A strongly coupled zig-zag transition
Abstract
The zig-zag symmetry transition is a phase transition in 1D quantum wires, in which a Wigner lattice of electrons transitions to two staggered lattices. Previous studies model this transition as a Luttinger liquid coupled to a Majorana fermion. The model exhibits interesting RG flows, involving quenching of velocities in subsectors of the theory. We suggest an extension of the model which replaces the Majorana fermion by a more general CFT; this includes an experimentally realizable case with two Majorana fermions. We analyse the RG flow both in field theory and using AdS/CFT techniques in the large central charge limit of the CFT. The model has a rich phase structure with new qualitative features, already in the two Majorana fermion case. The AdS/CFT calculation involves considering back reaction in space-time to capture subleading effects.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1305.3574,
title = {A strongly coupled zig-zag transition},
author = {Vijay Balasubramanian and Micha Berkooz and Simon F. Ross and Joan Simon},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1305.3574},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
39 pages, 6 figures