@article {2316, title = {Quantum field theory for the chiral clock transition in one spatial dimension}, journal = {Phys. Rev. }, volume = {B }, year = {2018}, month = {2018/11/09}, pages = {205118 }, abstract = {

We describe the quantum phase transition in the N-state chiral clock model in spatial dimension d=1. With couplings chosen to preserve time-reversal and spatial inversion symmetries, such a model is in the universality class of recent experimental studies of the ordering of pumped Rydberg states in a one-dimensional chain of trapped ultracold alkali atoms. For such couplings and N=3, the clock model is expected to have a direct phase transition from a gapped phase with a broken global ZN symmetry, to a gapped phase with the ZN symmetry restored. The transition has dynamical critical exponent z\≠1, and so cannot be described by a relativistic quantum field theory. We use a lattice duality transformation to map the transition onto that of a Bose gas in d=1, involving the onset of a single boson condensate in the background of a higher-dimensional N-boson condensate. We present a renormalization group analysis of the strongly coupled field theory for the Bose gas transition in an expansion in 2\−d, with 4\−N chosen to be of order 2\−d. At two-loop order, we find a regime of parameters with a renormalization group fixed point which can describe a direct phase transition. We also present numerical density-matrix renormalization group studies of lattice chiral clock and Bose gas models for N=3, finding good evidence for a direct phase transition, and obtain estimates for z and the correlation length exponent ν.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.205118}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.07056}, author = {Seth Whitsitt and Rhine Samajdar and Subir Sachdev} }