Beyond universal behavior in the one-dimensional chain with random nearest-neighbor hopping

Abstract

We study the one-dimensional nearest-neighbor tight-binding model of electrons with independently distributed random hopping and no on-site potential (i.e., off-diagonal disorder with particle-hole symmetry, leading to sublattice symmetry, for each realization). For nonsingular distributions of the hopping, it is known that the model exhibits a universal, singular behavior of the density of states $\ensuremath{\rho}(E)\ensuremath{\sim}1/|E{ln}^{3}|E||$ and of the localization length $\ensuremath{\xi}(E)\ensuremath{\sim}|ln|E||$, near the band center $E=0$. (This singular behavior is also applicable to random XY and Heisenberg spin chains; it was first obtained by Dyson for a specific random harmonic oscillator chain.) Simultaneously, the state at $E=0$ shows a universal, subexponential decay at large distances $\ensuremath{\sim}exp[\ensuremath{-}\sqrt{r/{r}_{0}}]$. In this study, we consider singular, but normalizable, distributions of hopping, whose behavior at small $t$ is of the form $\ensuremath{\sim}1/[t{ln}^{\ensuremath{\lambda}+1}(1/t)]$, characterized by a single, continuously tunable parameter $\ensuremath{\lambda}>0$. We find, using a combination of analytic and numerical methods, that while the universal result applies for $\ensuremath{\lambda}>2$, it no longer holds in the interval $0<\ensuremath{\lambda}<2$. In particular, we find that the form of the density of states singularity is enhanced (relative to the Dyson result) in a continuous manner depending on the nonuniversal parameter $\ensuremath{\lambda}$; simultaneously, the localization length shows a less divergent form at low energies and ceases to diverge below $\ensuremath{\lambda}=1$. For $\ensuremath{\lambda}<2$, the fall-off of the $E=0$ state at large distances also deviates from the universal result and is of the form $\ensuremath{\sim}exp[\ensuremath{-}{(r/{r}_{0})}^{1/\ensuremath{\lambda}}]$, which decays faster than an exponential for $\ensuremath{\lambda}<1$.