Size-driven quantum phase transitions

DOI10.1073/PNAS.1705042114zbMATH Open1416.81215arXiv1512.05687OpenAlexW2269664741WikidataQ47173478 ScholiaQ47173478MaRDI QIDQ4967412FDOQ4967412

Authors: Johannes Bausch, Angelo Lucia, David Pérez-García, Toby Cubitt, Michael M. Wolf 

Publication date: 3 July 2019

Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Can the properties of the thermodynamic limit of a many-body quantum system be extrapolated by analysing a sequence of finite-size cases? We present a model for which such an approach gives completely misleading results: a translationally invariant, local Hamiltonian on a square lattice with open boundary conditions and constant spectral gap, which has a classical product ground state for all system sizes smaller than a particular threshold size, but a ground state with topological degeneracy for all system sizes larger than this threshold. Starting from a minimal case with spins of dimension 6 and threshold lattice size 15 x 15, we show that the latter grows faster than any computable function with increasing local spin dimension. The resulting effect may be viewed as a new type of quantum phase transition that is driven by the size of the system rather than by an external field or coupling strength. We prove that the construction is thermally robust, opening the possibility that these effects are accessible to experimental observation.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1512.05687

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Other fundamental interactions in quantum theory (81V19)

Cited In (9)

• Martin-Löf random quantum states
• Non-dimensional size effects on the thermodynamic properties of solids
• Undecidability of the Spectral Gap
• Quantum phase transitions without thermodynamic limits
• Finite size scaling for criticality of the Schrödinger equation
• The complexity of translationally invariant spin chains with low local dimension
• The complexity of translationally invariant low-dimensional spin lattices in 3D
• Dependence of the temperature of phase transitions on the size of the domain
• Title not available (Why is that?)

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