Orientador: Eduardo Miranda / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Física "Gleb Wataghin" / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-24T13:52:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 HerazoWarnes_JesusMaria_D.pdf: 4836710 bytes, checksum: 5b7290f1db20bc31b153f3e7202fff39 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: A questão da natureza das transições de fases de sistemas de redes de bósons tem se tornado cada vez mais urgente à vista da capacidade de carregamento de átomos ultrafrios em redes ópticas. Nesta tese, tentamos avançar este conhecimento através do estudo de 3 modelos básicos de redes de bósons interagentes. Inicialmente, determinamos o diagrama de fases c as propriedades físicas do modelo bosônico de impureza única de Anderson. Este modelo é interessante tanto em si mesmo quanto por causa de sua relação com outras abordagens teóricas tais como a teoria dinâmica de campo médio bosônica. Usamos como estratégia a inclusão de um pequeno campo externo acoplado ao parâmetro de ordem superfluido, que quebra a simetria global de calibre do modelo. Desta forma, foi possível estudar a transição de condensação de Base-Einstein através do critério de quebra espontânea de simetria global de calibre. Outras quantidades como a ocupação da impureza, o desvio padrão da ocupação e a susceptibilidade com respeito ao campo externo também foram calculadas, caracterizando a transição de fase do modelo. Alguns desses resultados foram comparados com aqueles já obtidos na literatura através do grupo de renormalização numérico. Encontramos bom acordo entre os dois métodos. O segundo estudo realizado nesta tese refere-se ao comportamento crítico do modelo de Bose-Hubbard desordenado através da chamada teoria de campo médio estocástica. O objeto central dessa teoria de campo médio é a distribuição de parâmetros de ordem P(?). Estudos numéricos estabelecem que perto da linha crítica que separa as fases superfluida e vidro de Base do modelo, essa distribuição exibe uma grande região com comportamento de lei de potência P(?) ~ ? ^-(1+ß_c), onde ß_c < 1. Usando esse comportamento como tentativa, obtivemos analiticamente tanto a fronteira de fases quanto o valor do expoente crítico da lei de potência ß_c , encontrando um razoável acordo com os resultados numéricos e avançando o entendimento da natureza da transição de fase específica ao modelo desordenado. Finalmente, o modelo de Bose-Hubbard desordenado para partículas de spin-1 foi estudado dentro da teoria de campo médio estocástica. As distribuições de probabilidade de várias quantidades físicas como o parâmetro de ordem superfluido, o desvio padrão da ocupação por sítio, a fração do condensado, o quadrado do operador de spin, bem como seus valores médios, foram determinados para as três fases do modelo, a saber, o superfluido polar, o isolante de Mott e o vidro de Bose. Uma completa caracterização das propriedades físicas dessas fases e das transições de fase entre elas foi estabelecida / Abstract: The question of the nature of phase transitions of systems of lattice bosons has become increasingly more pressing in view of the capability of loading ultracold atoms in opticallattices. In this thesis we try to advance this understanding through the study of 3 basic models of interacting lattice bosons. Initially, we determined the phase diagram and physical properties of the bosonic singleimpurity Anderson model. This model is interesting both in its own right and because of its relation to other theoretical approaches such as the bosonic dynamical field theory method. We used as strategy the inclusion of a small external field coupled to the superfluid order parameter, which breaks the global gauge symmetry of the model. Thus, it was possible to study the Base-Einstein condensation transition through the criterion of the onset of spontaneous broken global gauge symmetry. Other quantities such as the occupation of the impurity, the standard deviation of the occupation and the susceptibility with respect to the external! Field were calculated characterizing the phase transition in the model. Some of the results were compared with those already reported in the literature, obtained with tic numerical renormalization group. We found good agreement between the two methods. The second study carried out in this thesis concerned the critical behavior of the disordered Bose-Hubbard model within the so-called stochastic mean-field theory. The central object of this mean-field theory is the distribution of order parameters P(?). Numerical studies establish that near the critical line separating the superfluid and Bose glass phases of this model, this distribution shows a wide region of power-law behavior P(?) ~ ? ^-(1+ß_c), where ß_c < 1. Using this behavior as an Ansatz, we obtained analytically both the phase boundary and the value of the critical power-law exponent ß_c, finding a reasonably good agreement with the numerical results and thus shedding new light on the nature of this phase transition specific to disordered model. Finally, the disordered Bose-Hubbard model for spin-1 particles was studied within the stochastic mean-field theory. The probability distributions of various physical quantities, such as the superfluid order parameter, the standard deviation of the occupation per site, the condensate fraction, the square of the spin operator, as well as their average values, were determined for the three phases of the model, namely, the polar superfluid, the Mott insulating and the Bose glass phases. A complete characterization of the physical properties of these phases and the phase transitions between them was then established / Doutorado / Física da Matéria Condensada / Doutor em Ciências

Die Betrachtung von Schwere-Fermionen-Systemen stellt ein wichtiges Themengebiet im Bereich der Festkörperphysik dar. Das Verhalten von Schwere-Fermionen-Systemen wird durch die starken Korrelationen der magnetischen Momente der ungepaarten Spins der f-Elektronen bestimmt. Experimentell zugängliche Messgrößen sind dadurch bei tiefen Temperaturen stark erhöht, so dass sich diese Systeme besonders gut zur Untersuchung von Grundzustandseigenschaften eignen. Zentrales Thema dieser Arbeit ist die Untersuchung zweier intermetallischer Seltenerd-Verbindungen in Bezug auf Quantenphasenübergänge. Diese treten am absoluten Nullpunkt der Temperatur als Funktion eines anderen Parameters wie Magnetfeld, Druck oder chemischer Substitution auf und sind bei endlicher Temperatur durch Abweichungen physikalischer Messgrößen von der durch L. D. Landau aufgestellten Theorie der Fermi-Flüssigkeiten nachzuweisen. Zu diesem Zweck wurden Tieftemperaturexperimente bis hinab zu 20mK und in Magnetfeldern bis zu 18T durchgeführt. Es wurden elektrischer Widerstand, magnetische Wechselfeldsuszeptibilität, Magnetostriktion und thermische Ausdehnung gemessen. / The investigation of heavy-fermion systems marks an important subject in the research field of solid state physics. The behaviour of heavy-fermion systems is dominated by the strong correlations of the magnetic moments of the unpaired f-electron spins. At low temperatures, experimentally accessible variables are strongly enhanced so that these systems are especially suited to analyse ground state properties. The central topic of this thesis is the investigation of two intermetallic rare-earth compounds with regard to quantum phase transitions. The latter occur at zero temperature as a function of parameters such as magnetic field, pressure or chemical substitution. They are traceable at finite temperature due to deviations of physical variables from the theory of Fermi liquids established by L. D. Landau. For this purpose, low-temperature experiments were performed down to 20mK and in magnetic fields up to 18T. Electrical resistivity, magnetic ac susceptibility, magnetostriction and thermal expansion were measured.

This Thesis focuses on different aspects of quantum computation theory: adiabatic quantum algorithms, decoherence during the adiabatic evolution and quantum simulators. After an overview on the area of quantum computation and setting up the formal ground for the rest of the Thesis we derive a general error estimate for adiabatic quantum computing. We demonstrate that the first-order correction, which has frequently been used as a condition for adiabatic quantum computation, does not yield a good estimate for the computational error. Therefore, a more general criterion is proposed, which includes higher-order corrections and shows that the computational error can be made exponentially small – which facilitates significantly shorter evolution times than the first-order estimate in certain situations. Based on this criterion and rather general arguments and assumptions, it can be demonstrated that a run-time of order of the inverse minimum energy gap is sufficient and necessary. Furthermore, exploiting the similarity between adiabatic quantum algorithms and quantum phase transitions, we study the impact of decoherence on the sweep through a second-order quantum phase transition for the prototypical example of the Ising chain in a transverse field and compare it to the adiabatic version of Grover’s search algorithm. It turns out that (in contrast to first-order transitions) the impact of decoherence caused by a weak coupling to a rather general environment increases with system size (i.e., number of spins/qubits), which might limit the scalability of the system. Finally, we propose the use of electron systems to construct laboratory systems based on present-day technology which reproduce and thereby simulate the quantum dynamics of the Ising model and the O(3) nonlinear sigma model.

Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons étudié le comportement critique de chaînes de spins quantiques en présence de couplages désordonnés ou répartis de manière apériodique. Il est bien établi que le comportement critique des chaînes de spins quantiques d’Ising et de Potts est gouverné par le même point fixe de désordre infini. Nous avons implémenté́ une version numérique de la technique de renormalisation de désordre infini (SDRG) afin de tester cette prédiction. Dans un second temps, nous avons étudié la chaîne quantique d’Ashkin-Teller désordonnée par renormalisation de la matrice densité́ (DMRG). Nous confirmons le diagramme de phase précédemment proposé en déterminant la position des pics du temps d’autocorrélation intégré des corrélations spin-spin et polarisation-polarisation ainsi que ceux des fluctuations de l’aimantation et de la polarisation. Enfin, l’existence d’une double phase de Griffiths est confirmée par une étude détaillée de la décroissance des fonctions d’autocorrélation en dehors des lignes critiques. Comme attendu, l’exposant dynamique diverge à l’approche de ces lignes. Dans le cas apériodique, nous avons étudié les chaînes quantiques d’Ising et de Potts. En utilisant la méthode SDRG, nous avons confirmé les résultats connus pour la chaîne d’Ising et proposé des estimations de la dimension d’échelle magnétique. Dans le cas du modèle de Potts à q états, nous avons estimé l’exposant magnétique et observé qu’il était indépendant du nombre d’états q pour toutes les séquences dont l’exposant de divagation est nul. Toutefois, nous montrons que l’exposant dynamique est fini et augmente avec le nombre d’états q. En revanche, pour la séquence de Rudin-Shapiro, les résultats sont compatibles avec un point fixe de désordre infini et donc un exposant dynamique infini. / In the present thesis, the critical and off-critical behaviors of quantum spin chains in presence of a random or an aperiodic perturbation of the couplings is studied. The critical behavior of the Ising and Potts random quantum chains is known to be governed by the same Infinite-Disorder Fixed Point. We have implemented a numerical version of the Strong-Disorder Renormalization Group (SDRG) to test this prediction. We then studied the quantum random Ashkin-Teller chain by Density Matrix Renormalization Group. The phase diagram, previously obtained by SDRG, is confirmed by estimating the location of the peaks of the integrated autocorrelation times of both the spin-spin and polarization-polarization autocorrelation functions and of the disorder fluctuations of magnetization and polarization. Finally, the existence of a double-Griffiths phase is shown by a detailed study of the decay of the off-critical autocorrelation functions. As expected, a divergence of the dynamical exponent is observed along the two transition lines. In the aperiodic case, we studied both the Ising and Potts quantum chains. Using numerical SDRG, we confirmed the known analytical results for the Ising chains and proposed a new estimate of the magnetic scaling dimension.For the quantum q-state Potts chain, we estimated the magnetic scaling dimension for various aperiodic sequences and showed that it is independent of q for all sequences with a vanishing wandering exponent. However, we observed that the dynamical exponent is finite and increases with the number of states q. In contrast, for the Rudin-Shapiro sequence, the results are compatible with an Infinite-Disorder Fixed Point with a diverging dynamical exponent, equipe de renormalization

On a compris ces dernières années que certaines mesures d'intrications sont un outil efficace pour la compréhension et la caractérisation de phases nouvelles et exotiques de la matière, en particulier lorsque les méthodes traditionnelles basées sur l'identification d'un paramètre d'ordre sont insuffisantes. Cette thèse porte sur l'étude de quelques systèmes quantiques à basse dimension où un telle approche s'avère fructueuse. Parmi ces mesures, l'entropie d'intrication, définie via une bipartition du système quantique, est probablement la plus populaire, surtout à une dimension. Celle-ci est habituellement très difficile à calculer en dimension supérieure, mais nous montrons ici que le calcul se simplifie drastiquement pour une classe particulière de fonctions d'ondes, nommées d'après Rokhsar et Kivelson. L'entropie d'intrication peut en effet s'exprimer comme une entropie de Shannon relative à la distribution de probabilité générée par les composantes de la fonction d'onde du fondamental d'un autre système quantique, cette fois-ci unidimensionnel. Cette réduction dimensionnelle nous permet d'étudier l'entropie aussi bien par des méthodes numériques (fermions libres, diagonalisations exactes, ...) qu'analytiques (théories conformes). Nous argumentons aussi que cette approche permet d'accéder facilement à certaines caractéristiques subtiles et universelles d'une fonction d'onde donnée en général.Une autre partie de cette thèse est consacrée aux trempes quantiques locales dans des systèmes critiques unidimensionnels. Nous insisterons particulièrement sur une quantité appelée écho de Loschmidt, qui est le recouvrement entre la fonction d'onde avant la trempe et la fonction d'onde à temps t après la trempe. En exploitant la commensurabilité du spectre de la théorie conforme, nous montrons que l'évolution temporelle doit être périodique, et peut même être souvent obtenue analytiquement. Inspiré par ces résultats, nous étudions aussi la contribution de fréquence nulle à l'écho de Loschmidt après la trempe. Celle-ci s'exprime comme un simple produit scalaire -- que nous nommons fidélité bipartie -- et est une quantité intéressante en elle-même. Malgré sa simplicité, son comportement se trouve être très similaire à celui de l'entropie d'intrication. Pour un système critique unidimensionnel en particulier, notre fidélité décroît algébriquement avec la taille du système, un comportement rappelant la célèbre catastrophe d'Anderson. L'exposant est universel et relié à la charge centrale de la théorie conforme sous-jacente. / In recent years, it has been understood that entanglement measures can be useful tools for the understanding and characterization of new and exotic phases of matter, especially when the study of order parameters alone proves insufficient. This thesis is devoted to the study of a few low-dimensional quantum systems where this is the case. Among these measures, the entanglement entropy, defined through a bipartition of the quantum system, has been perhaps one of the most heavily studied, especially in one dimension. Such a quantity is usually very difficult to compute in dimension larger than one, but we show that for a particular class of wave functions, named after Rokhsar and Kivelson, the entanglement entropy of an infinite cylinder cut into two parts simplifies considerably. It can be expressed as the Shannon entropy of the probability distribution resulting from the ground-state wave function of a one-dimensional quantum system. This dimensional reduction allows for a detailed numerical study (free fermion, exact diagonalizations, \ldots) as well as an analytic treatment, using conformal field theory (CFT) techniques. We also argue that this approach can give an easy access to some refined universal features of a given wave function in general.Another part of this thesis deals with the study of local quantum quenches in one-dimensional critical systems. The emphasis is put on the Loschmidt echo, the overlap between the wave function before the quench and the wave function at time t after the quench. Because of the commensurability of the CFT spectrum, the time evolution turns out to be periodic, and can be obtained analytically in various cases. Inspired by these results, we also study the zero-frequency contribution to the Loschmidt echo after such a quench. It can be expressed as a simple overlap -- which we name bipartite fidelity -- and can be studied in its own right. We show that despite its simple definition, it mimics the behavior of the entanglement entropy very well. In particular when the one-dimensional system is critical, this fidelity decays algebraically with the system size, reminiscent of Anderson's celebrated orthogonality catastrophe. The exponent is universal and related to the central charge of the underlying CFT.

La première partie de la thèse étudie le diagramme de phase d’une généralisation de la chaîne de Kitaev qui décrit un système fermionique avec un pairing p-wave à long rayon qui tombe avec la distance ℓ comme 1/ℓα. On a analysé les lignes critiques, les corrélations et le comportement de l’entropie d’entanglement avec la taille du système. Nous avons démontré l’existence de deux régimes massifs, (i) où les fonctions de corrélation tombent exponentiellement à de courtes distances et comme puissance à de longues distances (α > 1), (ii) où elles tombent à puissance seulement (α < 1). Dans la seconde région l’entropie d’intrication d’un sous-système diverge logarithmiquement. Remarquablement, sur les lignes critiques, le pairing à long rayon brise la symètrie conforme du modèle pour des α suffisamment petits. On a prouvé ça en calculant aussi l’évolution temporelle de l’entropie d’intrication après un quench. Dans la seconde partie de la thèse nous avons analysé la dynamique de l’entropie d’intrication du modèle d’Ising avec un champ magnétique qui dépend linéairement du temps avec de différentes vitesses. Nous avons un régime adiabatique (de basses vitesses) lorsque le système évolue selon son état fondamental instantané; un sudden quench (de hautes vitesses) lorsque le système est congelé dans son état initial; un régime intermédiaire où l’entropie croît linéairement et, ensuite, elle montre des oscillations du moment que le système se trouve dans une superposition des états excités de l’Hamiltonienne instantanée. Nous avons discuté aussi du mécanisme de Kibble-Zurek pour la transition entre la phase paramagnétique et antiferromagnétique. / In the first part of the thesis, we propose an exactly-solvable one-dimensional model for fermions with long-range p-wave pairing decaying with distance ℓ as a power law 1/ℓα. We studied the phase diagram by analyzing the critical lines, the decay of correlation functions and the scaling of the von Neumann entropy with the system size. We found two gapped regimes, where correlation functions decay (i) exponentially at short range and algebraically at long range (α > 1), (ii) purely algebraically (α < 1). In the latter the entanglement entropy is found to diverge logarithmically. Most interestingly, along the critical lines, long-range pairing breaks the conformal symmetry for sufficiently small α. This can be detected also via the dynamics of entanglement following a quench. In the second part of the thesis we studied the evolution in time of the entanglement entropy for the Ising model in a transverse field varying linearly in time with different velocities. We found different regimes: an adiabatic one (small velocities) when the system evolves according the instan- taneous ground state; a sudden quench (large velocities) when the system is essentially frozen to its initial state; and an intermediate one, where the entropy starts growing linearly but then displays oscillations (also as a function of the velocity). Finally, we discussed the Kibble-Zurek mechanism for the transition between the paramagnetic and the ordered phase

Topologically ordered phases flamboyance a cornucopia of intriguing phenomena that cannot be perceived in the conventional phases including the most striking property of hosting anyon quasiparticles having fractional charges and fractional statistics. Such phases were discovered with the remarkable experiment of the fractional quantum Hall effect and are drawing a lot of recognition. Realization of these phases on lattice systems and study of the anyon quasiparticles there are important and interesting avenue to research in unraveling new physics, which can not be found in the continuum, and this thesis is an important contribution in that direction. Also such lattice models hosting anyons are particularly important to control the movement of anyons while experimentally implemented with ultra-cold atoms in optical lattices. We construct lattice models by implementing analytical states and parent Hamiltonians on two-dimensional plane hosting non-Abelian anyons, which are proposed candidates for quantum computations. Such lattice models are suitable to create both quasiholes and quasielectrons in the similar way and thereby avoiding the singularity problem for the quasielectrons in continuum. Anyons in these models are found to be well-screened with proper charges and right statistics. Going beyond two dimensions, we unravel the intriguing physics of topologically ordered phases of matter in fractional dimensions such as in the fractal lattices by employing our model constructions of analytical states and parent Hamiltonians there. We find the anyons to be well-screened with right charges and statistics for all dimensions. Our work takes the first step in bridging the gap between two dimensions and one dimension in addressing topological phases which reveal new physics. Our constructions are particularly important in this context since such lattices lack translational symmetry and hence become unsuitable for the fractional Chern insulator implementations. The special features of topologically ordered phases make these difficult to probe and hence the detection of topological quantum phase transitions becomes challenging. The existing probes suffer from shortcomings uo-to a large extent and therefore construction of new type of probes become important and are on high demand. The robustness of anyon properties draw our attention to propose these as detector of topological quantum phase transitions with significant advantages including the facts that these are numerically cheaper probes and are independent of the boundary conditions. We test our probe in three different examples and find that simple properties like anyon charges detect the transitions. / Topologisch geordnete Phasen extravagieren ein Füllhorn faszinierender Phänomene, die in den herkömmlichen Phasen nicht wahrgenommen werden können, einschließlich der auffälligsten Eigenschaft, Quasiteilchen mit fraktionierten Ladungen und fraktion- ierten Statistiken aufzunehmen. Solche Phasen wurden mit dem bemerkenswerten Exper- iment des fraktionierten Quanten-Hall-Effekts entdeckt und finden viel Anerkennung. Die Realisierung dieser Phasen auf Gittersystemen und die Untersuchung der Anyon- Quasiteilchen sind wichtige und interessante Wege zur Erforschung der Entschlüsselung neuer Physik, die im Kontinuum nicht zu finden sind, und diese These ist ein wichtiger Beitrag in diese Richtung. Auch solche Gittermodelle, die Anyons enthalten, sind beson- ders wichtig, um die Bewegung von Anyons zu steuern, während sie experimentell mit ultrakalten Atomen in optischen Gittern implementiert werden. Wir konstruieren Gittermodelle, indem wir analytische Zustände und Eltern-Hamiltonianer auf einer zwei- dimensionalen Ebene implementieren, die nicht-abelsche Anyons enthält, die als Kan- didaten für Quantenberechnungen vorgeschlagen werden. Solche Gittermodelle sind geeignet, sowohl Quasi-Löcher als auch Quasielektronen auf ähnliche Weise zu erzeu- gen und dadurch das Singularitätsproblem für die Quasielektronen im Kontinuum zu vermeiden. Jeder in diesen Modellen wird mit angemessenen Gebühren und richtigen Statistiken gut überprüft. Über zwei Dimensionen hinaus enträtseln wir die faszinierende Physik topologisch geordneter Phasen der Materie in fraktionierten Dimensionen wie in den fraktalen Gittern, indem wir dort unsere Modellkonstruktionen von analytischen Zuständen und Eltern-Hamiltonianern verwenden. Wir finden, dass die Anyons mit den richtigen Gebühren und Statistiken für alle Dimensionen gut überprüft werden. Unsere Arbeit macht den ersten Schritt, um die Lücke zwischen zwei Dimensionen und einer Dimension zu schließen und topologische Phasen anzugehen, die neue Physik enthüllen. Unsere Konstruktionen sind in diesem Zusammenhang besonders wichtig, da solche Gitter keine Translationssymmetrie aufweisen und daher für die fraktionierten Chern- Isolatorimplementierungen ungeeignet werden. Die besonderen Merkmale topologisch geordneter Phasen machen es schwierig, diese zu untersuchen, und daher wird die Detek- tion topologischer Quantenphasenübergänge schwierig. Die vorhandenen Sonden leiden in hohem Maße unter Mängeln, weshalb die Konstruktion neuer Sondenarten wichtig wird und eine hohe Nachfrage besteht. Die Robustheit der Anyon-Eigenschaften lenkt unsere Aufmerksamkeit darauf, diese als Detektor für topologische Quantenphasenübergänge mit signifikanten Vorteilen vorzuschlagen, einschließlich der Tatsache, dass dies numerisch billigere Sonden sind und von den Randbedingungen unabhängig sind. Wir testen unsere Sonde in drei verschiedenen Beispielen und stellen fest, dass einfache Eigenschaften wie Ladungen die Übergänge erfassen.

Die Betrachtung von Schwere-Fermionen-Systemen stellt ein wichtiges Themengebiet im Bereich der Festkörperphysik dar. Das Verhalten von Schwere-Fermionen-Systemen wird durch die starken Korrelationen der magnetischen Momente der ungepaarten Spins der f-Elektronen bestimmt. Experimentell zugängliche Messgrößen sind dadurch bei tiefen Temperaturen stark erhöht, so dass sich diese Systeme besonders gut zur Untersuchung von Grundzustandseigenschaften eignen. Zentrales Thema dieser Arbeit ist die Untersuchung zweier intermetallischer Seltenerd-Verbindungen in Bezug auf Quantenphasenübergänge. Diese treten am absoluten Nullpunkt der Temperatur als Funktion eines anderen Parameters wie Magnetfeld, Druck oder chemischer Substitution auf und sind bei endlicher Temperatur durch Abweichungen physikalischer Messgrößen von der durch L. D. Landau aufgestellten Theorie der Fermi-Flüssigkeiten nachzuweisen. Zu diesem Zweck wurden Tieftemperaturexperimente bis hinab zu 20mK und in Magnetfeldern bis zu 18T durchgeführt. Es wurden elektrischer Widerstand, magnetische Wechselfeldsuszeptibilität, Magnetostriktion und thermische Ausdehnung gemessen. / The investigation of heavy-fermion systems marks an important subject in the research field of solid state physics. The behaviour of heavy-fermion systems is dominated by the strong correlations of the magnetic moments of the unpaired f-electron spins. At low temperatures, experimentally accessible variables are strongly enhanced so that these systems are especially suited to analyse ground state properties. The central topic of this thesis is the investigation of two intermetallic rare-earth compounds with regard to quantum phase transitions. The latter occur at zero temperature as a function of parameters such as magnetic field, pressure or chemical substitution. They are traceable at finite temperature due to deviations of physical variables from the theory of Fermi liquids established by L. D. Landau. For this purpose, low-temperature experiments were performed down to 20mK and in magnetic fields up to 18T. Electrical resistivity, magnetic ac susceptibility, magnetostriction and thermal expansion were measured.

This Thesis focuses on different aspects of quantum computation theory: adiabatic quantum algorithms, decoherence during the adiabatic evolution and quantum simulators. After an overview on the area of quantum computation and setting up the formal ground for the rest of the Thesis we derive a general error estimate for adiabatic quantum computing. We demonstrate that the first-order correction, which has frequently been used as a condition for adiabatic quantum computation, does not yield a good estimate for the computational error. Therefore, a more general criterion is proposed, which includes higher-order corrections and shows that the computational error can be made exponentially small – which facilitates significantly shorter evolution times than the first-order estimate in certain situations. Based on this criterion and rather general arguments and assumptions, it can be demonstrated that a run-time of order of the inverse minimum energy gap is sufficient and necessary. Furthermore, exploiting the similarity between adiabatic quantum algorithms and quantum phase transitions, we study the impact of decoherence on the sweep through a second-order quantum phase transition for the prototypical example of the Ising chain in a transverse field and compare it to the adiabatic version of Grover’s search algorithm. It turns out that (in contrast to first-order transitions) the impact of decoherence caused by a weak coupling to a rather general environment increases with system size (i.e., number of spins/qubits), which might limit the scalability of the system. Finally, we propose the use of electron systems to construct laboratory systems based on present-day technology which reproduce and thereby simulate the quantum dynamics of the Ising model and the O(3) nonlinear sigma model.

Dans la description à basse énergie de systèmes fortement corrélés, les champs de jauge peuvent émerger comme excitations collectives couplées à des quasiparticules fractionalisées. En particulier, certains aimants bidimensionnels dits frustrés sont décrits par un liquide de spin de Dirac comportant une symétrie de jauge U(1) compacte. La description infrarouge est donnée par une théorie conforme des champs, soit l'électrodynamique quantique en 2+1 dimensions avec 2N saveurs de fermions sans masse. Dans les aimants typiques, N=2 ou 4. L'aspect compact du champ de jauge implique également l'existence d'excitations topologiques, soit des instantons créés, dans ce contexte, par des opérateurs monopôles. Cette thèse porte sur les transitions de phase quantiques à partir d'un liquide de spin de Dirac et les propriétés des monopôles aux points critiques correspondants. Ces transitions sont induites en activant diverses interactions de type Gross-Neveu. Dans tous les cas à l'étude, la dimension d'échelle des monopôles est obtenue grâce à la correspondance état-opérateur et à un développement en 1/N. L'accent est d'abord mis sur une transition de confinement-déconfinement vers une phase antiferromagnétique décrite par la condensation d'un monopôle. Une levée de dégénérescence est observée au point critique alors que certaines dimensions d'échelle de monopôles sont réduites par rapport à leur valeur dans le liquide de spin de Dirac. Cette hiérarchie est caractérisée quantitativement en comparant les dimensions d'échelle dans des secteurs distincts du spin magnétique à l'ordre dominant en 1/N, puis qualitativement par une analyse en théorie des représentations. Des exposants critiques pour d'autres observables dans la théorie non compacte sont également obtenus. Enfin, deux transitions vers des liquides de spin topologiques, soit le liquide de spin chiral et le liquide de spin Z2, sont considérées. Les dimensions anormales des monopôles sont obtenues à l'ordre sous-dominant en 1/N. Ces résultats permettent de vérifier une dualité conjecturée avec un modèle bosonique et la valeur d'un coefficient universel pour les théories de jauge U(1) / In strongly correlated systems, gauge fields can emerge as collective excitations coupled to fractionalized quasiparticles. In particular, certain frustrated two-dimensional quantum magnets are described by a Dirac spin liquid which has a U(1) gauge symmetry. The infrared description is given by a conformal field theory, namely quantum electrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions with 2N flavours of massless fermions. In typical magnets, N=2 or 4. The compact aspect of the gauge field also implies the existence of topological excitations corresponding to instantons, which are created by monopole operators in this context. This thesis focuses on quantum phase transitions out of a Dirac spin liquid and the properties of monopoles at the corresponding critical points. These transitions are driven by activating various types of Gross-Neveu interactions. In all the cases studied, the scaling dimension of monopoles are obtained using the state-operator correspondence and a 1/N expansion. The confinement-deconfinement transition to an antiferromagnetic order produced by a monopole condensate is first studied. A degeneracy lifting is observed at the critical point, as certain monopoles have their scaling dimension reduced in comparison with the value in the Dirac spin liquid. This hierarchy is charactized quantitatively by comparing monopole scaling dimensions in distinct magnetic spin sector at leading-order in 1/N, and qualitatively by an analysis in representation theory. Critical exponents of various other operators are obtained in the non-compact model. Transitions to two topological spin liquids, namely a chiral spin liquid and a Z2 spin liquid, are also considered. Anomalous dimensions of monopoles are obtained at sub-leading order in 1/N. These results allow the verification of a conjectured duality with a bosonic model and the value of a universal coefficient in U(1) gauge theories.