We consider analytically and numerically an anisotropic $\text{spin}\ensuremath{-}\frac{1}{2}$ delta chain (sawtooth chain) with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic and next-nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions. For certain values of the interactions a lowest one-particle band becomes flat and there is a class of localized-magnon eigenstates which form a ground state with a macroscopic degeneracy. In this case the model depends on a single parameter which can be chosen as the anisotropy of the exchange interactions. When this parameter changes from zero to infinity the model interpolates between the one-dimensional isotropic ferromagnet and the frustrated Ising model on the delta chain. It is shown that the low-temperature thermodynamic properties in these limiting cases are governed by the specific structure of the excitation spectrum. In particular, the specific heat has one or infinite number of low-temperature maxima for the small or the large anisotropy parameter, correspondingly. Qualitative features of such behavior survive when the interaction parameters deviate from the relations providing the local magnon ground state.
We consider analytically and numerically an anisotropic spin-[Formula: see text] delta-chain (sawtooth chain) in which exchange interactions between apical and basal spins are ferromagnetic and those between basal spins are antiferromagnetic. In the limit of strong anisotropy of exchange interactions this model can be considered as the Ising delta chain with macroscopic degenerate ground state perturbed by transverse quantum fluctuations. These perturbations lift the ground state degeneracy and the model reduces to the basal XXZ spin chain in the magnetic field induced by static apical spins. We show that the ground state of such a model is ferrimagnetic. The excitations of the model are formed by ferrimagnetic domains separated by domain walls with a finite energy. At low temperatures the system is effectively divided into two independent subsystems, the apical subsystem described by the Ising spin-[Formula: see text] chain and the basal subsystem described by the XXZ chain with infinite zz interactions.
The repulsive Hubbard model on a sawtooth chain exhibits the lowest single-electron band which is completely dispersionless (flat) for a specific choice of the hopping parameters. We construct exact many-electron ground states for electron fillings up to 1/4. We map the low-energy degrees of freedom of the electron model to a model of classical hard dimers on a chain and, as a result, obtain the ground-state degeneracy as well as closed-form expressions for the low-temperature thermodynamic quantities around a particular value of the chemical potential. We compare our analytical findings with complementary numerical data. Although we consider a specific model, we believe that some of our results such as a low-temperature peak in the specific heat are generic for flat-band ferromagnets.
On a large class of lattices (such as the sawtooth chain, the kagome and the pyrochlore lattices), the quantum Heisenberg and the repulsive Hubbard models may host a completely dispersionless (flat) energy band in the single-particle spectrum. The flat-band states can be viewed as completely localized within a finite volume (trap) of the lattice and allow for construction of many-particle states, roughly speaking, by occupying the traps with particles. If the flat-band happens to be the lowest-energy one, the manifold of such many-body states will often determine the ground-state and low-temperature physics of the models at hand even in the presence of strong interactions. The localized nature of these many-body states makes possible the mapping of this subset of eigenstates onto a corresponding classical hard-core system. As a result, the ground-state and low-temperature properties of the strongly correlated flat-band systems can be analyzed in detail using concepts and tools of classical statistical mechanics (e.g., classical lattice-gas approach or percolation approach), in contrast to more challenging quantum many-body techniques usually necessary to examine strongly correlated quantum systems. In this review, we recapitulate the basic features of the flat-band spin systems and briefly summarize earlier studies in the field. The main emphasis is made on recent developments which include results for both spin and electron flat-band models. In particular, for flat-band spin systems, we highlight field-driven phase transitions for frustrated quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnets at low temperatures, chiral flat-band states, as well as the effect of a slight dispersion of a previously strictly flat-band due to nonideal lattice geometry. For electronic systems, we discuss the universal low-temperature behavior of several flat-band Hubbard models, the emergence of ground-state ferromagnetism in the square-lattice Tasaki–Hubbard model and the related Pauli-correlated percolation problem, as well as the dispersion-driven ground-state ferromagnetism in flat-band Hubbard systems. Closely related studies and possible experimental realizations of the flat-band physics are also described briefly.
We investigate the spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on the delta chain (sawtooth chain) with ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor and antiferromagnetic next-neighbor interactions. For a special ratio between these interactions there is a class of exact ground states formed by localized magnons and the ground state is macroscopically degenerate. The degree of this degeneration is found analytically. It is shown that the residual entropy per spin is
s0=21ln2. An important feature of this model is a sharp decrease of the gaps for excited states with an increase of the number of magnons. These excitations give an essential contribution to the low-temperature thermodynamics. The corresponding thermodynamic quantities are calculated using full exact diagonalization of finite chains up to
N=22. The behavior of the considered model is compared with that of the delta chain with both antiferromagnetic interactions.
In contrast to strongly frustrated classical systems, their quantum counterparts typically have a non-degenerate ground state. A counterexample is the celebrated Heisenberg sawtooth spin chain with ferromagnetic zigzag bonds
J1 and competing antiferromagnetic basal bonds
J2. At a quantum phase transition point
∣J2/J1∣=1/2, this model exhibits a flat one-magnon excitation band leading to a massively degenerate ground-state manifold which results in a large residual entropy. Thus, for the spin-half model, the residual entropy amounts to exactly one half of its maximum value
limT→∞S(T)/N=ln2. In the present paper we study in detail the role of the spin quantum number
s and the magnetic field
H in the parameter region around the transition (flat-band) point. For that we use full exact diagonalization up to
N=20 lattice sites and the finite-temperature Lanczos method up to
N=36 sites to calculate the density of states as well as the temperature dependence of the specific heat, the entropy and the susceptibility. The study of chain lengths up to
N=36 allows a careful finite-size analysis. At the flat-band point we find extremely small finite-size effects for spin
s=1/2, i.e., the numerical data virtually correspond to the thermodynamic limit. In all other cases the finite-size effects are still small and become visible at very low temperatures. In a sizeable parameter region around the flat-band point the former massively degenerate ground-state manifold acts as a large manifold of low-lying excitations leading to extraordinary thermodynamic properties at the transition point as well as in its vicinity such as an additional low-temperature maximum in the specific heat. Moreover, there is a very strong influence of the magnetic field on the low-temperature thermodynamics including an enhanced magnetocaloric effect.