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arXiv:1306.5775 · Physical Review B

Spinon confinement: Dynamics of weakly coupled Hubbard chains

Marcin Raczkowski, Fakher F. Assaad

Published Aug 21, 2013• 24 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

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 numerically accessible regime of interchain couplings, the charge sector remains gapped. The low-energy momentum dependence of the spin excitations is well described by the linear spin-wave theory with the largest intensity located around the antiferromagnetic wave vector. This magnon mode corresponds to a bound state of two spinons. At higher energies the spinons deconfine and we observe signatures of the two-spinon continuum which progressively fade away as a function of interchain hopping.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.88.085120

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Calculations of the thermodynamic quantities, and the spectra of spinons, triplet excitations, and two-particle spin-singlet (Δ S z = 0,±1) excitations for a weakly coupled antiferromagnetic S = 1/2 spin chain are made using a mean-field approximation for the interchain couplings ( J 2 ) by the quantum Monte Carlo method. The mass gaps in these excitation spectra are estimated as functions of the interchain coupling. The critical field H c , and the temperatures at which the spinon and singlet gaps close ( T 1 and T 2 , respectively) are obtained. Some peculiarities of the staggered magnetization, the specific heat, and the spin-spin correlation function are found at T 1 = 0.9 J 2 , T 2 = 1.5 J 2 , H c = 3.8 J 2 , as determined by linear function fitting for J 2 / J 1 <0.15. The intrachain and interchain couplings, and the staggered magnetization for KCuF 3 , Sr 2 CuO 3 , and Ca 2 CuO 3 are estimated, and mass gaps are predicted to exist in the spectra of the spinons and the singlet two-particle excitations.
Using grand canonical quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations combined with maximum entropy analytic continuation, as well as analytical methods, we examine the one- and two-particle dynamical properties of the Hubbard model on two coupled chains at half-filling. The one-particle spectral weight function, A(k,\ensuremath{\omega}), undergoes a qualitative change with interchain hopping ${\mathit{t}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$ associated with a transition from a four-band insulator to a two-band insulator. A simple analytical model based on the propagation of exact rung singlet states gives a good description of the features at large ${\mathit{t}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$. For smaller ${\mathit{t}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$, A(k,\ensuremath{\omega}) is similar to that of the one-dimensional model, with a coherent band of width the effective antiferromagnetic exchange J which is reasonably well described by renormalized spin-wave theory. The coherent band rides on a broad background of width several times the parallel hopping integral t, an incoherent structure similar to that found in calculations on both the one- and two-dimensional models. We also present QMC results for the two-particle spin and charge excitation spectra, and relate their behavior to the rung singlet picture for large ${\mathit{t}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$ and to the results of spin-wave theory for small ${\mathit{t}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We study two (very) weakly-coupled Hubbard chains in the half-filled case, and especially the situation where the intrachain Mott scale mmm is much larger than the bare single-electron interchain hopping t⊥t_{\perp}t⊥​. First, we find that the divergence of the intrachain Umklapp channel at the Mott transition results in the complete vanishing of the single-electron interchain hopping: This is significant of a strong confinement of coherence along the chains. Excitations are usual charge fermionic solitons and spinon pairs of the Heisenberg chain. Then, we show rigorously how the tunneling of spinon-pairs produces a magnetic interchain exchange J⊥=t⊥2/m>0J_{\perp}={t_{\perp}}^2/m>0J⊥​=t⊥​2/m>0. The result is an insulating state with spin-gapped excitations as in the delocalized limit (i.e. for rather large interchain hoppings), where the two-leg ladder is in the well-known D-Mott phase. Unlike for Bechgaard salts, the confinement/deconfinement transition at absolute zero is here a simple crossover: no metallic phase is found in undoped two-leg ladders. This statement might be generalized for N-leg ladders with N=3,4... (but not too large).
Observing constituent particles with fractional quantum numbers in confined and deconfined states is an interesting and challenging problem in quantum many-body physics. Here, we further explore a computational scheme [Y. Tang and A. W. Sandvik, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 157201 (2011)] based on valence-bond quantum Monte Carlo simulations of quantum spin systems. Using several different one-dimensional models, we characterize S=12S=\frac{1}{2}S=21​ spinon excitations using the intrinsic spinon size $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ and confinement length $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ (the size of a bound state). The spinons have finite size in valence-bond-solid states, infinite size in the critical region (with overlaps characterized by power laws), and become ill defined (completely unlocalizable) in the N\'eel state (which we stabilize in one dimension by introducing long-range interactions). We also verify that pairs of spinons are deconfined in uniform spin chains but become confined upon introducing a pattern of alternating coupling strengths (dimerization) or coupling two chains (forming a ladder). In the dimerized system, an individual spinon can be small when the confinement length is large; this is the case when the imposed dimerization is weak but the ground state of the corresponding uniform chain is a spontaneously formed valence-bond solid (where the spinons are deconfined). Based on our numerical results, we argue that a system with $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\ll}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ is associated with weak repulsive short-range spinon-spinon interactions. In principle, both the length scales $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ can still be individually tuned from small to infinite (with $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\le}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$) by varying model parameters. In contrast, in the ladder system the two lengths are always similar, and this is the case also in the weakly dimerized systems when the corresponding uniform chain is in the critical phase. In these systems, the effective spinon-spinon interactions are purely attractive and there is only a single large length scale close to criticality, which is reflected in the standard spin correlations as well as in the spinon characteristics.
The infinite Heisenberg XXZ spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ 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 hhh 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=0h=0h=0, we perform perturbative calculations of the energy spectra of the two-spinon bound states in the weak confinement regime at $h\ensuremath{\rightarrow}+0$, using the strength of the staggered magnetic field hhh as a small parameter. Both transverse and longitudinal dynamical structure factors of the local spin operators are calculated as well in the two-spinon approximation in the weak confinement regime to the leading order in hhh.