Classical origins of Landau-incompatible transitions
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2024
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| _version_ | 1866916646042468352 |
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| author | Prakash, Abhishodh Jones, Nick G. |
| author_facet | Prakash, Abhishodh Jones, Nick G. |
| contents | Continuous phase transitions where symmetry is spontaneously broken are ubiquitous in physics and often found between `Landau-compatible' phases where residual symmetries of one phase are a subset of the other. However, continuous `deconfined quantum critical' transitions between Landau-incompatible symmetry-breaking phases are known to exist in certain quantum systems, often with anomalous microscopic symmetries. In this Letter, we investigate the need for such special conditions. We show that Landau-incompatible transitions can be found in a family of well-known classical statistical mechanical models with anomaly-free symmetries, introduced by José, Kadanoff, Kirkpatrick and Nelson (Phys. Rev. B 16, 1217). The models are anisotropic deformations of the classical 2d XY model labelled by a positive integer $Q$. For a range of temperatures, even $Q$ models exhibit two Landau-incompatible partial symmetry-breaking phases and a direct transition between them for $Q \ge 4$. Characteristic features of deconfined quantum criticality, such as enhanced symmetries and melting of charged defects are easily seen in a classical setting. For odd $Q$, and corresponding temperature ranges, two regions of a single partial symmetry-breaking phase appear, split by a stable `unnecessary critical' line. We discuss experimental systems that realize these transitions and present anomaly-free quantum models that also exhibit similar phase diagrams. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_19009 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Classical origins of Landau-incompatible transitions Prakash, Abhishodh Jones, Nick G. Statistical Mechanics Strongly Correlated Electrons High Energy Physics - Theory Continuous phase transitions where symmetry is spontaneously broken are ubiquitous in physics and often found between `Landau-compatible' phases where residual symmetries of one phase are a subset of the other. However, continuous `deconfined quantum critical' transitions between Landau-incompatible symmetry-breaking phases are known to exist in certain quantum systems, often with anomalous microscopic symmetries. In this Letter, we investigate the need for such special conditions. We show that Landau-incompatible transitions can be found in a family of well-known classical statistical mechanical models with anomaly-free symmetries, introduced by José, Kadanoff, Kirkpatrick and Nelson (Phys. Rev. B 16, 1217). The models are anisotropic deformations of the classical 2d XY model labelled by a positive integer $Q$. For a range of temperatures, even $Q$ models exhibit two Landau-incompatible partial symmetry-breaking phases and a direct transition between them for $Q \ge 4$. Characteristic features of deconfined quantum criticality, such as enhanced symmetries and melting of charged defects are easily seen in a classical setting. For odd $Q$, and corresponding temperature ranges, two regions of a single partial symmetry-breaking phase appear, split by a stable `unnecessary critical' line. We discuss experimental systems that realize these transitions and present anomaly-free quantum models that also exhibit similar phase diagrams. |
| title | Classical origins of Landau-incompatible transitions |
| topic | Statistical Mechanics Strongly Correlated Electrons High Energy Physics - Theory |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.19009 |