Quantum degradation of the second order phase transitions
ORAL
Abstract
The specific heat, magnetization and thermal expansion of single crystals of antiferromagnetic insulator EuTe were measured at temperatures down to 2 K and in magnetic fields up to 90 kOe. The Neel temperature, being $\sim9.8$ K at H=0, decreases with magnetic field and tends to zero at $\sim76$ kOe, therefore forming the quantum critical point. The heat capacity and thermal expansion coefficient reveal $\lambda$-type anomalies at the second order magnetic phase transition at low magnetic fields, evolving to simple jumps at high magnetic fields and low temperatures, well described in a fluctuation free mean - field theory. The experimental data and the corresponding analysis favor the quantum concept of effective increasing space dimensionality at low temperatures that suppresses a fluctuation divergence at a second order phase transition.
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