Quantum Annealed Criticality: A Scaling Description

Abstract

Experimentally there exist many materials with first-order phase transitions at finite temperature that display quantum criticality. Classically, a strain-energy density coupling is known to drive first-order transitions in compressible systems, and here we generalize this Larkin-Pikin mechanism to the quantum case. We show that if the T=0 system lies above its upper critical dimension, the line of first-order transitions ends in a "quantum annealed critical point" where zero-point fluctuations restore the underlying criticality of the order parameter. The generalized Larkin-Pikin phase diagram is presented and experimental consequences are discussed.

This paper contains a considerably expanded discussion of the material presented in arXiv:1805.11771

References in corpus (4)

• Quantum critical behavior in itinerant electron systems -- Eliashberg theory and instability of a ferromagnetic quantum-critical point
• Hastatic Order in URu2Si2
• Large isotropic negative thermal expansion above a structural quantum phase transition
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