Bond-order-wave phase and quantum phase transitions in the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model

Abstract

We use a stochastic series-expansion quantum Monte Carlo method to study the phase diagram of the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model at half-filling for small to intermediate values of the on-site U and nearest-neighbor V repulsions. We confirm the existence of a novel, long-range-ordered bond-order-wave (BOW) phase recently predicted by Nakamura [J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 68, 3123 (1999)] in a small region of the parameter space between the familiar charge-density-wave (CDW) state for $V\ensuremath{\gtrsim}U/2$ and the state with dominant spin-density-wave (SDW) fluctuations for $V\ensuremath{\lesssim}U/2.$ We discuss the nature of the transitions among these states and evaluate some of the critical exponents. Further, we determine accurately the position of the multicritical point, ${(U}_{m}{,V}_{m})=(4.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1,2.51\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.04)$ (in energy units where the hopping integral is normalized to unity), above which the two continuous SDW-BOW-CDW transitions are replaced by one discontinuous (first-order) direct SDW-CDW transition. We also discuss the evolution of the CDW and BOW states upon hole doping. We find that in both cases the ground state is a Luther-Emery liquid, i.e., the spin gap remains but the charge gap existing at half-filling is immediately closed upon doping. The charge and bond-order correlations decay with distance r as ${r}^{\ensuremath{-}{K}_{\ensuremath{\rho}}},$ where ${K}_{\ensuremath{\rho}}$ is approximately $0.5$ for the parameters we have considered. We also discuss advantages of using parallel tempering (or exchange Monte Carlo)---an extended ensemble method that we here combine with quantum Monte Carlo---in studies of quantum phase transitions.