Issue |
EPL
Volume 110, Number 1, April 2015
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 16002 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Condensed Matter: Structural, Mechanical and Thermal Properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/110/16002 | |
Published online | 22 April 2015 |
Quantum wetting transitions in two dimensions: An alternative path to non-universal interfacial singularities
1 Institute of Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw - Pasteura 5, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
2 Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research - Heisenbergstrasse 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Received: 26 February 2015
Accepted: 31 March 2015
We consider two-dimensional systems with short-ranged microscopic interactions, where interface unbinding (wetting) transitions occur in the limit of vanishing temperature T. For T = 0 the transition is characterized by non-universal critical properties analogous to those established for thermal wetting transitions in d = 3, albeit with a redefined capillary parameter
. Within a functional renormalization-group treatment of an effective interfacial model, we compute the finite-temperature phase diagram, exhibiting a line of interface unbinding transitions, terminating at T = 0 with an interfacial quantum-critical point. We identify distinct scaling regimes, reflecting the interplay between quantum and thermal interfacial fluctuations. A crossover line marking the onset of the quantum-critical regime is described by the d = 3 interfacial correlation-length exponent
. This potentially opens another way to investigate the non-universal character of
. On the other hand, the emergent interfacial quantum-critical regime shows no signatures of non-universality.
PACS: 68.08.Bc – Wetting / 64.60.ae – Renormalization-group theory / 05.30.Rt – Quantum phase transitions
© EPLA, 2015
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