A mixture of hard squares, dimers and vacancies on a square lattice is known to undergo a transition from a low-density disordered phase to high-density columnar ordered phase. Along the fully packed square-dimer line, the system undergoes an Kosterliz-Thouless type transition to a phase with power law correlations. We estimate the phase boundary separating the ordered and disordered phases by calculating the interfacial tension between two differently ordered phases within two different approximation schemes. The analytically obtained phase boundary is in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations.
We show that critical exponents of the transition to columnar order in a {\em mixture} of $2 \times 1$ dimers and $2 \times 2$ hard-squares on the square lattice {\em depends on the composition of the mixture} in exactly the manner predicted by the theory of Ashkin-Teller criticality, including in the hard-square limit. This result settles the question regarding the nature of the transition in the hard-square lattice gas. It also provides the first example of a polydisperse system whose critical properties depend on composition. Our ideas also lead to some interesting predictions for a class o…
We study the fully-packed dimer model on the bilayer square lattice with fugacity equal to $z$ ($1$) for inter-layer (intra-layer) dimers, and intra-layer interaction $V$ between neighbouring parallel dimers on any elementary plaquette in either layer. For a range of not-too-large $z> 0$ and repulsive interactions $0< V < V_s$ (with $V_s \approx 2.1$), we demonstrate the existence of a {\em bilayer Coulomb phase} with purely dipolar two-point functions, {\em i.e.}, without the power-law columnar order that characterizes the usual Coulomb phase of square and honeycomb lattice dimer models. The …
The quantum dimer model, relevant for short-range resonant valence bond physics, is rigorously shown to have long range order in a crystalline phase in the attractive case at low temperature and not too large flipping term. This term flips horizontal dimer pairs to vertical pairs (and vice versa) and is responsible for the word `quantum' in the title. In addition to the dimers, monomers are also allowed. The mathematical method used is `reflection positivity'. The model and proof can easily be generalized to dimers or plaquettes in 3-dimensions.
A two-leg spin-1/2 ladder with diagonal interactions is investigated numerically. We focus our attention on the possibility of columnar dimer phase, which was recently predicted based on a reformulated bosonization theory. By using density matrix renormalization group technique and exact diagonalization method, we calculate columnar dimer order parameter, spin correlation on a rung, string order parameters, and scaled excitation gaps. Carefully using various finite-size scaling techniques, our results show no support for the existence of columnar dimer phase in the spin ladder under considerat…
Inspired by the recent results on totally asymmetric simple exclusion processes on a periodic lattice with short-ranged quenched hopping rates [A. Haldar, A. Basu, Phys Rev Research 2, 043073 (2020)], we study the universal scaling properties of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation with short-ranged quenched columnar disorder in general d-dimensions. We show that there are generic propagating modes in the system that have their origin in the quenched disorder and make the system anisotropic. We argue that the presence of the propagating modes actually make the effects of the quenched disorde…
The classical cubic-lattice dimer model undergoes an unconventional transition between a columnar crystal and a dimer liquid, in the same universality class as the deconfined quantum critical point in spin-1/2 antiferromagnets but with very different microscopic physics and microscopic symmetries. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we show that this transition has an emergent SO(5) symmetry relating quantities characterizing the two adjacent phases. While the low-temperature phase has a conventional order parameter, the defining property of the Coulomb liquid on the high-temperature side is deconf…
The minimal energy variations of a directed polymer with tilted columnar disorder in two dimensions are shown numerically to obey a multiscaling at short distances which crosses over to global simple scaling at large distances. The scenario is analogous to that of structure functions in bifractal Burgers' turbulence. Some scaling properties are predicted from extreme value statistics. The multiscaling disappears for zero tilt.
We study the effect of a single columnar pin on a $(1+1)$ dimensional array of vortex lines in planar type II superconductors in the presence of point disorder. In large samples, the pinning is most effective right at the temperature of the vortex glass transition. In particular, there is a pronounced maximum in the number of vortices which are prevented from tilting by the columnar defect in a weak transverse magnetic field. Using renormalization group techniques we show that the columnar pin is irrelevant at long length scales both above and below the transition, but due to very different me…
Columnar joints are three-dimensional fracture networks that form in cooling basalt and several other media. The network organizes itself into ordered, mostly hexagonal columns. The same pattern can be observed on a smaller scale in desiccating starch. We show how surface boundary conditions in the desiccation of starch affect the formation of columnar joints. Under constant drying power conditions, we find a power law dependence of columnar cross-sectional area with depth, while under constant drying rate conditions this coarsening is eventually halted. Discontinuous transitions in pattern sc…
We study the phase transition between the Coulomb liquid and the columnar crystal in the 3D classical dimer model, which was found to be continuous in the O(3) universality class. In addition to nearest neighbor interactions which favor parallel dimers, further neighbor interactions are allowed in such a manner that the cubic symmetry of the original system remains intact. We show that the transition in the presence of weak additional, symmetry preserving interactions is first-order. However the universality class of the transition remains continuous when the additional interactions are weakly…
We study spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets on a diamond-like-decorated square lattice perturbed by two kinds of further neighbor couplings. In our previous study [J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 85, 094002 (2016)], the second-order effective Hamiltonian for the Heisenberg model perturbed by a further neighbor coupling was found to be a square-lattice quantum-dimer model with a finite hopping amplitude, t>0, and no dimer-dimer interaction, v=0. In this study, we introduce another kind of further neighbor coupling and show that it leads to an attractive interaction between dimers, which suggests the stabi…
The quantum dimer model on the square lattice is equivalent to a $U(1)$ gauge theory. Quantum Monte Carlo calculations reveal that, for values of the Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) coupling $λ< 1$, the theory exists in a confining columnar phase. The interfaces separating distinct columnar phases display plaquette order, which, however, is not realized as a bulk phase. Static "electric" charges are confined by flux tubes that consist of multiple strands, each carrying a fractionalized flux $\frac{1}{4}$. A soft pseudo-Goldstone mode emerges around $λ\approx 0$, long before one reaches the RK point at $…
We investigate the effect of random columnar disorder on the superconducting phase transition of a type-II superconductor in zero applied magnetic field using numerical simulations of three dimensional XY and vortex loop models. We consider both an unscreened model, in which the bare magnetic penetration length is approximated as infinite, and a strongly screened model, in which the magnetic penetration length is of order the vortex core radius. We consider both equilibrium and dynamic critical exponents. We show that, as in the disorder free case, the equilibrium transitions of the unscreened…
We study a system of monodispersed hard rectangles of size $m \times d$, where $d\geq m$ on a two dimensional square lattice. For large enough aspect ratio, the system is known to undergo three entropy driven phase transitions with increasing activity $z$: first from disordered to nematic, second from nematic to columnar and third from columnar to sublattice phases. We study the nematic-columnar transition by developing a high-activity expansion in integer powers of $z^{-1/d}$ for the columnar phase in a model where the rectangles are allowed to orient only in one direction. By deriving the ex…
We consider the quench dynamics of a two-dimensional quantum dimer model and determine the role of its kinematic constraints. We interpret the non-equilibrium dynamics in terms of the underlying equilibrium phase transitions consisting of a BKT-transition between a columnar ordered valence bond solid (VBS) and a valence bond liquid (VBL), as well as a first order transition between a staggered VBS and the VBL. We find that quenches from a columnar VBS are ergodic and both order parameters and spatial correlations quickly relax to their thermal equilibrium. By contrast, the staggered side of th…
We discuss the phase diagram of the quantum dimer model on the hexagonal (honeycomb) lattice. In addition to the columnar and staggered valence bond solids which have been discussed in previous work, we establish the existence of a plaquette valence bond solid. The transition between the plaquette and columnar phases at $v/t=-0.2 \pm 0.05$ is argued to be first order. We note that this model should describe valence bond dominated phases of frustrated Heisenberg models on the hexagonal lattice and discuss its relation to recent exact diagonalisation work by J.B. Fouet etal on the J_1-J_2 model …
Recent experiments of imbibition in columnar geometries show interfacial fluctuations whose dynamic scaling is not compatible with the usual non local model governed by surface tension that results from a macroscopic description. To explore this discrepancy, we exhaustively analyze numerical integrations of a phase-field model with dichotomic columnar disorder. We find that two distinct behaviors are possible depending on the capillary contrast between both values of disorder. In a high contrast case, where interface evolution is mainly dominated by the disorder, an inherent anomalous scaling …
We study phase diagrams of a class of doped quantum dimer models on the square lattice with ground-state wave functions whose amplitudes have the form of the Gibbs weights of a classical doped dimer model. In this dimer model, parallel neighboring dimers have attractive interactions, whereas neighboring holes either do not interact or have a repulsive interaction. We investigate the behavior of this system via analytic methods and by Monte Carlo simulations. At zero doping, we confirm the existence of a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition from a quantum critical phase to a columnar phase. At low ho…
We study the phase diagram of a system of $2\times2\times2$ hard cubes on a three dimensional cubic lattice. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the system exhibits four different phases as the density of cubes is increased: disordered, layered, sublattice ordered, and columnar ordered. In the layered phase, the system spontaneously breaks up into parallel slabs of size $2\times L \times L$ where only a very small fraction cubes do not lie wholly within a slab. Within each slab, the cubes are disordered; translation symmetry is thus broken along exactly one principal axis. In the solid…
We discuss phase transitions and the phase diagram of a classical dimer model with anisotropic interactions defined on a square lattice. For the attractive region, the perturbation of the orientational order parameter introduced by the anisotropy causes the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions from a dimer-liquid to columnar phases. According to the discussion by Nomura and Okamoto for a quantum-spin chain system [J. Phys. A 27, 5773 (1994)], we proffer criteria to determine transition points and also universal level-splitting conditions. Subsequently, we perform numerical diagonalizati…
We study a generalization of site percolation on a simple cubic lattice, where not only single sites are removed randomly, but also entire parallel columns of sites. We show that typical clusters near the percolation transition are very anisotropic, with different scaling exponents for the sizes parallel and perpendicular to the columns. Below the critical point there is a Griffiths phase where cluster size distributions and spanning probabilities in the direction parallel to the columns have power law tails with continuously varying non-universal powers. This region is very similar to the Gri…
We show that in type-II superconductors a magnetic field applied transversely to correlated columnar disorder, drives a phase transition to a distinct "smectic" vortex glass (SmVG) state. SmVG is characterized by an infinitely anisotropic electrical transport, resistive (dissipationless) for current perpendicular to (along) columnar defects. Its positional order is also quite unusual, long-ranged with true Bragg peaks along columnar defects and logarithmically rough vortex lattice distortions with quasi-Bragg peaks transverse to columnar defects. For low temperatures and sufficiently weak colu…
We present the results of three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations of vortices which indicate that, for B greater than the matching field, the enhanced pinning effectiveness of splayed columnar defects relative to vertical columnar defects can be explained in terms of the existence or absence of channels through which the vortices can flow without encountering defects.
We study elastic systems such as interfaces or lattices pinned by correlated quenched disorder considering two different types of correlations: generalized columnar disorder and quenched defects correlated as ~ x^{-a} for large separation x. Using functional renormalization group methods, we obtain the critical exponents to two-loop order and calculate the response to a transverse field h. The correlated disorder violates the statistical tilt symmetry resulting in nonlinear response to a tilt. Elastic systems with columnar disorder exhibit a transverse Meissner effect: disorder generates the c…
We present detailed analytic calculations of finite-volume energy spectra, mean field theory, as well as a systematic low-energy effective field theory for the square lattice quantum dimer model. The analytic considerations explain why a string connecting two external static charges in the confining columnar phase fractionalizes into eight distinct strands with electric flux $\frac{1}{4}$. An emergent approximate spontaneously broken $SO(2)$ symmetry gives rise to a pseudo-Goldstone boson. Remarkably, this soft phonon-like excitation, which is massless at the Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point, exist…
We study the order-disorder transition of the two dimensional interacting monomer-dimer model (IMD) which has two symmetric absorbing states. To be self-contained, we first estimate numerically the dynamic exponent $z$ of the two dimensional Ising model. From the relaxation dynamics of the magnetization at the critical point, we obtain $β/(νz) = 0.057~650(12)$, or $z = 2.168 26(45)$, where $β= \frac{1}{8}$ and $ν=1$ are exactly known exponents. We, then, compare the critical relaxation of the order parameter at the transition point of the IMD with that of the Ising model. We found that the cri…
We revisit the problem of an elastic line (e.g. a vortex line in a superconductor) subject to both columnar disorder and point disorder in dimension $d=1+1$. Upon applying a transverse field, a delocalization transition is expected, beyond which the line is tilted macroscopically. We investigate this transition in the fixed tilt angle ensemble and within a one-way model where backward jumps are neglected. From recent results about directed polymers and their connections to random matrix theory, we find that for a single line and a single strong defect this transition in presence of point disor…
We study the connection between the phase behaviour of quantum dimers and the dynamics of classical stochastic dimers. At the so-called Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point a quantum dimer Hamiltonian is equivalent to the Markov generator of the dynamics of classical dimers. A less well understood fact is that away from the RK point the quantum-classical connection persists: in this case the Hamiltonian corresponds to a non-stochastic "tilted" operator that encodes the statistics of time-integrated observables of the classical stochastic problem. This implies a direct relation between the phase behavio…
We investigate the spatially anisotropic square lattice quantum antiferromagnet. The model describes isotropic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chains (exchange constant J) coupled antiferromagnetically in the transverse (J_\perp) and diagonal (J_\times), with respect to the chain, directions. Classically, the model admits two ordered ground states -- with antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic inter-chain spin correlations -- separated by a first order phase transition at J_\perp=2J_\times. We show that in the quantum model this transition splits into two, revealing an intermediate quantum-disordered columna…
A system of $2\times d$ hard rectangles on square lattice is known to show four different phases for $d \geq 14$. As the covered area fraction $ρ$ is increased from $0$ to $1$, the system goes from low-density disordered phase, to orientationally-ordered nematic phase, to a columnar phase with orientational order and also broken translational invariance, to a high density phase in which orientational order is lost. For large d, the threshold density for the first transition $ρ_1^*$ tends to $0$, and the critical density for the third transition $ρ_3^*$ tends to $1$. Interestingly, simulations …
Since constraints hinder the application of numerical algorithms, phase diagrams of quantum dimer models are still controversial, even on the square lattice. The core controversy is whether the mixed state exists. In this article, we give strong evidences to solve this dispute. With our newly developed sweeping cluster method, we studied the phase diagram of large parameter space by introducing the definition of pair correlation function and other supporting evidence to distinguish the mixed phase from the columnar phase with high precision. In particular, we find that the ground state corresp…
The classical cubic dimer model has a columnar ordering transition that is continuous and described by a critical Anderson--Higgs theory containing an SU(2)-symmetric complex field minimally coupled to a noncompact U(1) gauge theory. Defects in the dimer constraints correspond to monopoles of the gauge theory, with charge determined by the deviation from unity of the dimer occupancy. By introducing such defects into Monte Carlo simulations of the dimer model at its critical point, we determine the scaling dimensions $y_2 = 1.48\pm0.07$ and $y_3 = 0.20 \pm 0.03$ for the operators corresponding …
We study phases and transitions of the square-lattice double dimer model, consisting of two coupled replicas of the classical dimer model. As on the cubic lattice, we find a thermal phase transition from the Coulomb phase, a disordered but correlated dimer liquid, to a phase where fluctuations of the two replicas are closely synchronized with one another. Surprisingly, and in contrast to the cubic case, the phase boundary includes the noninteracting point, as we establish using a symmetry-based analysis of an effective height theory, indicating that infinitesimal coupling is sufficient to sync…
We study the classical cubic-lattice double dimer model, consisting of two coupled replicas of the close-packed dimer model, using a combination of theoretical arguments and Monte Carlo simulations. Our results establish the presence of a 'synchronization transition' at a critical value of the coupling, where both replicas remain disordered but their fluctuations become strongly correlated. We show that this unconventional transition, which has neither external nor spontaneous symmetry breaking, is continuous and belongs to the 3D inverted-XY universality class. By adding aligning interactions…
We consider a classical interacting dimer model which interpolates between the square lattice case and the triangular lattice case by tuning a chemical potential in the diagonal bonds. The interaction energy simply corresponds to the number of plaquettes with parallel dimers. Using transfer matrix calculations, we find in the anisotropic triangular case a succession of different physical phases as the interaction strength is increased: a short range disordered liquid dimer phase at low interactions, then a critical phase similar to the one found for the square lattice, and finally a transition…
We present a quantum Monte Carlo investigation of the finite-temperature phase diagram of the quantum dimer model on the square lattice. We use the sweeping cluster algorithm, which allows to implement exactly the dimer constraint, supplemented with a equal-time directed loop move that allows to sample winding sectors. We find a high-temperature critical phase with power-law correlations that extend down to the Rokshar-Kivelson point, in the vicinity of which a re-entrance effect in the lines of constant exponent is found. For small values of the kinetic energy strength, we find finite-tempera…
Close-packed, classical dimer models on three-dimensional, bipartite lattices harbor a Coulomb phase with power-law correlations at infinite temperature. Here, we discuss the nature of the thermal phase transition out of this Coulomb phase for a variety of dimer models which energetically favor crystalline dimer states with columnar ordering. For a family of these models we find a direct thermal transition from the Coulomb phase to the dimer crystal. While some systems exhibit (strong) first-order transitions in correspondence with the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm, we also find clear numeri…
We uncover a novel mechanism for inducing a gapful phase in interacting many-body quantum chains. The mechanism is nonperturbative, being triggered only in the presence of both strong interactions and strong aperiodic (disordered) modulation. In the context of the critical antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 XXZ chain, we identify an emerging dimerization which removes the system from criticality and stabilizes the novel phase. This mechanism is shown to be quite general in strongly interacting quantum chains in the presence of strongly modulated quasiperiodic disorder which is, surprisingly, perturbat…
We study the phase transition in a system composed of dimers interacting with each other via a nearest-neighbor (NN) exchange $J$ and competing interactions taken from a truncated dipolar coupling. Each dimer occupies a link between two nearest sites of a simple cubic lattice. We suppose that dimers are self-avoiding and can have only three orientations which coincide with the $x$, $y$ or $z$ direction. The interaction $J$ is attractive if the two dimers are parallel with each other at the NN distance, zero otherwise. The truncated dipolar interaction is characterized by two parameters: its am…
Many-body localization is a unique physical phenomenon driven by interactions and disorder for which a quantum system can evade thermalization. While the existence of a many-body localized phase is now well-established in one-dimensional systems, its fate in higher dimension is an open question. We present evidence for the occurrence of a transition to a many-body localized regime in a two-dimensional quantum dimer model with interactions and disorder. Our analysis is based on the results of large-scale simulations for static and dynamical properties of a consequent number of observables. Our …
Specific heat measurements show that the introduction of amorphous columnar defects considerably affects the transition from the normal to the superconducting state in zero magnetic field. Experimental results are compared to numerical simulations of the 3D XY model for both the pure system and the system containing random columnar disorder. The numerics reproduce the salient features of experiment, showing in particular that the specific heat peak changes from cusp-like to smoothly rounded when columnar defects are added. By considering the specific heat critical exponent alpha, we argue that…
We present a model of classical hard-core dimers on the square lattice that contains an Ising nematic phase in its phase diagram. We consider a model with an attractive interaction for parallel dimers on a given plaquette of the square lattice and an attractive interaction for neighboring parallel dimers on the same row ({\it viz} column) of the lattice. By extensive Monte carlo simulations we find that with a finite density of holes the phase diagram has, with rising temperatures, a columnar crystalline phase, an Ising nematic liquid phase and a disordered fluid phase, separated by Ising cont…
The effect of quenched disorder in the one-dimensional asymmetric exclusion process is reviewed. Both particlewise and sitewise disorder generically induces phase separation in a range of densities. In the particlewise case the existence of stationary product measures in the homogeneous phase implies that the critical density can be computed exactly, while for sitewise disorder only bounds are available. The coarsening of phase-separated domains starting from a homogeneous initial condition is addressed using scaling arguments and extremal statistics considerations. Some of these results have …
Jammed disordered packings of non-spherical particles show significant variation in the packing density as a function of particle shape for a given packing protocol. Rotationally symmetric elongated shapes such as ellipsoids, spherocylinders, and dimers, e.g., pack significantly denser than spheres over a narrow range of aspect ratios, exhibiting a characteristic peak at aspect ratios of $α_{\rm max}\approx 1.4-1.5$. However, the structural features that underlie this non-monotonic behaviour in the packing density are unknown. Here, we study disordered packings of frictionless dimers in three …
We consider the zero-temperature properties of the spin-half two-dimensional Shastry-Sutherland antiferromagnet by using a high-order coupled cluster method (CCM) treatment. We find that this model demonstrates various groundstate phases (Néel, magnetically disordered, orthogonal dimer), and we make predictions for the positions of the phase transition points. In particular, we find that orthogonal-dimer state becomes the groundstate at ${J}^{d}_2/J_1 \sim 1.477$. For the critical point $J_2^{c}/J_1$ where the semi-classical Néel order disappears we obtain a significantly lower value than $J_2…
The Bozonisation identities of [Dub11] show that squared 2d-Ising order and disorder correlations are equal to +- the ratio of bipartite dimer partition functions. In this self-contained paper, we give another proof of these identities using the approach of [BdT14]. Our proof is more direct and allows to keep track of order and disorder in XOR-Ising configurations.
Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling theory have been used to study the critical behavior of repulsive dimers on square lattices at 2/3 monolayer coverage. A "zig-zag" (ZZ) ordered phase, characterized by domains of parallel ZZ strips oriented at $\pm 45^o$ from the lattice symmetry axes, was found. This ordered phase is separated from the disordered state by a order-disorder phase transition occurring at a finite critical temperature. Based on the strong axial anisotropy of the ZZ phase, an orientational order parameter has been introduced. All the critical quantities have been obt…
From Quantum Dimers to the $π$-flux Toric Code via Deconfined Multicriticality
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research（国际理论科学中心，塔塔基础研究所）；Department of Engineering and Physics, Karlstad University（卡尔斯特德大学工程与物理系）；Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University（诺迪塔，皇家理工学院和斯德哥尔摩大学）
