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We study an XXZ spin chain at zero magnetization coupled to a collection of local harmonic baths at zero temperature. We map this system on a (1+1)D effective field theory using bosonization, where the effect of the bath is taken care of in an exact manner. We provide analytical and numerical evidence of the existence of two phases at zero temperature: a Luttinger liquid (LL) and an antiferromagnetic phase (AFM), separated by a phase transition akin to the Berezinsky--Kosterlitz--Thouless (BKT) type. While the bath is responsible for the LL-AFM transition for subohmic baths, the LL-AFM transition for superohmic baths is due to the interactions within the spin chain., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures

We study an incommensurate XXZ spin chain coupled to a collection of local harmonic baths. At zero temperature, by varying the strength of the coupling to the bath the chain undergoes a quantum phase transition between a Luttinger liquid phase and a spin density wave (SDW). As opposed to the standard mechanism, the SDW emerges in the absence of the opening of a gap, but it is due to ``fractional excitations" induced by the bath. We also show, by computing the DC conductivity, that the system is insulating in the presence of a subohmic bath. We interpret this phenomenon as localization induced by the bath \`a la Caldeira and Leggett., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

We study an XXZ spin chain, where each spin is coupled to an independent ohmic bath of harmonic oscillators at zero temperature. Using bosonization and numerical techniques, we show the existence of two phases separated by an Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition. At low coupling with the bath, the chain remains in a Luttinger liquid phase with a reduced but finite spin stiffness, while above a critical coupling the system is in a dissipative phase characterized by a vanishing spin stiffness. We argue that the transport properties are also inhibited: the Luttinger liquid is a perfect conductor while the dissipative phase displays finite resistivity. Our results show that the effect of the bath can be interpreted as annealed disorder inducing signatures of localization., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

How cells regulate the number of organelles is a fundamental question in cell biology. While decades of experimental work have uncovered four fundamental processes that regulate organelle biogenesis, namely, de novo synthesis, fission, fusion and decay, a comprehensive understanding of how these processes together control organelle abundance remains elusive. Recent fluorescence microscopy experiments allow for the counting of organelles at the single-cell level. These measurements provide information about the cell-to-cell variability in organelle abundance in addition to the mean level. Motivated by such measurements, we build upon a recent study and analyze a general stochastic model of organelle biogenesis. We compute the exact analytical expressions for the probability distribution of organelle numbers, their mean, and variance across a population of single cells. It is shown that different mechanisms of organelle biogenesis lead to distinct signatures in the distribution of organelle numbers which allows us to discriminate between these various mechanisms. By comparing our theory against published data for peroxisome abundance measurements in yeast, we show that a widely believed model of peroxisome biogenesis that involves de novo synthesis, fission, and decay is inadequate in explaining the data. Also, our theory predicts bimodality in certain limits of the model. Overall, the framework developed here can be harnessed to gain mechanistic insights into the process of organelle biogenesis., Comment: 30 pages, 3 Figures and 1 Table. Supplementary figures are attached