Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 19, 2026
05:39
Scalable Quantum Integrated Circuits on Superconducting Two-Dimensional Electron Gas Platform
Published on: August 2, 2019
Quantum phase transitions of hard-core bosons in background potentials
Anand Priyadarshee1, Shailesh Chandrasekharan, Ji-Woo Lee
1Department of Physics, Box 90305, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0305, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|October 10, 2006
Summary
This study explores quantum phase transitions in hard-core bosons under various potentials. A superfluid to normal phase transition occurs in all cases, with distinct universality classes for staggered, uniform, and random potentials.
Area of Science:
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Quantum Many-Body Systems
- Statistical Mechanics
Background:
- Hard-core bosons in two dimensions exhibit rich quantum phase behaviors.
- Background potentials significantly influence the system's phase diagram.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the zero-temperature phase diagram of hard-core bosons.
- Analyze the impact of staggered, uniform, and random potentials on quantum phase transitions.
- Determine the universality classes of these transitions.
Main Methods:
- Numerical simulations of two-dimensional hard-core boson systems.
- Analysis of quantum phase transitions.
- Characterization of universality classes.
Main Results:
- A quantum phase transition from superfluid to normal phase is observed for all three potentials.
- Staggered potential leads to XY universality.
- Uniform potential induces a mean-field transition.
- Disorder-driven transition shows distinct critical exponents (z ≈ 1.4, ν ≈ 1, β ≈ 0.6).
Conclusions:
- The nature of the quantum phase transition is highly dependent on the type of background potential.
- Disorder introduces unique critical behavior not seen in ordered potentials.
Related Concept Videos
01:21Phase Transitions
A phase transition is the process in which a substance changes from one state of matter to another, like from a solid to a liquid, liquid to gas, or vice versa, at a specific temperature and under given pressure conditions. This change is spontaneous and is affected by alterations in temperature and pressure. These parameters impact the strength of the forces between molecules (intermolecular forces) in the substance.During a phase transition, both the initial and final phases of the substance...
02:31Phase Transitions
Whether solid, liquid, or gas, a substance's state depends on the order and arrangement of its particles (atoms, molecules, or ions). Particles in the solid pack closely together, generally in a pattern. The particles vibrate about their fixed positions but do not move or squeeze past their neighbors. In liquids, although the particles are closely spaced, they are randomly arranged. The position of the particles are not fixed—that is, they are free to move past their neighbors to occupy...
02:39Phase Transitions: Vaporization and Condensation
The physical form of a substance changes on changing its temperature. For example, raising the temperature of a liquid causes the liquid to vaporize (convert into vapor). The process is called vaporization—a surface phenomenon. Vaporization occurs when the thermal motion of the molecules overcome the intermolecular forces, and the molecules (at the surface) escape into the gaseous state. When a liquid vaporizes in a closed container, gas molecules cannot escape. As these gas phase molecules...
02:39Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing
Heating a crystalline solid increases the average energy of its atoms, molecules, or ions, and the solid gets hotter. At some point, the added energy becomes large enough to partially overcome the forces holding the molecules or ions of the solid in their fixed positions, and the solid begins the process of transitioning to the liquid state or melting. At this point, the temperature of the solid stops rising, despite the continual input of heat, and it remains constant until all of the solid is...
02:45The Quantum-Mechanical Model of an Atom
Shortly after de Broglie published his ideas that the electron in a hydrogen atom could be better thought of as being a circular standing wave instead of a particle moving in quantized circular orbits, Erwin Schrödinger extended de Broglie’s work by deriving what is now known as the Schrödinger equation. When Schrödinger applied his equation to hydrogen-like atoms, he was able to reproduce Bohr’s expression for the energy and, thus, the Rydberg formula governing hydrogen spectra. Schrödinger...
02:33Phase Transitions: Sublimation and Deposition
Some solids can transition directly into the gaseous state, bypassing the liquid state, via a process known as sublimation. At room temperature and standard pressure, a piece of dry ice (solid CO2) sublimes, appearing to gradually disappear without ever forming any liquid. Snow and ice sublimate at temperatures below the melting point of water, a slow process that may be accelerated by winds and the reduced atmospheric pressures at high altitudes. When solid iodine is warmed, the solid sublimes...