Boundary-induced singularity in strongly-correlated quantum systems at finite temperature

TL;DR

This paper investigates boundary-induced singularities in strongly-correlated quantum systems at finite temperature, revealing a boundary quench point where boundary effects on bulk properties abruptly change, distinct from traditional phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a variational thermal tensor network approach with an entanglement-bath Hamiltonian to identify boundary effects and singularities in quantum systems at finite temperature.

Findings

Discontinuity in bulk entropy at the boundary quench point

Identification of boundary effects influencing bulk properties

Distinct from conventional thermodynamic phase transitions

Abstract

Exploring the bulk-boundary correspondences and the boundary-induced phenomena in the strongly-correlated quantum systems belongs to the most fundamental topics of condensed matter physics. In this work, we study the bulk-boundary competition in a simulative Hamiltonian, with which the thermodynamic properties of the infinite-size translationally-invariant system can be optimally mimicked. The simulative Hamiltonian is constructed by introducing local interactions on the boundaries, coined as the entanglement-bath Hamiltonian (EBH) that is analogous to the heat bath. The terms within the EBH are variationally determined by a thermal tensor network method, with coefficients varying with the temperature of the infinite-size system. By treating the temperature as an adjustable hyper-parameter of the EBH, we identify a discontinuity point of the coefficients, dubbed as the ``boundary quench point'' (BQP), whose physical implication is to distinguish the point, below which the thermal fluctuations from the boundaries to the bulk become insignificant. Fruitful phenomena are revealed when considering the simulative Hamiltonian, with the EBH featuring its own hyper-parameter, under the canonical ensembles at different temperatures. Specifically, a discontinuity in bulk entropy at the BQP is observed. The exotic entropic distribution, the relations between the symmetries of Hamiltonian and BQP, and the impacts from the entanglement-bath dimension are also explored. Our results show that such a singularity differs from those in the conventional thermodynamic phase transition points that normally fall into the Landau-Ginzburg paradigm. Our work provides the opportunities on exploring the exotic phenomena induced by the competition between the bulk and boundaries.