Biomedical subjects

Thomas Vojta

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Vojta.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Spin excitations in fluctuating stripe phases of doped cuprate superconductors.

Using a phenomenological lattice model of coupled spin and charge modes, we determine the spin susceptibility in the presence of fluctuating stripe charge order. We assume the charge fluctuations to be slow compared to those of the spins, and combine Monte Carlo simulations for the charge order parameter with exact diagonalization of the spin sector. Our calculations unify the spin dynamics of both static and fluctuating stripe phases and support the notion of a universal spin excitation spectrum in doped cuprate superconductors.

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PubMed2006

Nonequilibrium phase transition on a randomly diluted lattice.

We show that the interplay between geometric criticality and dynamical fluctuations leads to a novel universality class of the contact process on a randomly diluted lattice. The nonequilibrium phase transition across the percolation threshold of the lattice is characterized by unconventional activated (exponential) dynamical scaling and strong Griffiths effects. We calculate the critical behavior in two and three space dimensions, and we also relate our results to the recently found infinite-randomness fixed point in the disordered one-dimensional contact process.

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PubMed2005

Percolation quantum phase transitions in diluted magnets.

We show that the interplay of geometric criticality and quantum fluctuations leads to a novel universality class for the percolation quantum phase transition in diluted magnets. All critical exponents involving dynamical correlations are different from the classical percolation values, but in two dimensions they can nonetheless be determined exactly. We develop a complete scaling theory of this transition, and we relate it to recent experiments in La2Cu(1-p)(Zn,Mg)(p)O4. Our results are also relevant for disordered interacting boson systems.

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PubMed2005

Critical behavior and Griffiths effects in the disordered contact process.

We study the nonequilibrium phase transition in the one-dimensional contact process with quenched spatial disorder by means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations for times up to 10(9) and system sizes up to 10(7) sites. In agreement with recent predictions of an infinite-randomness fixed point, our simulations demonstrate activated (exponential) dynamical scaling at the critical point. The critical behavior turns out to be universal, even for weak disorder. However, the approach to this asymptotic behavior is extremely slow, with crossover times of the order of 10(4) or larger. In the Griffiths region between the clean and the dirty critical points, we find power-law dynamical behavior with continuously varying exponents. We discuss the generality of our findings and relate them to a broader theory of rare region effects at phase transitions with quenched disorder.

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PubMed2004

Exotic versus conventional scaling and universality in a disordered bilayer quantum heisenberg antiferromagnet.

We present Monte Carlo simulations of a two-dimensional bilayer quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet with random dimer dilution. In contrast with exotic scaling scenarios found in other random quantum systems, the quantum phase transition in this system is characterized by a finite-disorder fixed point with power-law scaling. After accounting for corrections to scaling, with a leading irrelevant exponent of omega approximately 0.48, we find universal critical exponents z=1.310(6) and nu=1.16(3). We discuss the consequences of these findings and suggest new experiments.

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PubMed2004

Broadening of a nonequilibrium phase transition by extended structural defects.

We study the effects of quenched extended impurities on nonequilibrium phase transitions in the directed percolation universality class. We show that these impurities have a dramatic effect: they completely destroy the sharp phase transition by smearing. This is caused by rare strongly coupled spatial regions which can undergo the phase transition independently from the bulk system. We use extremal statistics to determine the stationary state as well as the dynamics in the tail of the smeared transition, and we illustrate the results by computer simulations.

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PubMed2003

Disorder-induced rounding of certain quantum phase transitions.

We study the influence of quenched disorder on quantum phase transitions in systems with overdamped dynamics. For Ising order-parameter symmetry disorder destroys the sharp phase transition by rounding because a static order parameter can develop on rare spatial regions. This leads to an exponential dependence of the order parameter on the coupling constant. At finite temperatures the static order on the rare regions is destroyed. This restores the phase transition and leads to a double-exponential relation between critical temperature and coupling strength. We discuss the behavior based on Lifshitz-tail arguments and illustrate the results by simulations of a model system.

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