Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in Two-dimensional Long-range Heisenberg Model

Abstract

Algebraically decaying interactions $\sim 1/r^{d+σ}$ can lead to nontrivial universality beyond short-range (SR) theories and spontaneous symmetry breaking in low-dimensional systems. We perform large-scale Monte Carlo simulations for the classical long-range (LR) Heisenberg model in two dimensions (2D) up to linear size $L=8192$. We show that the system enters a long-range-ordered phase through a single continuous phase transition for all $σ\leq 2$, including the marginal case $σ=2$. In contrast, for $σ> 2$ it recovers the SR asymptotically free behavior with no finite-temperature transition. This places the LR--SR crossover threshold at $σ_* = 2$. To characterize the ordered phase, we introduce an LR simple random walk with a fixed total length $\mathcal{L} \sim\mathcal{O}(L^d)$. This fixed-$\mathcal L$ walk reproduces the finite-size scaling of the Goldstone-mode fluctuations in the LR Heisenberg model in both two and three dimensions, including the logarithmic scaling at $σ= 2$. These results further motivate a general criterion for the existence of finite-temperature long-range order in LR systems with continuous symmetry in any spatial dimension.