Critical properties of quantum three- and four-state Potts models with boundaries polarized along the transverse field

Abstract: By computing the low-lying energy excitation spectra with the density matrix renormalization group algorithm we show that boundaries polarized in the direction of the transverse field lead to scale-invariant conformal towers of states at the critical point of the quantum four-state Potts model - a special symmetric case of the Ashkin-Teller model. Furthermore, by direct comparison of the excitation spectra we phenomenologically establish the duality between the transverse-polarized and three-state-mixed boundary conditions at the four-state Potts critical point. Finally, for completeness, we verify that in the quantum three-state Potts model the "new" boundary conditions dual to the mixed ones can be realized by polarizing edge spins along the transverse field.