Emergent SO(5) Symmetry at the Néel to Valence-Bond-Solid Transition

We show numerically that the "deconfined" quantum critical point between the Néel antiferromagnet and the columnar valence-bond solid, for a square lattice of spin 1/2, has an emergent SO(5) symmetry. This symmetry allows the Néel vector and the valence-bond solid order parameter to be rot...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Physical review letters 2015-12, Vol.115 (26), p.267203-267203
Hauptverfasser: Nahum, Adam, Serna, P, Chalker, J T, Ortuño, M, Somoza, A M
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:We show numerically that the "deconfined" quantum critical point between the Néel antiferromagnet and the columnar valence-bond solid, for a square lattice of spin 1/2, has an emergent SO(5) symmetry. This symmetry allows the Néel vector and the valence-bond solid order parameter to be rotated into each other. It is a remarkable (2+1)-dimensional analogue of the SO(4)=[SU(2)×SU(2)]/Z(2) symmetry that appears in the scaling limit for the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain. The emergent SO(5) symmetry is strong evidence that the phase transition in the (2+1)-dimensional system is truly continuous, despite the violations of finite-size scaling observed previously in this problem. It also implies surprising relations between correlation functions at the transition. The symmetry enhancement is expected to apply generally to the critical two-component Abelian Higgs model (noncompact CP(1) model). The result indicates that in three dimensions there is an SO(5)-symmetric conformal field theory that has no relevant singlet operators, so is radically different from conventional Wilson-Fisher-type conformal field theories.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.267203