Magnetic phase diagram of the dimerized spin S = 1/2 ladder

The ground-state magnetic phase diagram of a spin S=1/2 two-leg ladder with alternating rung exchange J_⊥(n)=J_⊥[1 + (-1)ⁿ δ] is studied using the analytical and numerical approaches. In the limit where the rung exchange is dominant, we have mapped the model onto the effective quantum sine-Gordon model with topological term and identified two quantum phase transitions at magnetization equal to the half of saturation value from a gapped to the gapless regime. These quantum transitions belong to the universality class of the commensurate-incommensurate phase transition. We have also shown that the magnetization curve of the system exhibits a plateau at magnetization equal to the half of the saturation value. We also present a detailed numerical analysis of the low energy excitation spectrum and the ground state magnetic phase diagram of the ladder with rung-exchange alternation using Lanczos method of numerical diagonalizations for ladders with number of sites up to N = 28. We have calculated numerically the magnetic field dependence of the low-energy excitation spectrum, magnetization and the on-rung spin-spin correlation function. We have also calculated the width of the magnetization plateau and show that it scales as δ^ν, where critical exponent varies from ν = 0.87±0.01 in the case of a ladder with isotropic antiferromagnetic legs to ν = 1.82±0.01 in the case of ladder with ferromagnetic legs. Obtained numerical results are in an complete agreement with estimations made within the continuum-limit approach.     

Energy gap of spin nanotube

Recently some quantum spin systems on tube lattices, so-called spin nanotubes, have been synthesized. They are expected to be interesting low-dimensional systems like the carbon nanotubes. As a first step of theoretical study on the spin nanotube, we investigate the three-leg spin tube, which is the simplest one, using numerical analyses of finite clusters and a finite-size scaling technique. The spin gap, which is one of the most interesting quantities reflecting the macroscopic quantum effect, was revealed to be open for any finite rung exchange couplings, in contrast to the three-leg spin ladder system which is gapless. We also found a quantum phase transition caused by an asymmetric rung interaction. When one of the three rung coupling constants is changed, the spin gap vanishes very rapidly.     

Dimensional crossover in alternating spin chains

The effect of antiferromagnetic interchain coupling in alternating spin chains is studied by means of spin wave (SW) theory and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). Two limiting cases are investigated, the two-leg ladder and its two-dimensional (2D) generalization. For the 2D case, SW approximation predicts a smooth-dimensional crossover keeping the ground state ordered, whereas in the ladder case the DMRG results show a gapped ground state for any J>0. Furthermore, the behavior of the correlation functions closely resemble the uniform spin- ladder. However, for small J, the gap behaves quadratically as Δ0.6J². Similarly to uniform spin chains, it is conjectured an analogous spin gap behavior for an arbitrary number of mixed spin chains.     

Quantum Phase Diagram of an Exactly Solved Mixed Spin Ladder

We investigate the quantum phase diagram of the exactly solved mixed spin-(1/2,1) ladder via the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA). In the absence of a magnetic field the model exhibits three quantum phases associated with su(2), su(4), and su(6) symmetries. In the presence of a strong magnetic field, there is a third and full saturation magnetization plateaux within the strong antiferromagnetic rung coupling regime. Gapless and gapped phases appear in turn as the magnetic field increases. For weak rung coupling, the fractional magnetization plateau vanishs and the model undergoes new quantum phase transitions. However, in the ferromagnetic coupling regime, the system does not have a third saturation magnetization plateau. The critical behaviour in the vicinity of the critical points is also derived systematically using the TBA.     

Ground-state properties and quantum entanglement in rung-dimerized spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic ladder

The ground-state properties and quantum entanglement of the two-leg rung-dimerized spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic ladders are investigated based on the Green? function combined with the Bond mean-field theory. Numerical results show that the ground-state energies do not change with the rung dimerization, and the ground-state gaps are almost proportionate to the rung dimerization coefficient δ and coupling strength α  . Magnetization curves and entanglement measurements demonstrate that there are five magnetic phases, which are identified in the h–δ$h\text{–}\delta$ phase diagram. Entanglement measurements in different phases exhibit distinct behaviors, implying the fundamental differences of the five magnetic phases.     

两腿XXZ自旋梯子模型的量子相变与量子临界现象

对于无限大尺寸两腿自旋1/2的XXZ自旋梯子模型,通过运用基于随机行走的张量网络(TN)算法数值模拟出基态波函数,首次尝试研究自旋梯子模型的约化保真度、普适序参量、纠缠熵等物理观测量,并系统研究基态保真度的三维挤点与二维分叉、约化保真度的分叉、局域序参量、普适序参量、纠缠熵和量子相变之间存在的关联关系.基于张量网络表示的算法在任意随机选择初始状态时,可以得到两腿XXZ量子自旋梯子系统简并的对称破缺基态波函数,该基态波函数是由于Z2对称破缺引起的.本文期望所提供的方法可为进一步研究凝聚态物质中热力学极限下的强关联电子量子晶格自旋梯子系统的量子相变和量子临界现象提供一种更有效的强大的工具.     

Quantum Monte Carlo study of hard-core bosons in Creutz ladder with zero flux

The quantum phase of hard-core bosons in Creutz ladder with zero flux is studied.For a specific regime of the parameters(t_x=t_p,t_y0),the exact ground-state is found analytically,which is a dimerized insulator with one electron bound in each rung of the ladder.For the case t_x,t_y,t_p0,the system is exactly studied using quantum Monte Carlo(QMC)method without a sign problem.It is found that the system is a Mott insulator for small t_p and a quantum phase transition to a superfluid phase is driven by increasing t_p.The critical t~c _pis determined precisely by a scaling analysis.Since it is possible that the Creutz ladder is realized experimentally,the theoretical results are interesting to the cold-atom experiments.     

Thermal conductivity of anisotropic spin-1/2 two leg ladder: Green’s function approach

We study the thermal transport of a spin-1/2 two leg antiferromagnetic ladder in the direction of legs. The possible effect of spin-orbit coupling and crystalline electric field are investigated in terms of anisotropies in the Heisenberg interactions on both leg and rung couplings. The original spin ladder is mapped to a bosonic model via a bond-operator transformation, where an infinite hard-core repulsion is imposed to constrain one boson occupation per site. The Green’s function approach is applied to obtain the energy spectrum of quasi-particle excitations responsible for thermal transport. The thermal conductivity is found to be monotonically decreasing with temperature due to increased scattering among triplet excitations at higher temperatures. A tiny dependence of thermal transport on the anisotropy in the leg direction at low temperatures is observed in contrast to the strong one on the anisotropy along the rung direction, due to the direct effect of the triplet densities. Our results reach asymptotically the ballistic regime of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain and present a complement regime for the exact diagonalization data.     

Thermal conductivity of the hole-doped spin ladder system Sr14-xCaxCu24O41

The thermal conductivity of the spin-1/2 ladder system Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 ( x = 0, 2, and 12) has been measured both along ( kappa(c)) and perpendicular to ( kappa(a)) the ladder direction at temperatures between 5 and 300 K. While the temperature dependence of kappa(a) is typical for phonon heat transport, an unusual double-peak structure is observed for kappa(c)(T). We interpret this unexpected feature as a manifestation of quasi-one-dimensional magnon thermal transport mediated by spin excitations along the ladders.     

Exact solution and magnetic properties of an anisotropic spin ladder

We study an integrable two-leg spin-1/2 ladder with an XYZ-type rung interaction. The exact rung states and rung energies are obtained for the anisotropic rung coupling in the presence of a magnetic field. The magnetic properties are analyzed at both zero and finite temperatures via the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz and the high-temperature expansion. According to different couplings in the anisotropic rung interaction, there are two cases in which a gap opens, where the ground state involves one or two components in the absence of a magnetic field. We obtain the analytic expressions of all critical fields for the field-induced quantum phase transitions (QPT). The anisotropic rung interaction leads to such effects as separated magnetizations and susceptibilities in different directions, lowered inflection points, and remnant weak variation of the magnetization after the last QPT.Received: 21 May 2004, Published online: 30 September 2004PACS: 75.10.Jm Quantized spin models - 75.30.Kz Magnetic phase boundaries (including magnetic transitions, metamagnetism, etc.) - 75.40.Cx Static properties (order parameter, static susceptibility, heat capacities, critical exponents, etc.)     

Phase diagram of frustrated mixed-spin ladders in the strong-coupling limit

We study the ground-state properties of frustrated Heisenberg ferrimagnetic ladders with antiferromagnetic exchange interactions and two types of alternating sublattice spins. In the limit of strong rung couplings, we show that the mixed spin-1/2 and spin-1 ladders can be systematically mapped onto a spin-1/2 Heisenberg model with additional next-nearest-neighbor exchanges. The system is either in a ferrimagnetic state or in a critical spin-liquid state depending on the competition between the spin exchanges along the legs and the diagonal exchanges.     

The ground state phase diagrams and low-energy excitation of dimer XXZ spin ladder

We study the ground state and low-energy excitation of dimer XXZ spin ladder with Heisenberg and XXZ interactions along the rung and rail directions, respectively. Using a bond operator method, we get low-energy effective Hamiltonians in different parameter regions. Based on those low-energy effective Hamiltonians, we set up the ground state phase diagrams and investigate the properties of low-energy excitation in each phase. We will show that the results are exact one when the XXZ interactions along rail reduce to the Ising type. The quantum Monte Carlo and exact diagonalization methods are also applied to the finite system to verify the exact nature of the phases, the phase transitions and the low-energy excitation. Of all the phases, we pay a special attention to the gapped antiferromagnetic phase, which is disclosed to be a non-trivial one that exhibits the time-reversal symmetry. We also discuss how our findings could be realized and detected by using cold atoms in optical lattice.     

Density-matrix renormalization group study of the spin-Peierls instability in the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg ladder

The columnar dimerized antiferromagnetic S?=?1/2 spin ladder is numerically studied by the density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) method. The elastic lattice with spin-phonon coupling ?? and lattice elastic force k is introduced into the system. Thus the S?=?1?/?2 Heisenberg spin chain is unstable towards dimerization (the spin-Peierls transition). However, the dimerization should be suppressed if the rung coupling J _?? is sufficiently large, and a Columnar dimer to Rung singlet phase transition takes place. After a self-consistent calculation of the dimerization, we determine the quantum phase diagram by numerically computing the singlet-triplet gap, the dimerization amplitude, the order parameters, the rung spin correlation and quantum entropies. Our results show that the phase boundary between the Columnar dimer phase and Rung singlet phase is approximately of the form J _?? ~ \hbox{$(\frac{k}{\alpha^{2}})^{-\frac{5}{4}}$} ( k ?? 2 ) ? 5 4.     

Ground-state information geometry and quantum criticality in an inhomogeneous spin model

We investigate the ground-state Riemannian metric and the cyclic quantum distance of an inhomogeneous quantum spin-1/2 chain in a transverse field. This model can be diagonalized by using a general canonical transformation to the fermionic Hamiltonian mapped from the spin system. The ground-state Riemannian metric is derived exactly on a parameter manifold ring S1, which is introduced by performing a gauge transformation to the spin Hamiltonian through a twist operator. The cyclic ground-state quantum distance and the second derivative of the ground-state energy are studied in different exchange coupling parameter regions. Particularly, we show that, in the case of exchange coupling parameter J a = J b, the quantum ferromagnetic phase can be characterized by an invariant quantum distance and this distance will decay to zero rapidly in the paramagnetic phase.     

A two-leg spin ladder model for fumarate-bridged chain-like polymer of Cu(II)

In this paper, the transfer matrix renormalization group method is used to study the thermodynamic and the magnetic properties of a novel one-dimensional fumarate-bridged Cu(II) chain by a two kinds of models. One simplified model is that of the dominant ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic alternating chain, which is only in rough agreement with the experimental results. Further research shows a possible mechanism of alternating strong ferromagnetic and weak antiferromagnetic interaction among one chain. Considering the weak antiferromagnetic interaction existing in the actual materials, we propose a two-leg spin ladder model with intrachain ferromagnetic and weak interchain antiferromagnetic interaction. The obtained theoretical results are in quite good agreement with experimental curves, which indicates the two-leg spin ladder model is appropriate to describe the fumarate-bridged chain-like polymer of Cu(II).     

梯形自旋链的一种规范场论的形式

考虑无质量费米场和规范场的Pauli相互作用项的系统,在这一理论中耦合常数为无量纲量.该模型等价于自旋1/2反铁磁XXZ量子链.如在模型中引入费米场的味自由度,则可定性描述二条自旋链的梯形结构系统.在这一系统中不再存在无能隙激发. 关键词： 梯形结构 规范场 自旋链     

Excitations in a four-leg antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin tube

Inelastic neutron scattering is used to investigate magnetic excitations in the quasi-one-dimensional quantum spin-liquid system Cu(2)Cl(4).D(8)C(4)SO(2). Contrary to previously conjectured models that relied on bond-alternating nearest-neighbor interactions in the spin chains, the dominant interactions are actually next-nearest-neighbor in-chain antiferromagnetic couplings. The appropriate Heisenberg Hamiltonian is equivalent to that of a S=1/2 4-leg spin-tube with almost perfect one dimensionality and no bond alternation. A partial geometric frustration of rung interactions induces a small incommensurability of short-range spin correlations.     

Evidence for an anisotropy-induced non-collinear spin state in exchange-coupled Co/Cu(001)

The magnetization behaviour of a Co/Cu/Co(001) sandwich has been studied by magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements. The sample was grown by molecular beam epitaxy onto a sapphire (1 .2) substrate with a Cu/Cr/Nb(001) buffer system. The copper layer had the form of a wedge with the thickness range chosen to be around the second region of antiferromagnetic exchange coupling. The hysteresis loops in the regime of weak antiferromagnetic coupling show characteristic steps, which can be explained by an anisotropy-induced non-collinear spin state. Indication for a similar behaviour is also found in the regime of strong antiferromagnetic coupling. This behaviour is explained by taking into account the competition between anisotropy, interlayer exchange coupling and external field energy. The nature of this metastable non-collinear magnetization state is in marked contrast to the biquadratic (90°) exchange coupling which was discovered in Fe/Cr(001).     

Energy-level ordering for frustrated spin ladder models

The Lieb—Mattis theorem about ordering of energy levels is generalized to frustrated antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 ladder model with diagonal and four-spin interaction.     

Possible evidence of a spontaneous spin polarization in mesoscopic two-dimensional electron systems

We have experimentally studied the nonequilibrium transport in low-density clean two-dimensional (2D) electron systems at mesoscopic length scales. At zero magnetic field (B), a double-peak structure in the nonlinear conductance was observed close to the Fermi energy in the localized regime. From the behavior of these peaks at nonzero B, we could associate them with the opposite spin states of the system, indicating a spontaneous spin polarization at B=0. Detailed temperature and disorder dependence of the structure shows that such a splitting is a ground-state property of low-density 2D systems.