Observation of environment-induced double sudden transitions in geometric quantum correlations.

Correlations in quantum systems exhibit a rich phenomenology under the effect of various sources of noise. We investigate theoretically and experimentally the dynamics of quantum correlations and their classical counterparts in two nuclear magnetic resonance setups, as measured by geometric quantifiers based on trace norm. We consider two-qubit systems prepared in Bell diagonal states, and perform the experiments in real decohering environments resulting from Markovian local noise which preserves the Bell diagonal form of the states. We then report the first observation of environment-induced double sudden transitions in the geometric quantum correlations, a genuinely nonclassical effect not observable in classical correlations. The evolution of classical correlations in our physical implementation reveals in turn the finite-time relaxation to a pointer basis under nondissipative decoherence, which we characterize geometrically in full analogy with predictions based on entropic measures.

Quantum phase transitions in a chain with two- and four-spin interactions in a transverse field.

We use entanglement entropy and finite-size scaling methods to investigate the ground-state properties of a spin-1/2 Ising chain with two-spin (J(2)) and four-spin (J(4)) interactions in a transverse magnetic field (B). We concentrate our study on the unexplored critical region B=1 and obtain the phase diagram of the model in the (J(4)-J(2)) plane. The phases found include ferromagnetic (F), antiferromagnetic (AF), as well as more complex phases involving spin configurations with multiple periodicity. The system presents both first- and second-order transitions separated by tricritical points. We find an unusual phase boundary on the semi-infinite segment (J(4)<-1,J(2)=0) separating the F and AF phases.

Critical behavior of a quantum chain with four-spin interactions in the presence of longitudinal and transverse magnetic fields.

We study the ground-state properties of a spin-1/2 model on a chain containing four-spin Ising-like interactions in the presence of both transverse and longitudinal magnetic fields. We use entanglement entropy and finite-size scaling methods to obtain the phase diagrams of the model. Our numerical calculations reveal a rich variety of phases and the existence of multicritical points in the system. We identify phases with both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic orderings. We also find periodically modulated orderings formed by a cluster of like spins followed by another cluster of opposite like spins. The quantum phases in the model are found to be separated by either first- or second-order transition lines.

Phase transitions in the two-dimensional superantiferromagnetic Ising model with next-nearest-neighbor interactions.

We use Monte Carlo and transfer matrix methods in combination with extrapolation schemes to determine the phase diagram of the two-dimensional superantiferromagnetic (SAF) Ising model with next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) interactions in a magnetic field. The interactions between nearest-neighbor (NN) spins are ferromagnetic along x, and antiferromagnetic along Y. We find that for sufficiently low temperatures and fields, there exists a region limited by a critical line of second-order transitions separating a SAF phase from a magnetically induced paramagnetic phase. We did not find any region with either first-order transition or with reentrant behavior. The NNN couplings produce either an expansion or a contraction of the SAF phase. Expansion occurs when the interactions are antiferromagnetic, and contraction when they are ferromagnetic. There is a critical ratio R(c)=1/2 between NNN and NN couplings, beyond which the SAF phase no longer exists.