Thursday's seminar

[Cond.Matt. & Stat.Mech.Section]

CONDENSED MATTER AND STATISTICAL PHYSICS SECTION




SEMINAR on  Disorder and strong electron correlations





Thursday, 3 December      -  11:00 a.m.







Seminar Room,  Leonardo Building - first floor





Claudio CASTELNOVO   ( Oxford University )





"A 'quantum mechanical' view on the dynamical glass transition"



Abstract



Using the mapping from the Fokker-Planck description of classical  
stochastic dynamics into a quantum Hamiltonian, we argue that a  
dynamical glass transition can be given a precise definition in terms  
of a static (equilibrium) quantum phase transition. This transition is  
characterized by a massive collapse of the excited states, leading to  
a divergent static quantum susceptibility throughout the glassy phase,  
which directly relates to a non-vanishing Edwards-Anderson order  
parameter.  The quantum mechanical language allows to search for off- 
diagonal order parameters to detect the classical ‘dynamic order’  
using transverse bases – an approach that corresponds to non-static  
observables in the original classical language.  Even in the absence  
of a local order parameter, the transition can be detected via quantum  
fidelity measures on the ground state wavefunction, which we show to  
translate directly into a singularity in the heat capacity of the  
classical system.