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Continuous Topological Phase Transition between Two 1D Antiferromagnetic Spin-1 Boson Superfluids with the Same
1Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|August 7, 2019
Summary
Spin-1 bosons in a one-dimensional chain can form an unstable condensed state. This state transitions into two distinct superfluids, characterized by different ground states and topological orders, with a continuous phase transition described by conformal field theory.
Area of Science:
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Quantum Field Theory
- Topological Phases of Matter
Background:
- Spin-1 bosons on a 1D chain with antiferromagnetic interactions can exhibit a condensed state with gapless charge and spin excitations.
- This spin-1 boson condensed state is theoretically unstable under certain conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the instability of the spin-1 boson condensed state.
- To identify the resulting stable superfluid phases and their properties.
- To characterize the phase transition between these superfluids.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of spin-1 boson systems on a one-dimensional chain.
- Identification of distinct superfluid ground states based on boson number and boundary conditions.
- Application of conformal field theory (CFT) to describe the critical behavior and phase transitions.
- Utilizing emergent symmetries and modular invariance for CFT analysis.
Main Results:
- The unstable spin-1 boson condensed state transitions into two distinct superfluids, each with a unique spin ground state and topological order.
- One superfluid exhibits a spin-1 ground state (odd bosons), while the other has a spin-0 ground state (any bosons) with spin-1/2 degeneracy at chain ends.
- The phase transition between these superfluids is continuous, described by the CFT su(2)₂⊕u(1)₄⊕su(2)¯₂⊕u(1)¯₄.
- This critical theory exhibits spin fractionalization, where spin-1 excitations decay into spin-1/2 components.
Conclusions:
- The spin-1 boson condensed state is unstable and evolves into two symmetry-distinguished superfluids.
- Continuous phase transitions between these superfluids are possible and are governed by specific CFTs.
- The study reveals novel topological orders and spin fractionalization phenomena in one-dimensional quantum systems.
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