Using the matrix product formalism, we define a multi-parameter family of spin models on one dimensional chains, with nearest and next-nearest neighbor anti-ferromagnetic interaction for which exact analytical expressions can be found for its doubly degenerate ground states. The family of Hamiltonians which we define, depend on 5 continuous parameters and the Majumdar-Ghosh model is a particular point in this parameter space. Like the Majumdar-Ghosh model, the doubly degenerate ground states of our models have a very simple structure, they are the product of entangled states on adjacent sites. In each of these states there is a non-zero staggered magnetization, which vanishes when we take their translation-invariant combination as the new ground states. At the Majumdar-Ghosh point, these entangled states become the spin-singlets pertaining to this model. We will also calculate in closed form the two point correlation functions, both for finite size of the chain and in the thermodynamic limit.
We describe a Peierls dimerization which occurs in ferromagnetic spin chains at finite temperature, within the modified spin-wave theory. Usual spin-wave theory is modified by introducing a Lagrange multiplier which enforces a nonmagnetic state at finite temperature. It is shown that this method gives results in excellent agreement with the density--matrix renormalization group applied to transfer matrices for dimerized ferromagnetic chains. We study bond correlation functions and explore the characteristic features of dimerization in the specific heat.
We present a condition in which the dimer-monomer state is exactly the ground state of an extended diamond chain with spin magnitude 1/2. The Hamiltonian of the extended diamond chain includes next-nearest-neighbor exchange interactions and distortions, where the spin magnitude of the spin pair on a singlet dimer is not generally conserved. The method of deriving the condition is based on representing the Hamiltonian in a complete square form. The dimer-monomer ground state is found even if the Hamiltonian has no space-reflection symmetries.
Ferromagnetic, in contrast to antiferromagnetic, Heisenberg chains can undergo a Spin-Peierls dimerization only at finite temperatures. They show reentrant behavior as a function of temperature, which might play a role for systems with small effective elastic constants as, for example, monatomic chains on surfaces. We investigate the physical properties of the dimerized ferromagnetic Heisenberg chain using a modified spin-wave theory. We calculate the exponentially decaying spin and dimer correlation functions, analyze the temperature dependence of the corresponding coherence lengths, the susc…
The dimer-plaquette chain undergoes a first order transition driven by frustration to an orthogonal dimer ground state. We analyze the magnetization curve in this orthogonal dimer regime. Besides of the recently found magnetization plateaus at m=1/4 and the m=1/2 we find an infinite sequence of plateaus between m=1/4 and m=1/2. These additional plateaus belong to magnetizations m(n)=n/(2n+2), where n is a positive integer number.
We study the occurrence of ground-state factorization in dimerized $XY$ spin chains in a transverse field. Together with the usual ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic regimes, a third case emerges, with no analogous in translationally-invariant systems, consisting of an antiferromagnetic Neél-type ground state where pairs of spins represent the unitary cell. Then, we calculate the exact solution of the model and show that the factorizing field represent an accidental degeneracy point of the Hamiltonian. Finally, we extend the study of the existence of ground-state factorization to a more gener…
We consider the dimerized spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with spin hexameric distortion of the exchange pattern and study the zero-temperature phase diagram in the parameter space $(J_{1}, J_{2}, J_{3})$ by continuum-limit bosonization approach and the exact diagonalization method. The phase diagram is rich and has two gaped dimer phases. We obtain an estimate of the critical line separating the different gapped dimer phases by the bosonization approach. The existence of the transition line and the difference between dimer phases is checked numerically. The behavior of the energy gap and the dimer …
We investigate quantum phase transitions in the frustrated orthogonal-dimer chain with an arbitrary spin $S \geq 1/2$. When the ratio of the competing exchange couplings is varied, first-order phase transitions occur 2S times among distinct spin-gap phases. The introduction of single-ion anisotropy further enriches the phase diagram. The phase transitions described by the present model possess most of the essential properties inherent in frustrated quantum spin systems.
We consider the dimerized spin-1 $XXZ$ chain with single-ion anisotropy $D$. In absence of an explicit dimerization there are three phases: a large-$D$, an antiferromagnetically ordered and a Haldane phase. This phase structure persists up to a critical dimerization, above which the Haldane phase disappears. We show that for weak dimerization the phases are separated by Gaussian and Ising quantum phase transitions. One of the Ising transitions terminates in a critical point in the universality class of the dilute Ising model. We comment on the relevance of our results to experiments on quasi-o…
The spin-1/2 Heisenberg orthogonal-dimer chain is considered within the perturbative strong-coupling approach, which is developed from the exactly solved spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg orthogonal-dimer chain with the Heisenberg intradimer and the Ising interdimer couplings. Although the spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg orthogonal-dimer chain exhibits just intermediate plateaux at zero, one-quarter and one-half of the saturation magnetization, the perturbative treatment up to second order stemming from this exactly solvable model additionally corroborates the fractional one-third plateau as well as the gap…
We study numerically the dimerized Heisenberg model with frustration appropriate for the quasi-1D spin-Peierls compound CuGeO$_3$. We present evidence for a bound state in the dynamical structure factor for any finite dimerization $δ$ and estimate the respective spectral weight. For the homogeneous case ($δ=0$) we show that the spin-wave velocity $v_s$ is renormalized by the n.n.n. frustration term $α$ as $v_s=π/2 J(1-bα)$ with $b\approx1.12$
The dynamical spin structure factor and the Raman response are calculated for structurally dimerized and spin-Peierls chains in a magnetic field, using exact diagonalization techniques. In both cases there is a spin liquid phase composed of interacting singlet dimers at small fields h < h_c1, an incommensurate regime (h_c1 < h < h_c2) in which the modulation of the triplet excitation spectra adapts to the applied field, and a fully spin polarized phase above an upper critical field h_c2. For structurally dimerized chains, the spin gap closes in the incommensurate phase, whereas spin-Peierls ch…
We present a unified account for the coupled single-hole- and spin-dynamics in the spin-gap phase of dimerized and frustrated spin-chains and two-leg spin ladders. Based on the strong dimer-limit of a one-dimensional $t_123$-$J_123$-model a diagrammatic approach is presented which employs a mapping of the spin-Hamiltonian onto a pseudo-fermion bond-boson model. Results for the single-hole spectrum are detailed. A finite quasi-particle weight is observed and studied for a variety of system parameters. A comparison with existing exact diagonalization data is performed and good agreement is found…
We investigate the low-energy properties of the orthogonal-dimer spin chain characterized by a frustrated dimer-plaquette structure. When the competing antiferromagnetic couplings are varied, the first-order quantum phase transition occurs between the dimer and the plaquette phases, which is accompanied by nontrivial features due to frustration: besides the discontinuity in the lowest excitation gap at the transition point, a sharp level-crossing occurs for the spectrum in the plaquette phase. We further reveal that the plateau in the magnetization curve at 1/4 of the full moment dramatically …
Thermalization is investigated for the one-dimensional anisotropic antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with dimerized nearest-neighbor interactions that break integrability. For this purpose the time evolution of local operator expectation values after an interacting quench is calculated directly with the Chebyshev polynomial expansion, and the deviation of the diagonal from the canonical thermal ensemble value is calculated for increasing system size for these operators. The spatial and spin symmetries of the Hamiltonian are taken into account to divide it into symmetry subsectors. The rate of…
We show that spin S Heisenberg spin chains with an additional three-body interaction of the form (S_{i-1}S_{i})(S_{i}S_{i+1})+h.c. possess fully dimerized ground states if the ratio of the three-body interaction to the bilinear one is equal to 1/(4S(S+1)-2). This result generalizes the Majumdar-Ghosh point of the J_1-J_2 chain, to which the present model reduces for S=1/2. For S=1, we use the density matrix renormalization group method (DMRG) to show that the transition between the Haldane and the dimerized phases is continuous with central charge c=3/2. Finally, we show that such a three-body…
In the present paper, we proposed a simple spin-1/2 model which provides a exactly solvable example to study the Ising criticality with central charge c=1/2. By mapping it onto the real Majorana fermions, the Ising critical behavior is explored explicitly, although its bosonized form is not the double frequency sine-Gordon model.
Magnetic excitations in a weakly coupled spin dimers and chains compound Cu2Fe2Ge4O13 are measured by inelastic neutron scattering. Both structure factors and dispersion of low energy excitations up to 10 meV energy transfer are well described by a semiclassical spin wave theory involving interacting Fe$^{3+}$ ($S = 5/2$) chains. Additional dispersionless excitations are observed at higher energies, at $\hbar ω= 24$ meV, and associated with singlet-triplet transitions within Cu$^{2+}$-dimers. Both types of excitations can be understood by treating weak interactions between the Cu$^{2+}$ and Fe…
We study spontaneous dimerization and emergent criticality in a spin-3/2 chain with antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor $J_1$, next-nearest-neighbor $J_2$ and three-site $J_3$ interactions. In the absence of three-site interaction $J_3$, we provide evidence that the model undergoes a remarkable sequence of three phase transitions as a function of $J_2/J_1$, going successively through a critical commesurate phase, a partially dimerized gapped phase, a critical floating phase with quasi-long-range incommensurate order, to end up in a fully dimerized phase at very large $J_2/J_1$. In the field the…
We study the frustrated dimer-plaquette quantum spin chain for ferromagnetic dimer bonds. This quantum system undergoes a series of first-order ground-state phase transitions driven by frustration or by a magnetic field. We find that the different nature of the ground-state phases has a strong influence on the magnetization curve as well as the low-temperature thermodynamics. In particular, the magnetization curve exhibits plateaus and jumps, the number of which depends on the strength of frustration. The temperature dependence of the susceptibility may either show activated spin-gap behaviour…
Applying the (infinite) density-matrix renormalisation group technique, we explore the effect of an explicit dimerisation on the ground-state phase diagram of the spin-1 $XXZ$ chain with single-ion anisotropy $D$. We demonstrate that the Haldane phase between large-$D$ and antiferromagnetic phases survives up to a critical dimerisation only. As a further new characteristic the dimerisation induces a direct continuous Ising quantum phase transition between the large-$D$ and antiferromagnetic phases with central charge $c=1/2$, which terminates at a critical end-point where $c=7/10$. Calculating…
Low-temperature magnetic properties of both classical and quantum dimerized ferromagnetic spin chains are studied. It is shown that at low temperatures the classical dimerized model reduces to the classical uniform model with the effective exchange integral $J_{0}=J(1-δ^{2})$, where $δ$ is the dimerization parameter. The partition function and spin correlation function are calculated by means of mapping to the continuum limit, which is justified at low temperatures. In the continuum limit the calculation of the partition function and spin correlation function is reduced to the eigenvalue probl…
Correlation functions of dimer operators, the product operators of spins on two adjacent sites, are studied in the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ XXZ chain in the critical regime. The amplitudes of the leading oscillating terms in the dimer correlation functions are determined with high accuracy as functions of the exchange anisotropy parameter and the external magnetic field, through the combined use of bosonization and density-matrix renormalization group methods. In particular, for the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with SU(2) symmetry, logarithmic corrections to the dimer correlations due to the m…
We study spontaneous dimerization transitions in a Heisenberg spin-1 chain with additional next-nearest neighbor (NNN) and 3-site interactions using extensive numerical simulations and a conformal field theory analysis. We show that the transition can be second order in the WZW SU(2)$_2$ or Ising universality class, or first-order. We argue that these features are generic because of a marginal operator in the WZW SU(2)$_2$ model, and because of two topologically distinct non-dimerized phases with or without edge states. We also provide explicit numerical evidence of conformal towers of singlet…
Using results on the mass gap in the sine-Gordon model combined with the exact amplitudes in the bosonized representation of the Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain and one-loop renormalization group, we derive a quantitative expression for the gap in a dimerized spin-1/2 chain. This expression is shown to be in good agreement with recent numerical estimates when a marginally irrelevant perturbation is taken into account.
This paper demonstrates that a computer aided perturbation theory can easily be realized by use of a cumulant approach. In contrast to a recent alternative formulation on the basis of Wegner's flow equation method the present approach can be applied to systems with arbitrary Hilbert space. In particular an equidistant spectrum of the unperturbed part of the Hamiltonian is not needed. The method is illustrated in detail for dimerized and frustrated spin 1/2 chains for which the ground state energy is calculated up to seventh order perturbation theory.
We demonstrate that a Peierls dimerization can occur in ferromagnetic spin chains activated by thermal fluctuations. The dimer order parameter and entanglement measures are studied as functions of the modulation of the magnetic exchange interaction and temperature, using a spin-wave theory and the density-matrix renormalization group. We discuss the case where a periodic modulation is caused by spin-phonon coupling and the case where electronic states effectively induce such a modulation. The importance of the latter for a number of transition metal oxides is highlighted.
We consider an exactly solvable version of the quantum spin-1/2 orthogonal-dimer chain with the Heisenberg intra-dimer and Ising inter-dimer couplings. The investigated quantum spin system exhibits at zero temperature fractional plateaux at 1/4 and 1/2 of the saturation magnetization and it has a highly degenerate ground state at critical fields where the magnetization jumps. We study the field dependence of the specific heat at low temperature. The lattice-gas description is formulated in a vicinity of critical fields to explain the low-temperature behaviour of specific heat.
A new kind of spin-1 chain Hamiltonian consisting of competing dimer and trimer projection operators is proposed. As the relative strengths and signs of the interactions are varied, the model exhibits a number of different phases including the gapped dimer phase and the gapless trimer phase with critical correlations described by a conformal field theory with central charge $c=2$. A symmetry-protected topological phase also exists in this model, even though the microscopic interactions are not the simple adiabatic extensions of the well-known Heisenberg and the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki mode…
Comparing numerically evaluated excitation gaps of dimerized spin-1/2 XXZ chains with the gap formula for the low-energy effective sine-Gordon theory, we determine coefficients d_xy and d_z of bosonized dimerization operators in spin-1/2 XXZ chains, which are defined as (-1)j(S^x_j S^x_j+1 +S^y_j S^y_j+1) = d_xy sin(\sqrt{4pi}phi(x))+ ... and (-1)^j S^z_j S^z_j+1 = d_z sin(sqrt{4pi}phi(x)) + .... We also calculate the coefficients of both spin and dimer operators for the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain with a nearest-neighbor coupling J and a next-nearest-neighbor coupling J2 = 0.2…
The spin-1/2 chain with XY anisotropic coupling in the plane and the XX isotropic dimerized chain are shown to be equivalent in the bulk. For finite systems we prove that the equivalence is exact in given parity sectors, after taking care of the precise boundary conditions. The proof is given constructively by finding unitary transformations that map the models onto each other. Moreover, we considerably generalized our mapping and showed that even in case of fully site dependent couplings the XY chain can be mapped onto an XX model. This result has potential application in the study of disorde…
The quantum spin-1/2 orthogonal-dimer chain with the Heisenberg intra-dimer and Ising inter-dimer interactions in a magnetic field is considered by a rigorous approach. The model conserves the z-component of total spin on vertical Heisenberg bonds and this property is used to calculate exactly the partition function using the transfer-matrix method. We have found the ground-state phase diagram of the given model in a magnetic field as well as the macroscopic degeneracy along field-induced transitions accompanied with the magnetization jumps. The model exhibits two intermediate fractional plate…
The ground-state phase diagram of a spin-1/2 XXZ chain with competing ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor (J_1<0) and antiferromagnetic second-neighbor (J_2>0) exchange couplings is studied by means of the infinite time evolving block decimation algorithm and effective field theories. For the SU(2)-symmetric (Heisenberg) case, we show that the nonmagnetic phase in the range -4<J_1/J_2<0 has a small but finite ferromagnetic dimer order. We argue that this spontaneous dimer order is associated with effective spin-1 degrees of freedom on dimerized bonds, which collectively form a valence bond solid st…
By applying measurements of the dielectric constants and relative length changes to the dimerized molecular conductor $κ$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$Hg(SCN)$_2$Cl, we provide evidence for order-disorder type electronic ferroelectricity which is driven by charge order within the (BEDT-TTF)$_2$ dimers and stabilized by a coupling to the anions. According to our density functional theory calculations, this material is characterized by a moderate strength of dimerization. This system thus bridges the gap between strongly dimerized materials, often approximated as dimer-Mott systems at 1/2 filling, and non- or …
We use the density matrix renormalization group method (DMRG) to compute the frequency and momentum resolved spin-spin correlation functions of a dimerized spin-1/2 chain under a magnetic field at finite temperature. The spectral features strongly depend on the regime of the magnetic field. For increasing magnetic fields, the transitions from a gapped spin liquid phase to a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid, and then to a totally polarized phase, can be identified in the spectra. Compared to the zero temperature case, the finite temperature excitations give rise to additional spectral features that we…
A quantum mechanical picture is presented to describe the behavior of confined spinons in a variety of S=1/2 chains. The confinement is due to dimerization and frustration and it manifests itselfas a nonlinear potential V(x)~ |x|^b, centered at chain ends (b <= 1) or produced by modulation kinks (b > 1). The calculation extends to weak or zero frustration some previous ideas valid for spinons in strongly frustrated spin chains. The local magnetization patterns of the confined spinons are calculated. A (minimum) enhancement of the local moments of about 11/3 over a single S=1/2 is found. Estima…
We present a detailed numerical analysis of the low energy excitation spectrum of a frustrated and dimerized spin $S=1/2$ Heisenberg chain. In particular, we show that in the commensurate spin--Peierls phase the ratio of the singlet and triplet excitation gap is a universal function which depends on the frustration parameter only. We identify the conditions for which a second elementary triplet branch in the excitation spectrum splits from the continuum. We compare our results with predictions from the continuum limit field theory . We discuss the relevance of our data in connection with recen…
We have studied the excitation spectrum of the $S=1/2$ quantum spin ladder with staggered dimerization by dimer series expansions, diagrammatic analysis of an effective interacting Bose gas of local triplets, and exact diagonalization of small clusters. We find that the model has two massive phases, with predominant inter-chain (rung) or intra-chain correlations. The transition from the rung dimer into the intra-chain dimer phase is characterized by softening of the triplet spectrum at $k=π$. The excitation spectrum as well as the spin correlations away from and close to the critical line are …
We have considered the 1D dimerized frustrated antiferromagnetic (ferromagnetic) Heisenberg model with arbitrary spin $S$. The exact classical magnetic phase diagram at zero temperature is determined using the LK cluster method. Cluster method results, show that the classical ground state phase diagram of the model is very rich including first and second-order phase transitions. In the absence of the dimerization, a second-order phase transition occurs between antiferromagnetic (ferromagnetic) and spiral phases at the critical frustration $α_c=\pm 0.25$. In the vicinity of the critical points …
We uncover a novel mechanism for inducing a gapful phase in interacting many-body quantum chains. The mechanism is nonperturbative, being triggered only in the presence of both strong interactions and strong aperiodic (disordered) modulation. In the context of the critical antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 XXZ chain, we identify an emerging dimerization which removes the system from criticality and stabilizes the novel phase. This mechanism is shown to be quite general in strongly interacting quantum chains in the presence of strongly modulated quasiperiodic disorder which is, surprisingly, perturbat…
Highly frustrated spin systems such as the kagome lattice (KL) are a treasure trove of new quantum states with large entanglements. We thus study the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg model on a kagome-strip chain (KSC), which is one-dimensional KL, using the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method. Calculating central charge and entanglement spectrum for the KSC, we find a novel gapless spin liquid state with doubly degenerate entanglement spectra in a 1/5 magnetization plateau. We also obtain a gapless low-lying continuum in the dynamic spin structure calculated by dynamical DMRG meth…
We discuss spin-$S$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains with three-spin interactions, next-nearest-neighbor interactions, and bond alternation. First, we prove rigorously that there exist parameter regions of the exact dimerized ground state in this system. This is a generalization of the Majumdar-Ghosh model to arbitrary $S$. Next, we discuss the ground-state phase diagram of the models by introducing several effective field theories and the universality classes of the transitions are described by the level-$2S$ $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ Wess-Zumino-Witten model and the Gaussian model. Finally, we det…
The physical properties of the edge states of the cut two-leg spin ladder are investigated by means of the bosonization approach. By carefully treating boundary conditions, we derive the existence of spin-1/2 edge states in the spin ladder with a ferromagnetic rung exchange and for the open spin-1 Heisenberg chain. In contrast, such states are absent in the antiferromagnetic rung coupling case. The approach, based on a mapping onto decoupled semi-infinite off-critical Ising models, allows us to compute several physical quantities of interest. In particular, we determine the magnetization and d…
Motivated by the presence of Ising transitions that take place entirely in the singlet sector of frustrated spin-1/2 ladders and spin-1 chains, we study two types of effective dimer models on ladders, a quantum dimer model and a quantum loop model. Building on the constraints imposed on the dimers, we develop a Density Matrix Renormalization Group algorithm that takes full advantage of the relatively small Hilbert space that only grows as Fibonacci number. We further show that both models can be mapped rigorously onto a hard-boson model first studied by Fendley, Sengupta and Sachdev [Phys. Rev…
By means of thermal expansion and specific heat measurements on the high-pressure phase of (VO)$_2$P$_2$O$_7$, the effects of two energy scales of the weakly dimerized antiferromagnetic $S$ = 1/2 Heisenberg chain are explored. The low energy scale, given by the spin gap $Δ$, is found to manifest itself in a pronounced thermal expansion anomaly. A quantitative analysis, employing T-DMRG calculations, shows that this feature originates from changes in the magnetic entropy with respect to $Δ$, $\partial S^{m}/ \partial Δ$. This term, inaccessible by specific heat, is visible only in the weak-dime…
This paper has been withdrawn by the authors, since we have come to believe that the present approach is not convergent at small doping. We will shortly submit an improved theory of the tJJ' model at small J/t in the dilute hole limit. This will be a new submission will go by a different submission number.
Field-induced excitation gaps in quantum spin chains are an interesting phenomenon related to confinements of topological excitations. In this paper, I present a novel type of this phenomenon. I show that an effective magnetic field with a fourfold screw symmetry induces the excitation gap accompanied by dimer orders. The gap and dimer orders induced so exhibit characteristic power-law dependence on the fourfold screw-symmetric field. Moreover, the field-induced dimer order and the field-induced Néel order coexist when the external uniform magnetic field, the fourfold screw-symmetric field, an…
Neutron scattering experiments have been performed on Sr$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ which consists of both chains and ladders of copper ions. We observed that the magnetic excitations from the CuO$_2$ chain have two branches and that both branches are weakly dispersive along the $a$ and $c$ axes. The $ω$-$Q$ dispersion relation as well as the intensities can be reasonably described by a random phase approximation with intradimer coupling between next-nearest-neighbor copper spins $J$=11 meV, interdimer coupling along the c axis $J_c$=0.75 meV, and interdimer coupling along the a axis $J_a$=0.75 m…
We study the family of spin-S quantum spin chains with a nearest neighbor interaction given by the negative of the singlet projection operator. Using a random loop representation of the partition function in the limit of zero temperature and standard techniques of classical statistical mechanics, we prove dimerization for all sufficiently large values of S.
Dimerized valence bond solids appear naturally in spin-1/2 systems on bipartite lattices, with the geometric frustrations playing a key role both in their stability and the eventual `melting' due to quantum fluctuations. Here, we ask the question of the stability of such dimerized solids in spin-1 systems, taking the anisotropic square lattice with bilinear and biquadratic spin-spin interactions as a paradigmatic model. The lattice can be viewed as a set of coupled spin-1 chains, which in the limit of vanishing inter-chain coupling are known to possess a stable dimer phase. We study this model…
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) of Cu have been measured in a coupled spin dimers and chains compound Cu2Fe2Ge4O13. Cu NQR has also been measured in an isostructural material Cu2Sc2Ge4O13 including only spin dimers. Comparison of the temperature dependence of the 63Cu nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate between the two compounds reveals that the Fe chains in Cu2Fe2Ge4O13 do not change a spin gap energy of the Cu dimers from that in Cu2Sc2Ge4O13, contributing additionally to the relaxation rate at the Cu site. A modestly large internal field of 3.39 T wa…
By high temperature series expansion, exact diagonalisation and temperature density-matrix renormalisation the magnetic susceptibility $χ(T)$ and the specific heat $C(T)$ of dimerised and frustrated $S=1/2$ chains are computed. All three methods yield reliable results, in particular for not too small temperatures or not too small gaps. The series expansion results are provided in the form of polynomials allowing very fast and convenient fits in data analysis using algebraic programmes. We discuss the difficulty to extract more than two coupling constants from the temperature dependence of $χ(T…
A ferrimagnetic spin model composed of $S=1/2$ spin-dimers and $S=5/2$ spin-chains is studied by combining the bond-operator representation (for $S=1/2$ spin-dimers) and Holstein-Primakoff transformation (for $S=5/2$ spins). A finite interaction $J_{\rm DF}$ between the spin-dimer and the spin chain makes the spin chains ordered antiferromagnetically and the spin dimers polarized. The effective interaction between the spin chains, mediated by the spin dimers, is calculated up to the third order. The staggered magnetization in the spin dimer is shown proportional to $J_{\rm DF}$. It presents an…
We examine the magnetic field dependent excitations of the dimerized spin-1/2 chain, copper nitrate, with antiferromagnetic intra-dimer exchange $J_1=0.44$ meV and exchange alternation $α=J_2/J_1=0.24$. Magnetic excitations in three distinct regimes of magnetization are probed through inelastic neutron scattering at low temperatures. At low and high fields there are three and two long-lived magnon-like modes, respectively. The number of modes and the anti-phase relationship between the wave-vector dependent energy and intensity of magnon scattering reflect the distinct ground states: A singlet…
Accurate and predictive computations of the quantum-mechanical behavior of many interacting electrons in realistic atomic environments are critical for the theoretical design of materials with desired properties, and require solving the grand-challenge problem of the many-electron Schrodinger equation. An infinite chain of equispaced hydrogen atoms is perhaps the simplest realistic model for a bulk material, embodying several central themes of modern condensed matter physics and chemistry, while retaining a connection to the paradigmatic Hubbard model. Here we report a combined application of …
We study the locations of the gapless points which occur for quantum spin chains of finite length (with a twisted boundary condition) at particular values of the nearest neighbor dimerization, as a function of the spin S and the number of sites. For strong dimerization and large values of S, a tunneling calculation reproduces the same results as those obtained from more involved field theoretic methods using the non-linear sigma-model approach. A different analytical calculation of the matrix element between the two Neel states gives a set of gapless points; for strong dimerization, these diff…
Below about 150 K, the spin arrangement in the chain arrays of Sr14Cu24O41 is shown to develop in two dimensions (2D). Both the correlations and the dispersion of the observed elementary excitations agree well with a model of interacting dimers. Along the chains, the intra- and inter-dimer distances are equal to 2 and about 3 times the distance (c) between neighboring Cu ions. While the intra-dimer coupling is J about 10 meV, the inter-dimer couplings along and between the chains are of comparable strenght, J// about -1.1 meV and Jperp about 1.7 meV, respectively. This remarkable 2D arrangemen…
We study the effect of impurities on the two types of spin-dimers in the hybrid chain/ladder spin 1/2 quantum magnet Sr$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$. Four different impurities were used, namely, the non-magnetic Zn (0.0025 and 0.01 per Cu) and Al (0.0025 and 0.01 per Cu), and magnetic Ni (0.0025 and 0.01 per Cu) and Co (0.01, 0.03, 0.05 and 0.1 per Cu). These impurities were doped in high-quality single-crystals synthesized by the floating zone method. The magnetic susceptibility of pristine Sr$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ is analyzed rigorously to confirm that at low temperatures (T $<$ 5 K), the "free…
We have synthesized and studied single-crystal Ba5AlIr2O11 that features dimer chains of two inequivalent octahedra occupied by tetravalent and pentavalent ions, respectively. Ba5AlIr2O11 is a Mott insulator that undergoes a subtle structural phase transition near 210 K and a magnetic transition at 4.5 K; the latter transition is surprisingly resistant to applied magnetic fields up to 12 T, but sensitive to modest applied pressure. All results indicate that the phase transition at 210 K signals an enhanced charge order that induces electrical dipoles and strong dielectric response near 210 K. …
