial to superconductivity at elevated temperatures. Materials on the border of magnetism display a wide range of novel and potentially useful phenomena: high Tcs, heavy fermions, coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity and giant magnetoresistance. Low dimensionality is linked to enhanced fluctuations and, in the case of heavy fermions, has been experimentally shown to be beneficial for the fluctuations that are responsible for the rich abundance of novel emergent phases. This experimental strategy motivated us to explore 2D insulating magnets with a view to investigate phase evolution across metal-insulator and magnetic-non-magnetic boundaries. This has been a fruitful venture with totally novel results different to our expectations. We present results from 2 distinct systems. The MPS3 family are highly anisotropic in both their crystal and magnetic structures. FePS3 in particular is a model insulating honeycomb antiferromagnet. We find that the application of pressure to FePS3 induces an insulator to metal transition. The second system, Cs2CuCl4, is a highly-frustrated quantum spin liquid at low temperature. The competition of the 3 relevant exchange couplings is delicately balanced. It has been shown to become antiferromagnetic at very low temperatures (∼1 K). We have found that the application of pressure for 3 days or more followed by a return to ambient pressure stabilises a totally distinct magnetic ground state.

Physical Review E, 2020

We revisit the problem of the reduction of the three-dimensional (3D) dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates, under the action of strong confinement in one direction (z), to a 2D mean-field equation. We address this problem for the confining potential with a singular term, viz., V z (z) = 2z 2 + ζ 2 /z 2 , with constant ζ. A quantum phase transition is induced by the latter term, between the ground state (GS) of the harmonic oscillator and the 3D condensate split in two parallel non-interacting layers, which is a manifestation of the "superselection" effect. A realization of the respective physical setting is proposed, making use of resonant coupling to an optical field, with the resonance detuning modulated along z. The reduction of the full 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) to the 2D nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation (NPSE) is based on the factorized ansatz, with the z-dependent multiplier represented by an exact GS solution of the 1D Schrödinger equation with potential V(z). For both repulsive and attractive signs of the nonlinearity, the 2D NPSE produces GS and vortex states, that are virtually indistinguishable from the respective numerical solutions provided by full 3D GPE. In the case of the self-attraction, the threshold for the onset of the collapse, predicted by the 2D NPSE, is also virtually identical to its counterpart obtained from the 3D equation. In the same case, stability and instability of vortices with topological charge S = 1, 2, and 3 are considered in detail. Thus, the procedure of the spatial-dimension reduction, 3D → 2D, produces very accurate results, and it may be used in other settings.

Physical Review B, 2007

We analyze the spin relaxation time 1/T1 for a system made of weakly coupled one dimensional ladders. This system allows to probe the dimensional crossover between a Luttinger liquid and a Bose-Einstein condensate of magnons. We obtain the temperature dependence of 1/T1 in the various dimensional regimes, and discuss the experimental consequences.

Physical Review B, 2011

In certain Mott-insulating dimerized antiferromagnets, triplet excitations of the paramagnetic phase can decay into the two-particle continuum. When such a magnet undergoes a quantum phase transition into a magnetically ordered state, this coupling becomes part of the critical theory provided that the lattice ordering wavevector is zero. One microscopic example is the staggered-dimer antiferromagnet on the square lattice, for which deviations from O(3) universality have been reported in numerical studies. Using both symmetry arguments and microscopic calculations, we show that a non-trivial cubic term arises in the relevant order-parameter quantum field theory, and assess its consequences using a combination of analytical and numerical methods. We also present finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo data for the staggered-dimer antiferromagnet which complement recently published results. The data can be consistently interpreted in terms of critical exponents identical to that of the standard O(3) universality class, but with anomalously large corrections to scaling. We argue that the two-particle decay of critical triplons, although irrelevant in two spatial dimensions, is responsible for the leading corrections to scaling due to its small scaling dimension.

Science, 2004

We study spin 3/2 fermionic cold atoms with attractive interactions confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Using numerical techniques, we determine the phase diagram for a generic density. For the chosen parameters, one-particle excitations are gapped and the phase diagram is separated into two regions: one where the two-particle excitation gap is zero, and one where it is finite. In the first region, the two-body pairing fluctuations (BCS) compete with the density ones. In the other one, a molecular superfluid (MS) phase, in which bound-states of four particles form, competes with the density fluctuations. The properties of the transition line between these two regions is studied through the behavior of the entanglement entropy. The physical features of the various phases, comprising leading correlations, Friedel oscillations, and excitation spectra, are presented. To make the connection with experiments, the effect of a harmonic trap is taken into account. In particular, we emphasize the conditions under which the appealing MS phase can be realized, and how the phases could be probed by using the density profiles and the associated structure factor. Lastly, the consequences on the flux quantization of the different nature of the pairing in the BCS and MS phases are studied in a situation where the condensate is in a ring geometry.

Physical Review Letters, 2012

The liquid and crystal phase of a single-component Fermi gas with dipolar interactions are investigated using quantum Monte Carlo methods in two spatial dimensions and at zero temperature. The dipoles are oriented by an external field perpendicular to the plane of motion, resulting in a purely repulsive 1/r 3 interaction. In the liquid phase we calculate the equation of state as a function of the interaction strength and other relevant properties characterizing the Fermi-liquid behavior: effective mass, discontinuity at the Fermi surface and pair correlation function. In the high density regime we calculate the equation of state of the Wigner crystal phase and the critical density of the liquid to solid first order phase transition. Close to the freezing density we also search for the existence of a stripe phase, but such a phase is never found to be energetically favorable. PACS numbers: 05.30.Fk, 03.75.Hh, 03.75.Ss

Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, 2000

The effect of static fluctuations in the phase of the order parameter on the normal and superconducting properties of a 2D system with attractive fourfermion interaction is studied. Analytic expressions for the fermion Green's function, its spectral density, and the density of states are derived in the approximation where the coupling between the spin and charge degrees of freedom is neglected. The resulting single-particle Green's function clearly demonstrates a non-Fermi liquid behavior. The results show that as the temperature increases through the 2D critical temperature, the width of the quasiparticle peaks broadens significantly.

Physical Review Letters, 2008

We examine the superfluid and collapse instabilities of a quasi two-dimensional gas of dipolar fermions aligned by an orientable external field. It is shown that the interplay between the anisotropy of the dipole-dipole interaction, the geometry of the system, and the p-wave symmetry of the superfluid order parameter means that the effective interaction for pairing can be made very large without the system collapsing. This leads to a broad region in the phase diagram where the system forms a stable superfluid. Analyzing the superfluid transition at finite temperatures, we calculate the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature as a function of the dipole angle. PACS numbers: 03.75.Ss,03.75.Hh Trapped ultracold gases are increasingly being used to simulate solid-state systems, where clear experimental signatures of theoretical predictions are often lacking [1].

Physical Review Letters, 2011

We have studied the transition from two to three dimensions in a low temperature weakly interacting 6 Li Fermi gas. Below a critical atom number, N2D, only the lowest transverse vibrational state of a highly anisotropic oblate trapping potential is occupied and the gas is two-dimensional. Above N2D the Fermi gas enters the quasi-2D regime where shell structure associated with the filling of individual transverse oscillator states is apparent. This dimensional crossover is demonstrated through measurements of the cloud size and aspect ratio versus atom number.

Physical Review B, 2004

We present the critical theory of a number of zero temperature phase transitions of quantum antiferromagnets and interacting boson systems in two dimensions. The most important example is the transition of the S = 1/2 square lattice antiferromagnet between the Néel state (which breaks spin rotation invariance) and the paramagnetic valence bond solid (which preserves spin rotation invariance but breaks lattice symmetries). We show that these two states are separated by a secondorder quantum phase transition. This conflicts with Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson theory, which predicts that such states with distinct broken symmetries are generically separated either by a first-order transition, or by a phase with co-existing orders. The critical theory of the second-order transition is not expressed in terms of the order parameters characterizing either state, but involves fractionalized degrees of freedom and an emergent, topological, global conservation law. A closely related theory describes the superfluid-insulator transition of bosons at half-filling on a square lattice, in which the insulator has a bond density wave order. Similar considerations are shown to apply to transitions of antiferromagnets between the valence bond solid and the Z2 spin liquid: the critical theory has deconfined excitations interacting with an emergent U(1) gauge force. We comment on the broader implications of our results for the study of quantum criticality in correlated electron systems.

Nuclear Physics B, 2006

We present a theory describing the superconducting (SC) interaction of Dirac electrons in a quasi-two-dimensional system consisting of a stack of N planes. The occurrence of a SC phase is investigated both at T = 0 and T = 0, in the case of a local interaction, when the theory must be renormalized and also in the situation where a natural physical cutoff is present in the system. In both cases, at T = 0, we find a quantum phase transition connecting the normal and SC phases at a certain critical coupling. The phase structure is shown to be robust against quantum fluctuations. The SC gap is determined for T = 0 and T = 0, both with and without a physical cutoff and the interplay between the gap and the SC order parameter is discussed. Our theory qualitatively reproduces the SC phase transition occurring in the underdoped regime of the high-Tc cuprates. This fact points to the possible relevance of Dirac electrons in the mechanism of high-Tc superconductivity.

Physical Review A

We present an unbiased numerical density-matrix renormalization group study of the onedimensional Bose-Hubbard model supplemented by nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction and bond dimerization. It places the emphasis on the determination of the ground-state phase diagram and shows that, besides dimerized Mott and density-wave insulating phases, an intermediate symmetryprotected topological Haldane insulator emerges at weak Coulomb interactions for filling factor one, which disappears, however, when the dimerization becomes too large. Analyzing the critical behavior of the model, we prove that the phase boundaries of the Haldane phase to Mott insulator and density-wave states belong to the Gaussian and Ising universality classes with central charges c = 1 and c = 1/2, respectively, and merge in a tricritical point. Interestingly we can demonstrate a direct Ising quantum phase transition between the dimerized Mott and density-wave phases above the tricritical point. The corresponding transition line terminates at a critical end point that belongs to the universality class of the dilute Ising model with c = 7/10. At even stronger Coulomb interactions the transition becomes first order.