Classification of phase transitions and intertwined orders in crystallographic point groups

Abstract: Symmetry provides important insight in understanding the nature of phase transitions. In the presence of crystalline symmetries, new phenomena in phase transition can emerge, such as intertwined orders and emergent symmetries. In this work, we present a group-theoretical diagnosis of these phenomena in 32 crystallographic point groups. For each group, we classify the possible combinations of intertwined order and analyze different symmetry-broken phases. We find that the symmetries before and after the phase transition uniquely determine the irreducible representation (irrep) of the order parameter and the allowed form of Ginzburg-Landau free energy, from which the nature of phase transition can be inferred, including the order of phase transition and the existence of intermediate phases and emergent symmetries. Our finding will be helpful for the experimental diagnosis of order parameters from symmetry breaking.