Emergent Lorentz symmetry with vanishing velocity in a critical two-subband quantum wire.
We consider a quantum wire with two subbands of spin-polarized electrons in the presence of strong interactions. We focus on the quantum phase transition when the second subband starts to get filled as a function of gate voltage. Performing a one-loop renormalization group analysis of the effective Hamiltonian, we identify the critical fixed-point theory as a conformal field theory having an enhanced SU(2) symmetry and central charge 3/2. While the fixed point is Lorentz invariant, the effective "speed of light" nevertheless vanishes at low energies due to marginally irrelevant operators leading to a diverging critical specific heat coefficient.
Sitte
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M
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Strasse 77, 50937 Köln, Germany.
Rosch
A
A
Meyer
J S
JS
Matveev
K A
KA
Garst
M
M