We introduce an exactly solvable hybrid spin-ladder model containing localized nodal Ising spins and interstitial mobile electrons, which are allowed to perform a quantum-mechanical hopping between the ladder's legs. The quantum-mechanical hopping process induces an antiferromagnetic coupling between the ladder's legs that competes with a direct exchange coupling of the nodal spins. The model is exactly mapped onto the Ising spin ladder with temperature-dependent two- and four-spin interactions, which is subsequently solved using the transfer-matrix technique. We report the ground-state phase diagram and compute the fermionic concurrence to characterize the quantum entanglement between the pair of interstitial mobile electrons. We further provide a detailed analysis of the local spin ordering including the pair and four-spin correlation functions around an elementary plaquette, as well as, the local ordering diagrams. It is shown that a complex sequence of distinct local orderings and frustrated correlations takes place when the model parameters drive the investigated system close to a zero-temperature triple coexistence point.
We revisit the phase diagram of the frustrated spin-1/2 ladder with two competing interchain antiferromagnetic exchanges, rung coupling ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ and diagonal coupling ${J}_{\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}}$. We suggest, based on the accurate renormalization-group analysis of the low-energy Hamiltonian of the ladder, that marginal interchain current-current interaction plays central role in destabilizing previously predicted intermediate columnar dimer phase in the vicinity of classical degeneracy line ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}=2{J}_{\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}}$. Following this insight we then suggest that changing these competing interchain exchanges from the previously considered antiferromagnetic to the ferromagnetic ones eliminates the issue of the marginal interactions altogether and dramatically expands the region of stability of the columnar dimer phase. This analytical prediction is convincingly confirmed by the numerical density-matrix renormalization-group and exact-diagonalization calculations as well as by the perturbative calculation in the strong rung-coupling limit. The phase diagram for ferromagnetic ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ and ${J}_{\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}}$ is determined.
The ground-state properties of spin-1/2 ladders are studied, emphasizing the role of frustration and ring exchange coupling. We present a unified field theory for ladders with general coupling constants and geometry. Rich phase diagrams can be deduced by using a renormalization group calculation for ladders with in-chain next-nearest-neighbor interactions and plaquette ring exchange coupling. In addition to established phases such as Haldane, rung singlet, and dimerized phases, we also observe a surprising instability towards an incommensurate phase for weak interchain couplings, which is characterized by an exotic coexistence of self-consistent ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order parameters.
We study a mixed spin-(3/2, 1) ladder system with antiferromagnetic rung coupling and next-nearest-neighbor interaction. The exactly solved Ising-chain model is employed to investigate the ground-state properties and thermodynamics of the low-dimensional ladder system. Our results show that the competition between different exchange couplings brings in a large variety of ground states characterized by various values of normalized magnetization equal to 0, 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 1. Moreover, an interesting double-peak structure is also detected in the thermal dependence of magnetic susceptibility and specific heat when the frustration comes into play. It is shown that the double-peak phenomenon at zero-field for the case of AF 2 ground-state arises from the very strong antiferromagnetic rung coupling, while other cases are attributed to the excitations induced by temperature and external field around the phase boundary.
We investigate a frustrated four-leg spin-1/2 ladder using density matrix renormalization group calculations. The uniform system displays three regimes: short-range antiferromagnetic legs, short-range ferromagnetic legs, and an effective spin-2 Heisenberg chain, separated by a crossover and a first-order transition. The spin-2 regime is confirmed through its finite string order parameter, edge-localized excitations, and excellent agreement with a projected Sr = 2 effective Hamiltonian. Recasting the model as two frustrated two-leg ladders coupled by rung and diagonal interactions, we track how the trivial and Haldane phases of an isolated ladder evolve as interladder couplings are introduced. The resulting phase diagrams reveal crossover and first-order lines whose locations are captured by the spin-2 projection and show how singlet- and triplet-dominated regimes reorganize when two ladders merge into a four-leg structure, clarifying the emergence of effective spin-1 versusspin-2 behavior.
We study a frustrated two-leg spin ladder with alternate isotropic Heisenberg and Ising rung exchange interactions, whereas, interactions along legs and diagonals are Ising-type. All the interactions in the ladder are anti-ferromagnetic in nature and induce frustration in the system. This model shows four interesting quantum phases: (i) stripe rung ferromagnetic (SRFM), (ii) stripe rung ferromagnetic with edge singlet (SRFM-E), (iii) anisotropic antiferromagnetic (AAFM), and (iv) stripe leg ferromagnetic (SLFM) phase. We construct a quantum phase diagram for this model and show that in stripe rung ferromagnet (SRFM), the same type of sublattice spins (either
S or
σ-type spins) are aligned in the same direction. Whereas, in anisotropic antiferromagnetic phase, both
S and
σ-type of spins are anti-ferromagnetically aligned with each other, two nearest
S spins along the rung form an anisotropic singlet bond whereas two nearest
σ spins form an Ising bond. In large Heisenberg rung exchange interaction limit, spins on each leg are ferromagnetically aligned, but spins on different legs are anti-ferromagnetically aligned. The thermodynamic quantities like
Cv(T),
χ(T) and
S(T) are also calculated using the transfer matrix method for different phase. The magnetic gap in the SRFM and the SLFM can be notice from
χ(T) and
Cv(T) curves.