Related papers: Phase Transitions in Quantum Field Theory
A phase transition indicates a sudden change in the properties of a large system. For temperature-driven phase transitions this is related to non-analytic behavior of the free energy density at the critical temperature: The knowledge of the…
Continuous phase transitions in equilibrium statistical mechanics were successfully described 50 years ago with the development of the renormalization group framework. This framework was initially developed in the context of phase…
By sending many two-level atoms through a cavity resonant with the atomic transition, and letting the interaction times between the atoms and the cavity be randomly distributed, we end up with a predetermined Fock state of the…
If a theory has more than one classically stable vacuum, quantum tunneling and thermal jumps make the transition between the vacua possible. The transition happens through a first order phase transition started by nucleation of a bubble of…
Symmetries are important guiding principle for phase transitions. We systematically construct field theory models with local quantum fields that exhibit the following phase transitions: (1) different symmetry protected topological (SPT)…
This article first gives a concise introduction to quantum phase transitions, emphasizing similarities with and differences to classical thermal transitions. After pointing out the computational challenges posed by quantum phase…
We consider the Blume-Capel model with the quantum tunneling between the excited states. We find a magnetically ordered phase transition induced by quantum fluctuation in a model. The model has no phase transition in the corresponding…
We study properties of a scalar quantum field theory on the two-dimensional noncommutative plane with $E_q(2)$ quantum symmetry. We start from the consideration of a firstly quantized quantum particle on the noncommutative plane. Then we…
The relation between quantum phase transitions, entanglement, and geometric phases is investigated with a system of two qubits with XY type interaction. A seam of level crossings of the system is a circle in parameter space of the…
We overview the concept of dynamical phase transitions in isolated quantum systems quenched out of equilibrium. We focus on non-equilibrium transitions characterized by an order parameter, which features qualitatively distinct temporal…
In quantum field theory, the decay of an extended metastable state into the real ground state is known as ``false vacuum decay'' and it takes place via the nucleation of spatially localized bubbles. Despite the large theoretical effort to…
In quantum theory the vacuum is defined as a state of minimum energy that is devoid of particles but still not completely empty. It is perhaps more surprising that its definition depends on the geometry of the system and on the trajectory…
We calculate the $\theta$ dependence in a cousin of QCD, where the vacuum structure can be analyzed exactly. The theory is $\mathcal{N}=2$ $SU(2)$ gauge theory with $N_F=0,1,2,3$ flavors of fundamentals, explicitly broken to $\mathcal{N}=1$…
In this chapter I discuss the impact of concepts of Quantum Field Theory in modern Condensed Physics. Although the interplay between these two areas is certainly not new, the impact and mutual cross-fertilization has certainly grown…
Quantum phase transitions occur at zero temperature when some non-thermal control-parameter like pressure or chemical composition is changed. They are driven by quantum rather than thermal fluctuations. In this review we first give a…
Phase transitions are studied in $M$-theory and $F$-theory. In $M$-theory compactification to five dimensions on a Calabi-Yau, there are topology-changing transitions similar to those seen in conformal field theory, but the non-geometrical…
Spontaneous scalarization phenomenon in scalar-tensor gravity is known to be a form of phase transition, and it was recently shown that the order of this transition changes depending on the parameters of the theory. There exists a…
Motivated by cosmological examples we study quantum field theoretical tunnelling from an initial state where the "classical field", i.e. the vacuum expectation value of the field operator is spatially homogeneous but performing a…
Phase transitions between two competing vacua of a given theory are quite common in physics. We discuss how to construct the space-time solutions that allow the description of phase transitions between different branches (or asymptotics) of…
We study the thermal phase transitions of a generic real scalar field, without a $Z_2$-symmetry, referred to variously as an inert, sterile or singlet scalar, or $\phi^3+\phi^4$ theory. Such a scalar field arises in a wide range of models,…