Quantum Critical Behavior of the Cluster Glass Phase

Abstract

In disordered itinerant magnets with arbitrary symmetry of the order parameter, the conventional quantum critical point between the ordered phase and the paramagnetic Fermi-liquid (PMFL) is destroyed due to the formation of an intervening cluster glass (CG) phase. In this Letter we discuss the quantum critical behavior at the CG-PMFL transition for systems with continuous symmetry. We show that fluctuations due to quantum Griffiths anomalies induce a first-order transition from the PMFL at T=0, while at higher temperatures a conventional continuous transition is restored. This behavior is a generic consequence of enhanced non-Ohmic dissipation caused by a broad distribution of energy scales within any quantum Griffiths phase in itinerant systems.