Inspired by the exact solution of the Majumdar-Ghosh model, a family of one-dimensional, translationally invariant spin Hamiltonians is constructed. The exchange coupling in these models is antiferromagnetic, and decreases linearly with the separation between the spins. The coupling becomes identically zero beyond a certain distance. It is rigorously proved that the dimer configuration is an exact, superstable ground-state configuration of all the members of the family on a periodic chain. The ground state is twofold degenerate, and there exists an energy gap above the ground state. The Majumdar-Ghosh Hamiltonian with a twofold degenerate dimer ground state is just the first member of the family. The scheme of construction is generalized to two and three dimensions, and illustrated with the help of some concrete examples. The first member in two dimensions is the Shastry-Sutherland model. Many of these models have exponentially degenerate, exact dimer ground states.
We study a class of spin-1/2 quantum antiferromagnetic chains using DMRG technique. The exchange interaction in these models decreases linearly as a function of the separation between the spins,
Jij=R−∣i−j∣ for
∣i−j∣≤R. For the separations beyond
R, the interaction is zero. The range parameter
R takes positive integer values. The models corresponding to all the odd values of
R are known to have the same exact doubly degenerate dimer ground state as for the Majumdar-Ghosh (MG) model. In fact, R=3 is the MG model. For even
R, the exact ground state is not known in general, except for R=2 (the Bethe ansatz solvable Heisenberg chain) and in the asymptotic limit of
R where the two MG dimer states again emerge as the exact ground state. In the present work, we numerically investigate the even-
R models whose ground state is not known analytically. In particular, for R=4, 6 and 8, we have computed a number of ground state properties. We find that, unlike R=2, the higher even-
R models are spin-gapped, and show strong dimer-dimer correlations of the MG type. Moreover, the spin-spin correlations decay very rapidly, albeit showing weak periodic revivals.
Interacting spin chains and ladders are known to support a plethora of quantum phases with complex ground-state phase diagrams. In this work, we study a large family of such models and determine precise, explicit conditions under which an exact dimer state is guaranteed to be the ground state. These general conditions are validated for various generalizations of the Majumdar-Ghosh model using exact diagonalization. Our results provide exact reference points in the phase diagrams of a wide class of spin chains and ladders, including those with anisotropic and arbitrary-range interactions.
We present a new class of exactly solvable spin models. The solutions involve broken translational symmetry, in contrast to the Haldane gap, and constitute a new type of ground state for a spin-one chain. The models have ground states with precipitously short-range spin correlations and exhibit gaps to solitonic spin excitations. We construct a solvable model for each value of the total spin of the underlying atoms, with the solution corresponding to the natural generalization to the Majumdar-Ghosh state, of 'dimer' pairing, to larger spin magnitudes.
Excited states with total spin 1 of a series of one-dimensional Heisenberg models are examined by a variational method. These models have short-range exchange interactions which decrease linearly with the distance between spins. Their ground states are exactly the same complete dimer states as those of the Majumdar-Ghosh model. Variational wave functions for the excited states are constructed by modifying the ground states. Excitation spectra and excitation gaps are obtained in analytic forms for the models with various interaction ranges. The excitation gap increases with increasing interaction range and saturates to a constant value.
We investigate the isotropic two-leg
S=21 ladder with general bilinear and biquadratic exchange interactions between spins on neighboring rungs, and determine the Hamiltonians that have a matrix-product wave function as an exact ground state. We demonstrate that a smooth change of parameters leads one from the
S=21 dimer and Majumdar-Ghosh chains to the
S=1 chain with biquadratic exchange, which proves that these model systems are in the same phase. The family of Hamiltonians also includes a set of models of isotropic
S=21 chains with only bilinear nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor interactions. The ground state for these models becomes unstable at a line of first-order phase transitions to the ferromagnetic state.