PIRSA:17110041

New understandings of unconventional quantum critical points

Xu, C. (2017). New understandings of unconventional quantum critical points. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/17110041

Xu, Cenke. New understandings of unconventional quantum critical points. Perimeter Institute, Nov. 21, 2017, https://pirsa.org/17110041 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:17110041,
            doi = {10.48660/17110041},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/17110041},
            author = {Xu, Cenke},
            keywords = {Condensed Matter},
            language = {en},
            title = {New understandings of unconventional quantum critical points},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2017},
            month = {nov},
            note = {PIRSA:17110041 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Cenke Xu

University of California, Santa Barbara

Talk number
PIRSA:17110041
Collection
Talk Type
Subject
Abstract

Quantum critical points (QCP) beyond the Landau-Ginzburg paradigm are often called unconventional QCPs. There are in general two types of unconventional QCP: type I are QCPs between ordered phases that spontaneously break very different symmetries, and type II involve topological (or quasi-topological) phases on at least one side of the QCP. Recently significant progress has been made in understanding (2+1)-dimensional unconventional QCPs, using the recently developed (2+1)d dualities, i.e., seemingly different theories may actually be identical in the infrared limit. One group of dualities between unconventional QCPs have attracted particular interests in the field of condensed matter theory. This group of dualities include the so called deconfined QCP between the Neel and valence bond solid phases, and the topological transition between a bosonic topological insulator and a trivial Mott insulator. Each of the transitions mentioned above is also "self-dual". This group of dualities make extremely powerful predictions for numerical test. We will review the theoretical aspects and most recent numerical evidences for these new results.