Certain spin chains, such as the quantum Ising chain, have free fermion spectra which can be expressed as the sum of decoupled two-level fermionic systems. Free parafermions are a generalisation of this idea to \mathbb{Z}_N ℤ N -symmetric clock models. In 1989 Baxter discovered a non-Hermitian but \mathcal{PT} 𝒫 𝒯 -symmetric model directly generalising the Ising chain, which was later described by Fendley as a free parafermion spectrum. By extending the model’s magnetic field parameter to the complex plane, it is shown that a series of exceptional points emerges, where the quasienergies defining the free spectrum become degenerate. An analytic expression for the locations of these points is derived, and various numerical investigations are performed. These exceptional points also exist in the Ising chain with a complex transverse field. Although the model is not in general \mathcal{PT} 𝒫 𝒯 -symmetric at these exceptional points, their proximity can have a profound impact on the model on the \mathcal{PT} 𝒫 𝒯 -symmetric real line. Furthermore, in certain cases an exceptional point may appear on the real line (with negative field).
The spectrum of the quantum Ising chain can be found by expressing the spins in terms of free fermions. An analogous transformation exists for clock chains with symmetry, but is of less use because the resulting parafermionic operators remain interacting. Nonetheless, Baxter showed that a certain non-Hermitian (but PT -symmetric) clock Hamiltonian is 'free', in the sense that the entire spectrum is found in terms of independent energy levels, with the striking feature that there are n possibilities for occupying each level. Here I show this directly explicitly finding shift operators obeying a generalization of the Clifford algebra. I also find higher Hamiltonians that commute with Baxter's and prove their spectrum comes from the same set of energy levels. This thus provides an explicit notion of a 'free parafermion'. A byproduct is an elegant method for the solution of the Ising/Kitaev chain with spatially varying couplings.
The relationship between the eigenspectrum of Ising and
XY quantum chains is well known. Although the Ising model has a
Z(2) symmetry and the
XY model a
U(1) symmetry, both models are described in terms of free-fermionic quasiparticles. The fermionic quasienergies are obtained by means of a Jordan-Wigner transformation. On the other hand, there exists in the literature a huge family of
Z(N) quantum chains whose eigenspectra, for
N>2, are given in terms of free parafermions, and they are not derived from the standard Jordan-Wigner transformation. The first members of this family are the
Z(N) free-parafermionic Baxter quantum chains. In this paper, we introduce a family of
XY models that, beyond two-body, also have
N-multispin interactions. Similar to the standard
XY model, they have a
U(1) symmetry and are also solved by the Jordan-Wigner transformation. We show that with appropriate choices of the
N-multispin couplings, the eigenspectra of these
XY models are given in terms of combinations of
Z(N) free-parafermionic quasienergies. In particular, all the eigenenergies of the
Z(N) free-parafermionic models are also present in the related free-fermionic
XY models. The correspondence is established via the identification of the characteristic polynomial, which fixes the eigenspectrum. In the
Z(N) free-parafermionic models, the quasienergies obey an exclusion circle principle that is not present in the related
N-multispin
XY models.
We introduce a family of
Z(N) multispin quantum chains with a free fermionic (
N=2) or free parafermionic (
N>2) eigenspectrum. The models have
(p+1) interacting spins ($p=1,2,\ensuremath{\cdots}$), which are Hermitian in the
Z(2) (Ising) case and non-Hermitian for
N>2. We construct a set of mutually commuting charges that allows us to derive the eigenenergies in terms of the roots of polynomials generated by a recurrence relation of order
(p+1). In the critical limit we identify these polynomials with certain hypergeometric polynomials
p+1Fp. Also in the critical regime, we calculate the ground-state energy in the bulk limit and verify that they are given in terms of the Lauricella hypergeometric series. The models with special couplings are self-dual and at the self-dual point show a critical behavior with a dynamical critical exponent
zc=Np+1.
Abstract We consider the calculation of ground-state expectation values for the non-Hermitian spin chain described by free parafermions. For N = 2 the model reduces to the quantum Ising chain in a transverse field with open boundary conditions. Use is made of the Hellmann–Feynman theorem to obtain exact results for particular single site and nearest-neighbor ground-state expectation values for general N which are valid for sites deep inside the chain. These results are tested numerically for N = 3, including how they change as a function of distance from the boundary.
We present a general study of a large family of exactly integrable quantum chains with multispin interactions. The exact integrability follows from the algebraic properties of the energy density operators defining the quantum chains. The Hamiltonians are characterized by a parameter $p=1,2,\ensuremath{\cdots}$ related to the number of interacting spins in the multispin interaction. In the general case, the quantum spins are of infinite dimension. In special cases, characterized by the parameter
N=2,3,..., the quantum chains describe the dynamics of
Z(N) quantum spin chains with open boundary conditions. The simplest case
p=1 corresponds to the free fermionic quantum Ising chain (
N=2) or the
Z(N) free parafermionic quantum chain. The eigenenergies of the quantum chains are given in terms of the roots of special polynomials, and for general values of
p the quantum chains are characterized by a free fermionic (
N=2) or free parafermionic (
N>2) eigenspectrum. The models have a special critical point when all coupling constants are equal. At this point, the ground-state energy is exactly calculated in the bulk limit, and our analytical and numerical analyses indicate that the models belong to universality classes of critical behavior with dynamical critical exponent
z=(p+1)/N and specific-heat exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}=max{0,1\ensuremath{-}(p+1)/N}$.