N G van Kampen 1981 Amsterdam: North-Holland xiv + 419 pp price Dfl 180 This is a book which, at a lower price, could be expected to become an essential part of the library of every physical scientist concerned with problems involving fluctuations and stochastic processes, as well as those who just enjoy a beautifully written book. It provides an extensive graduate-level introduction which is clear, cautious, interesting and readable.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9112/34/4/040/pdf

Stochastic Processes in Physics and Chemistry

Numerous correlated electron systems exhibit a strongly scale-dependent behavior. Upon lowering the energy scale, collective phenomena, bound states, and new effective degrees of freedom emerge. Typical examples include (i) competing magnetic, charge, and pairing instabilities in two-dimensional electron systems; (ii) the interplay of electronic excitations and order parameter fluctuations near thermal and quantum phase transitions in metals; and (iii) correlation effects such as Luttinger liquid behavior and the Kondo effect showing up in linear and nonequilibrium transport through quantum wires and quantum dots. The functional renormalization group is a flexible and unbiased tool for dealing with such scale-dependent behavior. Its starting point is an exact functional flow equation, which yields the gradual evolution from a microscopic model action to the final effective action as a function of a continuously decreasing energy scale. Expanding in powers of the fields one obtains an exact hierarchy of flow equations for vertex functions. Truncations of this hierarchy have led to powerful new approximation schemes. This review is a comprehensive introduction to the functional renormalization group method for interacting Fermi systems. A self-contained derivation of the exact flow equations is presented and frequently used truncation schemes are described. Reviewing selected applications it is shown how approximations based on the functional renormalization group can be fruitfully used to improve our understanding of correlated fermion systems.

Functional renormalization group approach to correlated fermion systems

Strong disorder RG approach of random systems

There is a large variety of quantum and classical systems in which the quenched disorder plays a dominant r\^ole over quantum, thermal, or stochastic fluctuations : these systems display strong spatial heterogeneities, and many averaged observables are actually governed by rare regions. A unifying approach to treat the dynamical and/or static singularities of these systems has emerged recently, following the pioneering RG idea by Ma and Dasgupta and the detailed analysis by Fisher who showed that the Ma-Dasgupta RG rules yield asymptotic exact results if the broadness of the disorder grows indefinitely at large scales. Here we report these new developments by starting with an introduction of the main ingredients of the strong disorder RG method. We describe the basic properties of infinite disorder fixed points, which are realized at critical points, and of strong disorder fixed points, which control the singular behaviors in the Griffiths-phases. We then review in detail applications of the RG method to various disordered models, either (i) quantum models, such as random spin chains, ladders and higher dimensional spin systems, or (ii) classical models, such as diffusion in a random potential, equilibrium at low temperature and coarsening dynamics of classical random spin chains, trap models, delocalization transition of a random polymer from an interface, driven lattice gases and reaction diffusion models in the presence of quenched disorder. For several one-dimensional systems, the Ma-Dasgupta RG rules yields very detailed analytical results, whereas for other, mainly higher dimensional problems, the RG rules have to be implemented numerically. If available, the strong disorder RG results are compared with another, exact or numerical calculations.

We present a comprehensive computational study of the phase diagram of the frustrated $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the honeycomb lattice, with second-nearest $({J}_{2})$ and third-neighbor $({J}_{3})$ couplings. Using a combination of exact diagonalizations (EDs) of the original spin model, of the Hamiltonian projected into the nearest-neighbor short-range valence-bond basis, and of an effective quantum dimer model, as well as a self-consistent cluster mean-field theory, we determine the boundaries of several magnetically ordered phases in the region ${J}_{2},{J}_{3}\ensuremath{\in}[0,1]$, and find a sizable magnetically disordered region in between. We characterize part of this magnetically disordered phase as a plaquette valence-bond crystal phase. At larger ${J}_{2}$, we locate a sizable region in which staggered valence-bond crystal correlations are found to be important, either due to genuine valence-bond crystal (VBC) ordering or as a consequence of magnetically ordered phases, which break lattice rotational symmetry. Furthermore, we find that a particular parameter-free Gutzwiller projected tight-binding wave function has remarkably accurate energies compared to finite-size extrapolated ED energies along the transition line from conventional N\'eel to plaquette VBC phases, a fact that points to possibly interesting critical behavior---such as a deconfined critical point---across this transition. We also comment on the relevance of this spin model to model the spin liquid region found in the half filled Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice.

Phase Diagram of a Frustrated Quantum Antiferromagnet on the Honeycomb Lattice: Magnetic Order versus Valence-Bond Crystal formation

We present results for a complementary analysis of the frustrated planar ${J}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{2}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{3}$ spin-1/2 quantum antiferromagnet (AFM). Using dynamical functional renormalization group, high-order-coupled cluster calculations, and series expansion based on the flow equation method, we have calculated generalized momentum-resolved susceptibilities, the ground-state energy, the magnetic-order parameter, and the elementary excitation gap. From these, we determine a quantum phase diagram that shows a large window of a quantum paramagnetic (QP) phase situated among the N\'eel, spiral, and collinear states, which are present already in the classical ${J}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{2}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{3}$ AFM. Our findings are consistent with substantial plaquette correlations in the QP phase. The extent of the QP region is found to be in satisfying agreement between the three different approaches we have employed.

Quantum phases of the planar antiferromagnetic J 1 − J 2 − J 3 Heisenberg model

We use a combination of analytical and numerical techniques to study the phase diagram of the frustrated Heisenberg model on the bilayer honeycomb lattice. Using the Schwinger-boson description of the spin operators followed by a mean-field decoupling, the magnetic phase diagram is studied as a function of the frustration coupling ${J}_{2}$ and the interlayer coupling ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$. The presence of both magnetically ordered and disordered phases is investigated by means of the evaluation of ground-state energy, spin gap, local magnetization, and spin-spin correlations. We observe a phase with a spin gap and short-range N\'eel correlations that survives for nonzero next-nearest-neighbor interaction and interlayer coupling. Furthermore, we detect signatures of a reentrant behavior in the melting of the N\'eel phase and symmetry restoring when the system undergoes a transition from an on-layer nematic valence-bond crystal phase to an interlayer valence-bond crystal phase. We complement our work with exact diagonalization on small clusters and dimer-series expansion calculations, together with a linear spin-wave approach to study the phase diagram as a function of the spin $S$, the frustration, and the interlayer couplings.

/pdf/quantum-phases-in-the-frustrated-heisenberg-model-on-the-3qtrh9lspq.pdf

Quantum phases in the frustrated Heisenberg model on the bilayer honeycomb lattice

Series expansion based on the flow equation method is employed to study the zero temperature properties of the spin-1/2 J1-J2-J3 antiferromagnet in two dimensions. Starting from the exact limit of decoupled plaquettes in a particular generalized J1-J2-J3 model we analyze the evolution of the ground state energy and the elementary triplet excitations in powers of all three inter-plaquette couplings up to fifth order. We find the plaquette phase to remain stable over a wide range of exchange couplings and to connect adiabatically up to the case of the plain J1-J2-J3 model, however not to the J1-J2 model at J3=0. Besides confirming the existence of such a phase, recently predicted by Mambrini, et al. [Phys. Rev. B 74, 144422 [2006)], we estimate its extent by Dlog-Pade analysis of the critical lines that result from closure of the triplet gap.

Plaquette order in the J 1 -J 2 -J 3 model: Series expansion analysis

This paper discusses the teaching of basic quantum mechanics in high school. Rather than following the usual formalism, our approach is based on Feynman's path integral method. Our presentation makes use of simulation software and avoids sophisticated mathematical formalism.

/pdf/teaching-basic-quantum-mechanics-in-secondary-school-using-ldw7sip1sg.pdf

Teaching Basic Quantum Mechanics in Secondary School Using Concepts of Feynman Path Integrals Method

We apply unsupervised learning techniques to classify the different phases of the ${J}_{1}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{2}$ antiferromagnetic Ising model on the honeycomb lattice. We construct the phase diagram of the system using convolutional autoencoders. These neural networks can detect phase transitions in the system via ``anomaly detection'' without the need for any label or a priori knowledge of the phases. We present different ways of training these autoencoders, and we evaluate them to discriminate between distinct magnetic phases. In this process, we highlight the case of high-temperature or even random training data. Finally, we analyze the capability of the autoencoder to detect the ground state degeneracy through the reconstruction error.

Marcelo José Fabián Arlego

Papers

Quantum phases of the planar antiferromagnetic J 1 − J 2 − J 3 Heisenberg model

Quantum phases in the frustrated Heisenberg model on the bilayer honeycomb lattice

Plaquette order in the J 1 -J 2 -J 3 model: Series expansion analysis

Teaching Basic Quantum Mechanics in Secondary School Using Concepts of Feynman Path Integrals Method

Phase diagram study of a two-dimensional frustrated antiferromagnet via unsupervised machine learning