We consider the transverse dynamical structure factor of the anisotropic Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain (XXZ model) in the gapped antiferromagnetic regime ($Δ> 1$). Specializing to the case of zero field, we use two independent approaches based on integrability (one valid for finite size, the other for the infinite lattice) to obtain the exact two-spinon part of this correlator. We discuss in particular its asymmetry with respect to the $π/2$ momentum line, its overall anisotropy dependence, and its contribution to sum rules.
The infinite Heisenberg XXZ spin-(1/2) chain in the gapped antiferromagnetic regime has two degenerate vacua and kink topological excitations (which are also called spinons) interpolating between these vacua as elementary excitations. Application of an arbitrary weak staggered longitudinal magnetic field h induces a long-range attractive potential between two adjacent spinons leading to their confinement into 'meson' bound states. Exploiting the integrability of the XXZ model in the deconfined phase h = 0, we perform perturbative calculations of the energy spectra of the two-spinon bound state…
We investigate the low-lying excitation of the antiferromagnetic zigzag spin ladder with Möbius boundary condition. Using the Lanczos and Householder diagonalization methods, we calculate the excitation spectrum of the zigzag ladder in the momentum space. We then show that the topological defect generated by the Möbius boundary provides the clear evidence of the single spinon excitation. On the basis of the obtained single-spinon dispersion curve, we analyze the two-spinon scattering states under the usual periodic boundary condition. We further discuss the interaction effect between the spino…
We reconsider the excitation spectra of a dimerized and frustrated antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain. This model is taken as the simpler example of compiting spontaneous and explicit dimerization relevant for Spin-Peierls compounds. The bosonized theory is a two frequency Sine-Gordon field theory. We analize the excitation spectrum by semiclassical methods. The elementary triplet excitation corresponds to an extended magnon whose radius diverge for vanishing dimerization. The internal oscilations of the magnon give rise to a series of excited state until another magnon is emited and a two mag…
Assemblies of interacting quantum particles often surprise us with properties that are difficult to predict. One of the simplest quantum many-body systems is the spin 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain, a linear array of interacting magnetic moments. Its exact ground state is a macroscopic singlet entangling all spins in the chain. Its elementary excitations, called spinons, are fractional spin 1/2 quasiparticles; they are created and detected in pairs by neutron scattering. Theoretical predictions show that two-spinon states exhaust only 71% of the spectral weight while higher-order spino…
The excitations of the Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin chain in zero field are known as spinons. As pairwise-created fractionalized excitations, spinons are important in the understanding of inelastic neutron scattering experiments in (quasi) one-dimensional materials. In the present work, we consider the real space-time dynamics of spinons originating from a local spin flip on the antiferromagnetic ground state of the (an)isotropic Heisenberg spin-1/2 model and the Babujan-Takhtajan spin-1 model. By utilizing algebraic Bethe ansatz methods at finite system size to compute the expectation va…
Inelastic neutron scattering was used to measure the magnetic field dependence of spin excitations in the antiferromagnetic S=1/2 chain CuCl_2 2(dimethylsulfoxide) (CDC) in the presence of uniform and staggered fields. Dispersive bound states emerge from a zero-field two-spinon continuum with different finite energy minima at wave numbers q=pi and q_i approx pi (1-2<S_z>). The ratios of the field dependent excitation energies are in excellent agreement with predictions for breather and soliton solutions to the quantum sine-Gordon model, the proposed low-energy theory for S=1/2 chains in a stag…
We use the variational matrix-product ansatz to study elementary excitations in the S=1/2 ladder with additional diagonal coupling, equivalent to a single S=1/2 chain with alternating exchange and next-nearest neighbor interaction. In absence of alternation the elementary excitation consists of two free S=1/2 particles ("spinons") which are solitons in the dimer order. When the nearest-neighbor exchange alternates, the "spinons" are confined into one S=1 excitation being a soliton in the generalized string order. Variational results are found to be in a qualitative agreement with the exact dia…
Using Monte Carlo integration methods, we describe the behavior of the exact four-spinon dynamic structure function $S_{4}$ in the antiferromagnetic spin 1/2 Heisenberg quantum spin chain as a function of the neutron energy $ω$ and momentum transfer $k$. We also determine the four-spinon continuum, the extent of the region in the $(k,ω)$ plane outside which $S_{4}$ is identically zero. In each case, the behavior of $S_{4}$ is shown to be consistent with the four-spinon continuum and compared to the one of the exact two-spinon dynamic structure function $S_{2}$. Overall shape similarity is note…
Considering experimental results obtained on three prototype compounds, TMMC, CsCoCl3 (or CsCoBr3) and Cu Benzoate, we discuss the importance of non-linear excitations in the physics of quantum (and classical) antiferromagnetic spin chains.
We report a new kagome quantum spin liquid candidate Cu$_3$Zn(OH)$_6$FBr, which does not experience any phase transition down to 50 mK, more than three orders lower than the antiferromagnetic Curie-Weiss temperature ($\sim$ 200 K). A clear gap opening at low temperature is observed in the uniform spin susceptibility obtained from $^{19}$F nuclear magnetic resonance measurements. We observe the characteristic magnetic field dependence of the gap as expected for fractionalized spin-1/2 spinon excitations. Our experimental results provide firm evidence for spin fractionalization in a topologicall…
One-dimensional (1D) magnetic insulators have attracted significant interest as a platform for studying emergent phenomena such as quasiparticle fractionalization and quantum criticality. The antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain of spins-1/2 is an important reference system; its elementary excitations are spin-1/2 quasiparticles called spinons that are always created in pairs. However, while inelastic neutron scattering (INS) experiments routinely observe the excitation continuum associated with two-spinon states, the presence of more complex dynamics associated with four-spinon states has only …
In quantum spin liquids, fractional spinon excitations carry half-integer spins and other fractional quantum numbers of lattice and time-reversal symmetries. Different patterns of symmetry fractionalization distinguish different spin liquid phases. In this work, we derive a general constraint on the symmetry fractionalization of spinons in a gapped spin liquid, realized in a system with an odd number of spin-$1/2$ per unit cell. In particular, when applied to kagome/triangular lattices, we obtain a complete classification of symmetric gapped $\mathbb{Z_2}$ spin liquids.
In conventional quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnets with quantum spins, magnetic excitations are carried by either magnons or spinons in different energy regimes: they do not coexist independently, nor could they interact with each other. In this Letter, by combining inelastic neutron scattering, quantum Monte Carlo simulations and Random Phase Approximation calculations, we report the discovery and discuss the physics of the coexistence of magnons and spinons and their interactions in Botallackite-Cu2(OH)3Br. This is a unique quantum antiferromagnet consisting of alternating ferromagnetic …
We study the spectrum and the nature of the excitations of an antiferromagnetic (AFM) Heisenberg chain with staggered long range interactions, both numerically using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (tDMRG) method and by means of a multi-spinon approximation that qualitatively explains its main features. The unfrustrated long-range nature of the exchange effectively increases the dimensionality of the system and the chain is able to undergo true symmetry breaking and develop long range order, transitioning from a gapless spin liquid to a gapless ordered AFM phase. We cal…
The antiferromagnetic Ising model on a checkerboard lattice has an ice-like ground state manifold with extensive degeneracy. and, to leading order in J_xy, deconfined spinon excitations. We explore the role of cyclic exchange arising at order J^2_xy/J_z on the ice states and their associated spinon excitations. By mapping the original problem onto an equivalent quantum six--vertex model, we identify three different phases as a function of the chemical potential for flippable plaquettes - a phase with long range Neel order and confined spinon excitations, a non-magnetic state of resonating squa…
The Kitaev model with an applied magnetic field in the $H||[111]$ direction shows two transitions: from a non-abelian gapped quantum spin liquid (QSL) to a gapless QSL at $H_{c1} \simeq 0.2K$ and a second transition at a higher field $H_{c2} \simeq 0.35K$ to a gapped partially polarized phase, where $K$ is the strength of the Kitaev exchange interaction. We identify the intermediate phase to be a gapless U(1) QSL and determine the spin structure function $S({\bf k}) $ and the Fermi surface $ε_F^S({\bf k})$ of the gapless spinons using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method for …
In this paper we shall study a gauge theory of nodal spinons which appears as a low-energy effective theory for antiferromagnetic (AF) Heisenberg models. In most of studies on the nodal spinons given so far, the gauge interaction between spinons was assumed weak and nonperturbative effects like instantons and vortices were ignored. In the present paper, we shall study strong-coupling gauge theory of nodal spinons and reveal its nontrivial phase structure. To this end, we employ recently developed lattice gauge theory techniques for studying finite-temperature and finite-density gauge theory. A…
We have obtained mid-infrared optical absorption spectra of the S=1/2 quasi one-dimensional CuO using polarized transmission measurement and interpreted the spectra in terms of phonon assisted magnetic excitations. When the electric field is parallel to the main antiferromagnetic direction a Delta shaped peak is observed with the maximum at 0.23eV which is attributed to spinons along Cu-O chains. At low temperatures in the antiferromagnetic phase another peak appears at 0.16eV which is attributed to two-magnon absorption but the spinon peak remains. This behavior is interpreted as due to a dim…
Observation of spin-conserving two-spinon continuum in the $S$=1/2 antiferromagnetic chain system Sr$_2$CuO$_3$ using Cu $K$-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
Anderson localization is a general phenomenon of wave physics, which stems from the interference between multiple scattering paths1,2. It was originally proposed for electrons in a crystal, but later was also observed for light3-5, microwaves6, ultrasound7,8, and ultracold atoms9-12. Actually, in a crystal, besides electrons there may exist other quasiparticles such as magnons and spinons. However the search for Anderson localization of these magnetic excitations is rare so far. Here we report the first observation of spinon localization in copper benzoate, an ideal compound of spin-1/2 antife…
Based on the mapping between $s=1/2$ spin operators and hard-core bosons, we extend the cluster perturbation theory to spin systems and study the whole excitation spectrum of the antiferromagnetic $J_{1}$-$J_{2}$ Heisenberg model on the square lattice. In the Néel phase for $J_{2}\lesssim0.4J_{1}$, in addition to the dominant magnon excitation, there is an obvious continuum close to $(π,0)$ in the Brillouin zone indicating the deconfined spin-1/2 spinon excitations. In the stripe phase for $J_{2}\gtrsim0.6J_{1}$, we find similar high-energy two-spinon continuums at $(π/2,π/2)$ and $(π/2,π)$, r…
We have investigated the thermal conductivity κ_mag of high-purity single crystals of the spin chain compound Sr2CuO3 which is considered an excellent realization of the one-dimensional spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model. We find that the spinon heat conductivity κ_mag is strongly enhanced as compared to previous results obtained on samples with lower chemical purity. The analysis of κ_mag allows to compute the spinon mean free path l_mag as a function of temperature. At low-temperature we find l_mag\sim0.5\mum, corresponding to more than 1200 chain unit cells. Upon increasing the tem…
We reinvestigate a doped antiferromagnetic Mott insulator based on the slave-fermion approach of the t-J model, where antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations and doped holes are described by bosonic spinons and fermionic holons, respectively. Earlier studies have shown that an effective field theory for the doped antiferromagnetic Mott insulator is given by a non-relativistic fermion (holon) U(1) gauge theory for charge dynamics and a relativistic boson (spinon) U(1) gauge theory for spin dynamics, thus allowing an anomalous metallic phase where bosonic spinons are gapped away from an antiferromag…
In this publication I discuss the phase diagram of a frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg model suggested in A. A. Nersesyan and A. M. Tsvelik, Phys. Rev. B{\bf 67}, 024422 (2003). The phase diagram contains $(π,0)$ and $(π,π)$ antiferromagnetic phases separated by the Valence Bond Crystal (VBC) state. I argue that the point of the phase diagram with deconfined spinons, predicted in the aforementioned work, is situated in the middle of VBC state, at the point where the dimerization order parameter changes sign.
Studying the dynamical spin structure factor in frustrated spin chains with spontaneously dimerized ground state we show that besides the gapped spin-wave excitations there appears at finite temperatures also a sharp central peak. The latter can be attributed to deconfined spinons, accounted well within the variational approach. The central peak remains well pronounced within the local spin dynamics and may be relevant for experiments on materials with 1D frustrated spin chains.
Elementary excitations of the S=1/2 one-dimensional antiferromagnet KCuGaF_6 were investigated by inelastic neutron scattering in zero and finite magnetic fields perpendicular to the (1, 1, 0) plane combined with specific heat measurements. KCuGaF$_6$ exhibits no long-range magnetic ordering down to 50 mK despite the large exchange interaction J/k_B=103 K. At zero magnetic field, well-defined spinon excitations were observed. The energy of the des Cloizeaux and Pearson mode of the spinon excitations is somewhat larger than that calculated with the above exchange constant. This discrepancy is m…
Realistic model Hamiltonians for quantum spin liquids frequently exhibit a large separation of energy scales between their elementary excitations. At intermediate, experimentally relevant temperatures, some excitations are sparse and hop coherently, whereas others are thermally incoherent and dense. Here we study the interplay of two such species of quasiparticle, dubbed spinons and visons, which are subject to nontrivial mutual statistics -- one of the hallmarks of quantum spin liquid behaviour. Our results for $\mathbb{Z}_2$ quantum spin liquids show an intriguing feedback mechanism, akin to…
We find that the Schwinger Boson mean field theory(SBMFT) supplemented with Gutzwiller projection provides an exceedingly accurate description for the ground state of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ triangular lattice antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model(spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ TLHAF). However, we find the SBMFT fails even qualitatively in the description of the dynamical behavior of the system. In particular, the SBMFT fails to predict the Goldstone mode in the magnetic ordered phase. We show that the coherent peak in the two-spinon continuum in the presence of spinon condensate should not be interpreted as …
We study the effect of disorder on frustrated dimerized spin-1/2 chains at the Majumdar-Ghosh point. Using variational methods and density-matrix renormalization group approaches, we identify two localization mechanisms for spinons which are the deconfined fractional elementary excitations of these chains. The first one belongs to the Anderson localization class and dominates at the random Majumdar-Ghosh (RMG) point. There, spinons are almost independent, remain gapped, and localize in Lifshitz states whose localization length is analytically obtained. The RMG point then displays a quantum pha…
We report an experimental and theoretical study of the antiferromagnetic S=1/2 chain subject to uniform and staggered fields. Using inelastic neutron scattering, we observe a novel bound-spinon state at high energies in the linear chain compound CuCl2 * 2((CD3)2SO). The excitation is explained with a mean-field theory of interacting S=1/2 fermions and arises from the opening of a gap at the Fermi surface due to confining spinon interactions. The mean-field model also describes the wave-vector dependence of the bound-spinon states, particularly in regions where effects of the discrete lattice a…
We study the level structure of excitations at the "deconfined" critical point separating antiferromagnetic and valence-bond-solid phases in two-dimensional quantum spin systems using the $J$-$Q$ model as an example. Energy gaps in different spin ($S$) and momentum (${\bf k}$) sectors are extracted from imaginary-time correlation functions obtained in quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We find strong quantitative evidence for deconfined linearly dispersing spinons with gapless points at ${\bf k}=(0,0)$, $(π,0)$, $(0,π)$, and $(π,π)$, as inferred from two-spinon excitations ($S=0$ and $S=1$ state…
We report the low-temperature multi-frequency ESR studies of copper pyrimidine dinitrate, a spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic chain with alternating $g$-tensor and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, allowing us to test a new theoretical concept proposed recently by Oshikawa and Affleck [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 5136 (1999)]. Their theory, based on bosonization and the self-energy formalism, can be applied for precise calculation of ESR parameters of $S=1/2$ antiferromagnetic chains in the perturbative spinon regime. Excellent quantitative agreement between the theoretical predictions and experiment i…
Using quantum Monte Carlo, exact diagonalization and perturbation theory, we study the spectrum of the $S=1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg trimer chain by varying the ratio $g=J_2/J_1$ of the intertrimer and intratrimer coupling strengths. The doublet ground states of trimers form effective interacting $S=1/2$ degrees of freedom described by a Heisenberg chain. Therefore, the conventional two-spinon continuum of width $\propto J_1$ when $g=1$ evolves into to a similar continuum of width $\propto J_2$ when $g\to 0$. The intermediate-energy and high-energy modes are termed \emph{doublons} and \…
We combine the pseudofermion functional renormalization group (PFFRG) method with a self-consistent Fock-like mean-field scheme to calculate low-energy effective theories for emergent spinon excitations in spin-1/2 quantum spin liquids. Using effective spin interactions from PFFRG as an input for the Fock equation and allowing for the most general types of free spinon ansätze as classified by the projective symmetry group (PSG) method, we are able to systematically determine spinon band structures for spin-liquid candidate systems beyond mean-field theory. We apply this approach to the antifer…
Using large-scale determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations in combination with the stochastic analytical continuation, we study two-particle dynamical correlation functions in the anisotropic square lattice of weakly coupled one-dimensional (1D) Hubbard chains at half-filling and in the presence of weak frustration. The evolution of the static spin structure factor upon increasing the interchain coupling is suggestive of the transition from the power-law decay of spin-spin correlations in the 1D limit to long-range antiferromagnetic order in the quasi-1D regime and at $T=0$. In the numerica…
We show that the best variational ground state of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Kagome antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with nearest-neighboring exchange coupling(NN-KAFH) is a $Z_{2}$ spin liquid state, rather than the widely believed $U(1)$ Dirac spin liquid state. The spinon excitation in the $Z_{2}$ spin liquid state has a small gap of about $1/40$ of the spinon band width. We find that while the $Z_{2}$ and the $U(1)$ spin liquid state have a large overlap on finite clusters and are thus very close in energy, they host totally different spinon excitation spectrum. The strength of the RVB theor…
We investigate how the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator evolves into the d-wave BCS superconductor through hole doping. Allowing spin fluctuations in the strong coupling approach, we find a spin-gapped incoherent metal with preformed pairing as an intermediate phase between the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator and d-wave superconductor. This non-Fermi liquid metal is identified with an infrared stable fixed point in the spin-decomposition gauge theory, analogous to the spin liquid insulator in the slave-boson gauge theory. We consider the single particle spectrum and dynamical spin susceptibil…
We consider the fully anisotropic Heisenberg spin-1/2 antiferromagnet in a uniform magnetic field, whose ground-state is characterized by broken spin rotation symmetry and gapped spinon excitations. We expand on a recent mean-field approach to the problem by incorporating fluctuations in a loop expansion. Quantitative results for the magnetization, excitation gap and specific heat are obtained. We compare our predictions with new DMRG and exact diagonalization data and, for zero field, with the exact solution of the ${XYZ}$ spin chain from the Bethe Ansatz.
We investigate the dynamical spin structure factor S(q,w) for the Heisenberg chain with ferromagnetic nearest (J1<0) and antiferromagnetic next-nearest (J2>0) neighbor exchange using bosonization and a time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group algorithm. For |J1|<< J2 and low energies we analytically find and numerically confirm two spinon branches with different velocities and different spectral weights. Following the evolution of S(q,w) with decreasing J1/J2 we find that helimagnons develop at high energies just before entering the ferromagnetic phase. Furthermore, we show that a r…
Quantum phase transition from the Néel to the dimer states in an antiferromagnetic(AF) Heisenberg model on square lattice is studied. We introduce a control parameter $α$ for the exchange coupling which connects the Néel ($α=0$) and the dimer ($α=1$) states. We employ the $CP^1$ (the Schwinger boson) representation of the $s={1\over 2}$ spin operator and integrate out the half of the $CP^1$ variables at odd sites and we obtain a $CP^1$ nonlinear $σ$ model. The effective coupling constant is a function of $α$ and at $α=0$ the $CP^1$ model is in the ordered phase which corresponds to the Néel st…
Spin liquid states for spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a hyperkagome lattice are studied. We classify and study flux states according to symmetries. Applying this model to Na4Ir3O8, we propose that the high temperature state may be described by a spinon Fermi surface, which forms a paired state with line nodes below 20 K. The possible mixed spin singlet and spin triplet pairing states are discussed according to the lattice symmetry which breaks inversion.
Using Schwinger-boson mean-field theory, we calculate the dynamic spin structure factor at low temperatures $0<T\ll J$ for the spin-$1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg kagome model, within the gapped $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquid phase Ansatz. We find that the spectral gap rapidly fills with temperature, with robust low-energy spectral weight developing by a temperature of $Δ/3$, where the spin gap is $2Δ$ (i.e., $Δ$ is the spinon gap), before any appreciable rise in spinon density or change in zero-temperature mean-field parameters. This is due to deconfinement of spinons which leads to terms sup…
The scaling limit of the Heisenberg XXZ spin chain at zero magnetic field is studied in the gapped antiferromagnetic phase. For a spin-chain ring having $N_x$ sites, the universal Casimir scaling function, which characterises the leading finite-size correction term in the large-$N_x$ expansion of the ground state energy, is calculated by numerical solution of the nonlinear integral equation of the convolution type. It is shown, that the same scaling function describes the temperature dependence of the free energy of the infinite XXZ chain at low enough temperatures in the gapped scaling regime…
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra of spinon, doublon, and quarton excitations of a spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg trimer chain
Effects of the site dilution on spin-gapped Heisenberg antiferromagnets with $S=1/2$ and S=1 on a square lattice are investigated by means of the quantum Monte Carlo method. It is found that effective magnetic moments induced around the diluted sites exhibit the antiferromagnetic long-range order in the medium of spin-singlet pairs. Their microscopic structure is examined in detail and important roles of the higher dimensionality than one on the phenomenon are discussed.
The mapping between the fermion and spinon compositions of eigenstates in the one-dimensional spin-1/2 XX model on a lattice with N sites is used to describe the spinon interaction from two different perspectives: (i) For finite N the energy of all eigenstates is expressed as a function of spinon momenta and spinon spins, which, in turn, are solutions of a set of Bethe ansatz equations. The latter are the basis of an exact thermodynamic analysis in the spinon representation of the XX model. (ii) For N -> infinity the energy per site of spinon configurations involving any number of spinon orbit…
We study the dynamical spin excitations of the one-dimensional $S=1$ Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain with single-ion anisotropy by using quantum Monte Carlo simulations and stochastic analytic continuation of imaginary-time correlation function. Using the transverse dynamic spin structure factor, we observe the quantum phase transition with a critical point between the topological Haldane gapped phase and the trivial phase. At the quantum critical point, we find a broad continuum characterized by the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid similar to a $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain. We furth…
We show that LiVCuO4 should be described by strongly ferromagnetically coupled Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chains (HAC) in sharp contrast with the effective exchange integrals Ji given in Enderle et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 104, 237207 (2010), and the main issues of that work, namely, (i) LiVCuO4 is well described by two weakly ferromagnetically coupled interpenetrating Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chains, (ii) the extracted exchange integrals J1, J2 agree with a previous spin-wave description (Enderle et al., Euphys. Lett. vol. 70, 237 (2005)), (iii) the spectral density of inelas…
We study the phase diagram of a one-dimensional extended Hubbard model with antiferromagnetic exchange interaction analytically and numerically. The bosonization and transfer-matrix renormalization group methods are used in the corresponding coupling regimes. At half-filling, the system is a Mott insulator with a finite spin excitation gap if the on-site Coulomb repulsion is fairly smaller than the antiferromagnetic exchange J. This Mott-insulator is characterized by the bond-charge-density-wave order or spontaneously dimerization. In the weak-coupling regime where the spin-charge separation h…
We have measured the thermal conductivity of the one-dimensional (1D) S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin system of Sr2Cu1-xPdxO3 single crystals including nonmagnetic impurities of Pd2+. It has been found that the mean free path of spinons along the 1D spin chain at low temperatures is very close to the average length of finite spin chains between spin defects estimated from the magnetic susceptibility measurements. This proves that the thermal conduction due to spinons at low temperatures in Sr2CuO3 is ballistic as theoretically expected [Zotos et al.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 55 (1997) 11029].
We consider the effects of interactions on the nature of spinon excitations in Heisenberg spin-1/2 chains. We explicitly compute the two-spinon part of the longitudinal structure factor of the infinite chain in zero field for all values of anisotropy in the gapless antiferromagnetic regime, via an exact algebraic approach. Our results allow us to quantitatively describe the behaviour of these fundamental excitations for cases ranging from free to fully coupled chains, thereby explicitly mapping the effects of `turning on the interactions' in a strongly-correlated system.
A new exactly solvable one-dimensional spin-3/2 Heisenberg model with SO(5)-invariance is proposed. The eigenvalues and Bethe ansatz equations of the model are obtained by using the nested algebraic Bethe ansatz approach. Several exotic elementary excitations in the antiferromagnetic region such as neutral spinon with zero spin, heavy spinon with spin-3/2 and dressed spinon with spin-1/2 are found.
We utilize the Hubbard model to demonstrate that doping of the antiferromagnetic parent compounds of cuprate superconductors stabilizes a spin liquid state. Superconductivity in such a state emerges due to the spin-orbit coupling between charge current and superfluidity of spinon condensate, resulting in a chiral relation between the order parameter phase gradient and supercurrent. We propose simple experimental tests for the presented mechanism.
We propose an effective theory for the critical phase of a quantum ferrimagnetic chain with alternating spins 1 and 1/2 in an external magnetic field. With the help of the matrix product variational approach, the system is mapped to a spin-1/2 XXZ chain in an (effective) magnetic field; as a byproduct, we obtain an excellent description of the optical magnon branch in the gapped phase. Recent finite-temperature DMRG results for the low-temperature part of the specific heat are well described by the present approach, and the ``pop-up'' peaks, developing near the critical field values and in the…
The fundamental excitations in an antiferromagnetic chain of spins-1/2 are spinons, de-confined fractional quasiparticles that when combined in pairs, form a triplet excitation continuum. In an Ising-like spin chain the continuum is gapped and the ground state is N{é}el ordered. Here, we report high resolution neutron scattering experiments, which reveal how a magnetic field closes this gap and drives the spin chains in \YPP\ to a critical, disordered Luttinger-liquid state. In \YPP\ the effective spins-1/2 describe the dynamics of large, Ising-like Yb magnetic moments, ensuring that the measu…
