Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Topological phase transitions in spin-S ladders

Natalia Chepiga, Frédéric Michaud, Frédéric Mila

Published Apr 1, 2013• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We show that spin-S ladders undergo, for antiferromagnetic rung coupling, a series of 4S topological phase transitions when the ratio of the leg to rung coupling changes from strongly antiferromagnetic to strongly ferromagnetic. These phase transitions are characterized by a change of Berry phase on the rungs, and, with appropriate boundary conditions, by the appearance and disappearance of edge states without the bulk gap ever closing. The various phases can be distinguished by the number of valence bond singlets on the rungs, which decreases from 2S for strong rung coupling to 0 for dominant leg coupling. In particular, the isotropic spin-3/2 ladder with equal leg and rung coupling is explicitly shown to be in the valence bond solid phase with one singlet per bond.

Related papers

Berry phase investigation of spin- S ladders

Natalia Chepiga, Frédéric Michaud, Frédéric Mila

We investigate the properties of antiferromagnetic spin-$S$ ladders with the help of local Berry phases defined by imposing a twist on one or a few local bonds. In gapped systems with time-reversal symmetry, these Berry phases are quantized, hence able in principle to characterize different phases. In the case of a fully frustrated ladder where the total spin on a rung is a conserved quantity that changes abruptly upon increasing the rung coupling, we show that two Berry phases are relevant to detect such phase transitions: the rung Berry phase defined by imposing a twist on one rung coupling, and the twist Berry phase defined by twisting the boundary conditions along the legs. In the case of nonfrustrated ladders, we have followed the fate of both Berry phases when interpolating between standard ladders and dimerized spin chains, with the surprising conclusion that, at least far enough from dimerized chains, they define different domains in parameter space. A careful investigation of the spin gap and of edge states shows that a change of twist Berry phase is associated with a quantum phase transition at which the bulk gap closes, and at which, with appropriate boundary conditions, edge states appear or disappear, while a change of rung Berry phase is not necessarily associated with a quantum phase transition. The difference is particularly acute for regular ladders, in which the twist Berry phase does not change at all upon increasing the rung coupling from zero to infinity while the rung Berry phase changes $2S$ times. By analogy with the fully frustrated ladder, these changes are interpreted as crossovers between domains in which the rungs are in different states of total spin from 0 in the strong rung limit to $2S$ in the weak rung limit. This interpretation is further supported by the observation that these crossovers turn into real phase transitions as a function of rung coupling if one rung is strongly ferromagnetic, or equivalently if one rung is replaced by a spin $2S$ impurity.

arXiv:1304.0392•Physical Review B•Nov 19, 2013•19 citations

Quantum Phase Transitions in Anisotropic Spin Ladders with Antiferromagnetic Rungs

Qiang Gu, Shen JueLian

We apply perturbation theory to study quantum phase transitions in anisotropic two-leg spin ladders with antiferromagnetic rungs in the strong interchain coupling limit. The energy gap is expanded up to the fourth order in the ratio of the intrachain to interchain couplings. The transition point is determined by examing the disappearance of the energy gap. Present results for the anisotropic ferromagnetic-leg spin ladder are consistent qualitatively with the nonlinear -model analysis and in good agreement with the numerical results by the diagonalization method.

Communications in Theoretical Physics•Jun 15, 1999•0 citations

Symmetry-protected topological phases and competing orders in a spin- 1 2 XXZ ladder with a four-spin interaction

Takuhiro Ogino, Shunsuke Furukawa, Ryui Kaneko +2 more

We study a spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ XXZ model with a four-spin interaction on a two-leg ladder. By means of effective field theory and matrix product state calculations, we obtain rich ground-state phase diagrams that consist of eight distinct gapped phases. Four of them exhibit spontaneous symmetry breaking with either a magnetic or valence-bond-solid (VBS) long-range order. The other four are featureless, i.e., the bulk ground state is unique and does not break any symmetry. The featureless phases include the rung singlet (RS) and Haldane phases as well as their variants, the RS* and Haldane* phases, in which twisted singlet pairs $(|\ensuremath{\uparrow}\ensuremath{\downarrow}\ensuremath{\rangle}+|\ensuremath{\downarrow}\ensuremath{\uparrow}\ensuremath{\rangle})/\sqrt{2}$ are formed between the two legs. We argue and demonstrate that Gaussian transitions with the central charge $c=1$ occur between the featureless phases and between the ordered phases while Ising transitions with $c=1/2$ occur between the featureless and ordered phases. The two types of transition lines cross at the $\mathrm{SU}(2)$-symmetric point, where the criticality is described by the $\mathrm{SU}{(2)}_{2}$ Wess-Zumino-Witten theory with $c=3/2$. The RS-Haldane* and RS*-Haldane transitions give examples of topological phase transitions. Interestingly, the RS* and Haldane* phases, which have highly anisotropic nature, appear even in the vicinity of the isotropic case. We demonstrate that all the four featureless phases are distinguished by topological indices in the presence of certain symmetries.

arXiv:2104.02274•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Aug 19, 2021•13 citations

Bond-Alternating Antiferromagnetic S = 1/2 Heisenberg Ladder with Ferromagnetic Diagonal Coupling

Li An-Kang, LU Jun-Zhe, Ma Lei

Using the density matrix renormalization group method, we determine the phase diagram of a frustrated bond-alternating S = 1/2 Heisenberg ladder with ferro-antiferromagnetic couplings at zero temperature. With the interactions between spins along the rungs set, we identify three spin-gapped phases (the Haldane phase, the singlet phase and the dimer phase) in the whole parameter range. The analysis of our data shows that two-leg spin bond-alternating ladders have a rich phase diagram if both rung and diagonal couplings are taken into account.

Chinese Physics Letters•Dec 1, 2009•0 citations

Spin Ladder with Anisotropic Ferromagnetic Legs in a Transverse Magnetic Field

G. I. Japaridze, A. Langari, S. Mahdavifar

Abstract. We study the ground state phase diagram of a two-leg spin ladder with anisotropic ferromagnetic leg couplings under the influence of a symmetry breaking transverse magnetic field by the exact diagonalization technique. In the case of antiferromagnetic coupling between legs we identified two phase transitions in the plane of magnetic field vs interchain coupling strength. The first one corresponds to the transition from the gapped rung-singlet phase to the gapped stripe-ferromagnetic phase. The second one represents the transition from the gapped stripe-ferromagnetic phase into the fully polarized ferromagnetic phase. PACS numbers: 75.10.Jm Quantized spin models, 75.10.Pq Spin chain modelsSpin Ladder with Anisotropic Ferromagnetic Legs in a Transverse Magnetic Field 2 1.

•Jan 1, 2007•13 citations

Phase Diagram of the Spin-\(\frac{1}{2}\) Bond-Alternating Two-Leg Ladder

Masaaki Nakamura, Takahiro Yamamoto, Kôichirô Ide

We study phase transition between two topologically different gapped states in the spin-1/2 bond-alternating two-leg Heisenberg ladder by investigating string order parameters and the level-crossing method based on the exact diagonalization. We determine the phase diagram on the plane of the bond-alternation δ and the rung-leg coupling ratio J ⊥ / J , and conclude that the boundary is given as J ⊥ / J ∝δ 2/3 in the weak coupling region J ⊥ / J , δ≪1.

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan•May 15, 2003•10 citations
We show that spin-S ladders undergo, for antiferromagnetic rung coupling, a series of 4S topological phase transitions when the ratio of the leg to rung coupling changes from strongly antiferromagnetic to strongly ferromagnetic. These phase transitions are characterized by a change of Berry phase on the rungs, and, with appropriate boundary conditions, by the appearance and disappearance of edge states without the bulk gap ever closing. The various phases can be distinguished by the number of valence bond singlets on the rungs, which decreases from 2S for strong rung coupling to 0 for dominant leg coupling. In particular, the isotropic spin-3/2 ladder with equal leg and rung coupling is explicitly shown to be in the valence bond solid phase with one singlet per bond.
We investigate the properties of antiferromagnetic spin-SSS ladders with the help of local Berry phases defined by imposing a twist on one or a few local bonds. In gapped systems with time-reversal symmetry, these Berry phases are quantized, hence able in principle to characterize different phases. In the case of a fully frustrated ladder where the total spin on a rung is a conserved quantity that changes abruptly upon increasing the rung coupling, we show that two Berry phases are relevant to detect such phase transitions: the rung Berry phase defined by imposing a twist on one rung coupling, and the twist Berry phase defined by twisting the boundary conditions along the legs. In the case of nonfrustrated ladders, we have followed the fate of both Berry phases when interpolating between standard ladders and dimerized spin chains, with the surprising conclusion that, at least far enough from dimerized chains, they define different domains in parameter space. A careful investigation of the spin gap and of edge states shows that a change of twist Berry phase is associated with a quantum phase transition at which the bulk gap closes, and at which, with appropriate boundary conditions, edge states appear or disappear, while a change of rung Berry phase is not necessarily associated with a quantum phase transition. The difference is particularly acute for regular ladders, in which the twist Berry phase does not change at all upon increasing the rung coupling from zero to infinity while the rung Berry phase changes 2S2S2S times. By analogy with the fully frustrated ladder, these changes are interpreted as crossovers between domains in which the rungs are in different states of total spin from 0 in the strong rung limit to 2S2S2S in the weak rung limit. This interpretation is further supported by the observation that these crossovers turn into real phase transitions as a function of rung coupling if one rung is strongly ferromagnetic, or equivalently if one rung is replaced by a spin 2S2S2S impurity.
We apply perturbation theory to study quantum phase transitions in anisotropic two-leg spin ladders with antiferromagnetic rungs in the strong interchain coupling limit. The energy gap is expanded up to the fourth order in the ratio of the intrachain to interchain couplings. The transition point is determined by examing the disappearance of the energy gap. Present results for the anisotropic ferromagnetic-leg spin ladder are consistent qualitatively with the nonlinear -model analysis and in good agreement with the numerical results by the diagonalization method.
We study a spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ XXZ model with a four-spin interaction on a two-leg ladder. By means of effective field theory and matrix product state calculations, we obtain rich ground-state phase diagrams that consist of eight distinct gapped phases. Four of them exhibit spontaneous symmetry breaking with either a magnetic or valence-bond-solid (VBS) long-range order. The other four are featureless, i.e., the bulk ground state is unique and does not break any symmetry. The featureless phases include the rung singlet (RS) and Haldane phases as well as their variants, the RS* and Haldane* phases, in which twisted singlet pairs $(|\ensuremath{\uparrow}\ensuremath{\downarrow}\ensuremath{\rangle}+|\ensuremath{\downarrow}\ensuremath{\uparrow}\ensuremath{\rangle})/\sqrt{2}$ are formed between the two legs. We argue and demonstrate that Gaussian transitions with the central charge c=1c=1c=1 occur between the featureless phases and between the ordered phases while Ising transitions with c=1/2c=1/2c=1/2 occur between the featureless and ordered phases. The two types of transition lines cross at the SU(2)\mathrm{SU}(2)SU(2)-symmetric point, where the criticality is described by the SU(2)2\mathrm{SU}{(2)}_{2}SU(2)2​ Wess-Zumino-Witten theory with c=3/2c=3/2c=3/2. The RS-Haldane* and RS*-Haldane transitions give examples of topological phase transitions. Interestingly, the RS* and Haldane* phases, which have highly anisotropic nature, appear even in the vicinity of the isotropic case. We demonstrate that all the four featureless phases are distinguished by topological indices in the presence of certain symmetries.
Using the density matrix renormalization group method, we determine the phase diagram of a frustrated bond-alternating S = 1/2 Heisenberg ladder with ferro-antiferromagnetic couplings at zero temperature. With the interactions between spins along the rungs set, we identify three spin-gapped phases (the Haldane phase, the singlet phase and the dimer phase) in the whole parameter range. The analysis of our data shows that two-leg spin bond-alternating ladders have a rich phase diagram if both rung and diagonal couplings are taken into account.
Abstract. We study the ground state phase diagram of a two-leg spin ladder with anisotropic ferromagnetic leg couplings under the influence of a symmetry breaking transverse magnetic field by the exact diagonalization technique. In the case of antiferromagnetic coupling between legs we identified two phase transitions in the plane of magnetic field vs interchain coupling strength. The first one corresponds to the transition from the gapped rung-singlet phase to the gapped stripe-ferromagnetic phase. The second one represents the transition from the gapped stripe-ferromagnetic phase into the fully polarized ferromagnetic phase. PACS numbers: 75.10.Jm Quantized spin models, 75.10.Pq Spin chain modelsSpin Ladder with Anisotropic Ferromagnetic Legs in a Transverse Magnetic Field 2 1.
Phase Diagram of the Spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ Bond-Alternating Two-Leg Ladder