Ma Nvsen, You Yi-Zhuang, Meng Zi Yang
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2019 May 3;122(17):175701. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.175701.
Noether's theorem is one of the fundamental laws of physics, relating continuous symmetries and conserved currents. Here we explore the role of Noether's theorem at the deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP), which is a quantum phase transition beyond the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm. It was expected that a larger continuous symmetry could emerge at the DQCP, which, if true, should lead to conserved current at low energy. By identifying the emergent current fluctuation in the spin excitation spectra, we can quantitatively study the current-current correlation in large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Our results reveal the conservation of the emergent current, as signified by the vanishing anomalous dimension of the current operator, and hence provide supporting evidence for the emergent symmetry at the DQCP. Our study demonstrates an elegant yet practical approach to detect emergent symmetry by probing the spin excitation, which could potentially guide the ongoing experimental search for the DQCP in quantum magnets.
诺特定理是物理学的基本定律之一,它将连续对称性与守恒流联系起来。在此,我们探讨诺特定理在解禁量子临界点(DQCP)的作用,该点是超越朗道 - 金兹堡 - 威尔逊范式的量子相变点。人们曾预期在DQCP会出现更大的连续对称性,如果属实,这将导致低能下的守恒流。通过识别自旋激发谱中出现的电流涨落,我们能够在大规模量子蒙特卡罗模拟中定量研究电流 - 电流关联。我们的结果揭示了出现电流的守恒性,这表现为电流算符的反常维度消失,从而为DQCP处的涌现对称性提供了支持证据。我们的研究展示了一种通过探测自旋激发来检测涌现对称性的优雅而实用的方法,这可能会指导目前在量子磁体中寻找DQCP的实验探索。