Abstract
The effects of quenched disorder on the critical properties of itinerant quantum antiferromagnets and ferromagnets are considered. Particular attention is paid to locally ordered spatial regions that are formed in the presence of quenched disorder even when the bulk system is still in the paramagnetic phase. These rare regions or local moments are reflected in the existence of spatially inhomogeneous saddle points of the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson functional. We derive an effective theory that takes into account small fluctuations around all of these saddle points. The resulting free energy functional contains a new term in addition to those obtained within the conventional perturbative approach, and it comprises what would be considered nonperturbative effects within the latter. A renormalization group analysis shows that in the case of antiferromagnets, the previously found critical fixed point is unstable with respect to this new term, and that no stable critical fixed point exists at one-loop order. This is contrasted with the case of itinerant ferromagnets, where we find that the previously found critical behavior is unaffected by the rare regions due to an effective long-ranged interaction between the order parameter fluctuations.
Recommended Citation
R. S. Narayanan et al., "Critical Behavior of Disordered Quantum Magnets: The Relevance of Rare Regions," Physical Review B (Condensed Matter), vol. 60, no. 14, pp. 10150 - 10163, American Physical Society (APS), Oct 1999.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.60.10150
Department(s)
Physics
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0163-1829
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 1999 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Oct 1999
