Quantum criticality beyond the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm

We present the critical theory of a number of zero-temperature phase transitions of quantum antiferromagnets and interacting boson systems in two dimensions. The most important example is the transition of the S=1/2 square lattice antiferromagnet between the Néel state (which breaks spin rotation invariance) and the paramagnetic valence bond solid (which preserves spin rotation invariance but breaks lattice symmetries). We show that these two states are separated by a second-order quantum phase transition. This conflicts with Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson theory, which predicts that such states with distinct broken symmetries are generically separated either by a first-order transition, or by a phase with co-existing orders. The critical theory of the second-order transition is not expressed in terms of the order parameters characterizing either state, but involves fractionalized degrees of freedom and an emergent, topological, global conservation law. A closely related theory describes the superfluid-insulator transition of bosons at half filling on a square lattice, in which the insulator has a bond density wave order. Similar considerations are shown to apply to transitions of antiferromagnets between the valence bond solid and the Z₂ spin liquid: the critical theory has deconfined excitations interacting with an emergent U(1) gauge force. We comment on the broader implications of our results for the study of quantum criticality in correlated electron systems.