Fidelity approach to topological quantum phase transitions

2012-02-08This dissertation puts forward the concept of fidelity as a way to understand and characterize quantum phase transitions involving topological phases. It lies at the interphase between Condensed Matter and Quantum Phase Transitions. ❧ We find that the fidelity metric, which characterizes the degree of distinghuishability between two quantum states, can serve as a useful tool in the understanding of transitions involving topological phases. ❧ The methodology does not require a complete knowledge of the physical mechanism involved in the occurrence of the critical point, such as the identification of a local order parameter and a symmetry breaking mechanism, the fundamental pillars of critical phenomena. Topological phases are unique in that they cannot be classified under these methodologies, due to their lack of local order parameters. It is one of the purposes of this thesis to understand how well we can characterize the phase boundaries between these phases using fidelity concepts. ❧ In the first part, we introduce two quantum models that exhibit a phase transition between an ordered and a topological phase, as quantified by the topological entanglement entropy. In the thermodynamic limit, the different components of the fidelity metric exhibit a divergence, signalling the occurrence of the critical point. ❧ In the second part, we introduce models that have phase boundaries between two distinct topological phases, and we show that the fidelity is successful at identifying the occurrence of a critical region. Moreover, a finite size scaling analysis is carried out, from which we determine the value of critical exponents