Exploring Quantum Phase Transitions with a Novel Sublattice Entanglement Scenario

We introduce a new measure called reduced entropy of sublattice to quantify entanglement in spin, electron and boson systems. By analyzing this quantity, we reveal an intriguing connection between quantum entanglement and quantum phase transitions in various strongly correlated systems: the local extremes of reduced entropy and its first derivative as functions of the coupling constant coincide respectively with the first and second order transition points. Exact numerical studies merely for small lattices reproduce several well-known results, demonstrating that our scenario is quite promising for exploring quantum phase transitions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Repeating head-on collisions in an optical trap and the evaluation of spin-dependent interactions among neutral particles

A dynamic process of repeating collisions of a pair of trapped neutral particles with weak spin-dependent interaction is designed and studied. Related theoretical derivation and numerical calculation have been performed to study the inherent coordinate-spin and momentum-spin correlation. Due to the repeating collisions the effect of the weak interaction can be accumulated and enlarged, and therefore can be eventually detected. Numerical results suggest that the Cr-Cr interaction, which has not yet been completely clear, could be thereby determined. The design can be in general used to determine various interactions among neutral atoms and molecules, in particular for the determination of very weak forces.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Study of the Wealth Inequality in the Minority Game

To demonstrate the usefulness of physical approaches for the study of realistic economic systems, we investigate the inequality of players' wealth in one of the most extensively studied econophysical models, namely, the minority game (MG). We gauge the wealth inequality of players in the MG by a well-known measure in economics known as the modified Gini index. From our numerical results, we conclude that the wealth inequality in the MG is very severe near the point of maximum cooperation among players, where the diversity of the strategy space is approximately equal to the number of strategies at play. In other words, the optimal cooperation between players comes hand in hand with severe wealth inequality. We also show that our numerical results in the asymmetric phase of the MG can be reproduced semi-analytically using a replica method.Comment: 9 pages in revtex 4 style with 3 figures; minor revision with a change of title; to appear in PR