Related papers: First- order versus unconventional phase transitio…
The liquid-to-ordered phase transition in a bilayer system of fermions is studied within the context of a recently proposed density-functional theory [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 92}, 023614 (2015)]. In each two-dimensional layer, the fermions…
The superconductor to insulator transition in the presence of long-range Coulomb interactions is studied using Monte Carlo techniques. At integer filling the transition is second order. At half filling we find evidence of a first order…
The 4D compact U(1) gauge theory has a well-established phase transition between a confining and a Coulomb phase. In this paper, we revisit this model using state-of-the-art Monte Carlo simulations on anisotropic lattices. We map out the…
We study a model of close-packed dimers on the square lattice with a nearest neighbor interaction between parallel dimers. This model corresponds to the classical limit of quantum dimer models [D.S. Rokhsar and S.A. Kivelson, Phys. Rev.…
We study a phase transition in a 3D lattice gauge theory, a "coarse-grained" version of a classical dimer model. Duality arguments indicate that the dimer lattice theory should be dual to a XY model coupled to a gauge field with geometric…
Simulations in compact U(1) lattice gauge theory in 4D show now beyond any reasonable doubts that the phase transition separating the Coulomb from the confined phase is of first order, albeit a very weak one. This settles the issue from the…
We investigate experimentally the dynamic phase transition of a two-dimensional active nematic layer interfaced with a passive liquid crystal. Under a temperature ramp that leads to the transition of the passive liquid into a highly…
We investigate the low-energy properties of the orthogonal-dimer spin chain characterized by a frustrated dimer-plaquette structure. When the competing antiferromagnetic couplings are varied, the first-order quantum phase transition occurs…
We present experimental evidence for a first-order freezing/melting phase transition in a nonequilibrium system -- an oscillated two-dimensional isobaric granular fluid. The steady-state transition occurs between a gas and a crystal and is…
We derive a continuum theory for the phase transition in a classical dimer model on the cubic lattice, observed in recent Monte Carlo simulations. Our derivation relies on the mapping from a three-dimensional classical problem to a…
Topological states may be protected by a lattice symmetry in a class of topological semi-metals. In three spatial dimensions, the Berry flux around gapless excitations in momentum space defines a chirality concretely, so a protecting…
Recent experimental studies on strongly disordered indium oxide films have revealed an unusual first-order quantum phase transition between the superconducting and insulating states (SIT). This transition is characterized by a discontinuous…
We study the phase transition in a system composed of dimers interacting with each other via a nearest-neighbor (NN) exchange $J$ and competing interactions taken from a truncated dipolar coupling. Each dimer occupies a link between two…
We investigate the lattice Coulomb glass model in three dimensions via Monte Carlo simulations. No evidence for an equilibrium glass phase is found down to very low temperatures, although the correlation length increases rapidly near T=0. A…
In two-dimensional electronic systems, direct first-order phase transitions are prohibited as a consequence of the long-range Coulomb interaction, which implies a stiff energetic penalty for macroscopic phase separation. A prominent…
The theory of first order density-driven phase transitions with frustration due to the long range Coulomb (LRC) interaction develop on paper I of this series is applied to the following physical systems: i) the low density electron gas ii)…
The transition between the two phases of 4D Euclidean Dynamical Triangulation [1] was long believed to be of second order until in 1996 first order behavior was found for sufficiently large systems [3,4]. However, one may wonder if this…
Various interacting lattice path models of polymer collapse in two dimensions demonstrate different critical behaviours. This difference has been without a clear explanation. The collapse transition has been variously seen to be in the…
In this work we study a system of interacting fermions on a triangular lattice in the presence of an external magnetic field. We neglect spin and fix a density of one third, with one unit of magnetic flux per particle. The infinite density…
The classical dimer model on the cubic lattice hosts a columnar ordered phase and a disordered Coulomb phase, separated by a continuous phase transition that lies beyond the conventional Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm. While its…