Abstract
We study quantum phase transitions in transverse-field Ising spin chains in which the couplings are random but hyperuniform, in the sense that their large-scale fluctuations are suppressed. We construct a one-parameter family of disorder models in which long-wavelength fluctuations are increasingly suppressed as a parameter α is tuned. For α=0, one recovers the familiar infinite-randomness critical point. For 0<α<1, we find a line of infinite-randomness critical points with continuously varying critical exponents; however, the Griffiths phases that flank the critical point at α=0 are absent at any α>0. When α>1, randomness is a dangerously irrelevant perturbation at the clean Ising critical point, leading to a state we call the critical Ising insulator. In this state, thermodynamics and equilibrium correlation functions behave as in the clean system. However, all finite-energy excitations are localized, thermal transport vanishes, and autocorrelation functions remain finite in the long-time limit. We characterize this line of hyperuniform critical points using a combination of perturbation theory, renormalization-group methods, and exact diagonalization.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 134206 |
| Journal | Physical Review B |
| Volume | 100 |
| Issue number | 13 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 17 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Condensed Matter Physics