Spontaneous symmetry breaking and response functions

Abstract

We study the quantum phase transition occurring in an infinite homogeneous system of spin 1/2 fermions in a non-relativistic context. As an example we consider neutrons interacting through a simple spin-spin Heisenberg force. The two critical values of the coupling strength -- signaling the onset into the system of a finite magnetization and of the total magnetization, respectively -- are found and their dependence upon the range of the interaction is explored. The spin response function of the system in the region where the spin-rotational symmetry is spontaneously broken is also studied. For a ferromagnetic interaction the spin response along the direction of the spontaneous magnetization occurs in the particle-hole continuum and displays, for not too large momentum transfers, two distinct peaks. The response along the direction orthogonal to the spontaneous magnetization displays instead, beyond a softened and depleted particle-hole continuum, a collective mode to be identified with a Goldstone boson of type II. Notably, the random phase approximation on a Hartree-Fock basis accounts for it, in particular for its quadratic -- close to the origin -- dispersion relation. It is shown that the Goldstone boson contributes to the saturation of the energy-weighted sum rule for ~25% when the system becomes fully magnetized (that is in correspondence of the upper critical value of the interaction strength) and continues to grow as the interaction strength increases.