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Journal of Physics Condensed Matter

Quantum spin chains and the Haldane gap

Ian K. Affleck

Published May 15, 1989• 539 citations
Publisher

Abstract

One-dimensional antiferromagnets have exotic disordered ground states. As was first argued by Haldane (1983), there is an excitation gap for integer, but not half-integer, spin. The authors review the arguments for this behaviour based on field-theory mappings, the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem, exactly solvable models, finite-chain diagonalisation and real experiments.

DOI
10.1088/0953-8984/1/19/001

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Physical review. B, Condensed matter•Jul 1, 1988•189 citations
One-dimensional antiferromagnets have exotic disordered ground states. As was first argued by Haldane (1983), there is an excitation gap for integer, but not half-integer, spin. The authors review the arguments for this behaviour based on field-theory mappings, the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem, exactly solvable models, finite-chain diagonalisation and real experiments.
Integer-spin Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chains are expected to have a singlet groundstate and a gap to the first excited state, as first argued by Haldane. We review rigorous results on this conjecture and discuss experimental realizations. Theoretical and experimental aspects of three recent developments in this field are then reviewed: chainend excitations and the non-local order parameter, a field theory mapping and behavior near zero wave-vector, high-field behavior and one-dimensional Bose condensation.
Since the Heisenberg spin chain can be considered the simplest realistic model of magnetism, surprise and some degree of controversy have resulted from recent work of Haldane. The prediction is that quantum spin chains with half-integer spin should all display T=0 phase behavior equivalent to that of the Bethe Ansatz integrable (solvable) spin-1/2 quantum chain. More remarkably, the class of integer spin chains is predicted to show very different phase behavior. In particular, a gap should be present in the spectrum of a Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain. This remarkable feature is counterintuitive in terms of accepted wisdom in magnetism (spin-wave theory, spin-Peierls theory) and critical phenomena. Consequently the vertification of the prediction is of great interest. A considerable amount of numerical work has been done, involving finite-chain, finite-size scaling, variational, Monte Carlo and other calculations, which will be reviewed here. The present consensus is that the weight of numerical evidence supports the prediction, although puzzling features still remain. Adding additional interactions to the basic Heisenberg Hamiltonian such as spin (XXZ) anisotropy, single-ion anisotropy, biquadratic exchange, and an applied magnetic field, generates a rich and complicated phase diagram for chains with spin >1/2, particularly for the case of integer spin. The s=1 phase diagram seems to display critical behavior of a type not previously encountered. A theoretical appraisal of the Haldane phenomenon will include a discussion of the possible role of nonintegrability. Mention will also be made of current progress in experimental investigation of the phenomenon, including problems that might be encountered. More recent work of Affleck has greatly generalized the field-theoretic mappings which underlay the original work of Haldane. A number of interesting problems have been mapped into quantum spin chains of various types, including field theoretic phenomena and the localization problem of the quantum Hall effect.
We investigate disordered phases realized in one-dimensional quantum spin systems.We revisit an effective field theory proposed by Schulz [Phys.Rev. B 34, 6372 (1986)], which encapsulates several essential properties in low energy, from the point of view of symmetry.Although this effective theory was originally derived by perturbation theory, we find that it is fully consistent with the symmetry of the Hamiltonian and thus uniquely identified in the non-perturbative sense.This theory explains many possible phase transitions known to occur among valence-bond-solid phases, which are typical disordered phases in one-dimensional spin systems.Furthermore, this theory indicates that the phase transitions only occur under one of four symmetries: time reversal, bond-centered inversion, dihedral group of spin rotations, and site-centered inversion combined with a spin rotation.Surprisingly, the first three symmetries are consistent with those protecting the Haldane phase in spin-1 chains, which have already been found by a completely different approach using the matrix-product state (MPS).On the other hand, the last one is not known so far.To understand it, we explicitly construct a microscopic model that has two distinct disordered phases protected by the combined inversion symmetry.We examine this model and confirm the existence of those disordered phases by perturbation theory and numerical simulations.For completeness, we further give a more rigorous proof of their existence, based on the non-translation-invariant MPS.We also propose an extension of the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem for the absence of a unique gapped ground state in half-odd-integer spin systems with site-centered inversion symmetry.
We discuss zero-temperature quantum spin chains in a uniform magnetic field, with axial symmetry. For integer or half-integer spin, SSS, the magnetization curve can have plateaus and we argue that the magnetization per site mmm is topologically quantized as $n(S\ensuremath{-}m)\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\mathrm{integer}$ at the plateaus, where nnn is the period of the ground state. We also discuss conditions for the presence of the plateau at those quantized values. For S=3/2S\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}3/2S=3/2 and m=1/2m\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1/2m=1/2, we study several models and find two distinct types of massive phases at the plateau. One of them is argued to be a ``Haldane gap phase'' for half-integer SSS.
A full description of a series of spin-wave measurements in CsNiCl3{\mathrm{CsNiCl}}_{3}CsNiCl3​ in the three-dimensional (3D) and one-dimensional (1D) phases and their analysis to provide the first experimental evidence for the Haldane gap is presented. Neutron scattering experiments were performed on a single crystal of CsNiCl3{\mathrm{CsNiCl}}_{3}CsNiCl3​ with both (h,0,l) and (h,h,l) as the scattering plane. The order parameter in both 3D phases was measured and the spin-wave dispersion determined in the lower phase. The spin-wave spectrum calculated from a dynamic susceptibility method was compared with the experimental response in the lower 3D phase to obtain the following values for the exchange and anisotropy constants: J=0.345\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.008 THz, J'=0.0060\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.005 THz, and D=-0.0130\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.0015 THz. These parameters confirm that CsNiCl3{\mathrm{CsNiCl}}_{3}CsNiCl3​ in its disordered phase is a good approximation to a one-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet. In the 1D phase the gap frequency for an isolated chain of Ni2+{\mathrm{Ni}}^{2+}Ni2+ ions is found to be 0.32 THz close to the gap estimated in finite-chain calculations. The results constitute experimental support for the Haldane conjecture that the excitations of integer-spin chains, unlike half-integer--spin chains, exhibit an apparent anisotropy that arises not from the underlying isotropic Hamiltonian, but from many-body effects.