Interplay between quantum phase transitions and the behavior of quantum correlations at finite temperatures

T. Werlang, G. A. P. Ribeiro, Gustavo Rigolin

Published 2012-05-04, updated 2012-10-26Version 2

We review the main results and ideas showing that quantum correlations at finite temperatures (T), in particular quantum discord, are useful tools in characterizing quantum phase transitions that only occur, in principle, at the unattainable absolute zero temperature. We first review some interesting results about the behavior of thermal quantum discord for small spin-1/2 chains and show that they already give us important hints of the infinite chain behavior. We then study in detail and in the thermodynamic limit (infinite chains) the thermal quantum correlations for the XXZ and XY models, where one can clearly appreciate that the behavior of thermal quantum discord at finite T is a useful tool to spotlight the critical point of a quantum phase transition.