Symmetry breaking and thermal phase transition of the spin-1 quantum magnet with SU(3) symmetry on the simple cubic lattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates the thermal phase transition and symmetry breaking in a three-dimensional spin-1 quantum magnet with SU(3) symmetry, combining analytical and numerical methods to characterize the nature of the transition.

Contribution

It provides the first exact results for the order parameter distribution and offers evidence that the thermal transition is either weakly first-order or beyond conformal field theory bounds.

Findings

Exact order parameter distribution matches quantum Monte Carlo data.

Finite-size analysis suggests a weakly first-order or unconventional continuous transition.

The study advances understanding of phase transitions in SU(3) symmetric quantum magnets.

Abstract

Using a combined analysis from Poisson-Dirichlet and symmetry-breaking calculations as well as quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we examine the ordered phase and the thermal phase transition of the three-dimensional spin-1 quantum magnet on the simple cubic lattice with bilinear and biquadratic interactions and SU(3) internal symmetry. We obtain exact results for the order parameter distribution function that compare well to the quantum Monte Carlo data. Furthermore, based on a detailed finite-size analysis, we provide evidence that the thermal melting transition at the SU(3) point is either weakly first-order in this system or, if continuous, it falls beyond the unitary-bounds of conformal field theory.