Quantum critical behavior of the quantum Ising model on fractal lattices

Abstract

I study the properties of the quantum critical point of the transverse-field quantum Ising model on various fractal lattices such as the Sierpinski carpet, Sierpinski gasket, and Sierpinski tetrahedron. Using a continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo simulation method and finite-size scaling analysis, I identify the quantum critical point and investigate its scaling properties. Among others, I calculate the dynamic critical exponent and find that it is greater than one for all three structures. The fact that it deviates from one is a direct consequence of the fractal structures not being integer-dimensional regular lattices. Other critical exponents are also calculated. The exponents are different from those of the classical critical point and satisfy the quantum scaling relation, thus confirming that I have indeed found the quantum critical point. I find that the Sierpinski tetrahedron, of which the dimension is exactly 2, belongs to a different universality class than that of the two-dimensional square lattice. I conclude that the critical exponents depend on more details of the structure than just the dimension and the symmetry.