Extraordinary-Log Surface Phase Transition in the Three-Dimensional<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>X</mml:mi><mml:mi>Y</mml:mi></mml:math>Model
Minghui Hu, Youjin Deng, Jian-Ping Lv
Abstract
Universality is a pillar of modern critical phenomena. The standard scenario is that the two-point correlation algebraically decreases with the distance $r$ as $g(r)\ensuremath{\sim}{r}^{2\ensuremath{-}d\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\eta}}$, with $d$ the spatial dimension and $\ensuremath{\eta}$ the anomalous dimension. Very recently, a logarithmic universality was proposed to describe the extraordinary surface transition of the $\mathrm{O}(N)$ system. In this logarithmic universality, $g(r)$ decays in a power of logarithmic distance as $g(r)\ensuremath{\sim}(\mathrm{ln}r{)}^{\ensuremath{-}\stackrel{^}{\ensuremath{\eta}}}$, dramatically different from the standard scenario. We explore the three-dimensional $XY$ model by Monte Carlo simulations, and provide strong evidence for the emergence of logarithmic universality. Moreover, we propose that the finite-size scaling of $g(r,L)$ has a two-distance behavior: simultaneously containing a large-distance plateau whose height decays logarithmically with $L$ as $g(L)\ensuremath{\sim}(\mathrm{ln}L{)}^{\ensuremath{-}{\stackrel{^}{\ensuremath{\eta}}}^{\ensuremath{'}}}$ as well as the $r$-dependent term $g(r)\ensuremath{\sim}(\mathrm{ln}r{)}^{\ensuremath{-}\stackrel{^}{\ensuremath{\eta}}}$, with ${\stackrel{^}{\ensuremath{\eta}}}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{\approx}\stackrel{^}{\ensuremath{\eta}}\ensuremath{-}1$. The critical exponent ${\stackrel{^}{\ensuremath{\eta}}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, characterizing the height of the plateau, obeys the scaling relation ${\stackrel{^}{\ensuremath{\eta}}}^{\ensuremath{'}}=(N\ensuremath{-}1)/(2\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\alpha})$ with the RG parameter $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ of helicity modulus. Our picture can also explain the recent numerical results of a Heisenberg system. The advances on logarithmic universality significantly expand our understanding of critical universality.