Disorder driven itinerant quantum criticality of three dimensional massless Dirac fermions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the disorder-driven quantum phase transition in three-dimensional massless Dirac fermions, establishing a new universality class through combined numerical and theoretical methods, and providing insights into quantum criticality in strange metals.

Contribution

It introduces a controlled model for itinerant quantum criticality using 3D Dirac fermions and solves it with exact numerical and field theoretic techniques, revealing a new universality class.

Findings

Existence of a non-Gaussian universality class for the transition

Numerical values for dynamical and correlation length exponents

Universal scaling functions consistent with theoretical analysis

Abstract

Progress in the understanding of quantum critical properties of itinerant electrons has been hindered by the lack of effective models which are amenable to controlled analytical and numerically exact calculations. Here we establish that the disorder driven semimetal to metal quantum phase transition of three dimensional massless Dirac fermions could serve as a paradigmatic toy model for studying itinerant quantum criticality, which is solved in this work by exact numerical and approximate field theoretic calculations. As a result, we establish the robust existence of a non-Gaussian universality class, and also construct the relevant low energy effective field theory that could guide the understanding of quantum critical scaling for many strange metals. Using the kernel polynomial method (KPM), we provide numerical results for the calculated dynamical exponent ($z$) and correlation length exponent ($\nu$) for the disorder-driven semimetal (SM) to diffusive metal (DM) quantum phase transition at the Dirac point for several types of disorder, establishing its universal nature and obtaining the numerical scaling functions in agreement with our field theoretical analysis.