Spin dynamics from time-dependent spin-density-functional theory

We derive the spin-wave dynamics of a magnetic material from the time-dependent spin-density-functional theory in the linear response regime. The equation of motion for the magnetization includes, besides the static spin stiffness, a "Berry curvature" correction and a damping term. A gradient expansion scheme based on the homogeneous spin-polarized electron gas is proposed for the latter two quantities, and the first few coefficients of the expansion are calculated to second order in the Coulomb interaction.     

Spin-wave spectrum of a two-dimensional itinerant electron system: Analytic results for the incommensurate spiral phase in the strong-coupling limit

We study the zero-temperature spin fluctuations of a two-dimensional itinerant-electron system with an incommensurate magnetic ground state described by a single-band Hubbard Hamiltonian. We introduce the (broken-symmetry) magnetic phase at the mean-field (Hartree-Fock) level through a spiral spin configuration with characteristic wave vector Q different in general from the antiferromagnetic wave vector Q _AF, and consider spin fluctuations over and above it within the electronic random-phase (RPA) approximation. We obtain a closed system of equations for the generalized wave vector and frequency dependent susceptibilities, which are equivalent to the ones reported recently by Brenig. We obtain, in addition, analytic results for the spin-wave dispersion relation in the strong-coupling limit of the Hubbard Hamiltonian and find that at finite doping the spin-wave dispersion relation has a hybrid form between that associated with the (localized) Heisenberg model and that associated with the (long-range) RKKY exchange interaction. We also find an instability of the spin-wave spectrum in a finite region about the center of the Brillouin zone, which signals a physical instability toward a different spin- or, possibly, charge-ordered phase, as, for example, the stripe structures observed in the high-T _c materials. We expect, however, on physical grounds that for wave vectors external to this region the spin-wave spectrum that we have determined should survive consideration of more sophisticated mean-field solutions. Received 15 September 2000     

Spin dynamics for 2d Heisenberg antiferromagnets with combined easy-plane and Dzyaloshinsky interactions

We investigate the spin dynamics of the classical two-dimensional easy-plane Heisenberg antiferromagnet with an additional Dzyaloshinsky interaction, which serves as a simple model for Langmuir-Blodgett films of Mn (C₁₈H₃₅O₂)₂. By mapping the system onto a pure easy-plane model we discuss the corresponding spin wave and vortex dynamics. The additional Dzyaloshinsky interaction forces all spins to cant in a certain direction, which is the same for neighboring spins on different sublattices. This canting causes the presence of a second spin wave peak in the dynamical in-plane correlation function below the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature T_KT and a second vortex central peak above T_KT. Using a vortex gas approach we explicitly calculate the contribution of the free vortices to several dynamical correlation functions. These results are compared to a combined Monte Carlo-Molecular Dynamics simulation on square lattices with different sizes. We also discuss the relevance of this simple model for describing the spin dynamics of Mn (C₁₈H₃₅O₂)₂.     

Spin susceptibilities and the theory of itinerant-electron antiferromagnetism

This article investigates the equilibrium states of antiferromagnetic itinerant-electron systems in the Hartree-Fock approximation. As a result, the spin susceptibilities are determined in the random phase approximation. The lowlying collective excitations are then obtained by finding the poles of these susceptibilities.

We start by giving a brief review of the Hartree-Fock procedure and by indicating how the susceptibilities are obtained. The density matrix approach, where the ground state is interpreted as that minimizing the energy, is used throughout. Using an effective Coulomb interaction of the Hubbard type we consider two distinct systems: a one-band system with an incommensurate spin density wave in its ground state, and a many-band simply commensurate model for f.c.c. manganese.

The first of these is such that the band structure and resulting susceptibilities can be obtained explicitly. The spin-wave energies and wave-vectors are found by a careful, small energy and momentum transfer, expansion of these susceptibilities for the case of a parabolic band. The spin-wave damping, which is shown to arise from spin-wave decay into quasiparticle quasihole pairs, is also obtained for this band structure.

For the case of f.c.c. manganese the antiferromagnetic bands are obtained from a realistic 9-band paramagnetic model by using a many-band generalization of the Hubbard interaction. The enhanced spin susceptibilities are calculated, using the tetrahedral Brillouin zone integration method, and are presented along with their associated collective excitations. The results obtained are discussed with particular reference to the many-band effects. These effects are shown to be very much dependent on the particular form of interaction used.     

Magnetization of a chain-like antiferromagnet

The temperature dependence of sublattice magnetizations in a chain-like antiferromagnet is investigated by the spin-wave theory considering kinematical interaction and dynamical interaction. For the latter the biquadratic terms are treated in the mean field approximation. The theory for zero-point spin reduction by Herbert and Ishikawa and Oguchi is extended to finite temperatures following Thermo-Field Dynamics approach by Takahashi. Numerical calculations for KCuF₃ show that the kinematical interaction plays an important role for the spontaneous magnetization, and when the effect of dynamical interaction is taken into account, the results obtained come nearer to the experimental ones.     

Charge and spin dynamics in antiferromagnetic metallic phase of iron-based superconductors

The electronic states, charge dynamics, and spin dynamics in the antiferromagnetic metallic phase of iron-arsenide superconductors are investigated by mean-field calculations for a five-band Hubbard model. Taking into account the difference of observed magnetic moments between LaFeAsO (1111 system) and BaFe₂As₂ (122 system), we investigate the effect of the magnitude of the moments on band dispersion, optical conductivity, and dynamical spin susceptibility. We clarify how the magnitude affects on these quantities and predict different behaviors between the 1111 and 122 systems in the antiferromagnetic metallic phase.     

Time-dependent thermodynamic properties of the Ising model from damage spreading

The relationship between damage spreading and static thermodynamic properties in the Ising model developed by Coniglioet al. is here extended to include time-dependent thermodynamic quantities. We exploit this new result to measure the time-dependent spin correlation function from damage spreading in the Ising model with heat bath and Glauber dynamics. Until now, only static thermodynamic quantities have been correctly determined from damage spreading, and even then, only with heat bath dynamics. We also show that there are significant differences between the kinetics of damage spreading as found in heat bath and Glauber dynamics.     

A Resonance Theory for Open Quantum Systems with Time-Dependent Dynamics

We develop a resonance theory to describe the evolution of open systems with time-dependent dynamics. Our approach is based on piecewise constant Hamiltonians: we represent the evolution on each constant bit using a recently developed dynamical resonance theory, and we piece them together to obtain the total evolution. The initial state corresponding to one time-interval with constant Hamiltonian is the final state of the system corresponding to the interval before. This results in a non-Markovian dynamics. We find a representation of the dynamics in terms of resonance energies and resonance states associated to the Hamiltonians, valid for all times t≥0 and for small (but fixed) interaction strengths. The representation has the form of a path integral over resonances. We present applications to a spin-fermion system, where the energy levels of the spin may undergo rather arbitrary crossings in the course of time. In particular, we find the probability for transition between ground- and excited state at all times.     

A new approach to electron-electron interactions in strongly correlated systems at arbitrary spin-polarization and temperature

The uniform electron fluid is the reference model for density functional calculations. Even for this system, many-body perturbation theory, and related methods become questionable when the density parameter r_s exceeds unity. Hence, quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation has been almost the only applicable method. We review a new approach, which uses a mapping of the quantum fluid to a classical Coulomb fluid, based on density-functional concepts. It is applicable at finite temperatures and arbitrary spin polarizations as well, and correctly recovers even the logarithmic terms in the exchange and correlations energies close to T=0. We show by detailed comparison with available QMC data that the method yields accurate pair-distribution functions, spin-dependent energies, static local-field factors, Landau parameter-based quantities like m∗ and g∗, for strongly coupled electron fluids.     

Analytic evidence of the equivalence of the alternating Heisenberg spin chain to the mixed spin (1, 1/2) Heisenberg chain

We investigated the properties of the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain using the spin-wave theory. The spin-wave excitation spectra, the sublattice magnetizations and the local bond energies of the model are calculated to be compared with the corresponding properties of the mixed spin (1, 1/2) chain for a range of α. The results demonstrate that all the properties show similar behaviours in the small α limit, so the properties of the mixed spin (1, 1/2) chain can be described using the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain.     

Quantum XY spin glass model with planar Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in longitudinal field

In the replica symmetric approximation and static limit in Matsubara “imaginary time”, the quantum XY spin glass model with planar Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in longitudinal field is investigated. Several thermodynamic quantities are calculated numerically as well as spin self-interaction and spin glass order parameter for spin S=1/2. It is shown that the entropy is not independent of the field. A crossover behavior of the specific heat depending on temperature is found. There is a deviation from the parabolic approximation, C/T=A+Bh ² . Received 11 March 1998     

Non-equilibrium critical behavior of O(n)-symmetric systems

Phase transitions in non-equilibrium steady states of O(n)-symmetric models with reversible mode couplings are studied using dynamic field theory and the renormalization group. The systems are driven out of equilibrium by dynamical anisotropy in the noise for the conserved quantities, i.e., by constraining their diffusive dynamics to be at different temperatures and in - and -dimensional subspaces, respectively. In the case of the Sasvári-Schwabl-Szépfalusy (SSS) model for planar ferro- and isotropic antiferromagnets, we assume a dynamical anisotropy in the noise for the non-critical conserved quantities that are dynamically coupled to the non-conserved order parameter. We find the equilibrium fixed point (with isotropic noise) to be stable with respect to these non-equilibrium perturbations, and the familiar equilibrium exponents therefore describe the asymptotic static and dynamic critical behavior. Novel critical features are only found in extreme limits, where the ratio of the effective noise temperatures is either zero or infinite. On the other hand, for model J for isotropic ferromagnets with a conserved order parameter, the dynamical noise anisotropy induces effective long-range elastic forces, which lead to a softening only of the -dimensional sector in wavevector space with lower noise temperature . The ensuing static and dynamic critical behavior is described by power laws of a hitherto unidentified universality class, which, however, is not accessible by perturbational means for .We obtain formal expressions for the novel critical exponents in a double expansion about the static and dynamic upper critical dimensions and , i.e., about the equilibrium theory.     

Critical behaviour near the metal-insulator transition of a doped Mott insulator

We have studied the critical behaviour of a doped Mott insulator near the metal-insulator transition for the infinite-dimensional Hubbard model using a linearized form of dynamical mean-field theory. The discontinuity in the chemical potential in the change from hole to electron doping, for U larger than a critical value U _c, has been calculated analytically and is found to be in good agreement with the results of numerical methods. We have also derived analytic expressions for the compressibility, the quasiparticle weight, the double occupancy and the local spin susceptibility near half-filling as functions of the on-site Coulomb interaction and the doping. Received 15 March 2001 and Received in final form 22 May 2001     

Dynamics of collective decoherence and thermalization

We analyze the dynamics of N interacting spins (quantum register) collectively coupled to a thermal environment. Each spin experiences the same environment interaction, consisting of an energy conserving and an energy exchange part.We find the decay rates of the reduced density matrix elements in the energy basis. We show that if the spins do not interact among each other, then the fastest decay rates of off-diagonal matrix elements induced by the energy conserving interaction is of order N², while that one induced by the energy exchange interaction is of the order N only. Moreover, the diagonal matrix elements approach their limiting values at a rate independent of N. For a general spin system the decay rates depend in a rather complicated (but explicit) way on the size N and the interaction between the spins.Our method is based on a dynamical quantum resonance theory valid for small, fixed values of the couplings. We do not make Markov-, Born- or weak coupling (van Hove) approximations.     

High energy spin dynamics of La2CuO4 and La1.9Sr0.1CuO4

The magnetic excitations in La₂CuO₄ and La_1.9Sr_0.1CuO₄ were studied by inelastic neutron scattering up to energies of 76 meV. For the pure sample, the results forE15 meV can be well described by conventional spin wave theory with a spin wave velocity c=0.89±0.07 eVÅ. For lower energies, the observed intensities were somewhat higher than expected from spin wave theory and did not follow the Bose-Einstein factor. For the doped sample, the linewidth in constant-E scans at smallE shows a very short correlation length of =7.5 Å only, which is considerably below the value expected from the concentration dependence reported by other authors. An increase of the linewidth for largeE indicates a reduced spin-wave stiffness when compared to the undoped material. However, the use of a spin-wave picture may not be appropriate as the standard expression for damped spin waves in a paramagnetic material is in serious conflict with experiment.     

Monte Carlo study of the antiferromagnetical Ising model on a centred honeycomb lattice

We use the Monte Carlo method to study an antiferromagnetical Ising spin system on a centred honeycomb lattice, which is composed of two kinds of 1/2 spin particles A and B. There exist two different bond energies J_A-A and J_A-B in this lattice. Our study is focused on how the ratio of J_A-B to J_A-A influences the critical behaviour of this system by analysing the physical quantities, such as the energy, the order parameter, the specific heat, susceptibility, {etc} each as a function of temperature for a given ratio of J_A-B to J_A-A. Using these results together with the finite-size scaling method, we obtain a phase diagram for the ratio J_A-B / J_A-A. This work is helpful for studying the phase transition problem of crystals composed of compounds.     

Dynamical precession of spin in the two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled systems

We investigate the spin dynamics in the two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled system subject to an in-plane (x-y plane) constant electric field, which is assumed to be turned on at the moment $t=0$. The equation of spin precession in linear response to the switch-on of the electric field is derived in terms of Heisenberg's equation by the perturbation method up to the first order of the electric field. The dissipative effect, which is responsible for bringing the dynamical response to an asymptotic result, is phenomenologically implemented à la the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation by introducing damping terms upon the equation of spin dynamics. Mediated by the dissipative effect, the resulting spin dynamics asymptotes to a stationary state, where the spin and the momentum-dependent effective magnetic field are aligned again and have nonzero components in the out-of-plane (z) direction. In the linear response regime, the asymptotic response obtained by the dynamical treatment is in full agreement with the stationary response as calculated in the Kubo formula, which is a time-independent approach treating the applied electric field as completely time-independent. Our method provides a new perspective on the connection between the dynamical and stationary responses.     

Critical dynamics of magnets

We review our current understanding of the critical dynamics of magnets above and below the transition temperature with focus on the effects due to the dipole-dipole interaction present in all real magnets. Significant progress in our understanding of real ferromagnets in the vicinity of the critical point has been made in the last decade through improved experimental techniques and theoretical advances in taking into account realistic spin-spin interactions. We start our review with a discussion of the theoretical results for the critical dynamics based on recent renormalization group, mode coupling and spin-wave theories. A detailed comparison is made of the theory with experimental results obtained by different measuring techniques, such as neutron scattering, hyperfine interaction, muon spin resonance, electron spin resonance, and magnetic relaxation, in various materials. Furthermore we discuss the effects of dipolar interaction on the critical dynamics of three-dimensional isotropic antiferromagnets and uniaxial ferromagnets. Special attention is also paid to a discussion of the consequences of dipolar anisotropies on the existence of magnetic order and the spin-wave spectrum in two-dimensional ferromagnets and antiferromagnets. We close our review with a formulation of critical dynamics in terms of nonlinear Langevin equations.     

Spin-correlations and low lying excited states of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice

The ground state and the lowest excited states of the spin 1/2-Heisenberg model are investigated by exact diagonalization and variational Monte Carlo techniques. Our trial state represents a generalization of a wave function introduced by Hulthen, Kasteleijn and Marshall. The long range character of the spin-correlation function is in excellent agreement with exact diagonalization and also with recent neutron scattering results for La₂CuO₄. The asymptotic behavior of the spin-correlation function is found to differ from spin-wave theory. From the exact (N<=20 spins) and variational (N<=400) ground state energies we determine as asymptotic values 1.3025 and 1.288, respectively. We calculate the dispersion for the spin-wave excitations and identify an excited triplet which becomes degenerate with the ground state in the thermodynamic limit. This triplet state allows spontaneous symmetry breaking to occur atT=0 K. Quantum fluctuations reduce the sublattice magnetization to an effective value of 0.195 (3) as compared to the Néel-state value of 1/2.     

A model for strongly coupled spin waves

The connection between a model of coupled oscillators and the system of coupled spin waves is discussed. Also the region ofk-space is estimated in which the spin-wave amplitudes have appreciable magnitude when a normal mode of coupled spin waves is excited.