Criticality at the Haldane-insulator charge-density-wave quantum phase transition

Exploiting the entanglement concept within a matrix-product-state based infinite density-matrix renormalization group approach, we show that the spin-density-wave and bond-order-wave ground states of the one-dimensional half-filled extended Hubbard model give way to a symmetry-protected topological Haldane state in case an additional alternating ferromagnetic spin interaction is added. In the Haldane insulator the lowest entanglement level features a characteristic twofold degeneracy. Increasing the ratio between nearest-neighbor and local Coulomb interaction $V/U$, the enhancement of the entanglement entropy, the variation of the charge, spin and neutral gaps, and the dynamical spin/density response signal a quantum phase transition to a charge-ordered state. Below a critical point, which belongs to the universality class of the tricritical Ising model with central charge 7/10, the model is critical with $c=1/2$ along the transition line. Above this point, the transition between the Haldane insulator and charge-density-wave phases becomes first order.