2007/07/13 by Arnaud Ralko, Michel Ferrero, Federico Becca +4 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Chemistry #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensation #Condensed matter physics #Crystallization #Dimer #Excitation #Hexagonal lattice #Lattice (music) #Liquid crystal #Materials science #Molecular physics #Molecule #Monte Carlo method #Nuclear magnetic resonance #Phase (matter) #Phase transition #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum Monte Carlo #Quantum mechanics #Thermodynamics #Valence (chemistry) #Valence bond theory #Vortex #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.76.140404
published as Phys. Rev. B 76, 140404(R) (2007) · 4 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2007/07/13 · openalex publication_date 2007/10/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We show that the liquid-to-crystal quantum phase transition in the Rokhsar-Kivelson dimer model on the two-dimensional triangular lattice occurs as a condensation of vortexlike excitations called ``visons.'' This conclusion is drawn from numerical studies of the vison spectrum in the liquid phase by using the Green's function Monte Carlo method. We find that visons remain the lowest excitation throughout the liquid phase and that their gap decreases continuously to zero at the phase transition. The nature of the crystal phase and the second order of the phase transition are in agreement with an earlier prediction of Moessner and Sondhi [Phys. Rev. B 63, 224401 (2001)].