T. Senthil

Theory of criticality-enabled $U(1)$ symmetry breaking in a class of 1+1D systems

We develop an analytic theory of the recently proposed $U(1)$ symmetry breaking at interacting 1+1D Lifshitz quantum critical points. The low-energy theory contains two compact fields, $\theta$ and $\phi$, coupled by a Berry term that makes $\theta$ canonically conjugate to the conserved density $\partial_x\phi$. Withi...