Quantum first-order phase transitions

Mucio A Continentino and André S Ferreira

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2004, vol. 339, issue 3, 461-468

Abstract: The scaling theory of critical phenomena has been successfully extended for classical first-order transitions even though the correlation length does not diverge in these transitions. In this paper, we apply the scaling ideas to quantum first-order transitions. The usefulness of this approach is illustrated treating the problems of a superconductor coupled to a gauge field and of a biquadratic Heisenberg chain, at zero temperature. In both cases there is a latent heat associated with their discontinuous quantum transitions. We discuss the effects of disorder and give a general criterion for it's relevance in these transitions.

Keywords: Quantum phase transitions; First order transitions; Superconductivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:339:y:2004:i:3:p:461-468

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2004.03.014

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