Destruction of "the devil's staircase" by quantum fluctuations
- 15 April 1980
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 21 (8) , 3287-3289
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.21.3287
Abstract
The quantum ground state of a linear chain of atoms in a periodic potential is studied. Classically, the average periodicity of the lattice locks into an infinity of commensurate values as the parameters are varied. It is shown that this "devil's staircase" behavior does not survive quantum fluctuations; only a finite number of commensurate phases are stable at zero temperature. In between the periodicity is generally incommensurate.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- Devil's Stairs and the Commensurate-Commensurate Transitions in CeSbPhysical Review Letters, 1979
- Observation of Orientational Ordering of Incommensurate Argon Monolayers on GraphitePhysical Review Letters, 1978
- Statics and dynamics of incommensurate latticesPhysical Review B, 1978
- Conditions of existence and spectra of incommensurate latticesSolid State Communications, 1978
- One-Dimensional Phonons and "Phase-Ordering" Phase Transition inPhysical Review Letters, 1977
- Collective modes of a charge-density wave near the lock-in transitionPhysical Review B, 1977
- ADSORBED LAYERS OF D2, H2, O2, AND 3He ON GRAPHITE STUDIED BY NEUTRON SCATTERINGLe Journal de Physique Colloques, 1977
- Structural Phase Transition in Epitaxial Solid Krypton Monolayers on GraphitePhysical Review Letters, 1977
- Theory of discommensurations and the commensurate-incommensurate charge-density-wave phase transitionPhysical Review B, 1976
- One-dimensional dislocations - III. Influence of the second harmonic term in the potential representation, on the properties of the modelProceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 1949