We investigate the flat phase of quantum polymerized phantom membranes by means of a nonperturbative renormalization group approach. We first implement this formalism for general quantum polymerized membranes and derive the flow equations that encompass both quantum and thermal fluctuations. We then deduce and analyze the flow equations relevant to study the flat phase and discuss their salient features: quantum to classical crossover and, in each of these regimes, strong to weak coupling crossover. We finally illustrate these features in the context of free-standing graphene physics.
We investigate the flat phase of D-dimensional crystalline membranes embedded in a d-dimensional space and submitted to both metric and curvature quenched disorders using a nonperturbative renormalization group approach. We identify a second-order phase transition controlled by a finite-temperature, finite-disorder fixed point unreachable within the leading order of ε=4-D and 1/d expansions. This critical point divides the flow diagram into two basins of attraction: that associated with the finite-temperature fixed point controlling the long-distance behavior of disorder-free membranes and that associated with the zero-temperature, finite-disorder fixed point. Our work thus strongly suggests the existence of a whole low-temperature glassy phase for quenched disordered crystalline membranes and, possibly, for graphene and graphene-like compounds.
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