Tunable quantum criticality and pseudocriticality across the fixed-point annihilation in the anisotropic spin-boson model

Abstract

Spin-boson models are simple examples of quantum dissipative systems, but also serve as effective models in quantum magnetism and exhibit nontrivial criticality. Recently, they have been established as a platform to study the nontrivial renormalization-group (RG) scenario of fixed-point annihilation, in which two intermediate-coupling RG fixed points collide and generate an extremely slow RG flow near the collision. For the Bose Kondo model, a single $S=1/2$ spin where each spin component couples to an independent bosonic bath with power-law spectrum $\propto \omega^s$ via dissipation strengths $\alpha_i$, $i\in\{x,y,z\}$, such phenomena occur sequentially for the U(1)-symmetric model at $\alpha_z=0$ and the SU(2)-symmetric case at $\alpha_z = \alpha_{xy}$, as the bath exponent $s<1$ is tuned. Here we use an exact wormhole quantum Monte Carlo method for retarded interactions to explore how this nontrivial fixed-point structure affects the phase diagram and phase transitions of the anisotropic model. In particular, we show how fixed-point annihilation within a symmetry-enhanced critical manifold leads to (i) a continuous order-to-order transition beyond the Landau paradigm, (ii) a symmetry-enhanced first-order transition, and (iii) pseudocriticality, which can be tuned into each other via the bath exponent $s$. We extract critical exponents at the continuous transition, but also find scaling behavior at the symmetry-enhanced first-order transition, for which the inverse correlation-length exponent is given by the bath exponent $s$. Moreover, we provide direct numerical evidence for pseudocritical scaling on both sides of the fixed-point collision, which manifests in an extremely slow drift of the correlation-length exponent. We also study the crossover away from the SU(2)-symmetric case and determine the phase boundary of an extended U(1)-symmetric critical phase.