We define geometric critical exponents for systems that undergo continuous second-order classical and quantum phase transitions. These relate scalar quantities on the information theoretic parameter manifolds of such systems, near criticality. We calculate these exponents by approximating the metric and thereby solving geodesic equations analytically, near curvature singularities of two-dimensional parameter manifolds. The critical exponents are seen to be the same for both classical and quantum systems that we consider, and we provide evidence about the possible universality of our results.

We study geodesics on the parameter manifold, for systems exhibiting second order classical and quantum phase transitions. The coupled non-linear geodesic equations are solved numerically for a variety of models which show such phase transitions, in the thermodynamic limit. It is established that both in the classical as well as in the quantum case, geodesics are confined to a single phase, and exhibit turning behavior near critical points. Our results are indicative of a geometric universality in widely different physical systems. *

Long wavelength descriptions of a half-filled lowest Landau level (ν = 1/2) must be consistent with the experimental observation of particle-hole (PH) symmetry. The traditional description of the ν = 1/2 state pioneered by Halperin, Lee and Read (HLR) naively appears to break PH symmetry. However, recent studies have shown that the HLR theory with weak quenched disorder can exhibit an emergent PH symmetry. We find that such inhomogeneous configurations of the ν = 1/2 fluid, when described by HLR mean-field theory, are tuned to a topological phase transition between an integer quantum Hall state and an insulator of composite fermions with a dc Hall conductivity σ (cf) xy = − 1 2 e 2 h . Our observations help explain why the HLR theory exhibits PH symmetric dc response.

We consider the Hall conductivity of composite fermions in the theory of Halperin, Lee, and Read (HLR). We present a fully quantum mechanical numerical calculation that shows, under suitable conditions, the HLR theory exhibits a particle-hole symmetric dc electrical Hall response in the presence of quenched disorder. Remarkably, this response of the HLR theory remains robust even when the disorder range is of the order of the Fermi wavelength. We find that deviations from particle-hole symmetric response can appear in the ac Hall conductivity at frequencies sufficiently large compared to the inverse system size. Our results agree with a recent semi-classical analysis by Wang et al., Phys. Rev. X 7, 031029 (2017) and complement the arguments based on the fully quantum-mechanical model by Kumar et al., Phys. Rev. B 98, 11505 (2018). These results provide further evidence that the HLR theory is compatible with an emergent particle-hole symmetry.

We study the energy conditions and geodesic deformations in Bertrand space-times. We show that these can be thought of as interesting physical space-times in certain regions of the underlying parameter space, where the weak and strong energy conditions hold. We further compute the ESR parameters and analyze them numerically. The focusing of radial time-like and radial null geodesics is shown explicitly, which verifies the Raychaudhuri equation. *