%0 Journal Article
%T Hermitian and non-Hermitian thermal Hamiltonians
%A Adrian E. Feiguin
%A Israel Klich
%J Physics
%D 2013
%I arXiv
%X Thermal density matrices can be described by a pure quantum state within the thermofield formalism. Here we show how to construct a class of Hamiltonians realizing a thermofield state as their ground state. These Hamiltonians are frustration-free, and can be Hermitian or non-Hermitian, allowing one to use ground-state methods to understand the thermodynamic properties of the system. In particular this approach gives an explicit mapping of thermal phase transitions into quantum phase transitions. In the non-Hermitian case, the quantum phase transition is not accompanied by a change in the spectrum of the Hamiltonian, which remains gapped. We illustrate these ideas for the classical 2D Ising model.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1308.0756v1