We study the robustness of nonlocal string order in two paradigmatic disordered spin-chain models, a spin-1/2 cluster-Ising and a spin-1 XXZ Heisenberg chain. In the clean case, they both display a transition from antiferromagnetic to string order. Applying a disorder, which preserves the Hamiltonian symmetries, we find that the transition persists in both models. In the disordered cluster-Ising model, we can study the transition analytically---by applying the strongest coupling renormalization group ---and numerically---by exploiting integrability to study the antiferromagnetic and string order parameters. We map the model into a quadratic fermion chain, where the transition appears as a change in the number of zero-energy edge modes. We also explore its zero-temperature-singularity behavior and find a transition from a nonsingular to a singular region, at a point that is different from the one separating nonlocal and local ordering. The disordered Heisenberg chain can be treated only numerically: by means of MPS-based simulations, we are able to locate the existence of a transition between antiferromagnetic and string-ordered phase, through the study of order parameters. Finally, we discuss possible connections of our findings with many-body localization.
We use extensive density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations to explore the phase diagram of the random
S=1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with a power-law distribution of the exchange couplings. We use open chains and monitor the lowest gaps, the end-to-end correlation function and the string order parameter. For this distribution at weak disorder, the system is in the gapless Haldane phase with a disorder dependent dynamical exponent,
z, and
z=1 signals the border between the nonsingular and singular regions of the local susceptibility. For strong enough disorder, which approximately corresponds to a uniform distribution, a transition into the random singlet phase is detected, at which the string order parameter as well as the average end-to-end correlation function are vanishing and at the same time the dynamical exponent is divergent. Singularities of physical quantities are found to be somewhat different in the random singlet phase and in the critical point.
We analyzed quantum phase transitions in the antiferromagnetic dimerized spin-1/2 XY chain and two-leg ladders. Their gapped phases possess distinct nonlocal string order parameters (SOPs) and the hidden symmetry breaking in each phase is identified. After mapping of the original spin Hamiltonians onto the tight-binding models with Dirac or Majorana fermions and the mean-field approximation (for ladders), the essential physics of nonlocal orders can be grasped analytically. By utilizing duality transformations the calculation of SOPs is mapped onto the local order problem in some dual representation and done without further approximations. The phases with hidden orders can also be distinguished by topological winding numbers. The latter provide a complimentary description. Our main result is the framework to treat nonlocal orders and hidden symmetries which unifies the key elements of the Landau paradigm with the new concept of topological order. This unified framework can be straightforwardly applied for spin chain and ladders, topological insulators and superconductors. Applications of this theory to other systems are under way.
In this paper we study an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg
S=2 quantum spin chain at
T=0 with both interaction and on-site anisotropy, $H={\ensuremath{\sum}}_{i}\frac{1}{2}{(S}_{i}^{+}{S}_{i+1}^{\ensuremath{-}}{+S}_{i}^{\ensuremath{-}}{S}_{i+1}^{+}{)+J}^{z}{S}_{i}^{z}{S}_{i+1}^{z}{+D(S}_{i}^{z}{)}^{2}$. While the phase diagram of this chain for
S=1 and the isotropic point for
S=2 are by now excellently understood, contradictory scenarios exist for the
S=2 anisotropic phase diagram, which imply completely different mechanisms of the emergence of the classical $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{S}\ensuremath{\infty}$ limit, hence the importance of the question. One main scenario predicts the emergence of a cascade of phase transitions not seen in the
S=1 case, based on an analysis using the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) model. Another scenario is in favor of an almost classical phase diagram for
S=2, from which the $S=\ensuremath{\infty}$ phase diagram evolves quite trivially; the
S=1 case then emerges as very special with its dominant quantum effects. Numerical studies have so far not been conclusive. Using the density matrix renormalization group, we study gaps and correlation functions in the anisotropic
S=2 chain. The question of the existence of hidden topological order in the anisotropic
S=2 chain is emphasized, as it distinguishes between the proposed scenarios. Careful extrapolation allows us to show that the topological order is zero in the thermodynamical limit in all disordered phases, in particular in the new phase interposed between the Haldane and large-
D phases. The decay of the hidden order is substantially faster than that of ${S}^{+}{S}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ correlations and excellently fitted by power laws typical of massless phases. This excludes the AKLT-model-based scenario in favor of an almost classical phase diagram for the
S=2 and thus higher spin chains.
We study the spin-
21 Kitaev-Heisenberg (KJ) model in a two-leg ladder. Without a Heisenberg interaction, the Kitaev phase in the ladder model has Majorana fermions with local
Z2 gauge fields, and is usually described as a disordered phase without any order parameter. Here we identify a long-range nonlocal string order parameter (SOP) in the Kitaev phase which survives with a finite Heisenberg interaction. The SOP is obtained by relating the Kitaev ladder, through a nonlocal unitary transformation, to a one-dimensional
XY chain with an Ising coupling to a dangling spin at every site. This differentiates the Kitaev phases from other nearby phases including a rung singlet. Two phases with nonzero SOP corresponding to ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic Kitaev interactions are identified. The full phase diagram of the KJ ladder is determined using exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods, which shows a striking similarity to the KJ model on a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.
A real-space, zero-temperature renormalization-group method is used to study a Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin chain with long-range interactions varying as ${(\mathrm{distance})}^{\ensuremath{-}p}$. Simple renormalization-group equations are obtained and studied analytically, and the results are checked against a more accurate numerical calculation. The calculations provide evidence for a phase transition at $p\ensuremath{\approx}1.85$ characterized by a change in the behavior of zero-temperature correlation functions. For $p\ensuremath{\gtrsim}1.85$ the large-distance physics is that of the nearest-neighbor antiferromagnet, while there is a line of fixed points for $p\ensuremath{\lesssim}1.85$. I conjecture that $p\ensuremath{\approx}1.85$ also marks an order-disorder transition at finite temperature such as occurs in the Ising model with power-law interactions.
String correlations are investigated in an infinite-size XXZ spin-1 chain. By using the infinite matrix product state representation, we calculate a long-range string order. In the XY phase, the string correlations decay within a relatively very large lattice distance, which makes a finite-size study difficult to verify the non-existence of the string order. Thus, in the Haldane phase, the non-vanishing string correlations in the limit of a very large distance allow to characterize the phase boundaries to the XY phase and the Neel phase, which implies that the transverse long-range string order is the order parameter for the Haldane phase. In addition, the singular behaviors of the von Neumann entropy and the fidelity per lattice site are shown to capture clearly the phase transition points that are consistent with the results from the string order. The estimated critical points including a BKT transition from the XY phase to the Haldane phase agree well with the previous results:
Δc2=0 for the XY-Haldane phase transition and
Δc3=1.185 for the Haldane-N'eel phase transition from the density renormalization group. From a finite-entanglement scaling of the von Neumann entropy with respect to the truncation dimension, the central charges are found to be
c≃1.0 at
Δc2=0 and
c≃0.5 at
Δc3=1.185, respectively, which shows that the XY-Haldane phase transition at
Δc2=0 belongs to the Heisenberg universality class, while the Haldane-Neel phase transition at
Δc2=1.185 belongs to the two-dimensional classical Ising universality class. It is also shown that, the long-range order parameters and the von Neumann entropy, as well as the fidelity per site approach, can be applied to characterize quantum phase transitions as a universal phase transition indicator for one-dimensional lattice many-body systems.