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arXiv:2607.28373

Emergence of a Macroscopic Cat State and Multi-Channel Entanglement in a Frustrated Cluster Spin Chain

Mohit Lal Bera, Andreu Anglés-Castillo, Alberto Acevedo Meléndez, Rafael Gómez-Lurbe, Luca Ion, Rodrigo M. Sanz, Somayeh Mehrabankar, Tanmoy Pandit, Carmen G. Almudéver, Armando Pérez, Miguel Angel Garcia-March

quant-phSubmitted Jul 30, 2026• Announced Jul 31, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study a one-dimensional frustrated spin chain, which combines cluster-Ising and anisotropic next-nearest neighbor Ising models. We first offer a historical perspective that justifies the studied model. Then we study in detail the two quantum phases and prove that they are separated by a first order quantum phase transition. On one side, the ground state corresponds to a ferromagnetic phase, shows the presence of macroscopic cat states, and a small gap that closes in the thermodynamic limit. On the other phase, competing interactions avoid the establishment of a topological phase, though it conserves large incommensurate quantum correlations. We prove it is fundamentally distinct from a simple paramagnet, and we name it an incommensurate phase. This is a gapped phase, which gap does not close in the thermodynamic limit. While in the ferromagnetic phase there are two dominant Schmidt coefficients, in the incommensurate phase there are four. This corresponds to four distinct bipartite entanglement channels contributing substantially to the ground state. Finally, we discuss the utility of the macroscopic cat states for quantum metrology applications and the experimental feasibility of the system.

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Quantum phase transitions in low-dimensional quantum spin systems with incommensurate magnetic structures

Andrei A. Zvyagin

Several exactly solvable quantum spin models with incommensurate magnetic structures, which manifest quantum phase transitions between incommensurate and commensurate phases, are proposed. The ground-state and thermodynamic characteristics of these quantum spin antiferromagnetic models with the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya antisymmetric exchange interaction and spin-frustrating next-nearest-neighbor, three-spin, and four-spin (ring exchange) interactions are exactly studied. We investigated the ground state phases of the considered models, as function of the magnetic anisotropy, Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction, next-nearest-neighbor coupling constants, and external magnetic field. Several quantum phase transitions between magnetically incommensurate phases and between incommensurate and ferromagnetic phases are predicted, and the behavior of thermodynamic characteristics of those models at phase transitions is studied. We have shown that for models with chiral three-spin interactions the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya coupling yields the onset of the weak ferromagnetism, similar to three-dimensional ordered antiferromagnets, but not present in other quantum spin chains with the antisymmetric exchange. Considered models appeared to be important for several quasi-one-dimensional spin systems, studied in recent experiments.

Physical Review B•Aug 10, 2005•19 citations
We study a one-dimensional frustrated spin chain, which combines cluster-Ising and anisotropic next-nearest neighbor Ising models. We first offer a historical perspective that justifies the studied model. Then we study in detail the two quantum phases and prove that they are separated by a first order quantum phase transition. On one side, the ground state corresponds to a ferromagnetic phase, shows the presence of macroscopic cat states, and a small gap that closes in the thermodynamic limit. On the other phase, competing interactions avoid the establishment of a topological phase, though it conserves large incommensurate quantum correlations. We prove it is fundamentally distinct from a simple paramagnet, and we name it an incommensurate phase. This is a gapped phase, which gap does not close in the thermodynamic limit. While in the ferromagnetic phase there are two dominant Schmidt coefficients, in the incommensurate phase there are four. This corresponds to four distinct bipartite entanglement channels contributing substantially to the ground state. Finally, we discuss the utility of the macroscopic cat states for quantum metrology applications and the experimental feasibility of the system.
We study frustrated ferromagnetic spin-1 chains, where the ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor coupling competes with the antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor coupling. We use the density-matrix renormalization group to obtain the ground states. Through the analysis of spin-spin correlations we identify the double Haldane phase as well as the ferromagnetic phase. It is shown that the ferromagnetic coupling leads to incommensurate correlations in the double Haldane phase. Such short-range correlations transform continuously into the ferromagnetic instability at the transition to the ferromagnetic phase. We also compare the results with the spin-1/2 and classical spin systems and discuss the string orders in the system.
We study Heisenberg spin-1/2 and spin-1 chains with alternating ferromagnetic (J1FJ_1^FJ1F​) and antiferromagnetic (J1AJ_1^AJ1A​) nearest-neighbor interactions and ferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interaction (J2FJ_2^FJ2F​). In this model frustration is induced by the non-zero J2FJ_2^FJ2F​ and the effect of dimerization is realized by changing the strength of J1AJ_1^AJ1A​ for a fixed value of J1FJ_1^FJ1F​. The model with site spin sss behaves like a Haldane spin chain with site spin 2sss in the limit of vanishing J2FJ_2^FJ2F​ and large J1F/J1AJ_1^F/J_1^AJ1F​/J1A​. We show that the exact ground state of the model can be found along a line in the parameter space. The phase diagram in the space of J1A−J2FJ_1^A-J_2^FJ1A​−J2F​ is determined using numerical techniques complemented by some analytical calculations. A number of quantities, including the ground state spin, energy gap, structure factor, entanglement entropy, and zero temperature magnetization, are studied to understand the complete phase diagram. An interesting and application-wise important feature of this model is that it exhibits a macroscopic magnetization jump in the presence of a magnetic field; we study this using an effective Hamiltonian.
The ground state properties of an Ising chain with nearest (J1{J}_{1}J1​) and next-nearest neighbor (J2{J}_{2}J2​) interactions in a transverse field are investigated using the density matrix renormalization group and cluster mean-field theory methods. Its quantum phase diagram has two ordered regions (separated by a quantum disordered region), one of which has simple ferromagnetic or N\'eel order depending upon the sign of J1{J}_{1}J1​, and the other is the double-staggered antiferromagnetic phase. The presence of the edge modes in these ordered phases is inferred by calculating the end-to-end spin-spin correlations on open chains. It is found that there occur four edge modes in the double-staggered phase, while the ferromagnetic and N\'eel phases support two edge modes, except very near J1=0{J}_{1}=0J1​=0, where it seems they have four edge modes like the exact case at J1=0{J}_{1}=0J1​=0 itself.
By using the coupled cluster method, the numerical exact diagonalization method, and the numerical density matrix renormalization group method, we investigated the properties of the one-dimensional Heisenberg chain with alternating antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic next nearest neighbor interactions. In the classical limit, the ground state is in the collinear Neel state if a<1/2, while for a>1/2, there is an noncollinear canted state. For the quantum case, we found that, although the classical Neel state is absent, the canted state exists if the frustration parameter a exceeds a critical point ac1. The precise critical point ac1 can be determined by using the coupled cluster method and the numerical exact diagonalization method separately. The results of the coupled cluster method and the exact diagonalization method both disclose that the type of phase transition occurring at ac1 changes from a classical second-order transition to a quantum first-order transition due to quantum fluctuation. Although there is another critical point ac2 in a finite system at which the ground state evolves from the canted state to the collinear Neel plus ferromagnetic state, that state is absent because ac2 tends to infinity in the thermodynamic limit.
In this work the ordering processes in classical frustrated Ising models and the ground-state behavior of frustrated quantum spin models are investigated. In the first part the phase transition from a high-temperature paramagnetic phase to a antiferromagnetic ground state is analyzed for the square-lattice Ising model with competing antiferromagnetic interactions between nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor spins. In the case of spatially isotropic interactions the phase transition to a collinear state is of special interest. Using Monte-Carlo simulations on finite lattices as well as field-theoretical methods for the continuous model it is shown that depending on the frustration three different sectors can be distinguished that show (i) Ising-universal behavior (ii) Ashkin-Teller-like non-universal behavior (varying critical exponents) and (iii) non-critical first-order behavior. For spatially anisotropic interactions the emergence of an intermediate incommensurate phase is verified by means of Monte-Carlo simulations which has been predicted by earlier mean-field calculations. The nature of this phase is studied analyzing spin-spin correlation functions and its ordering wave-vector reveals a strong temperature and size dependence. In the second part the influence of quantum fluctuations on classical antiferromagnetic ground states are investigated in anisotropic quantum spin-1/2 Heisenberg models with competing interactions. Using quantum Monte-Carlo simulations, exact diagonalization and perturbation theory the ground-state phase diagrams are calculated for a square lattice with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor interactions and a honeycomb lattice with up to third-nearest-neighbor interactions whereby the fluctuations are chosen to be non-frustrating. For both cases the stability regions of classical magnetic states are identified and an intermediate phase is detected that shows no sign of long-range magnetic order. Further calculations also rule out valence-bond-crystal or topological order for this state, thus a quantum disordered ground state is stabilized in these models.
Several exactly solvable quantum spin models with incommensurate magnetic structures, which manifest quantum phase transitions between incommensurate and commensurate phases, are proposed. The ground-state and thermodynamic characteristics of these quantum spin antiferromagnetic models with the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya antisymmetric exchange interaction and spin-frustrating next-nearest-neighbor, three-spin, and four-spin (ring exchange) interactions are exactly studied. We investigated the ground state phases of the considered models, as function of the magnetic anisotropy, Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction, next-nearest-neighbor coupling constants, and external magnetic field. Several quantum phase transitions between magnetically incommensurate phases and between incommensurate and ferromagnetic phases are predicted, and the behavior of thermodynamic characteristics of those models at phase transitions is studied. We have shown that for models with chiral three-spin interactions the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya coupling yields the onset of the weak ferromagnetism, similar to three-dimensional ordered antiferromagnets, but not present in other quantum spin chains with the antisymmetric exchange. Considered models appeared to be important for several quasi-one-dimensional spin systems, studied in recent experiments.