Ferromagnetic transition in a one-dimensional spin-orbit-coupled metal and its mapping to a critical point in smectic liquid crystals
We study the quantum phase transition between a paramagnetic and ferromagnetic metal in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling in one dimension. Using bosonization, we analyze the transition by means of renormalization group, controlled by an ɛ expansion around the upper critical dimension of tw...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Physical Society
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114526 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0695-6500 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-1017 |
| Summary: | We study the quantum phase transition between a paramagnetic and ferromagnetic metal in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling in one dimension. Using bosonization, we analyze the transition by means of renormalization group, controlled by an ɛ expansion around the upper critical dimension of two. We show that the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling allows for a new nonlinear term in the bosonized action, which generically leads to a fluctuation driven first-order transition. We further demonstrate that the Euclidean action of this system maps onto a classical smectic-A–C phase transition in a magnetic field in two dimensions. We show that the smectic transition is second order and is controlled by a new critical point. |
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