Wigner-Yanase skew information, quantum entanglement and spin nematic quantum phase transitions in biquadratic spin-1 and spin-2 XY chains with single-ion anisotropies

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum phase transitions in biquadratic spin-1 and spin-2 XY chains with single-ion anisotropies, using Wigner-Yanase skew information, entanglement entropy, and quadrupole moments to classify transition types and their properties.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of different quantum phase transitions in spin-1 and spin-2 XY chains, highlighting the role of skew information and entanglement in classifying these transitions and revealing new topological features.

Findings

Discontinuous QPTs occur between specific spin-1 phases.

Continuous QPTs have central charge c ≈ 1.

Spin-2 systems exhibit topological transitions with degenerate entanglement spectra.

Abstract

Quantum phase transitions (QPTs) between uniaxial or biaxial spin nematic (SN) phases are investigated in biquadratic spin-1 and spin-2 XY infinite chains with the rhombic- and uniaxial-type single-ion anisotropies. Systematic discussions of distinctive singular behaviors are made to classify various types of QPT from one SN state to the other SN state in using the Wigner-Yanase skew information (WYSI), the bipartite entanglement entropy (BEE), and the quadrupole moments (QMs). For the spin-1 system with the three uniaxial SN phases, we find that a discontinuous QPT, signaled by discontinuous behaviors of all the considered WYSI, BEE, and QMs, occurs from the z-ferroquadrupole phase (FQP) to the x- or y-FQPs, while a continuous QPT occurs between the x- and y-FQPs. The central charge in the continuous QPT line is estimated as $c \simeq 1$ from the BEE. Compared to the spin-1 system, depending on a given strength of the uniaxial-type single-ion anisotropy, the spin-2 system undergoes four different types of QPTs between the two biaxial SN phases as the rhombic-type anisotropy varies: the quantum crossovers, connecting the two orthogonal biaxial SN states adiabatically without an explicit phase transition, the continuous and the discontinuous QPTs, and the SN to magnetic transitions via the antiferromagnetic phase (AFP). In a sharp contrast to the spin-1 system, for the transitions between the two biaxial SN phases, the discontinuous transition line is classified as a topological phase characterized by a doubly degenerate entanglement spectrum and a string order parameter defined by the Cartan generator of the $\mathrm{SO}(5)$ symmetry group in spin-2 systems, while the continuous QPT is advocated by the central charge $c \simeq 1$. Whereas the QPT lines with $c \simeq 1/2$ indicate that the transition between the biaxial SN phase and the AFP belongs to the Ising universality class.