Conformally invariant free-parafermionic quantum chains with multispin interactions.

We calculate the spectral properties of two related families of non-Hermitian free-particle quantum chains with N-multispin interactions (N=2,3,...). The first family have a Z(N) symmetry and are described by free parafermions. The second have a U(1) symmetry and are generalizations of XX quantum chains described by free fermions. The eigenspectra of both free-particle families are formed by the combination of the same pseudo-energies. The models have a multicritical point with dynamical critical exponent z=1. The finite-size behavior of their eigenspectra, as well as the entanglement properties of their ground-state wave function, indicate the models are conformally invariant. The models with open and periodic boundary conditions show quite distinct physics due to their non-Hermiticity. The models defined with open boundaries have a single conformal invariant phase, while the XX multispin models show multiple phases with distinct conformal central charges in the periodic case.

Free-parafermionic Z(N) and free-fermionic XY quantum chains.

The relationship between the eigenspectrum of Ising and XY quantum chains is well known. Although the Ising model has a Z(2) symmetry and the XY model a U(1) symmetry, both models are described in terms of free-fermionic quasiparticles. The fermionic quasienergies are obtained by means of a Jordan-Wigner transformation. On the other hand, there exists in the literature a huge family of Z(N) quantum chains whose eigenspectra, for N>2, are given in terms of free parafermions, and they are not derived from the standard Jordan-Wigner transformation. The first members of this family are the Z(N) free-parafermionic Baxter quantum chains. In this paper, we introduce a family of XY models that, beyond two-body, also have N-multispin interactions. Similar to the standard XY model, they have a U(1) symmetry and are also solved by the Jordan-Wigner transformation. We show that with appropriate choices of the N-multispin couplings, the eigenspectra of these XY models are given in terms of combinations of Z(N) free-parafermionic quasienergies. In particular, all the eigenenergies of the Z(N) free-parafermionic models are also present in the related free-fermionic XY models. The correspondence is established via the identification of the characteristic polynomial, which fixes the eigenspectrum. In the Z(N) free-parafermionic models, the quasienergies obey an exclusion circle principle that is not present in the related N-multispin XY models.

Anomalous bulk behavior in the free parafermion Z(N) spin chain.

We demonstrate using direct numerical diagonalization and extrapolation methods that boundary conditions have a profound effect on the bulk properties of a simple Z(N) model for N≥3 for which the model Hamiltonian is non-Hermitian. For N=2 the model reduces to the well-known quantum Ising model in a transverse field. For open boundary conditions, the Z(N) model is known to be solved exactly in terms of free parafermions. Once the ends of the open chain are connected by considering the model on a ring, the bulk properties, including the ground-state energy per site, are seen to differ dramatically with increasing N. Other properties, such as the leading finite-size corrections to the ground-state energy, the mass gap exponent, and the specific-heat exponent, are also seen to be dependent on the boundary conditions. We speculate that this anomalous bulk behavior is a topological effect.

Exactly solvable interacting spin-ice vertex model.

A special family of solvable five-vertex model is introduced on a square lattice. In addition to the usual nearest-neighbor interactions, the vertices defining the model also interact along one of the diagonals of the lattice. This family of models includes in a special limit the standard six-vertex model. The exact solution of these models is an application of the matrix product ansatz introduced recently and applied successfully in the solution of quantum chains. The phase diagram and the free energy of the models are calculated in the thermodynamic limit. The models exhibit massless phases, and our analytical and numerical analyses indicate that such phases are governed by a conformal field theory with central charge c=1 and continuously varying critical exponents.

Anomalous tag diffusion in the asymmetric exclusion model with particles of arbitrary sizes.

Anomalous behavior of correlation functions of tagged particles are studied in generalizations of the one-dimensional asymmetric exclusion problem. In these generalized models the range of the hard-core interactions are changed and the restriction of relative ordering of the particles is partially broken. The models probing these effects are those of biased diffusion of particles having size S=0,1,2, em leader, or an effective negative "size" S=-1,-2, em leader, in units of lattice space. Our numerical simulations show that irrespective of the range of the hard-core potential, as long some relative ordering of particles are kept, we find suitable sliding-tag correlation functions whose fluctuations growth with time anomalously slow (t1/3), when compared with the normal diffusive behavior (t1/2). These results indicate that the critical behavior of these stochastic models are in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. Moreover a previous Bethe-ansatz calculation of the dynamical critical exponent z, for size S> or =0 particles is extended to the case S<0 and the KPZ result z=3/2 is predicted for all values of S in Z.