  We show that quantum correlations as quantified by quantum discord can
characterize quantum phase transitions by exhibiting nontrivial long-range
decay as a function of distance in spin systems. This is rather different from
the behavior of pairwise entanglement, which is typically short-ranged even in
critical systems. In particular, we find a clear change in the decay rate of
quantum discord as the system crosses a quantum critical point. We illustrate
this phenomenon for first-order, second-order, and infinite-order quantum phase
transitions, indicating that pairwise quantum discord is an appealing quantum
correlation function for condensed matter systems.
