Quantum criticality in an Ising chain: experimental evidence for emergent E8 symmetry

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: Quantum criticality in an Ising chain: experimental evidence for emergent E8 symmetry
المؤلفون: Coldea, R., Tennant, D. A., Wheeler, E. M., Wawrzynska, E., Prabhakaran, D., Telling, M., Habicht, K., Smeibidl, P., Kiefer, K.
المصدر: Science 327, 177 (2010)
سنة النشر: 2011
المجموعة: Condensed Matter
مصطلحات موضوعية: Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons
الوصف: Quantum phase transitions take place between distinct phases of matter at zero temperature. Near the transition point, exotic quantum symmetries can emerge that govern the excitation spectrum of the system. A symmetry described by the E8 Lie group with a spectrum of 8 particles was long predicted to appear near the critical point of an Ising chain. We realize this system experimentally by tuning the quasi-one-dimensional Ising ferromagnet CoNb2O6 through its critical point using strong transverse magnetic fields. The spin excitations are observed to change character from pairs of kinks in the ordered phase to spin-flips in the paramagnetic phase. Just below the critical field, the spin dynamics shows a fine structure with two sharp modes at low energies, in a ratio that approaches the golden mean as predicted for the first two meson particles of the E8 spectrum. Our results demonstrate the power of symmetry to describe complex quantum behaviours.
Comment: 18 pages with embedded figures
نوع الوثيقة: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1126/science.1180085
URL الوصول: http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.3694
رقم الأكسشن: edsarx.1103.3694
قاعدة البيانات: arXiv