Emergent criticality in a constrained boson model

Abstract

We show, via explicit computation on a constrained bosonic model, that the presence of subsystem symmetries can lead to a quantum phase transition (QPT) where the critical point exhibits an emergent enhanced symmetry. Such a transition separates a unique gapped ground state from a gapless one; the latter phase exhibits a broken $Z_2$ symmetry which we tie to the presence of the subsystem symmetries in the model. The intermediate critical point separating these phases exhibits an additional emergent $Z_2$ symmetry which we identify. This emergence leads to a critical theory which seems to be different from those in the Ising universality class. Instead, within the data obtained from finite-size scaling analysis, we find the critical theory to be not inconsistent with Ashkin-Teller universality in the sense that the transitions of the model reproduces a critical line with variable correlation length exponent $\nu$ but constant central charge $c$ close to unity. We verify this scenario via explicit exact-diagonalization computations, provide an effective Landau-Ginzburg theory for such a transition, and discuss the connection of our model to the PXP model describing Rydberg atom arrays.

v5: Accepted in Scipost Physics

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