The linear, spin-
21, alternating Heisenberg chain has attracted theoretical and experimental attention from physical chemists for about two decades, particularly in relation to spin exciton theory and the properties of linear, exchange-coupled free radicals. The model is somewhat unfamiliar to physicists but has become of increasing interest recently, primarily because of its relation to spin-Peierls transition systems. A striking feature of this model is that it has so far proved resistant to any form of analytic attack. Existing theories are therefore all approximate, and are not in agreement with one another. In particular, there is disagreement about the existence of an energy gap in the excitation spectrum for nonzero alternation, such a gap being crucial to spin-Peierls theory and spin exciton theory. In this paper we employ the method which has so far proved more reliable than any other approximate technique, namely the method of extrapolating exact finite-chain calculations to the thermodynamic limit. Our study is an extension of earlier work in this direction, and focuses on the nature of the ground state and on low-lying excitations in general, and the existence and properties of the gap in particular. We introduce the features of the linear alternating antiferromagnet through an initial description of the spin-Peierls transition and with brief reference to organic free radicals and spin exciton theory. This is followed by a survey of existing approximate theories. Features of the excitation spectrum are discussed and finite-chain extrapolations for the ground-state energy and energy gap as a function of alternation are presented. Comparisons are made with similar procedures performed on exactly solvable models, as a test of the expected accuracy of the extrapolations. Excitation spectra for a variety of other alternating models, classical and quantum, are calculated and surveyed comparatively. An unusual variety of behavior is observed, with striking differences between quantum and classical systems. Finally, a detailed comparison is made between our results and those of other approximate methods, including the new quantum renormalization-group approach. Particular attention is paid to values for the
T=0 spin-Peierls critical exponents.
The ground-state energy per site, \ensuremath{\epsilon}(\ensuremath{\delta}), and the singlet-triplet gap, \ensuremath{\Delta}(\ensuremath{\delta}), of the linear spin-(1/2) alternating Heisenberg antiferromagnet are found by extrapolation of direct solutions to N\ensuremath{\le}26 sites for even rings and N\ensuremath{\le}21 sites for odd rings, whose orbital degeneracy leads to qualitatively different critical behavior. The \ensuremath{\epsilon}(\ensuremath{\delta}) accuracy of ${<10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}4}$ (in units of J) decisively rules out power-law behavior for any alternation \ensuremath{\delta}>0.001 and is consistent with ${\ensuremath{\delta}}^{4/3}$/\ensuremath{\Vert}ln\ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\Vert} for \ensuremath{\delta}<0.05. The gap \ensuremath{\Delta}(\ensuremath{\delta}) is slightly sublinear in \ensuremath{\delta}. Direct ground-state solutions are found via diagrammatic valence-bond methods and provide sensitive tests for theoretical approaches to linear spin systems.
The exact eigenvalue spectrum and thermodynamic properties of the spin Hamiltonian $\mathcal{H}=2|J|\ensuremath{\Sigma}\stackrel{\frac{N}{2}}{i=1}({\mathrm{S}}_{2i}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}{\mathrm{S}}_{2i\ensuremath{-}1}+a{\mathrm{S}}_{2i}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}{\mathrm{S}}_{2i+1})$ are calculated for short chains of
N=4,6,8,and10 spins, each of spin \textonehalf{}, for alternation parameter
a=0.2,0.4,0.6,and0.8, with ${\mathrm{S}}_{N+1}\ensuremath{\equiv}{\mathrm{S}}_{1}$. The behavior for $N=\ensuremath{\infty}$ is estimated by extrapolation. Comparison is made with the known results for
a=0 and 1. The ground-state energy, ground-state short-range order, energy gap, and triplet excitation spectrum are compared with various approximate theories. Zero-temperature infinite-chain magnetization curves are inferred from the finite-chain results. The energy, entropy, specific heat, and magnetic susceptibility for
N=10 are shown to approximate well the behavior for $N=\ensuremath{\infty}$ when
∣J∣kT>a. The magnetic-susceptibility data on the free radical 2,2-bis (
p-nitrophenyl)-1-picrylhydrazyl are shown to agree well with the theoretical results for an alternating chain with $a\ensuremath{\approx}0.6$.
Abstract An efficient projector Monte Carlo method has been used to calculate the energies of the ground state and the first excited state, and hence the gap between them, of the spin-1 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chains with linear sizes up to <?CDATA
N=40?> . We have computed them on chains up to <?CDATA
N=40?> . We have found that the size-dependence of the ground state energy per site has the form <?CDATA
[e0(N)−e0]∼1/N5/2s?> , which implies that there is a gap between the ground state and the first excited state. The value of the ground state energy per site as <?CDATA
N→∞?> is <?CDATA
e0=−1.3996?> . The direct extrapolation of <?CDATA
ΔE(N)?> also shows that a gap of <?CDATA
ΔE=0.36?> exists as <?CDATA
N→∞?> .
We numerically caculate the exact ground state energy E 0 ( N , δ) and the first excited state energy E 1 ( N , δ) of the one-dimensional spin-
21 alternating antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model
A zero-temperature renormalization group (RG) approach is applied to the one-dimensional, spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg dimerized (alternating) chain. Specifically, the ground state energy and lowest-lying spectral excitations are examined. The calculation indicates the existence of a gap in the spectrum of the dimerized chain which vanishes only in the limit of a uniform spin chain, in contrast to a recent Green’s function approach. The RG results are in reasonable agreement with numerical extrapolations on the exact eigenvalue spectrum of finite chains of up to 12 spins. Both methods are compared with several other approximate treatments of the Heisenberg system, and tested by comparison with exact results for the spin-1/2 XY dimerized chain.