Onset of a quantum Fisher-Selke sequence in the transverse-field ANNNI model and its bilayer

Abstract

We study the transverse-field axial next-nearest-neighbor Ising (ANNNI) model on the square lattice and on a bilayer. At the classical multiphase point $κ=J_2/J_0=1/2$, every configuration of straight domain walls that separates domains of at least two sites is a ground state. The walls are rigid, so perturbation theory in the transverse field $g=Γ/J_0$ can be carried out for each configuration separately, and we take it to order $g^8$. Quantum fluctuations select $\langle 3\rangle$ ($\uparrow\uparrow\uparrow\downarrow\downarrow\downarrow$) at order $g^2$, because spins next to a wall gain the most energy from virtual flips. The structures $\langle 23\rangle$, $\langle 223\rangle$ and $\langle 2223\rangle$ then open between $\langle 3\rangle$ and the antiphase $\langle 2\rangle$ at orders $g^4$, $g^6$ and $g^8$, in the order of the Fisher-Selke sequence of the classical three-dimensional model. A second layer suppresses each successive phase more strongly, beyond the stiffening of the local fields. We test the two widest phases with stochastic series expansion quantum Monte Carlo, comparing the free energies of the competing ordered states by thermodynamic integration, since annealing freezes in the modulation that forms at the ordering transition. The simulations reproduce the $\langle 3\rangle$ wedge to about 1%, and in a pre-registered test $\langle 23\rangle$ is stable at six of seven points, with the seventh resolved by post-hoc runs.