Quantum Breakdown Condensate as a Disorder-Free Quantum Glass
Abstract
We study the phase diagram of a one-dimensional spin quantum breakdown model, which has an exponential symmetry with charge unit decaying as with site position . By exact diagonalization (ED), we show that the model with spin exhibits an exponential spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) phase dubbed a quantum breakdown condensate. It exhibits a bulk gap violating the Goldstone theorem, and an edge mode only on the left edge if in open boundary condition. In a length lattice, the condensate has number of SSB ground states originating from the number of exponential charge sectors, leading to a finite entropy density . This enforces a first order SSB phase transition into this phase, as observed in ED and verified in the large limit on an exactly solvable Rokhsar-Kivelson line. The condensate has an SSB order parameter being the local in-plane spin, which points in angles related by the chaotic Bernoulli (dyadic) map and thus is effectively random. Moreover, we show the condensate exhibits non-decaying local autocorrelations, and does not have an off-diagonal long-range order. The quantum breakdown condensate thus behaves as a disorder-free quantum glass and is beyond the existing classifications of phases of matter.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.21847,
title = {Quantum Breakdown Condensate as a Disorder-Free Quantum Glass},
author = {Yu-Min Hu and Zhaoyu Han and Biao Lian},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.21847},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
7+7 pages, 4+5 figures