Eur. Phys. J. B 73, 327-339 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2010-00011-0

Scaling functions for classical to quantum crossover in the transverse Ising model via an effective Wilsonian renormalization group approach in 4 – ε dimensions

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica “E. R. Caianiello”, Università di Salerno and CNISM, Unità di Salerno, 84084 Fisciano (Salerno), Italy
² Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Università di Napoli Federico II and “Coherentia”, CNR-INFM, 80125 Napoli, Italy

Corresponding author: mtm@physics.unisa.it

Received: 8 May 2009
Revised: 28 October 2009
Published online: 15 January 2010

Abstract

The classical to quantum crossover, which occurs in d-dimensional transverse field Ising model-like systems decreasing the temperature to zero in the influence domain of the quantum critical point (QCP), is described by employing an effective Wilsonian renormalization group approach in 4 - ε dimensions. The basic ingredient of the treatment is the static action arising from a preliminary one-loop averaging over non-zero frequency modes, which enter the original quantum one. The crossover scaling functions for susceptibility and related thermodynamic quantities are obtained to first order in ε as explicit functions of the temperature and the applied magnetic field. In our static framework, which can be easily extended to other quantum systems exhibiting a critical line which terminates in a QCP, the suitable procedure for observing this type of crossover through genuine thermodynamic measurements is clarified consistently with available experiments. Remarkably, our basic idea and results may be usefully employed to explore also the dimensional crossover which takes place in classical Ising-like systems with slab or film geometry and, possibly, in other finite-size classical systems.