Quantum interface unbinding transitions

Abstract

We consider interfacial phenomena accompanying bulk quantum phase transitions in presence of surface fields. On general grounds we argue that the surface contribution to the system free energy involves a line of singularities characteristic of an interfacial phase transition, occurring below the bulk transition temperature T_c down to T=0. This implies the occurrence of an interfacial quantum critical regime extending into finite temperatures and located within the portion of the phase diagram where the bulk is ordered. Even in situations, where the bulk order sets in discontinuously at T=0, the system's behavior at the boundary may be controlled by a divergent length scale if the tricritical temperature is sufficiently low. Relying on an effective interfacial model we compute the surface phase diagram in bulk spatial dimensionality $d\ge 2$ and extract the values of the exponents describing the interfacial singularities in $d\ge 3$.

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• The nonperturbative functional renormalization group and its applications
• Non-equilibrium and non-homogeneous phenomena around a first-order quantum phase transition
• Wetting critical behavior in the quantum Ising model within the framework of Lindblad dissipative dynamics
• Quantum wetting transitions in two dimensions: an alternative path to non-universal interfacial singularities