Scaling of the Lyapunov exponent at a balanced hyperbolic critical point

Abstract: In both the random hopping model and at topological phase transitions in one-dimensional chiral systems, the Lyapunov exponent vanishes at zero energy, but is here shown to have an inverse logarithmic increase with a coefficient that is computed explicitly. This is the counterpart of the Dyson spike in the density of states. The argument also transposes to the free energy density of the random field Ising model, and more generally to many so-called balanced hyperbolic critical points. It is based on the fact that the Furstenberg measure in rescaled logarithmic Dyson-Schmidt variables can be well-approximated by an absolutely continuous measure with trapezoidal density.