A quantum phase transition in the one-dimensional water chain

Abstract

The concept of quantum phase transitions (QPT) plays a central role in the description of condensed matter systems. In this contribution, we perform high-quality wavefunction-based simulations to demonstrate the existence of a quantum phase transition in a crucially relevant molecular system, namely water, forming linear chains of rotating molecules. We determine various critical exponents and reveal the water chain QPT to belong to the (1+1) dimensional Ising universality class. Furthermore, the effect of breaking symmetries is examined and it is shown that by breaking the inversion symmetry, the ground state degeneracy of the ordered quantum phase is lifted to yield two many-body states with opposite polarization. The possibility of forming ferroelectric phases together with a thermal stability of the quantum critical regime up to ~10 K makes the linear water chain a promising candidate as a platform for quantum devices.

6 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Heavy Fermions and Quantum Phase Transitions
• Quantum Criticality
• Quantum phases of Rydberg atoms on a kagome lattice
• The Hobbyhorse of Magnetic Systems: The Ising Model

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• Effect of neighbouring molecules on ground-state properties of many-body polar linear rotor systems
• Path Integral Monte Carlo in the Angular Momentum Basis for a Chain of Planar Rotors
• Orientational ordering of water molecules confined in beryl: A theoretical study