The behavior of a one-dimensional isotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnet of arbitrary spin in a strong magnetic field is studied in terms of an equivalent Bose-gas problem. The cases of spin 1/2 and classical spins are described by different limits of the ``Bose gas with repulsion'' model. The square-root dependence of magnetization on field is obtained in both cases, but in the quantum case one should use a properly defined effective-interaction constant, while in the classical case the result may be obtaind with a ``bare'' interaction. We find in addition that the region of linear behavior of the magnetization for classical spins is also covered partially by the Bose-gas approximation.
Quantum phase transition at the saturation field is studied for a class of frustrated quantum antiferromagnets. The considered models include (i) the ${J}_{1}\mathrm{\text{\ensuremath{-}}}{J}_{2}$ frustrated square-lattice antiferromagnet with
J2=21J1 and (ii) the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a face centered cubic lattice. In the fully saturated phase the magnon spectra for the two models have lines of degenerate minima. Transition into a partially magnetized state is treated via a mapping to a dilute gas of hard-core bosons and by complementary spin-wave calculations. Momentum dependence of the exact four-point boson vertex removes the degeneracy of the single-particle excitation spectra and selects the ordering wave vectors at $(\ensuremath{\pi},\ensuremath{\pi})$ and $(\ensuremath{\pi},0,0)$ for the two models. We predict a unique form for the magnetization curve $\ensuremath{\Delta}M=S\ensuremath{-}M\ensuremath{\simeq}{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{(d\ensuremath{-}1)/2}(\mathrm{log}\ensuremath{\mu}{)}^{(d\ensuremath{-}1)}$, where $\ensuremath{\mu}$ is a distance from the quantum critical point.
We have considered the
S=1∕2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model in two dimensions, with an additional Ising next-nearest-neighbor interaction. Antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interactions will lead to frustration, and the system responds with flipping the spins down in the
xy plane. For large next-nearest-neighbor coupling the system will order in a striped phase along the
z axis, this phase is reached through a first-order transition. We have considered two generalizations of this model, one with random next-nearest-neighbor interactions, and one with an enlarged unit cell, where only half of the atoms have next-nearest-neighbor interactions. In both cases the transition is softened to a second-order transition separating two ordered states. In the latter case we have estimated the quantum critical exponent $\ensuremath{\beta}\ensuremath{\approx}0.25$. These two cases then represent candidate examples of deconfined quantum criticality.
We study the ground state properties of the Heisenberg spin-
21 chain with ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor and antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interactions using two approximate methods. One of them is the Jordan-Wigner mean-field theory and another approach is based on the transformation of spin operators to Bose ones and on the variational treatment of bosonic Hamiltonian. Both approaches give close results for the ground state energy and the magnetization curve at
T=0. It is proved that quantum fluctuations change the classical critical exponents in the vicinity of the transition point from the ferromagnetic to the singlet ground state. The magnetization processes display a different behavior in the regions near and far from the transition point. The relation of the obtained results to the experimental magnetization curve in
Rb2Cu2Mo3O12 is discussed.
We discuss spin-
21 one-dimensional (1D) and quasi-1D magnets with competing ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor
J1 and antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor
J exchange interactions in a strong magnetic field
H. It is well known that, due to attraction between magnons, quantum phase transitions (QPTs) take place at
H=Hs from the fully polarized phase to the nematic phase if
J>∣J1∣/4. Such a transition at
J>0.368∣J1∣ is characterized by a softening of the two-magnon bound-state spectrum. Using a bond-operator formalism we propose a bosonic representation of the spin Hamiltonian containing, aside from bosons describing one-magnon spin-1 excitations, a boson describing spin-2 excitations whose spectrum coincides at $H\ensuremath{\ge}{H}_{s}$ with the two-magnon bound-state spectrum obtained before. The presence of the bosonic mode in the theory that softens at
H=Hs makes the QPT consideration substantially standard. In the 1D case at
H<Hs, we find an expression for the magnetization which well describes existing numerical data. Expressions for spin correlators are obtained which coincide with those derived before, either in the limiting case of $J\ensuremath{\gg}|{J}_{1}|$ or using a phenomenological theory. In quasi-1D magnets, we find that the boundary in the
H-
T plane between the fully polarized and the nematic phases is given by ${H}_{s}(0)\ensuremath{-}{H}_{s}(T)\ensuremath{\propto}{T}^{3/2}$. Simple expressions are obtained in the nematic phase for static spin correlators, spectra of magnons and the soft mode, magnetization, and the nematic order parameter. All static two-spin correlation functions are short ranged with the correlation length proportional to
1/ln(1+∣J1∣/J). Dynamical spin susceptibilities are discussed and it is shown that the soft mode can be observed experimentally in the longitudinal channel.
We study the zero-temperature magnetization curve $(M\ensuremath{-}H$ curve) of the one-dimensional quantum antiferromagnet of spin one. The Hamiltonian H we consider is of the bilinear-biquadratic form: $H={\ensuremath{\sum}}_{i}f({s}_{i}\ensuremath{\cdot}{s}_{i+1})$ (+Zeeman term) where
si is the spin operator at site i and $f(X)=X+\ensuremath{\beta}{X}^{2}$ with $0<~\ensuremath{\beta}<1.$ We focus on validity of the $\ensuremath{\delta}$-function Bose-gas picture near the two critical fields: upper-critical field
Hs above which the magnetization saturates and the lower-critical field
Hc associated with the Haldane gap. As for the behavior near
Hs, we take ``low-energy effective S matrix'' approach, where the correct effective Bose-gas coupling constant c is extracted from the two down-spin S matrix in its low-energy limit. We find that the resulting value of c differs from the spin-wave value. We draw the $M\ensuremath{-}H$ curve by using the resultant Bose gas, and compare it with numerical calculation where the product-wave-function renormalization-group (PWFRG) method, a variant of White's density-matrix renormalization group method, is employed. Excellent agreement is seen between the PWFRG calculation and the correctly mapped Bose-gas calculation. We also test the validity of the Bose-gas picture near the lower-critical field
Hc. Comparing the PWFRG-calculated $M\ensuremath{-}H$ curves with the Bose-gas prediction, we find that there are two distinct regions, I and II, of $\ensuremath{\beta}$ separated by a critical value ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{c}(\ensuremath{\approx}0.41).$ In region I, $0<\ensuremath{\beta}<{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{c},$ the effective Bose coupling c is positive but rather small. The small value of c makes the ``critical region'' of the square-root behavior $M\ensuremath{\sim}\sqrt{H\ensuremath{-}{H}_{c}}$ very narrow. Further, we find that in the $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\ensuremath{\beta}}{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{c}\ensuremath{-}0,$ the square-root behavior transmutes to a different one, $M\ensuremath{\sim}(H\ensuremath{-}{H}_{c}{)}^{\ensuremath{\theta}}$ with $\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\approx}1/4.$ In region II, ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{c}<\ensuremath{\beta}<1,$ the square-root behavior is more pronounced as compared with region I, but the effective coupling c becomes negative.