arXiv:1705.07868 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B
Exact zero modes in frustrated Haldane chains
Natalia Chepiga, Frédéric Mila
Abstract
We show that the effective coupling between the spin-1/2 edge states of a spin-1 chain of finite length can be continuously tuned by frustration. For the ${J}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{2}$ model with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions, we show that the effective coupling in a chain of length $L$ changes sign $N\ensuremath{\simeq}0.38L$ times in the window $0.28\ensuremath{\lesssim}{J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.75$ where the short-range correlations are incommensurate. This implies that there are $N$ zero modes where the singlet and the triplet are strictly degenerate, i.e., $N$ values of ${J}_{2}/{J}_{1}$ where the spin-1/2 edge states are completely decoupled. We argue that this effect must be generic for all incommensurate phases with localized edge states, and we briefly discuss a few experimental implications.