We present in this thesis a series of studies on the physical properties of some one dimensional systems. In particular we study the low energy properties of various spin chains and a junction of Luttinger wires. For spin chains we specifically look at the role of perturbations like frustrating interactions and dimerisation in a nearest neighbour chain and the formation of magnetisation plateaus in two kinds of models; one purely theoretical and the other motivated by experiments. In our second subject of interest we study using a renormalisation group analysis the effect of spin dependent scattering at a junction of Luttinger wires. We look at the physical effects caused by the interplay of electronic interactions in the wires and the scattering processes at the junction. The thesis begins with an introductory chapter which gives a brief glimpse of the ideas and techniques used in the specific problems that we have worked on. Our work on these problems is then described in detail in chapters 25. We now present a brief summary of each of those chapters.
In the second chapter we look at the ground state phase diagram of the mixed-spin sawtooth chain, i.e a system where the spins along the baseline are allowed to be different from the spins on the vertices. The spins S1 along the baseline interact with a coupling strength J1(> 0). The coupling of the spins on the vertex (S2) to the baseline spins has a strength J2. We study the phase diagram as a function of J2/J1 [1]. The model exhibits a rich variety of phases which we study using spinwave theory, exact diagonalisation and a semi-numerical perturbation theory leading to an effective Hamiltonian. The spinwave theory predicts a transition from a spiral state to a ferrimagnetic state at J2S2/2J1S1 = 1 as J2/J1 is increased. The spectrum has two branches one of which is gapless and dispersionless (at the linear order) in the spiral phase. This arises because of the infinite degeneracy of classical ground states in that phase. Numerically, we study the system using exact diagonalisation of up to 12 unit cells and S1 = 1 and S2 =1/2. We look at the variation of ground state energy, gap to the lowest excitations, and the relevant spin correlation functions in the model. This unearths a richer phase diagram than the spinwave calculation. Apart from revealing a possibility of the presence of more than one kind of spiral phases, numerical results tell us about a very interesting phase for small J2. The spin correlation function (for the spin1/2s) in this region have a property that the nextnearest-neighbour correlations are much larger than the nearest neighbour correlations. We call this phase the NNNAFM (nextnearest neighbour antiferromagnet) phase and provide an understanding of this phase by deriving an effective Hamiltonian between the spin1/2s. We also show the existence of macroscopic magnetisation jumps in the model when one looks at the system close to saturation fields.
The third chapter is concerned with the formation of magnetisation plateaus in two different spin…
We present in this thesis a series of studies on the physical properties of some one dimensional systems. In particular we study the low energy properties of various spin chains and a junction of Luttinger wires. For spin chains we specifically look at the role of perturbations like frustrating interactions and dimerisation in a nearest neighbour chain and the formation of magnetisation plateaus in two kinds of models; one purely theoretical and the other motivated by experiments. In our second subject of interest we study using a renormalisation group analysis the effect of spin dependent scattering at a junction of Luttinger wires. We look at the physical effects caused by the interplay of electronic interactions in the wires and the scattering processes at the junction. The thesis begins with an introductory chapter which gives a brief glimpse of the ideas and techniques used in the specific problems that we have worked on. Our work on these problems is then described in detail in chapters 25. We now present a brief summary of each of those chapters.
In the second chapter we look at the ground state phase diagram of the mixed-spin sawtooth chain, i.e a system where the spins along the baseline are allowed to be different from the spins on the vertices. The spins S1 along the baseline interact with a coupling strength J1(> 0). The coupling of the spins on the vertex (S2) to the baseline spins has a strength J2. We study the phase diagram as a function of J2/J1 [1]. The model exhibits a rich variety of phases which we study using spinwave theory, exact diagonalisation and a semi-numerical perturbation theory leading to an effective Hamiltonian. The spinwave theory predicts a transition from a spiral state to a ferrimagnetic state at J2S2/2J1S1 = 1 as J2/J1 is increased. The spectrum has two branches one of which is gapless and dispersionless (at the linear order) in the spiral phase. This arises because of the infinite degeneracy of classical ground states in that phase. Numerically, we study the system using exact diagonalisation of up to 12 unit cells and S1 = 1 and S2 =1/2. We look at the variation of ground state energy, gap to the lowest excitations, and the relevant spin correlation functions in the model. This unearths a richer phase diagram than the spinwave calculation. Apart from revealing a possibility of the presence of more than one kind of spiral phases, numerical results tell us about a very interesting phase for small J2. The spin correlation function (for the spin1/2s) in this region have a property that the nextnearest-neighbour correlations are much larger than the nearest neighbour correlations. We call this phase the NNNAFM (nextnearest neighbour antiferromagnet) phase and provide an understanding of this phase by deriving an effective Hamiltonian between the spin1/2s. We also show the existence of macroscopic magnetisation jumps in the model when one looks at the system close to saturation fields.
The third chapter is concerned with the formation of magnetisation plateaus in two different spin…
In the present work, we provide a comprehensive numerical investigation of the magnetic properties and phase spectra of three types of spin-1/2 branched chains consisting of one, two and three side spins per unit block with intra-chain interaction and a uniform inter-chain interaction in the presence of an external magnetic field. In a specific magnetic field interval, the low-temperature magnetization of these chains shows a step-like behavior with a pronounced plateau depending on the strength and the type of intra-chain interaction being ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic. We demonstrate that when inter-chain interaction J1 is antiferromagnetic and intra-chain interaction J2 is ferromagnetic, the magnetization of the models manifests a smooth increase without a plateau, which is evidence of the existence of a Luttinger-like spin liquid phase before reaching its saturation value. On the other hand, when J1 is ferromagnetic and J2 is antiferromagnetic, the low-temperature magnetization of the chain with two branches shows an intermediate plateau at one-half of the saturation magnetization that breaks a quantum spin liquid phase into two regions. The magnetization of the chain with three branches exhibits two intermediate plateaus and two regions of a quantum spin liquid. We demonstrate that the chains with more than one side spin illustrate in their ground-state phase diagram a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition from a gapful phase to a gapless spin liquid phase.
The density matrix renormalization group and quantum Monte Carlo methods are used to describe coupled trimer chains in a magnetic field h. The Hamiltonian contains exchange terms involving the intratrimer coupling J1 (taken as the unit of energy) and the intertrimer coupling J2, plus the Zeeman interaction for a magnetic field h along the z direction. Results for the magnetization per trimer m are calculated in regimes of positive and negative values of the ratio J=J2/J1, from which the rich field-induced ground state phase diagram h versus J is derived, with the presence of a Luttinger liquid, the 1/3 plateau (m=1/2), and the one of fully polarized magnetization (m=3/2). Also, zero-field Lanczos calculation of the spin-wave dispersion from the 1/3 plateau for Sz=1 is shown at the previous regimes of J values. In addition, we also report on the decay of correlation functions of trimers along open chains, as well as the average two-magnon distribution. The ground state is ferrimagnetic for $0<J\ensuremath{\le}1$, and is a singlet for $\ensuremath{-}1\ensuremath{\le}J<0$. In the singlet phase, the spin correlation functions along the legs present an antiferromagnetic power-law decay, similar to the spin-1/2 linear chain, thus suggesting that the ground state is made of three coupled antiferromagnetically oriented chains. In the singlet phase, the dimensionless thermal magnetic susceptibility per site normalized by 1/∣J∣ gets closer to $1/{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{2}$ as the temperature $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$. For the ferrimagnetic phase, we fit the susceptibility to the experimental data for the compound Pb3Cu3(PO4)4 and estimate the model exchange couplings: J1=74.8K and J=0.4. These values imply a range of energies for the magnon excitations that are in accord with the data from neutron scattering experiments on Pb3Cu3(PO4)4 for two excitation modes. The 1/3 plateau closes only at 1/∣J∣=0 with J<0.
This thesis is focused on the application and development of numerical methods for studying quantum many- body spin systems. Part I sets the stage for research projects. In chapter 1, I go over major milestones in the field of frustrated magnetism, how it fits into a larger category of condensed matter physics, and recent developments that provide context for the research projects presented in part II. Chapters 2 3 provide the reader with necessary concepts in physics of phase transitions and numerical methods that are often employed when studying ground states of quantum many body systems. Part II focuses on the research projects carried out during my PhD research. In chapter 4 I present a machine-learning inspired method for solving quantum many body problems. This method addresses issues of representation of variational wave functions and their optimization. In chapter 5, I present a numerical study on the embedding of an exactly solvable point in a phase diagram of an extended Heisenberg model on a kagome lattice. Chapter 6 studies a quantum Heisenberg model on the stuffed honeycomb lattice. Phase transitions in quantum many body systems manifest themselves as a reorganization of low energy spectra of the system. They come in a variety of forms ranging from symmetry breaking transitions, where a local order parameter is formed and to topological phase transitions where the change of the ground state can be attributed to non-local changes in the entanglement patterns. In chapter 2, I review classic models studied in the context of frustrated magnetism and briefly go over the formulation of Landau symmetry breaking theory and common order parameters. The breakdown of Landau symmetry-breaking theory for topological phase transition is discussed using the example of Resonance Valence Bond (RVB) state, which serves as a qualitative exemplification of spin liquid phases. I discuss means of detecting phase transitions with a focus on methods that are applicable in a numerical setting. Chapter 3 presents elements of the numerical machinery that the rest of the thesis employs and builds upon. I discuss traditional trade-offs and provide rough metrics used for analysis of strengths and drawbacks of different approaches. Then I focus on Exact Diagonalization (ED) and Variational Monte Carlo (VMC) methods that are used in later chapters. In chapter 4, I describe the application of machine learning techniques to the variational approach to the quantum many body problem. I introduce Computational Graph States (CGS), a new class of variational wave functions based on the dataflow programming paradigm. The use of computational graphs makes composing new wave functions easy due to its modular structure. Automatic differentiation allows us to obtain efficient derivatives with respect to variational parameters automatically. We also develop a novel optimization scheme, Supervised Wave-function Optimization. It combines ideas of supervised learning and imaginary time evolution. Our method resolves a number of technical challenges and allows seamless optimization of complicated variational models. During the exploration process we constructed a new class of system size invariant model wave functions that can be trained on one system size and generalized to other system sizes with high accuracy. In chapter 5, we study the phase diagram of the kagome antiferromagnet in the J2, Jz plane, which corresponds to second nearest neighbor interactions and spin anisotropy. We report an exactly solvable point with macroscopic degeneracy at J2 = 0, Jz = −0.5 and show that many phases emanate from around this point. In addition, we find a previously unknown transition within the spin-liquid region suggesting a possibility of two distinct spin liquids. In chapter 6, we consider a Heisenberg model on the stuffed honeycomb lattice which interpolated between the triangular and honeycomb lattices. Using exact diagonalization we compute the phase diagram of this model. We find that for this model, the triangular lattice J1-J2 spin liquid region is extended to a larger domain that has lower symmetries than that of the triangular lattice. We perform a variational study of projected BCS wave functions which we directly compare to exact ground states on 36 site cluster as well as consider variational energies from larger system sizes. We argue that construction of symmetric states is essential to obtain good variational energies and give evidence that Dirac spin-liquid state is likely to characterize the spin liquid phase.
The first part of the thesis deals with so called numerical renormalization group methods, and in particular the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG). This method performs extremely well for large one-dimensional quantum systems like spin-chains and Hubbard models. We discuss general features of the quantum states obtained by using this method for large systems. One finds that the method works better, i.e. faster convergence and higher accuracy, when applied to systems having an energy gap between the ground state and the first excited state. An investigation of the behavior of the DMRG for a simple gapless system is done, mainly focusing on the properties of correlation functions. The second part of the thesis deals with topics related to superconductivity. It starts with a discussion of magnetic Josephson junctions and the physical processes governing the behavior of such a system. We also introduce and discuss models of high-temperature superconductors, in particular the t-J model and its relation to stripes. Starting from the t-J model on a two dimensional square lattice, we discuss an approximation where the spin-configuration is assumed static. We discuss the properties of the fictitious magnetic field experienced by the electrons due to the static spin-configuration. Configurations being close to ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic turn out to have very different properties. Furthermore, we derive an effective model for this system and look for different phases of this model. In particular we investigate whether the system takes advantage of a spin-generated fictitious flux. Uniform phases are discussed in a Hartree-Fock approximation and we also consider stripes between antiferromagnetically ordered regions, these being modeled in a self-consistent Hartree approximation. Finally, and inspired by the fictitious fluxes, there is a chapter discussing the statistics of particles living on a circle. It is shown that there are two free parameters in the quantization of such a system and we also sort out the relation between fermions and hard-core bosons in one dimension.
In the present work low energy excitations in various antiferromagnetic systems are investigated.The first part is devoted to the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with two different alternating magnetic ions having spins S A and S B .The system can be characterised as a ferrimagnet with a long range ordered ground state.Linear spin wave theory (LSWT) leads to a qualitatively correct description of two excitation branches.The low energy spectrum contains ferromagnetic magnons which are discussed in the introductory chapter.The LSWT results are compared with the numerical data from exact diagonalisation for the case S A =1 and S B =1/2.In the second part of the thesis, the quantum phase transitions from the Néel phase to the Heisenberg phase and from the Néel phase to the Haldane phase for half-odd-integer spins S =1 /2, 3/2 and integer spins S =1 , 2, respectively, are studied in context of the Haldane conjecture.The models are analysed by means of high-order series expansions for the ground state properties and excitation energies.The expansion parameter is the anisotropy λ where the unperturbed case λ =0corresponds to the Ising model.For the integer-S systems the following scenario is obtained: The phase transitions from the Néel phase to the Haldane phase are determined by the condensation of the so-called spin zero defects (SZD) at finite anisotropy.These domain wall type excitations can be characterised as S z =0states embedded in the antiferromagnetic order.The critical exponents β of the order parameter and η of the correlation function are those of the two-dimensional Ising model.In contrast to the above scenario, the half-odd-integer S =1/2 chain undergoes the Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition at the isotropic point.In the case of the S =3/2 chain the critical behaviour of the static structure factor S (zz) (π) is consistent with the exponentially divergent correlation length at the isotropic point.Finally, kink excitations of the S =1 /2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet chain with nearest and next nearest neighbour interactions (the zigzag chain) are investigated.Here a kink is defined as a free spin S =1 /2 mediating two dimerised ground states.The phase diagram of the zigzag chain contains the Majumdar-Ghosh model as well as the S =1/2 spin ladder and the S =1Heisenberg antiferromagnet.Starting from the Majumdar-Ghosh model, a two-kink variational wave function with S tot =1is constructed.The variational parameter is the characteristic distance between the two kinks.The variational wave function describes the low energy triplet excitation of the gapped zigzag chain in a qualitatively correct way.Within this approach, the elementary excitation of the spin ladder as well as the Haldane triplet of the S =1chain appears as a bound state of two kinks.The phase diagram of the zigzag chain contains the incommensurate phase where the wave vector of the lowest mode k 0 runs from k 0 =0to k 0 = π.At the qualitative level, this behaviour is correctly described by the variational approach.
This work is devoted to the study of spin S = 1 systems, and more precisely to the emergence of exotic quantum phases in such systems, and to the establishment of tools to observe such phases. It is split in four main chapters. In the first chapter, we show how spin S = 1 systems can emerge from microscopic models, and which kinds of interaction might appear in the effective spin model. We start from a two-orbital Hubbard model, and by a strong coupling development to fourth order, we derive an effective model. We will see that three types of interaction appear beyond the Heisenberg interaction : a plaquette interaction, a biquadratic interaction and a three-spin interaction. In the second chapter, we study Raman scattering on systems with quadrupolar order to show that it can be used to probe such order. We first start by deriving an effective light scattering operator following Shastry and Shraiman calculation on spin S = 1/2 systems. Using this effective operator, we compute the Raman spectra with exact diagonalization and linear flavor-wave theory. We show that two different regimes appear depending on the incoming photon energy, and that combining this to different polarizations accessible with Raman scattering, the presence of quadrupolar order can be established with this probe. The third chapter is devoted to the study of the three-spin interaction that appeared in the first chapter on a chain. We start by establishing the classical and the mean field phase diagram of this system. We then turn to the quantum case. We show that, whatever the value of the spin is, the ground state is perfectly dimerized for a particular value of the three-spin interaction. The presence of such a point in the phase diagram implies the existence of a quantum phase transition when increasing the three-spin interaction. By an intensive numerical study, we show that this transition is continuous, and that its critical behavior is the one of a SU(2)k=2S Wess-Zumino-Witten model, at least for spins S = 1/2,1,3/2,2. In the last section of this chapter, we study the phase diagram of the chain for spin S = 1 under a magnetic field. We conclude this work with a study of the three-spin interaction on a square lattice. The classical and mean field phase diagram are established. It is shown that for a large three-spin interaction, the classical ground state is highly degenerate. This degeneracy is lifted in the quantum case by a process of order by disorder. We compute the quantum fluctuations with linear spin-wave theory, and show that some phases are selected over others. We confirm these results by an exact diagonalization study of the system.