The antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chain with integer spin has a short-range magnetic order and an excitation energy gap above the ground state. This so-called Haldane gap is proportional to the exchange coupling constant J of the Heisenberg chain. In this study, we discuss recent results about the spin dependence of the Haldane gap and conjecture an analytical formula valid asymptotically for large spin values. We then discuss the robustness of the edge states of the spin-1 chain by studying a spin-1 ladder using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm. We show that the peculiar hidden topological order of the spin-1 chain disappears smoothly by increasing the ladder rung coupling without any intervening phase transition. This is evidence for the fragile character of the topological order of the spin-1 chain.
The antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chain with integer spin has a short-range magnetic order and an excitation energy gap above the ground state. This so-called Haldane gap is proportional to the exchange coupling constant J of the Heisenberg chain. In this study, we discuss recent results about the spin dependence of the Haldane gap and conjecture an analytical formula valid asymptotically for large spin values. We then discuss the robustness of the edge states of the spin-1 chain by studying a spin-1 ladder using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm. We show that the peculiar hidden topological order of the spin-1 chain disappears smoothly by increasing the ladder rung coupling without any intervening phase transition. This is evidence for the fragile character of the topological order of the spin-1 chain.
Haldane conjectures the fundamental difference in the energy spectrum of the Heisenberg antiferromagnetic (HAF) of the spin S chain is that the half-integer and the integer S chain have gapless and gapped energy spectrums, respectively. The ground state (gs) of the HAF spin-1/2 and spin-1 chains have a quasi-long-range and short-range correlation, respectively. We study the effect of the exchange interaction between an HAF spin-1/2 and an HAF spin-1 chain forming a normal ladder system and its gs properties. The inter-chain exchange interaction J⊥ can be either ferromagnetic (FM) or antiferromagnetic (AFM). Using the density matrix renormalization group method, we show that in the weak AFM/FM coupling limit of J⊥, the system behaves like two decoupled chains. However, in the large AFM J⊥ limit, the whole system can be visualized as weakly coupled spin-1/2 and spin-1 pairs which behave like an effective spin-1/2 HAF chain. In the large FM J⊥ limit, coupled spin-1/2 and spin-1 pairs can form pseudo spin-3/2 and the whole system behaves like an effective spin-3/2 HAF chain. We also derive the effective model Hamiltonian in both strong FM and AFM rung exchange coupling limits.
The ground-state properties of a spin S=1/2 tetrameric Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain with alternating couplings AF1-AF2-AF1-F (AF and F denote antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic couplings, respectively) are studied by means of the density-matrix renormalization-group method. Two plateaus of magnetization m are found at m=0 and 1/4. It is shown that in such a spin-1/2 AF system, there is a gap from the singlet ground state to the triplet excited states in the absence of a magnetic field. The spin-spin correlation function decays exponentially, and the gapped states have a nonvanishing string order, which measures a hidden symmetry in the system. By a dual transformation, the string order is transformed into a ferromagnetic order and the hidden symmetry is unveiled to be a ${Z}_{2}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{Z}_{2}$ discrete symmetry, which is fully broken in the gapped states. This half-integer spin Heisenberg AF chain is in a Haldane-like phase suggesting that the present findings extend the substance of Haldane's scenario. A valence-bond-solid state picture is also proposed for the gapped states.
Since Haldane conjectured that ground state of one-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet has a finite spin gap for integer spins, while gapless excitations for half-odd integer spins, it has inspired lots of theoretical and experimental studies on low-dimensional quantum magnets. Several one-dimensional chain systems of integer spins, so called Haldane chain, have been discovered and studied, such as CsNiCl3, Y2BaNiO5, PbNi2V2O8, SrNi2V2O8, AgVP2S6. It has been known that most of the Haldane chain has antiferromagnetic coupling for the intrachain exchange interaction. Recently, we have found a Haldane chain compound in which antiferromagnetic order is accompanied by antiferromagnetic interchain coupling between one-dimensional ferromagnetic chains below 30.5 Kelvin. In this presentation, we present comprehensive study of its magnetic and thermal properties.
In 1983, F. Duncan M. Haldane predicted a singlet ground state for isolated integer-spin one-dimensional antiferromagnets with low single-ion anisotropy D. Since then, a lot of species containing chains of integer spin ions were tested to check the basic conjecture on an energy gap separating the continuum of the excited states from the ground state. As a result of these studies, it has been established that there are numerous states competing with the Haldane phase, namely long-range ordered, dimerized, and large-D phases. The long-range magnetic order takes place due to sufficiently strong exchange interactions between adjacent chains. Dimerization results from the alternation of the exchange interactions within the chains. Both uniaxial and rhombic single-ion anisotropies can suppress the Haldane phase, which is robust only until some critical values. The choice between the competing phases depends also on exchange anisotropy. Excellent reviews on the basic results obtained during the first 20 years of investigation of these phenomena provided solid background for the future studies. Here, we present some developments in this field obtained over the next two decades of research on spin-1 chain systems.
The ground-state phase diagram of a spin-21 XXZ chain with competing ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor (J1<0) and antiferromagnetic second-neighbor (J2>0) exchange couplings is studied by means of the infinite time evolving block decimation algorithm and effective field theories. For the SU(2)-symmetric (Heisenberg) case, we show that the nonmagnetic phase in the range $\ensuremath{-}4<{J}_{1}/{J}_{2}<0$ has a small but finite ferromagnetic dimer order. We argue that this spontaneous dimer order is associated with effective spin-1 degrees of freedom on dimerized bonds, which collectively form a valence bond solid state as in the spin-1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain (the Haldane spin chain). We thus call this phase the Haldane dimer phase. With easy-plane anisotropy, the model exhibits a variety of phases including the vector chiral phase with gapless excitations and the even-parity dimer and N\'eel phases with gapped excitations, in addition to the Haldane dimer phase. Furthermore, we show the existence of gapped phases with coexisting orders in narrow regions that intervene between the gapless chiral phase and any one of Haldane dimer, even-parity dimer, and N\'eel phases. Possible implications for quasi-one-dimensional edge-sharing cuprates are discussed.
We investigate the N-leg spin-S Heisenberg ladders by using the density matrix renormalization group method. We present estimates of the spin gap ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{s}$ and of the ground-state energy per site ${e}_{\ensuremath{\infty}}^{N}$ in the thermodynamic limit for ladders with widths up to six legs and spin $S\ensuremath{\le}\frac{5}{2}$. We also estimate the ground-state energy per site ${e}_{\ensuremath{\infty}}^{2\mathrm{D}}$ for the infinite two-dimensional spin-S Heisenberg model. Our results support that for ladders with semi-integer spins the spin excitation is gapless for N odd and gapped for N even, whereas for integer spin ladders the spin gap is nonzero, independent of the number of legs. Those results agree with the well-known conjectures of Haldane and S\'en\'echal-Sierra for chains and ladders, respectively. We also observe edge states for ladders with N odd, similar to what happens in spin chains.