Extraordinary-Log Surface Phase Transition in the Three-Dimensional XY Model

Universality is a pillar of modern critical phenomena. The standard scenario is that the two-point correlation algebraically decreases with the distance r as g(r)∼r^{2-d-η}, with d the spatial dimension and η the anomalous dimension. Very recently, a logarithmic universality was proposed to describe the extraordinary surface transition of the O(N) system. In this logarithmic universality, g(r) decays in a power of logarithmic distance as g(r)∼(lnr)^{-η[over ^]}, dramatically different from the standard scenario. We explore the three-dimensional XY model by Monte Carlo simulations, and provide strong evidence for the emergence of logarithmic universality. Moreover, we propose that the finite-size scaling of g(r,L) has a two-distance behavior: simultaneously containing a large-distance plateau whose height decays logarithmically with L as g(L)∼(lnL)^{-η[over ^]^{'}} as well as the r-dependent term g(r)∼(lnr)^{-η[over ^]}, with η[over ^]^{'}≈η[over ^]-1. The critical exponent η[over ^]^{'}, characterizing the height of the plateau, obeys the scaling relation η[over ^]^{'}=(N-1)/(2πα) with the RG parameter α of helicity modulus. Our picture can also explain the recent numerical results of a Heisenberg system. The advances on logarithmic universality significantly expand our understanding of critical universality.