Quantum Annealed Criticality

TL;DR

This paper generalizes the classical Larkin-Pikin mechanism to quantum systems, showing that quantum fluctuations can turn first-order transitions into continuous quantum critical points in certain materials.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum version of the Larkin-Pikin mechanism, demonstrating how zero-point fluctuations can induce quantum annealed criticality in systems above their upper critical dimension.

Findings

Quantum fluctuations can restore criticality at first-order transitions.

The mechanism applies to systems above their upper critical dimension.

First-order transition lines can end at a quantum critical point.

Abstract

Experimentally there exist many materials with first-order phase transitions at finite temperature that display quantum criticality. Classically a strain-energy density coupling is known to drive first-order transitions in compressible systems, and here we generalize this Larkin-Pikin mechanism to the quantum case. We show that if the T=0 system lies above its upper critical dimension, the line of first-order transitions can end in a quantum annealed critical point where zero-point fluctuations restore the underlying criticality of the order parameter.