Proton spin-lattice relaxation times have been measured in the quasi-one-dimensional
s=21 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic compounds CuSe
O4\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}5
H2O and CuS
O4\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}5
H2O, in order to study the magnetic field dependence of the 1D quantum spin dynamics at various temperatures. Information is obtained on the low-frequency behavior of the spin autocorrelation functions for the linear chains. The transverse component shows at high
T a marked decrease with magnetic field above the saturation field
Bc. Towards lower temperatures a pronounced maximum just below
Bc develops and the decrease above
Bc becomes more abrupt. The longitudinal component behaves more smoothly near and above
Bc. The field dependence of the relaxation rates is well explained at all nonzero temperatures by finite-chain calculations. For
T=0 we present analytical calculations of autocorrelation functions based on the predominance of a two-parameter spin-wave continuum for the quantum spin dynamics yielding a nondivergent behavior at $\ensuremath{\omega}=0$ and
B=0. Exact results are obtained for fields above
Bc. Further, an effective
XY approach is used for low but finite
T. Here, good agreement is found with the proton relaxation data for very low temperatures.
High-precision dc magnetization measurements have been made on Cu(C4H4N2) (NO3)2 in magnetic fields up to 14.7 T, slightly above the saturation field Hs=13.97 T, in the temperature range from 0.08 to 15 K. The magnetization curve and differential susceptibility at the lowest temperature show excellent agreement with exact theoretical results for the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet in one dimension. A broad peak is observed in magnetization measured as a function of temperature, signaling a crossover to a low-temperature Tomonaga-Luttinger-liquid regime. With an increasing field, the peak moves gradually to lower temperatures, compressing the regime, and, at Hs, the magnetization exhibits a strong upturn. This quantum critical behavior of the magnetization and that of the specific heat withstand quantitative tests against theory, demonstrating that the material is a practically perfect one-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet.
Motivated by the numerical simulation of systems which display quantum phase transitions, we present a novel application of the meron-cluster algorithm to simulate the quantum antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model coupled to an external uniform magnetic field both in one and in two dimensions.In the infinite volume limit and at zero temperature we found numerical evidence that supports a quantum phase transition very close to the critical values B c = 2 and B c = 4 for the system in one and two dimensions, respectively.For the one dimensional system, we have compared the numerical data obtained with analytical predictions for the magnetization density as a function of the external field obtained by scaling-behaviour analysis and Bethe Ansatz techniques.Since there is no analytical solution for the two dimensional case, we have compared our results with the magnetization density obtained by scaling relations for small lattice sizes and with the approximated thermodynamical limit at zero temperature guessed by scaling relations.Moreover, we have compared the numerical data with other numerical simulations performed by using different algorithms in one and two dimensions, like the directed loop method.The numerical data obtained are in perfect agreement with all these previous results, which confirms that the meron-algorithm is reliable for quantum Monte Carlo simulations and applicable both in one and two dimensions.Finally, we have computed the integrated autocorrelation time to measure the efficiency of the meron algorithm in one dimension.