English

Unconventional Quantum Criticality in Long-Range Spin-1 Chains: Insights from Entanglement Entropy and Bipartite Fluctuations

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2026-04-23 v1 Quantum Physics

Abstract

We study the ground-state phase diagram of a spin-1 Heisenberg chain with staggered long-range (LR) interactions decaying as rα\propto r^{-\alpha} using a quantum Monte Carlo approach based on the split-spin representation. This formulation enables efficient large-scale simulations by mapping the spin-1 model onto spin-1/21/2 degrees of freedom with local projection constraints. We resolve the continuous quantum phase transition between the gapped Haldane phase at large α\alpha (short-range regime) and a gapless antiferromagnetically ordered N\'eel phase at small α\alpha (LR regime), where the continuous SU(2) symmetry is broken. From finite-size scaling and crossing point analyses, we determine the critical point to be at αc=2.48(2)\alpha_c = 2.48(2) and extract the associated critical exponents, which indicate unconventional criticality. In particular, the transition is found to be nonconformal, characterized by a dynamic exponent z1z \neq 1. We further analyze the scaling of entanglement entropy and bipartite fluctuations across the transition, and determine the corresponding universal scalings in both phases and at criticality.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.20831,
  title  = {Unconventional Quantum Criticality in Long-Range Spin-1 Chains: Insights from Entanglement Entropy and Bipartite Fluctuations},
  author = {Justin Tim-Lok Chau and Jiarui Zhao and Nicolas Laflorencie and Zi Yang Meng},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.20831},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

5+10 pages, 5+8 figures