Metal-Insulator Transition in Two- and Three-Dimensional Logarithmic Plasmas

Abstract

We consider scaling of the mean square dipole moments in a plasma with logarithmic interactions in a two- and three-dimensional system. In both cases, we establish the existence of a low-temperature regime where the mean square dipole moment does not scale with system size and a high-temperature regime where it does scale with system size. Thus, there is a nonanalytic change in the polarizability of the system as a function of temperature, and hence a metal-insulator transition in both cases. The relevance of this transition in three dimensions to quantum phase transitions in 2+1-dimensional systems is briefly discussed.

4 pages, 2 figures. One figure removed, replaced by analytical results. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters

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• Quantum electrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions, confinement, and the stability of U(1) spin liquids
• Mott transition in bosonic systems: Insights from the variational approach
• Compact quantum electrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions and spinon deconfinement: a renormalization group analysis
• Magnetic monopole plasma phase in (2+1)d compact quantum electrodynamics with fermionic matter
• Deconfinement Phase Transition in a 3D Nonlocal U(1) Lattice Gauge Theory
• Instanton correlators and phase transitions in two- and three-dimensional logarithmic plasmas
• Renormalization, duality, and phase transitions in two- and three-dimensional quantum dimer models
• Phase Structure of a 3D Nonlocal U(1) Gauge Theory: Deconfinement by Gapless Matter Fields
• Dynamical Conductivity of Disordered Quantum Hall Stripes
• Coulomb Gas and Sine-Gordon Model in Arbitrary Dimension
• Three Phases in the 3D Abelian Higgs Model with Nonlocal Gauge Interactions
• Unconventional criticality in $O(D)$-invariant loop-constrained Landau theory