English

Rounding of First Order Transitions in Low-Dimensional Quantum Systems with Quenched Disorder

Statistical Mechanics 2010-10-26 v3 Disordered Systems and Neural Networks Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

We prove that the addition of an arbitrarily small random perturbation of a suitable type to a quantum spin system rounds a first order phase transition in the conjugate order parameter in d <= 2 dimensions, or in systems with continuous symmetry in d <= 4. This establishes rigorously for quantum systems the existence of the Imry-Ma phenomenon, which for classical systems was proven by Aizenman and Wehr.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0907.2419,
  title  = {Rounding of First Order Transitions in Low-Dimensional Quantum Systems with Quenched Disorder},
  author = {Rafael L. Greenblatt and Michael Aizenman and Joel L. Lebowitz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0907.2419},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

Four pages, RevTex. Minor corrections