Boundary critical behavior of the three-dimensional Heisenberg universality class

Abstract

We study the boundary critical behavior of the three-dimensional Heisenberg universality class, in the presence of a bidimensional surface. By means of high-precision Monte Carlo simulations of an improved lattice model, where leading bulk scaling corrections are suppressed, we prove the existence of a special phase transition, with unusual exponents, and of an extraordinary phase with logarithmically decaying correlations. These findings contrast with na\"ive arguments on the bulk-surface phase diagram, and allow us to explain some recent puzzling results on the boundary critical behavior of quantum spin models.