Long-Range Order and Quantum Criticality in a Dissipative Spin Chain

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a dissipative bosonic bath can induce long-range order and a continuous quantum phase transition in a spin chain, revealing a new universality class with specific critical exponents.

Contribution

It shows that environmental dissipation alone can generate long-range order and characterizes the quantum criticality in such systems through simulations.

Findings

Dissipative bath induces long-range order in spin chains.

Quantum critical point is continuous with specific critical exponents.

Universality class is distinct from previously known cases.

Abstract

Environmental interaction is a fundamental consideration in any controlled quantum system. While interaction with a dissipative bath can lead to decoherence, it can also provide desirable emergent effects including induced spin-spin correlations. In this paper we show that under quite general conditions, a dissipative bosonic bath can induce a long-range ordered phase, without the inclusion of any additional direct spin-spin couplings. Through a quantum-to-classical mapping and classical Monte Carlo simulation, we investigate the $T=0$ quantum phase transition of an Ising chain embedded in a bosonic bath with Ohmic dissipation. We show that the quantum critical point is continuous, Lorentz invariant with a dynamical critical exponent $z=1.07(9)$, has correlation length exponent $\nu=0.80(5)$, and anomalous exponent $\eta=1.02(6)$, thus the universality class distinct from the previously studied limiting cases. The implications of our results on experiments in ultracold atomic mixtures and qubit chains in dissipative environments are discussed.