Interacting hard-core bosons and surface preroughening

Details Interacting hard-core bosons and surface preroughening Interacting hard-core bosons and surface preroughening

1998-09-04

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9809091v1

Physics

Condensed Matter

15 pages, 13 figures, to appear on Phys. Rev. B

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevB.58.13151

The theory of the preroughening transition of an unreconstructed surface, and the ensuing disordered flat (DOF) phase, is formulated in terms of interacting steps. Finite terraces play a crucial role in the formulation. We start by mapping the statistical mechanics of interacting (up and down) steps onto the quantum mechanics of two species of one-dimensional hard-core bosons. The effect of finite terraces translates into a number-non-conserving term in the boson Hamiltonian, which does not allow a description in terms of fermions, but leads to a two-chain spin problem. The Heisenberg spin-1 chain is recovered as a special limiting case. The global phase diagram is rich. We find the DOF phase is stabilized by short-range repulsions of like steps. On-site repulsion of up-down steps is essential in producing a DOF phase, whereas an off-site attraction between them is favorable but not required. Step-step correlation functions and terrace width distributions can be directly calculated with this method.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Interacting hard-core bosons and surface preroughening does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Interacting hard-core bosons and surface preroughening, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Interacting hard-core bosons and surface preroughening will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-571325