The many-body localization phase transition

We use exact diagonalization to explore the many-body localization transition in a random-field spin-1/2 chain. We examine the correlations within each many-body eigenstate, looking at all high-energy states and thus effectively working at infinite temperature. For weak random field the eigenstates are thermal, as expected in this nonlocalized, "ergodic" phase. For strong random field the eigenstates are localized, with only short-range entanglement. We roughly locate the localization transition and examine some of its finite-size scaling, finding that this quantum phase transition at nonzero temperature might be showing infinite-randomness scaling with a dynamic critical exponent $z\rightarrow\infty$.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures. Extended version of arXiv:1003.2613v

Rare region effects dominate weakly disordered 3D Dirac points

We study three-dimensional Dirac fermions with weak finite-range scalar potential disorder. In the clean system, the density of states vanishes quadratically at the Dirac point. Disorder is known to be perturbatively irrelevant, and previous theoretical work has assumed that the Dirac semimetal phase, characterized by a vanishing density of states, survives at weak disorder, with a finite disorder phase transition to a diffusive metal with a non-vanishing density of states. In this paper we show that nonperturbative effects from rare regions, which are missed by conventional disorder-averaged calculations, instead give rise to a nonzero density of states for any nonzero disorder. Thus, there is no Dirac semimetal phase at non-zero disorder. The results are established both by a heuristic scaling argument and via a systematic saddle point analysis. We also discuss transport near the Dirac point. At the Dirac point, we argue that transport is diffusive, and proceeds via hopping between rare resonances. As one moves in chemical potential away from the Dirac point, there are interesting intermediate-energy regimes where the rare regions produce scattering resonances that determine the DC conductivity. We derive a scaling theory of transport near disordered 3D Dirac points. We also discuss the interplay of disorder with attractive interactions at the Dirac point, and the resulting granular superconducting and Bose glass phases. Our results are relevant for all 3D systems with Dirac points, including Weyl semimetals.Comment: Expanded version of 1307.3252 with many new results, including a new section showing how the results may be derived using a systematic saddle point calculatio

Superconductivity of disordered Dirac fermions

We study the effect of disorder on massless, spinful Dirac fermions in two spatial dimensions with attractive interactions, and show that the combination of disorder and attractive interactions is deadly to the Dirac semimetal phase. First, we derive the zero temperature phase diagram of a clean Dirac fermion system with tunable doping level ({\mu}) and attraction strength (g). We show that it contains two phases: a superconductor and a Dirac semimetal. Then, we show that arbitrarily weak disorder destroys the Dirac semimetal, turning it into a superconductor. We discuss the strength of the superconductivity for both long range and short range disorder. For long range disorder, the superconductivity is exponentially weak in the disorder strength. For short range disorder, a uniform mean field analysis predicts that superconductivity should be doubly exponentially weak in the disorder strength. However, a more careful treatment of mesoscopic fluctuations suggests that locally superconducting puddles should form at a much higher temperature, and should establish global phase coherence at a temperature that is only exponentially small in weak disorder. We also discuss the effect of disorder on the quantum critical point of the clean system, building in the effect of disorder through a replica field theory. We show that disorder is a relevant perturbation to the supersymmetric quantum critical point. We expect that in the presence of attractive interactions, the flow away from the critical point ends up in the superconducting phase, although firm conclusions cannot be drawn since the renormalization group analysis flows to strong coupling. We argue that although we expect the quantum critical point to get buried under a superconducting phase, signatures of the critical point may be visible in the finite temperature quantum critical regime.Comment: Added some discussion, particularly pertaining to proximity effec

Non-equilibrium dynamic critical scaling of the quantum Ising chain

We solve for the time-dependent finite-size scaling functions of the 1D transverse-field Ising chain during a linear-in-time ramp of the field through the quantum critical point. We then simulate Mott-insulating bosons in a tilted potential, an experimentally-studied system in the same equilibrium universality class, and demonstrate that universality holds for the dynamics as well. We find qualitatively athermal features of the scaling functions, such as negative spin correlations, and show that they should be robustly observable within present cold atom experiments.Comment: 4 pages + 2 page supplemen

Diagnosing Deconfinement and Topological Order

Topological or deconfined phases are characterized by emergent, weakly fluctuating, gauge fields. In condensed matter settings they inevitably come coupled to excitations that carry the corresponding gauge charges which invalidate the standard diagnostic of deconfinement---the Wilson loop. Inspired by a mapping between symmetric sponges and the deconfined phase of the $Z_2$ gauge theory, we construct a diagnostic for deconfinement that has the interpretation of a line tension. One operator version of this diagnostic turns out to be the Fredenhagen-Marcu order parameter known to lattice gauge theorists and we show that a different version is best suited to condensed matter systems. We discuss generalizations of the diagnostic, use it to establish the existence of finite temperature topological phases in $d \ge 3$ dimensions and show that multiplets of the diagnostic are useful in settings with multiple phases such as $U(1)$ gauge theories with charge $q$ matter. [Additionally we present an exact reduction of the partition function of the toric code in general dimensions to a well studied problem.]Comment: 11 pages, several figure

Permutation-Symmetric Multicritical Points in Random Antiferromagnetic Spin Chains

The low-energy properties of a system at a critical point may have additional symmetries not present in the microscopic Hamiltonian. This letter presents the theory of a class of multicritical points that provide an interesting example of this in the phase diagrams of random antiferromagnetic spin chains. One case provides an analytic theory of the quantum critical point in the random spin-3/2 chain, studied in recent work by Refael, Kehrein and Fisher (cond-mat/0111295).Comment: Revtex, 4 pages (2 column format), 2 eps figure

Spin-nematic order in the frustrated pyrochlore-lattice quantum rotor model

As an example of ordering due to quantum fluctuations, we examine the nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic quantum O(n) rotor model on the pyrochlore lattice. Classically, this system remains disordered even at zero temperature; we find that adding quantum fluctuations induces an ordered phase that survives to positive temperature, and we determine how its phase diagram scales with the coupling constant and the number of spin components. We demonstrate, using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, that this phase has long-range spin-nematic order, and that the phase transition into it appears to be first order.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Competing density-wave orders in a one-dimensional hard-boson model

We describe the zero-temperature phase diagram of a model of bosons, occupying sites of a linear chain, which obey a hard-exclusion constraint: any two nearest-neighbor sites may have at most one boson. A special case of our model was recently proposed as a description of a ``tilted'' Mott insulator of atoms trapped in an optical lattice. Our quantum Hamiltonian is shown to generate the transfer matrix of Baxter's hard-square model. Aided by exact solutions of a number of special cases, and by numerical studies, we obtain a phase diagram containing states with long-range density-wave order with period 2 and period 3, and also a floating incommensurate phase. Critical theories for the various quantum phase transitions are presented. As a byproduct, we show how to compute the Luttinger parameter in integrable theories with hard-exclusion constraints.Comment: 16 page