Thermal Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions in the $1/r^2$ long-range ferromagnetic quantum Ising chain revisited

Abstract

For the inverse square long-range ferromagnetic Ising chain in a transverse field, the thermal phase boundary of the floating Kosterlitz-Thouless phase is obtained for several values of the transverse field down to the quantum critical point. The sharp domain walls in the classical model are increasingly smeared out by the transverse field, which is evidenced by a pronounced broadening of the non-universal bump in the specific heat. The discernability of KT critical scaling in finite-size simulations is discussed.