Quantum phase transitions in holographic models of magnetism and superconductors

Mar, 2010
24 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.D 82 (2010) 045002
e-Print:
Report number:
  • MIT-CTP-4126

Citations per year

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Abstract: (arXiv)
We study a holographic model realizing an "antiferromagnetic" phase in which a global SU(2) symmetry representing spin is broken down to a U(1) by the presence of a finite electric charge density. This involves the condensation of a neutral scalar field in a charged AdS black hole. We observe that the phase transition for both neutral and charged (as in the standard holographic superconductor) order parameters can be driven to zero temperature by a tuning of the UV conformal dimension of the order parameter, resulting in a quantum phase transition of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type. We also characterize the antiferromagnetic phase and an externally forced ferromagnetic phase by showing that they contain the expected spin waves with linear and quadratic dispersions respectively.
Note:
  • 24 pages; v2: references added, typos corrected
  • 11.10.Wx
  • superconductivity: holography
  • black hole: anti-de Sitter
  • dimension: conformal
  • charge: electric
  • symmetry: SU(2)
  • charge: density
  • condensation
  • critical phenomena
  • spin