We investigate the zero magnetization and ground state phase diagram of a spin-1/2 chain with competing ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor and antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor exchange couplings in the strongly interacting regime. Using density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations, we discover two successive commensurate-incommensurate transitions of the nonconformal Pokrovsky-Talapov universality class, occurring even at zero magnetic field. We argue that the first transition marks the proliferation of solitonic discommensurations (kink-antikink pairs) in a critical phase with central charge c=2, emerging from a period-4 gapped phase. At the second transition, an incommensurate quadrupolar (or nematic) Luttinger liquid forms out of a gapped phase separation, via the condensation of two-magnon bound pairs. In the strongly interacting limit, the location of the two Pokrovsky-Talapov transitions can be analytically predicted with degenerate perturbation theory. Our results demonstrate that frustration alone is sufficient to drive continuous commensurate-incommensurate transitions of Mott type and stabilize complex objects with incommensurate quasi-long-range order without doping.
The antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice is perhaps the best known example of frustrated magnets, but it orders at low temperatures. Recent density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations find that the next nearest neighbor interaction J_{2} enhances the frustration, and it leads to a spin liquid for J_{2}/J_{1}∈(0.08,0.15). In addition, a DMRG study of a dipolar Heisenberg model with longer range interactions gives evidence for a spin liquid at a small dipole tilting angle θ∈[0,10°). In both cases, the putative spin liquid region appears to be small. Here, we show that for the triangular lattice dipolar Heisenberg model, a robust quantum paramagnetic phase exists in a surprisingly wide region, θ∈[0,54°), for dipoles tilted along the lattice diagonal direction. We obtain the phase diagram of the model by functional renormalization group (RG), which treats all magnetic instabilities on equal footing. The quantum paramagnetic phase is characterized by a smooth continuous flow of vertex functions and spin susceptibility down to the lowest RG scale, in contrast to the apparent breakdown of RG flow in phases with stripe or spiral order. Our finding points to a promising direction to search for quantum spin liquids in ultracold dipolar molecules.
Critical properties of an Ising bilayer system, consisting of two triangular planes with antiferromagnetic (AF)
JA and ferromagnetic (FM)
JB exchange interactions, coupled by the interlayer exchange
JAB, are studied by Monte Carlo simulation. The FM plane is found to induce in the AF one some effects similar to those resulting from the joint presence of a next-nearest-neighbor FM coupling and an external magnetic field in the single triangular lattice Ising antiferromagnet. The similarities include the appearance of the quasi-long-range-order BKT phase with algebraically decaying correlations for smaller
JAB, as well as the phase transitions belonging to the three-state Potts universality class for larger
JAB. On the other hand, no first-order phase transitions are observed. A new phenomenon is a cross-over from the BKT to the Wannier state at higher temperatures, that can be stabilized over a relatively wide temperature range. In the strong
JAB limit, the critical behavior of the entire bilayer is governed by the behavior of the plane with a dominant intraplane interaction. If
JA is dominant, then the strong
JAB coupling makes the system kinetically freeze at lower temperatures.
In the present work we aim to characterize the lattice configurations and the magnetic behavior in the incommensurate phase of spin-Peierls systems. This phase emerges when the magnetic exchange interaction is coupled to the distortions of an underlying triangular lattice and has its experimental realization in the quasi-one-dimensional compound family TiO
X (
X=Cl, Br). With a simple model of spin-
1/2 chains inserted in a planar triangular geometry which couples them elastically, we are able to obtain the uniform-incommensurate and incommensurate-dimerized phase transitions seen in these compounds. Moreover, we follow the evolution of the wave vector of the distortions with temperature inside the incommensurate phase. Finally, we predict gapless spin excitations for the intermediate phase of TiO
X compounds along with incommensurate spin-spin correlations, offering to experimentalists a candidate to observe an exotic Luttinger liquidlike behavior.