The Critical Properties of a Modulated Quantum Sine-Gordon Model

A new procedure of trial variational wave functional is proposed for investigating the mass renormailzation and the local structure of the ground state of a one-dimensional quantum sine-Gordon model with linear spatial modulation, whose ground state differs from that without modulation. The phase diagram obtained in parameters $(\alpha \Lambda ^{-2},\beta ^{2})$ plane shows that the vertical part of the boundary between soliton lattice phase and incommensurate (IC) phase with vanishing gap sticks at $\beta ^{2}$ $=4\pi$, the IC phase can only appear for $\beta ^{2}$ $\geq 4\pi$ and the IC phase regime is enlarged with increasing spatial modulation in the case of definite parameter $\alpha \Lambda ^{-2}$. The transition is of the continuous type on the vertical part of the boundary, while it is of the first order on the boundary for $\beta ^{2}>4\pi$.