Model for continuous thermal metal to insulator transition

Chao Ming Jian, Zhen Bi, Cenke Xu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

We propose a d-dimensional interacting Majorana fermion model with quenched disorder, which gives us a continuous quantum phase transition between a diffusive thermal metal phase with a finite entropy density to an insulator phase with zero entropy density. This model is based on coupled Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model clusters, and hence has a controlled large-N limit. The metal-insulator transition is accompanied by a spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking. We perform controlled calculations to show that the energy diffusion constant jumps to zero discontinuously at the metal-insulator transition, while the time-reversal symmetry-breaking order parameter increases continuously.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number115122
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume96
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 13 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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