Monodromy and excited-state quantum phase transitions in integrable systems: collective vibrations of nuclei. (English) Zbl 1158.82305
Summary: Quantum phase transitions affecting the structure of ground and excited states of integrable systems with the Mexican-hat type potential are shown to be related to a singular torus of classical orbits passing the point of unstable equilibrium. As a specific example, we consider nuclear collective vibrations described by the \(O(6)\) — \(U(5)\) transitional Hamiltonian of the interacting boson model. While all states with zero values of the \(O(5)\) invariant undergo a continuous phase transition when crossing the energy of unstable equilibrium, the other states evolve in an analytic way.
MSC:
82B26 | Phase transitions (general) in equilibrium statistical mechanics |
82D20 | Statistical mechanics of solids |