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arXiv:1310.4551 · Physical Review B

Topological nature of magnetization plateaus in periodically modulated quantum spin chains

Haiping Hu, Chen Cheng, Zhihao Xu, Hong‐Gang Luo, Shu Chen

Published Jul 31, 2014• 30 citations
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Abstract

We unveil nontrivial topological properties of zero-temperature magnetization plateau states in periodically modulated quantum spin chains under a uniform magnetic field. As positions of plateaus are uniquely determined by the modulation period of exchange couplings, we find that the topologically nontrivial plateau state can be characterized by a nonzero integer Chern number and has nontrivial edge excitations. Our study clarifies the topological origin of the well-known phenomena of quantized magnetization plateaus in one-dimensional quantum spin systems and relates the plateau state to the correlated topological insulator.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.90.035150

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We unveil nontrivial topological properties of zero-temperature magnetization plateau states in periodically modulated quantum spin chains under a uniform magnetic field. As positions of plateaus are uniquely determined by the modulation period of exchange couplings, we find that the topologically nontrivial plateau state can be characterized by a nonzero integer Chern number and has nontrivial edge excitations. Our study clarifies the topological origin of the well-known phenomena of quantized magnetization plateaus in one-dimensional quantum spin systems and relates the plateau state to the correlated topological insulator.
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We report the findings of fractional topological states in one-dimensional periodically modulated quantum spin chains with up to third neighbor interactions. By exact numerical studies, we demonstrate the existence of topologically nontrivial degenerate ground states at some specific magnetizations, which can be characterized by the nonzero-integer total Chern numbers of the degenerate ground states and the emergence of nontrivial edge states under open boundary conditions. We find that the low-energy excitations obey bosonic $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/2$ fractional statistics for the spin-1/21/21/2 system and $\ensuremath{\nu}=1$ non-Abelian statistics for the spin-1 system, respectively. The discovered fractional quantum states provide another route to the theoretical exploration of fractional quantum states in correlated spin systems.
The bulk electric polarization works as a nonlocal order parameter that characterizes topological quantum matters. Motivated by a recent paper [H. Watanabe et al., Phys. Rev. B 103, 134430 (2021)], we discuss magnetic analogs of the bulk polarization in one-dimensional quantum spin systems, that is, quantized magnetizations on the edges of one-dimensional quantum spin systems. The edge magnetization shares the topological origin with the fractional edge state of the topological odd-spin Haldane phases. Despite this topological origin, the edge magnetization can also appear in topologically trivial quantum phases. We develop straightforward field theoretical arguments that explain the characteristic properties of the edge magnetization. The field theory shows that a U(1) spin-rotation symmetry and a site-centered or bond-centered inversion symmetry protect the quantization of the edge magnetization. We proceed to discussions that quantum phases on nonzero magnetization plateaus can also have the quantized edge magnetization that deviates from the magnetization density in bulk. We demonstrate that the quantized edge magnetization distinguishes two quantum phases on a magnetization plateau separated by a quantum critical point. The edge magnetization exhibits an abrupt stepwise change from zero to 1/21/21/2 at the quantum critical point because the quantum phase transition occurs in the presence of the symmetries protecting the quantization of the edge magnetization. We also show that the quantized edge magnetization can result from the spontaneous ferrimagnetic order.
Hubbard chains with periodically modulated coupling constants in a magnetic field exhibit gaps at zero temperature in their magnetic and charge excitations in a variety of situations. In addition to fully gapped situations (plateau in the magnetization curve and charge gap), we have shown [Phys. Lett. A 268, 418 (2000)] that plateaus also appear in the presence of massless modes, leading to a plateau with a magnetization m whose value depends continuously on the filling n. Here we detail and extend the arguments leading to such doping-dependent magnetization plateaus. First we analyze the low-lying excitations using Abelian bosonization. We compute the susceptibility and show that due to the constraint of fixed n, it vanishes at low temperatures (thus leading to a magnetization plateau) even in the presence of one massless mode. Next we study correlation functions and show that one component of the superconducting order parameter develops quasi-long-range order on a doping-dependent magnetization plateau. We then use perturbation theory in the on-site repulsion U to compute the width of these plateaus up to first order in U. Finally, we compute ground state phase diagrams and correlation functions by Lanczos diagonalization of finite clusters, confirming the presence of doping-dependent plateaus and their special properties.
In this paper, we study periodically modulated s=1/2s=1/2s=1/2 spin chain in a linear gradient potential (LP) that is generated by an external magnetic field. In the absence of the LP, the system has topological states that exhibit a magnetization plateau for a uniform external magnetic field. These topological states have a finite integer Chern number and their stability is clarified by an equivalent spinless fermion system derived by a Jordan-Wigner transformation. We show that the LP, which is nothing but a constant electric field in the spinless fermion system, destabilizes the topological states, because it induces localization called Wannier-Stark (WS) localization. We clarify the phase diagram in the presence of the LP and on-site diagonal disorder. To this end, we carefully study edge excitations under the open boundary condition, which are a hallmark of the topological order. We find a very interesting phenomenon indicating existence of a quasiedge modes that take the place of the genuine edge modes in certain parameter regions. This is a precursor of the WS localization realized in topological states. Finally, we investigate many-body localization induced by a sufficiently strong LP or disorder. To this end, we study the energy-level statistics for whole energy levels, and we find unexpected extended-state regimes located in intermediate potential-gradient and weak on-site disorder regimes. We verify this phenomenon by calculating variance of the entanglement entropy. The present system is closely related to quantum Hall state in two dimensions, and therefore our findings can be observed not only in experiments on ultracold atomic gases but also quantum Hall physics.
Quasi-periodic quantum spin chains were recently found to support many topological phases in the finite magnetization sectors. They can simulate strong topological phases from class A in arbitrary dimension that are characterized by first and higher order Chern numbers. In the present work, we use those findings to generate topological phases at finite magnetization densities that carry first Chern numbers. Given the reduced dimensionality of the spin chains, this provides a unique opportunity to investigate the bulk-boundary correspondence as well as the stability and quantization of the Chern number in the presence of interactions. The later is reformulated using a torus action on the algebra of observables and its quantization and stability is confirmed by numerical simulations. The relations between Chern values and the observed edge spectrum are also discussed.