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Phys. Rev. A 76, 062318 (2007) [8 pages]

Bures metric over thermal state manifolds and quantum criticality

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Paolo Zanardi1,2, Lorenzo Campos Venuti2, and Paolo Giorda2
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California Los Angeles, California 90089-0484, USA
2Institute for Scientific Interchange, Villa Gualino, Viale Settimio Severo 65, I-10133 Torino, Italy

Received 24 July 2007; published 20 December 2007

We analyze the Bures metric over the manifold of thermal density matrices for systems featuring a zero temperature quantum phase transition. We show that the quantum critical region can be characterized in terms of the temperature scaling behavior of the metric tensor itself. Furthermore, the analysis of the metric tensor when both temperature and an external field are varied, allows one to complement the understanding of the phase diagram including crossover regions which are not characterized by any singular behavior. These results provide a further extension of the scope of the metric approach to quantum criticality.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.76.062318
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.76.062318
PACS:
03.67.−a, 05.70.Fh, 68.35.Rh