Physical review. B, Condensed matter
XY-to-Ising crossover and quadrupling of the butterfly spectrum
Indubala I. Satija, Juan Carlos Chaves
Abstract
The XY-to-Ising crossover is studied in an anisotropic quantum XY spin chain where a modulating transverse magnetic field introduces a competing periodicity in the system. In the fermion representation, the model describes the perturbed Harper model, exhibiting a critical phase in addition to the extended and the localized phases. The XY-to-Ising crossover results in quadrupling of the butterfly spectrum, which lacks the full symmetry of the Harper butterfly spectrum. However, for infinitesimal field, the Ising butterfly spectrum asymptotically approaches the Harper butterfly spectrum. A duality transformation provides some insight into the various phases of the butterfly spectrum.