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arXiv:1105.1019 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Classification of the phases of 1D spin chains with commuting Hamiltonians

Salman Beigi

Published Dec 9, 2011• 4 citations
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Abstract

We consider the class of spin Hamiltonians on a 1D chain with periodic boundary conditions that are (i) translational invariant, (ii) commuting and (iii) scale invariant, where by the latter we mean that the ground state degeneracy is independent of the system size. We correspond a directed graph to a Hamiltonian of this form and show that the structure of its ground space can be read from the cycles of the graph. We show that the ground state degeneracy is the only parameter that distinguishes the phases of these Hamiltonians. Our main tool in this paper is the idea of Bravyi and Vyalyi (2005 Quantum Inform. Comput. 5 187–215) in using the representation theory of finite-dimensional C*-algebras to study commuting Hamiltonians.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8113/45/2/025306

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We consider the class of spin Hamiltonians on a 1D chain with periodic boundary conditions that are (i) translational invariant, (ii) commuting and (iii) scale invariant, where by the latter we mean that the ground state degeneracy is independent of the system size. We correspond a directed graph to a Hamiltonian of this form and show that the structure of its ground space can be read from the cycles of the graph. We show that the ground state degeneracy is the only parameter that distinguishes the phases of these Hamiltonians. Our main tool in this paper is the idea of Bravyi and Vyalyi (2005 Quantum Inform. Comput. 5 187–215) in using the representation theory of finite-dimensional C*-algebras to study commuting Hamiltonians.
Motzkin chain is a model of nearest-neighbor interacting quantum s = 1 spins with open boundary conditions. It is known that it has a unique ground state which can be viewed as a sum of Motzkin paths. We consider the case of periodic boundary conditions and provide several conjectures about structure of the ground state space and symmetries of the Hamiltonian. We conjecture that the ground state is degenerate and independent states are distinguished by eigenvalues of the third component of total spin operator. Each of these states can be described as a sum of paths, similar to the Motzkin paths. Moreover, there exist two operators commuting with the Hamiltonian, which play the roles of lowering and raising operators when acting at these states. We conjecture also that these operators generate a C -type Lie algebra, with rank equal to the number of sites. The symmetry algebra of the Hamiltonian is actually wider, and extended, besides the cyclic shift operator, by a central element contained in the third component of total spin operator.
We show that a wide class of spin chains with topological frustration cannot develop any local order. In particular, we consider translational-invariant one-dimensional chains with frustrated boundary conditions, i.e. periodic boundary conditions and an odd number of sites, which possess a global SU(2) symmetry. This condition implies, even at a finite sizes, an exact degeneracy of the ground state and is quite general in absence of external fields. We directly evaluate the expectation value of operators with support over a finite range of lattice sites and show that, except for some precise conditions, they all decay algebraically, or faster, with the chain length and vanish in the thermodynamic limit. The exceptions that admit a finite order are cases with a higher ground state degeneracy in which the translational symmetry is broken by the ground state choice.
Abstract. We study unfrustrated spin Hamiltonians that consist of commuting tensor products of Pauli matrices. Assuming translation-invariance, a family of Hamiltonians that belong to the same phase of matter is described by a map between modules over the translation-group algebra, so homological methods are applicable. In any dimension every point-like charge appears as a vertex of a fractal operator, and can be isolated with energy barrier at most logarithmic in the separation distance. For a topologically ordered system in three dimensions, there must exist a point-like nontrivial charge. A connection between the ground state degeneracy and the number of points on an algebraic set is discussed. Tools to handle local Clifford unitary transformations are given.
Abstract. We address the question of the classification of gapped ground states in one dimension that cannot be distinguished by a local order parameter. We introduce a family of quantum spin systems on the one-dimensional chain that have a unique gapped ground state in the thermodynamic limit that is a simple product state but which on the left and right half-infinite chains, have additional zero energy edge states. The models, which we call Product Vacua with Boundary States (PVBS), form phases that depend only on two integers corresponding to the number of edge states at each boundary. They can serve as representatives of equivalence classes of such gapped ground states phases and we show how the AKLT model and its SO(2J + 1)-invariant generalizations fit into this classification.
We solve the spectrum of quantum spin chains based on representations of the Temperley–Lieb algebra associated with the quantum groups [Formula: see text] for Xn=A1, Bn, Cn and Dn. The tool is a modified version of the coordinate Bethe ansatz through a suitable choice of the Bethe states which give to all models the same status relative to their diagonalization. All these models have equivalent spectra up to degeneracies and the spectra of the lower-dimensional representations are contained in the higher-dimensional ones. Periodic boundary conditions, free boundary conditions and closed nonlocal boundary conditions are considered. Periodic boundary conditions, unlike free boundary conditions, break quantum group invariance. For closed nonlocal cases the models are quantum group invariant as well as periodic in a certain sense.
The author considers one-dimensional n-state quantum chains having as symmetry an Abelian group A of order n (generalised Ising chain). These Hamiltonians depend on 2(n-1) coupling constants. For special values of the coupling constants the symmetry of the quantum chains is larger than A corresponding to a (in general non-Abelian) group G with m elements (m)n). For each element of G he finds explicitly a boundary condition which leaves the Hamiltonian translationally invariant. This problem is relevant in finite-size scaling studies at the critical point of a second-order phase transition.