Temperature driven structural phase transition for trapped ions and its experimental detection

A Wigner crystal formed with trapped ion can undergo structural phase
transition, which is determined only by the mechanical conditions on a
classical level. Instead of this classical result, we show that through
consideration of quantum and thermal fluctuation, a structural phase transition
can be solely driven by change of the system's temperature. We determine a
finite-temperature phase diagram for trapped ions using the renormalization
group method and the path integral formalism, and propose an experimental
scheme to observe the predicted temperature-driven structural phase transition,
which is well within the reach of the current ion trap technology.