arXiv subjects

Thomas Vojta

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Vojta.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Tuning a random field mechanism in a frustrated magnet

We study the influence of spinless impurities on a frustrated magnet featuring a spin-density wave (stripe) phase by means of Monte Carlo simulations. We demonstrate that the interplay between the impurities and an order parameter that breaks a real-space symmetry triggers the emergence of a random-field mechanism which destroys the stripe-ordered phase. Importantly, the strength of the emerging random fields can be tuned by the repulsion between the impurity atoms; they vanish for perfect anticorrelations between neighboring impurities. This provides a novel way of controlling the phase diagram of a many-particle system. In addition, we also investigate the effects of the impurities on the character of the phase transitions between the stripe-ordered, ferromagnetic, and paramagnetic phases.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2018

Fractional Brownian motion with a reflecting wall

Fractional Brownian motion, a stochastic process with long-time correlations between its increments, is a prototypical model for anomalous diffusion. We analyze fractional Brownian motion in the presence of a reflecting wall by means of Monte Carlo simulations. While the mean-square displacement of the particle shows the expected anomalous diffusion behavior $\langle x^2 \rangle \sim t^α$, the interplay between the geometric confinement and the long-time memory leads to a highly non-Gaussian probability density function with a power-law singularity at the barrier. In the superdiffusive case, $α> 1$, the particles accumulate at the barrier leading to a divergence of the probability density. For subdiffusion, $α< 1$, in contrast, the probability density is depleted close to the barrier. We discuss implications of these findings, in particular for applications that are dominated by rare events.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2017

Superfluid density and compressibility at the superfluid-Mott glass transition

Systems of disordered interacting bosons with particle-hole symmetry can undergo a quantum phase transition between the superfluid phase and the Mott glass phase which is a gapless incompressible insulator. We employ large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of a two-dimensional site-diluted quantum rotor model to investigate the properties of the superfluid density and the compressibility at this transition. We find that both quantities feature power-law critical behavior with exponents governed by generalized Josephson relations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Andreev Reflection Spectroscopy of Topological Superconductor Candidate Nb$_x$Bi$_2$Se$_3$

We study unconventional superconductivity in thin exfoliated single crystals of a promising 3D topological superconductor candidate, Nb-doped Bi$_2$Se$_3$ through Andreev reflection spectroscopy and magneto-transport. Measurements of Andreev reflection in low and high resistance samples both show enhanced conductance around zero bias and conductance dips at the superconducting energy gap. Such behavior is inconsistent with conventional Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk theory of Andreev reflection. We discuss how our results are consistent with $p$-wave pairing symmetry, supporting the possibility of topological superconductivity in Nb-doped Bi$_2$Se$_3$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Extinction phase transitions in a model of ecological and evolutionary dynamics

We study the non-equilibrium phase transition between survival and extinction of spatially extended biological populations using an agent-based model. We especially focus on the effects of global temporal fluctuations of the environmental conditions, i.e., temporal disorder. Using large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations of up to $3\times 10^7$ organisms and $10^5$ generations, we find the extinction transition in time-independent environments to be in the well-known directed percolation universality class. In contrast, temporal disorder leads to a highly unusual extinction transition characterized by logarithmically slow population decay and enormous fluctuations even for large populations. The simulations provide strong evidence for this transition to be of exotic infinite-noise type, as recently predicted by a renormalization group theory. The transition is accompanied by temporal Griffiths phases featuring a power-law dependence of the life time on the population size.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2017

Quantum Griffiths phase inside the ferromagnetic phase of Ni$_{1-x}$V$_x$

We study by means of bulk and local probes the d-metal alloy Ni$_{1-x}$V$_x$ close to the quantum critical concentration, $x_c \approx 11.6\%$, where the ferromagnetic transition temperature vanishes. The magnetization-field curve in the ferromagnetic phase takes an anomalous power-law form with a nonuniversal exponent that is strongly $x$-dependent and mirrors the behavior in the paramagnetic phase. Muon spin rotation experiments demonstrate inhomogeneous magnetic order and indicate the presence of dynamic fluctuating magnetic clusters. These results provide strong evidence for a quantum Griffiths phase on the ferromagnetic side of the quantum phase transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Emerging critical behavior at a first-order phase transition rounded by disorder

We investigate the two-dimensional four-color Ashkin-Teller model by means of large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations. We demonstrate that the first-order phase transition of the clean system is destroyed by random disorder introduced via site dilution. The critical behavior of the emerging continuous transition belongs to the clean two-dimensional Ising universality class, apart from logarithmic corrections. These results confirm perturbative renormalization-group predictions; they also agree with recent findings for the three-color case, indicating that the critical behavior is universal.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2016

Monte Carlo simulations of the disordered three-color quantum Ashkin-Teller chain

We investigate the zero-temperature quantum phase transitions of the disordered three-color quantum Ashkin-Teller spin chain by means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the first-order phase transitions of the clean system are rounded by the quenched disorder. For weak inter-color coupling, the resulting emergent quantum critical point between the paramagnetic phase and the magnetically ordered Baxter phase is of infinite-randomness type and belongs to the universality class of the random transverse-field Ising model, as predicted by recent strong-disorder renormalization group calculations. We also find evidence for unconventional critical behavior in the case of strong inter-color coupling, even though an unequivocal determination of the universality class is beyond our numerical capabilities. We compare our results to earlier simulations, and we discuss implications for the classification of phase transitions in the presence of disorder.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2016

Quantum critical behavior of the superfluid-Mott glass transition

We investigate the zero-temperature superfluid to insulator transitions in a diluted two-dimensional quantum rotor model with particle-hole symmetry. We map the Hamiltonian onto a classical $(2+1)$-dimensional XY model with columnar disorder which we analyze by means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. For dilutions below the lattice percolation threshold, the system undergoes a generic superfluid-Mott glass transition. In contrast to other quantum phase transitions in disordered systems, its critical behavior is of conventional power-law type with universal (dilution-independent) critical exponents $z=1.52(3)$, $ν=1.16(5)$, $β/ν= 0.48(2)$, $γ/ν=2.52(4)$, and $η=-0.52(4)$. These values agree with and improve upon earlier Monte-Carlo results [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 015703 (2004)] while (partially) excluding other findings in the literature. As a further test of universality, we also consider a soft-spin version of the classical Hamiltonian. In addition, we study the percolation quantum phase transition across the lattice percolation threshold; its critical behavior is governed by the lattice percolation exponents in agreement with recent theoretical predictions. We relate our results to a general classification of phase transitions in disordered systems, and we briefly discuss experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Superfluid-Mott glass quantum multicritical point on a percolating lattice

We employ large-scale Monte Carlo simulations to study a particle-hole symmetric site-diluted quantum rotor model in two dimensions. The ground state phase diagram of this system features two distinct quantum phase transitions between the superfluid and the insulating (Mott glass) phases. They are separated by a multicritical point. The generic transition for dilutions below the lattice percolation threshold is driven by quantum fluctuations while the transition across the percolation threshold is due to the geometric fluctuations of the lattice. We determine the location of the multicritical point between these two transitions and find its critical behavior. The multicritical exponents read $z=1.72(2)$, $β/ν=0.41(2)$, and $γ/ν=2.90(5)$ . We compare our results to other quantum phase transitions in disordered systems, and we discuss experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Contact process with temporal disorder

We investigate the influence of time-varying environmental noise, i.e., temporal disorder, on the nonequilibrium phase transition of the contact process. Combining a real-time renormalization group, scaling theory, and large scale Monte-Carlo simulations in one and two dimensions, we show that the temporal disorder gives rise to an exotic critical point. At criticality, the effective noise amplitude diverges with increasing time scale, and the probability distribution of the density becomes infinitely broad, even on a logarithmic scale. Moreover, the average density and survival probability decay only logarithmically with time. This infinite-noise critical behavior can be understood as the temporal counterpart of infinite-randomness critical behavior in spatially disordered systems, but with exchanged roles of space and time. We also analyze the generality of our results, and we discuss potential experiments.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2016

Spatio-temporal generalization of the Harris criterion and its application to diffusive disorder

We investigate how a clean continuous phase transition is affected by spatio-temporal disorder, i.e., by an external perturbation that fluctuates in both space and time. We derive a generalization of the Harris criterion for the stability of the clean critical behavior in terms of the space-time correlation function of the external perturbation. As an application, we consider diffusive disorder, i.e, an external perturbation governed by diffusive dynamics, and its effects on a variety of equilibrium and nonequilibrium critical points. We also discuss the relation between diffusive disorder and diffusive dynamical degrees of freedom on the example of model C of the Hohenberg-Halperin classification, and we comment on Griffiths singularities.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2016

Random field disorder at an absorbing state transition in one and two dimensions

We investigate the behavior of nonequilibrium phase transitions under the influence of disorder that locally breaks the symmetry between two symmetrical macroscopic absorbing states. In equilibrium systems such "random-field" disorder destroys the phase transition in low dimensions by preventing spontaneous symmetry breaking. In contrast, we show here that random-field disorder fails to destroy the nonequilibrium phase transition of the one- and two-dimensional generalized contact process. Instead, it modifies the dynamics in the symmetry-broken phase. Specifically, the dynamics in the one-dimensional case is described by a Sinai walk of the domain walls between two different absorbing states. In the two-dimensional case, we map the dynamics onto that of the well studied low-temperature random-field Ising model. We also study the critical behavior of the nonequilibrium phase transition and characterize its universality class in one dimension. We support our results by large-scale Monte Carlo simulations, and we discuss the applicability of our theory to other systems.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2015

Time reversal symmetry breaking superconductivity in topological materials

Fascinating phenomena have been known to arise from the Dirac theory of relativistic quantum mechanics, which describes high energy particles having linear dispersion relations. Electrons in solids usually have non-relativistic dispersion relations but their quantum excitations can mimic relativistic effects. In topological insulators, electrons have both a linear dispersion relation, the Dirac behavior, on the surface and a non-relativistic energy dispersion in the bulk. Topological phases of matter have attracted much interest, particularly broken-symmetry phases in topological insulator materials. Here, we report by Nb doping that the topological insulator Bi2Se3 can be turned into a bulk type-II superconductor while the Dirac surface dispersion in the normal state is preserved. A macroscopic magnetic ordering appears below the superconducting critical temperature of 3.2 K indicating a spontaneous spin rotation symmetry breaking of the Nb magnetic moments. Even though such a magnetic order may appear at the edge of the superconductor, it is mediated by superconductivity and presents a novel phase of matter which gives rise to a zero-field Hall effect.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Multifractal analysis of electronic states on random Voronoi-Delaunay lattices

We consider the transport of non-interacting electrons on two- and three-dimensional random Voronoi-Delaunay lattices. It was recently shown that these topologically disordered lattices feature strong disorder anticorrelations between the coordination numbers that qualitatively change the properties of continuous and first-order phase transitions. To determine whether or not these unusual features also influence Anderson localization, we study the electronic wave functions by multifractal analysis and finite-size scaling. We observe only localized states for all energies in the two-dimensional system. In three dimensions, we find two Anderson transitions between localized and extended states very close to the band edges. The critical exponent of the localization length is about 1.6. All these results agree with the usual orthogonal universality class. Additional generic energetic randomness introduced via random potentials does not lead to qualitative changes but allows us to obtain a phase diagram by varying the strength of these potentials.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2015

Infinite-noise criticality: Nonequilibrium phase transitions in fluctuating environments

We study the effects of time-varying environmental noise on nonequilibrium phase transitions in spreading and growth processes. Using the examples of the logistic evolution equation as well as the contact process, we show that such temporal disorder gives rise to a distinct type of critical points at which the effective noise amplitude diverges on long time scales. This leads to enormous density fluctuations characterized by an infinitely broad probability distribution at criticality. We develop a real-time renormalization-group theory that provides a general framework for the effects of temporal disorder on nonequilibrium processes. We also discuss how general this exotic critical behavior is, we illustrate the results by computer simulations, and we touch upon experimental applications of our theory.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2015

Strong-randomness phenomena in quantum Ashkin-Teller models

The $N$-color quantum Ashkin-Teller spin chain is a prototypical model for the study of strong-randomness phenomena at first-order and continuous quantum phase transitions. In this paper, we first review the existing strong-disorder renormalization group approaches to the random quantum Ashkin-Teller chain in the weak-coupling as well as the strong-coupling regimes. We then introduce a novel general variable transformation that unifies the treatment of the strong-coupling regime. This allows us to determine the phase diagram for all color numbers $N$, and the critical behavior for all $N \ne 4$. In the case of two colors, $N=2$, a partially ordered product phase separates the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases in the strong-coupling regime. This phase is absent for all $N>2$, i.e., there is a direct phase boundary between the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases. In agreement with the quantum version of the Aizenman-Wehr theorem, all phase transitions are continuous, even if their clean counterparts are of first order. We also discuss the various critical and multicritical points. They are all of infinite-randomness type, but depending on the coupling strength, they belong to different universality classes.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Emerging criticality in the disordered three-color Ashkin-Teller model

We study the effects of quenched disorder on the first-order phase transition in the two-dimensional three-color Ashkin-Teller model by means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. We demonstrate that the first-order phase transition is rounded by the disorder and turns into a continuous one. Using a careful finite-size-scaling analysis, we provide strong evidence for the emerging critical behavior of the disordered Ashkin-Teller model to be in the clean two-dimensional Ising universality class, accompanied by universal logarithmic corrections. This agrees with perturbative renormalization-group predictions by Cardy. As a byproduct, we also provide support for the strong-universality scenario for the critical behavior of the two-dimensional disordered Ising model. We discuss consequences of our results for the classification of disordered phase transitions as well as generalizations to other systems.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗