A condition for first order phase transitions in quantum mechanical tunneling models

Abstract

A criterion is derived for the determination of parameter domains of first order phase transitions in quantum mechanical tunneling models. The criterion is tested by application to various models, in particular to some which have been used recently to explore spin tunneling in macroscopic particles. In each case agreement is found with previously heuristically determined domains.

arXiv comment13 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (8)

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• First- and Second-Order Transitions between Quantum and Classical Regimes for the Escape Rate of a Spin System
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• Quantum Tunneling and Phase Transitions in Spin Systems with an Applied Magnetic Field
• Quantum depinning of a pancake-vortex from a columnar defect
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Cited by in corpus (19)

• Crossover between Thermally Assisted and Pure Quantum Tunneling in Molecular Magnet Mn12-Acetate
• Resonant Tunneling in Truly Axial Symmetry Mn12 Single-Molecule Magnets: Sharp Crossover between Thermally Assisted and Pure Quantum Tunneling
• Macroscopic quantum tunneling and quantum-classical phase transitions of the escape rate in large spin systems
• Quantum-classical phase transition of escape rate in biaxial spin system with an arbitrarily directed magnetic field
• Negative modes and decay-rate transition
• First- and second-order transitions of the escape rate in ferrimagnetic or antiferromagnetic particles
• Tunneling of Born-Infeld Strings to D2-Branes
• Magnetization quantum tunneling at excited levels for a biaxial spin system in an arbitrarily directed magnetic field
• Phase transition between quantum and classical regimes for the escape rate of dimeric molecular nanomagnets in a staggered magnetic field
• Winding Number Transitions in the Mottola-Wipf Model on a Circle
• Periodic Bounce for Nucleation Rate at Finite Temperature in Minisuperspace Models
• Quantum-classical transition of the escape rate of uniaxial antiferromagnetic particles in an arbitrarily directed field
• Bifurcation of Periodic Instanton in Decay-Rate Transition
• Winding number transitions at finite temperature in the Abelian-Higgs model
• Nucleation at finite temperature beyond the superminispace model
• Instanton-Sphaleron transition in the d = 2 Abelian-Higgs model on a Circle
• Phase transitions in quantum tunneling and quasi-exact solvability for a family of parametric double-well potentials
• Quantum-tunneling transitions and exact statistical mechanics of bistable systems with parametrized Dikandé-Kofané double-well potentials
• Quantum-classical phase transition of the escape rate of two-sublattice antiferromagnetic large spins