2002/10/17 by O. V. Zhirov, Giulio Casati, G. Casati +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat #nlin.CD #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.67.056209
published as Phys. Rev. E 67, 056209 (2003) · revtex 16 pages, 18 figures
arxiv created 2002/10/17 · openalex publication_date 2003/05/19 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study analytically and numerically the one-dimensional quantum Frenkel-Kontorova chain in the regime where the classical model is located in the pinned phase characterized by the gaped phonon excitations and devil's staircase. By extensive quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show that for the effective Planck constant Planck smaller than the critical value Planck(c) the quantum chain is in the pinned instanton glass phase. In this phase, the elementary excitations have two branches: phonons, separated from zero energy by a finite gap, and instantons that have an exponentially small excitation energy. At Planck = Planck(c) the quantum phase transition takes place and for Planck > Planck(c) the pinned instanton glass is transformed into the sliding phonon gas with gapless phonon excitations. This transition is accompanied by the divergence of the spatial correlation length and appearance of sliding modes at Planck > Planck(c).