The universal behavior of a disordered system
- Creators
- Refael, Gil
Abstract
The Landau theory of phase transitions and the concept of symmetry breaking provide a unifying description of even such seemingly different many-body systems as a paramagnet cooled to the verge of ferromagnetic order or a metal approaching the superconducting transition. What happens, however, when these systems can lose energy to their environment? For example, in rare-earth compounds called "heavy-fermion" materials, the f-shell magnetic moments interact with a sea of mobile electrons [1]. Similarly, near the metalsuperconductor transition in ultrathin wires, the electrons pair up in a connected network of small, superconducting puddles that are surrounded by a bath of unpaired metallic electrons [2]. The surrounding metal gives rise to a parallel resistive channel and hence dissipation. Introducing dissipation into a many-body quantum mechanical problem presented a theoretical challenge that was only resolved in the last quarter of the 20th century [3–5].
Additional Information
© 2009 American Physical Society. A Viewpoint on: Infinite-randomness quantum critical points induced by dissipation Thomas Vojta, Chetan Kotabage and José A. Hoyos Phys. Rev. B 79, 024401 (2009) – Published January 5, 2009.Attached Files
Published - REFp09.pdf
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:dbfff0da8f7a8d00e31ea6ec41151b01
|
279.2 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 13866
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20090407-100632110
- Created
-
2009-07-15Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field