Abstract

Sharp quantum phase transitions typically require a large system with many particles. Here we show that, for a frustrated fully connected Ising spin network represented by trapped atomic ions, the competition between different spin orders leads to rich phase transitions whose sharpness scales exponentially with the number of spins. This unusual finite-size scaling behavior opens up the possibility of observing sharp quantum phase transitions in a system of just a few trapped ion spins.

Publication Details
Publication Type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2011
Volume
106
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.230402
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Contributors