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Quantum Phase Transitions in Disordered Boson Systems University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses October 2018 QUANTUM PHASE TRANSITIONS IN DISORDERED BOSON SYSTEMS Zhiyuan Yao University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Commons, Condensed Matter Physics Commons, and the Quantum Physics Commons Recommended Citation Yao, Zhiyuan, "QUANTUM PHASE TRANSITIONS IN DISORDERED BOSON SYSTEMS" (2018). Doctoral Dissertations. 1396. https://doi.org/10.7275/12500150 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1396 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. QUANTUM PHASE TRANSITIONS IN DISORDERED BOSON SYSTEMS A Dissertation Presented by ZHIYUAN YAO Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2018 Department of Physics c Copyright by Zhiyuan Yao 2018 All Rights Reserved QUANTUM PHASE TRANSITIONS IN DISORDERED BOSON SYSTEMS A Dissertation Presented by ZHIYUAN YAO Approved as to style and content by: Nikolay V. Prokof'ev, Chair Boris V. Svistunov, Member Tigran Sedrakyan, Member Murugappan Muthukumar, Member Narayanan Menon, Department Chair Department of Physics ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, my deepest appreciation goes to my advisors, Nikolay Prokof'ev and Boris Svistunov. Whenever I went to their office for help, they would immediately stop their work and patiently answer my questions. Their deep understanding and ways of thinking have led me to a deeper understanding of physics and helped me approach problems with intuition, qualitative analyses, and physical pictures in addition to mathematical deriva- tions. I can not overstate my appreciation of my advisors for introducing me to the field of computational quantum many-body physics. Their deep insight, high expectations, and constant encouragement have helped me perform cutting-edge research, and this work would not have been possible without their support. Besides academic guidance, I am also grate- ful to my advisors for organizing many outdoor activities and for hosting me during many Thanksgiving holidays. These special events enriched my life in Amherst, and hobbies de- veloped in this process, such as cycling and hiking, are sure to enhance my future life. I am also indebted to my group members, graduate students Kun Chen and Yuang Huang, and postdocs Olga Goulko and John Carlstr¨om,for enlightening discussions. I would also like to acknowledge the time and efforts taken by Olga Goulko and Chris Amey for organiz- ing several get-togethers and preparing delicious food. Another friend deserving my special thanks is Qingyou Meng, who helped me enormously in my personal life in Amherst. I want to thank Qingyou Meng and Chris Amey for many conversations we had on various topics not limited to physics, which taught me a lot of lessons and shaped my view. I would also like to thank my committee members Tigran and Murugappan for their time, feedback and guidance. I want to thank my family members for providing every support they can give iv and for their love. There are many more people to whom I am grateful, and I want to take this opportunity to thank them all. v ABSTRACT QUANTUM PHASE TRANSITIONS IN DISORDERED BOSON SYSTEMS SEPTEMBER 2018 ZHIYUAN YAO B.Sc., UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF CHINA Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Nikolay V. Prokof'ev and Professor Boris V. Svistunov In this dissertation, we study the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition in dis- ordered boson systems. Recently, there has been considerable controversy over the valid- ity of the scaling relation, φ = νz = νd with φ the critical-temperature exponent, ν the correlation length exponent, z the dynamical critical exponent, and d the spatial dimen- sion, of the superfluid–Bose-glass quantum phase transition in three dimensions. Experi- ments and numerical simulations on disordered quantum magnets reported φ 1:1(1) and ≈ ν 0:75(10), contradicting the scaling relation and the associated conventional scaling hy- ≈ pothesis for the singular part of the free energy [4,5]. We determine various critical exponents of the superfluid–Bose-glass quantum phase transition in three-dimensional disordered Bose- Hubbard model through extensive Monte Carlo simulations. Our numerical study shows the previous studies on disordered quantum magnets were performed outside the quantum critical region, and our results for the critical exponents are in perfect agreement with φ = νz = νd. vi We next move to study theoretically and numerically the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition in one-dimensional disordered boson systems. While the superfluid-insulator tran- sition in the weak disorder limit is well understood through the perturbative renormalization group study by Giamarchi and Schulz, transitions in the strong disorder regime are beyond the reach of this method. This problem was recently attacked by Altman et al. with the real space renormalization group method. They reached the conclusion that the superfluid- insulator transition in the strong disorder regime can be explained by the Coulomb blockade physics of weak links. However, their method is actually uncontrolled. Taking account of the crucial role of the hydrodynamic renormalization of weak links, finally, Pollet et al. put forward an asymptotically exact renormalization group theory of the superfluid-insulator transition. Based on this theory, we are able to provide an accurate description of the inter- play between the well-known Giamarchi-Schulz criticality and the new weak-link criticality. A significant part of the ground-state phase diagram of one-dimensional disordered Bose- Hubbard model at unit filling is also determined numerically. In particular, we established the position of the multicritical point beyond which the new weak-link criticality takes over of the Giamarchi{Schulz criticality. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................... iv ABSTRACT ................................................................ vi LIST OF FIGURES..........................................................x LIST OF SYMBOLS ....................................................... xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................. xiv CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ........................................................... 1 1. CRITICAL BEHAVIOR OF DISORDERED BOSON SYSTEMS .......... 5 1.1 Quantum phase transitions..............................................5 1.2 Ground-state phase diagram of the disordered Bose-Hubbard model...........8 1.3 Scaling relations between critical exponents............................... 14 2. THE PATH-INTEGRAL REPRESENTATION AND THE WORM ALGORITHM ....................................................... 19 2.1 The path-integral representation......................................... 19 2.2 J-current model....................................................... 23 2.3 Worm algorithm for J-current model..................................... 26 2.3.1 Complete algorithm............................................. 27 2.3.2 Acceptance ratios............................................... 28 viii 3. CRITICAL EXPONENTS OF THE SF-BG TRANSITION IN THREE DIMENSIONS ....................................................... 29 3.1 The φ-exponent \crisis"................................................ 29 3.2 Numerical study of the hard-core DBH model............................. 30 3.3 Critical exponents of the SF-BG transition in three dimensions.............. 33 3.4 Concluding remarks.................................................... 39 4. SUPERFLUID{BOSE-GLASS QUANTUM PHASE TRANSITION IN ONE DIMENSION .................................................. 40 4.1 Luttinger liquid theory................................................. 40 4.2 Giamarchi-Schulz renormalization........................................ 42 4.3 Kane-Fisher renormalization............................................ 46 4.4 Instanton theory...................................................... 48 4.5 Asymptotically exact theory of superfluid–Bose-glass quantum phase transition in one dimension.......................................... 50 4.5.1 Distribution of weakest links...................................... 51 4.5.2 Kane{Fisher renormalization of the weakest links.................... 52 4.5.3 Physics in the weak-link regime................................... 56 4.5.3.1 Criticality driven by the weakest links..................... 56 4.5.3.2 Irrelevance of composite weak links........................ 59 4.5.4 Interplay between weak-link and Giamarchi{Schulz scenarios.......... 62 4.5.4.1 RG equations for small deviations from the multicritical point............................................... 62 4.5.4.2 Giamarchi{Schulz regime and the parabolic crossover........ 64 4.5.5 Ground-state phase diagram of the one-dimensional disordered Bose-Hubbard model......................................... 65 4.5.5.1 Protocol of extracting ζ .................................. 65 4.5.5.2 sXY critical line........................................ 68 4.5.5.3
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