Phase diagram of the two-fluid Lipkin model: A "butterfly" catastrophe

Abstract

Background: In the past few decades quantum phase transitions have been of great interest in nuclear physics. In this context, two-fluid algebraic models are ideal systems to study how the concept of quantum phase transition evolves when moving into more complex systems, but the number of publications along this line has been scarce up to now. Purpose: We intend to determine the phase diagram of a two-fluid Lipkin model that resembles the nuclear proton-neutron interacting boson model Hamiltonian using both numerical results and analytic tools, i.e., catastrophe theory, and compare the mean-field results with exact diagonalizations for large systems. Method: The mean-field energy surface of a consistent-Q-like two-fluid Lipkin Hamiltonian is studied and compared with exact results coming from a direct diagonalization. The mean-field results are analyzed using the framework of catastrophe theory. Results: The phase diagram of the model is obtained and the order of the different phase-transition lines and surfaces is determined using a catastrophe theory analysis. Conclusions: There are two first-order surfaces in the phase diagram, one separating the spherical and the deformed shapes, while the other separates two different deformed phases. A second-order line, where the later surfaces merge, is found. This line finishes in a transition point with a divergence in the second-order derivative of the energy that corresponds to a tricritical point in the language of the Ginzburg-Landau theory for phase transitions.