We present an analytic theory for the energy spectrum of a two-leg spin ladder doped with two holes. Starting from a pseudo-fermion-bond-boson representation of the corresponding
t1,2−J1,2 Hamiltonian we apply a diagrammatic approach adapted to the limit of strong rung coupling, which includes both, the coupling of holes to the spin background as well as the two-hole interactions. The two-hole spectrum is calculated and the formation of bound states is discussed. Additionally the evolution of the spin gap of the ladder upon doping is analyzed. A comparison with existing exact diagonalization data is presented and good agreement is found.
The spin dynamics of a doped two-leg spin ladder is investigated by numerical techniques. We show that a hole pair-magnon boundstate evolves at finite hole doping into a sharp magnetic excitation below the two-particle continuum. This is supported by a field theory argument based on a
SO(6)-symmetric ladder. Similarities and differences with the resonant mode of the high-
TC cuprates are discussed.
We study the motion of holes in a mixed-dimensional setup of an antiferromagnetic ladder, featuring nearest-neighbor hopping
t along the ladders and Ising-type spin interactions along, ${J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$, and across, ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$, the ladder. We determine exact solutions for the low-energy one- and two-hole eigenstates. The presence of the trans-leg spin coupling, ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$, leads to a linear confining potential between the holes. As a result, holes on separate legs feature a superlinear binding energy scaling as ${({J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}/t)}^{2/3}$ in the strongly correlated regime of ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}},{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}\ensuremath{\le}t$. This behavior is linked to an emergent length scale $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\propto}{(t/{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}})}^{1/3}$, stemming from the linear confining potential, and which describes how the size of the two-hole molecular state diverges for ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}},{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}\ensuremath{\ll}t$. On the contrary, holes on the same leg unbind at sufficiently low spin couplings. This is a consequence of the altered short-range boundary condition for holes on the same leg, yielding an effective Pauli repulsion between them, limiting their kinetic energy and making binding unfavorable. Finally, we determine the exact nonequilibrium quench dynamics following the sudden immersion of initially localized nearest-neighbor holes. The dynamics is characterized by a crossover from an initial ballistic quantum walk to an aperiodic oscillatory motion around a finite average distance between the holes due to the confining potential between them. In the strongly correlated regime of low spin couplings, ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}},{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}\ensuremath{\le}t$, we find this asymptotic distance to diverge as $t/{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$, showing a much stronger scaling than the eigenstates. The predicted results should be amenable to state-of-the-art quantum simulation experiments using currently implemented experimental techniques.