Quantum Annealed Criticality: A Scaling Description

TL;DR

This paper generalizes the Larkin-Pikin mechanism to quantum systems, showing that quantum fluctuations can restore criticality at a quantum annealed critical point in certain materials with first-order transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum generalization of the Larkin-Pikin mechanism, revealing how zero-point fluctuations can end first-order transition lines at a quantum critical point.

Findings

Quantum fluctuations restore criticality in certain materials.

The phase diagram includes a quantum annealed critical point.

Experimental implications for quantum critical materials.

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 ends in a "quantum annealed critical point" where zero-point fluctuations restore the underlying criticality of the order parameter. The generalized Larkin-Pikin phase diagram is presented and experimental consequences are discussed.