Critical Slowing Down at the Abrupt Mott Transition: When the First-Order Phase Transition Becomes Zeroth Order and Looks Like Second Order
Satyaki Kundu, Tapas Bar, R. K. Nayak, Bhavtosh Bansal
Abstract
We report that the thermally induced Mott transition in vanadium sesquioxide shows critical slowing down and enhanced variance ("critical opalescence") of the order parameter fluctuations measured through low-frequency resistance-noise spectroscopy. Coupled with the observed increase of the phase-ordering time, these features suggest that the strong abrupt transition is controlled by a critical-like singularity in the hysteretic metastable phase. The singularity is identified with the spinodal point and is a likely consequence of the strain-induced long-range interaction.
Topics & Concepts
SpinodalCondensed matter physicsPhase transitionMetastabilitySesquioxideSingularityTransition pointCritical point (mathematics)Quantum critical pointFerroicsMaterials scienceMott transitionSpinodal decompositionPhysicsPhase (matter)Quantum phase transitionQuantum mechanicsThermodynamicsSuperconductivityMathematicsMetallurgyHubbard modelMathematical analysisTransition Metal Oxide NanomaterialsAdvanced Memory and Neural ComputingNeural dynamics and brain function