Crossovers and critical scaling in the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model

ORAL

Abstract

We consider the scaling behavior of thermodynamic quantities in the one-dimensional transverse field
Ising model near its quantum critical point (QCP). We find that the crossovers obey a general scaling ansatz, and so does the critical scaling behavior of the specific heat and magnetic expansion coefficient. Furthermore, the Grüneisen ratio diverges in a power-law way when the QCP is accessed as a function of the transverse field at zero temperature. However, at the critical field, upon decreasing the temperature, the Grüneisen ratio approaches a constant instead of showing the expected divergence. This unusual result can be understood in terms of a peculiar form of the quantum critical scaling function for the free energy; the contribution to the Grüneisen ratio vanishes at the linear order in a suitable Taylor expansion of the scaling function. Our results establish the telltale thermodynamic signature of a transverse-field Ising chain, and will thus facilitate the experimental identification of this model quantum-critical system in real materials.

*This work was in part supported by the NSF Grant No.DMR-1611392 and the Robert A. Welch Foundation Grant No.C-1411. Q.S. acknowledges the hospitality of the Aspen Center for Physics (the NSF Grant No. PHY-1607611).

Presenters

  • Jianda Wu

    • Tsung-Dao Lee Institute

Authors

  • Jianda Wu

    • Tsung-Dao Lee Institute
  • Lijun Zhu

    • University of California, Riverside
  • Qimiao Si

    • Rice University
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Houston, Texas 77005, USA, Rice University