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Physical Review Letters

Geometrical Interpretation of Momentum and Crystal Momentum of Classical and Quantum Ferromagnetic Heisenberg Chains

F. D. M. Haldane

Published Sep 22, 1986• 102 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A rotationally invariant translation-generating functional for the continuum model of a ferromagnetic chain is found, resolving a long-standing paradox. The condition of rotational invariance leads to a topological quantization in the continuum classical model that corresponds to spin quantization in the equivalent discrete quantum model. The relation between the classical continuum model and the discrete quantum models is made precise.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.57.1488

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Classical aspects of quantum spin chains (abstract)

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A variational estimate of the free energy of a quantum spin chain based on the stochastic behavior of the quantization axes is proposed. It allows a description of the nonlinear excitations and quantum spin waves within the same framework. For an easy-plane ferromagnet with an external field in the plane it reveals that the nonlinear excitations (solitons) are predominantly described by the classical degrees of freedom. Considerable effort has been devoted to the theoretical description1 and experimental verification of the existence of nonlinear excitations. In this field magnetic chain systems have played an important part.2 Chain systems with an easy-plane anisotropy, such as (C6 H11 NH3 )CuBr3 (CHAB) and CsNiF3 , which are subjected to a symmetry breaking field, were found to be soliton bearing.3 Theoretically the description of the nonlinear effect is based on the mapping of the spin dynamics on a sine-Gordon model. Further research4 indicated that the interpretation of the thermodynamical properties of real systems in terms of the sine-Gordon model required however quantum and anisotropy corrections. Since the dipolar interactions between the spins in the chain are considered to be negligible, the direction of the spin chain in configuration space with respect to any preferred direction in spin space does not enter explicitly in the Hamiltonian. This makes it interesting to define a site-dependent z direction in spin space which makes an angle (Θn ,φn ) with the z direction in configuration space. The model Hamiltonian can then be written in terms of the spin operators defined with respect to the site-dependent quantization axis. The representation with equal quantization axis for all the sites is related to the representation with different quantization axes at each site by a rotation in spin space. The unitary transformation that describes the rotation contains the angles (Θn ,φn ), which we have treated as random variables. Based on this observation we have proposed a new variational approach for the quantum spin chain. We will outline the main results here. A full account is published elsewhere.5 In our approach the free energy of the system can be separated in a quantum part and a classical part. The free energy F of the chain is then approximated by an upper bound F<Fcl +Fqm , where βFcl =−ln[E(exp−βVcl )] and βFqm =−ln Tr(exp−β〈Hqm 〉). The first part is a configurational classical free energy, depending on the choice of the probability distribution for the quantization axes via the expectation E. The second contribution is the free energy of a modified quantum chain, whose parameters are classical averages and can be obtained from the configurational classical free energy. For easy-plane ferromagnetic chains, the nonlinear excitations are comprised in the classical part, whereas the quantum part contains predominantly linear excitations. For those thermodynamical quantities that are insensitive to the contribution of the quantum excitations, the chain is thermodynamically equivalent with a classical sine-Gordon system. The out-of-plane corrections are incorporated in the quantum part of the free energy. This behavior is corroborated experimentally by measurements of the excess heat capacity of CHAB for different magnetic fields with the same in-plane component.6 The validity of our approach is, however, not restricted to easy-plane ferromagnetic chains. Also for more complex systems with, for example, an orthorhombic or helical symmetry, the introduction of stochastic quantization axes can shed new light on some of the thermodynamical properties of these quantum systems in terms of their classical equivalent.

Journal of Applied Physics•May 1, 1990•0 citations
A rotationally invariant translation-generating functional for the continuum model of a ferromagnetic chain is found, resolving a long-standing paradox. The condition of rotational invariance leads to a topological quantization in the continuum classical model that corresponds to spin quantization in the equivalent discrete quantum model. The relation between the classical continuum model and the discrete quantum models is made precise.
Painlevé’s singularity structure analysis, combined with stereographic mapping, has previously been applied to a one-dimensional Heisenberg spin-chain continuum model which identified a Hamiltonian density for the static version of the Landau-Lifshitz equation. In this work, we explore the equivalence of the Hamiltonian density to the nonlinear sigma model. It reveals its non-standard form and can be interpreted as a position-dependent mass Hamiltonian density. We then proceed with the quantization of this Hamiltonian density using the pre-canonical quantization procedure. The resulting Schrödinger-like equation was found to take the form of a confluent Heun equation. By employing the functional Bethe-Ansatz method, we explicitly obtain the ground state and first excited state of the system. This analysis provides a comprehensive quantum description of the system, capturing the probabilistic structure of the field and information about the possible energy states of the spin system.
The spin evolution equation of an isotropic, quantum ferromagnetic Heisenberg chain is analyzed in the continuum approximation using spin-coherent states. The advantages of this approach are discussed. Magnetic solitary-wave solutions are found, and the expectation values of the energy, momentum, and angular momentum corresponding to these solutions are determined. The energy-momentum dispersion relation for the nonlinear excitations is derived. The semiclassical spectrum is shown to arise when quantum effects are neglected by using a random-phase approximation to calculate certain expectation values. On including the quantum effects, it is found that the spectrum comprises two branches: a lower-energy branch of spin-wave-like, small-amplitude solitary waves with small quantum corrections, and a higher branch of particlelike large-amplitude solitary waves subject to significant quantum corrections for small S values. A heuristic discussion of the stability of these excitations is presented. A physical interpretation of the dispersion relation obtained is given.
Using the coherent states method combined with the Schwinger coupled boson representation of the spin operators (1965) it is shown that solitons can propagate in the continuum limit of the quantum ferromagnetic Heisenberg chain. These solitons are solutions of a nonlinear Schrodinger equation similar to that discussed by Lakshmanan (1977) for the classical Heisenberg chain. Several characteristics of the soliton, like its momentum, energy, and the number of bosonic excitations involved in the soliton formation, are calculated.
A variational estimate of the free energy of a quantum spin chain based on the stochastic behavior of the quantization axes is proposed. It allows a description of the nonlinear excitations and quantum spin waves within the same framework. For an easy-plane ferromagnet with an external field in the plane it reveals that the nonlinear excitations (solitons) are predominantly described by the classical degrees of freedom. Considerable effort has been devoted to the theoretical description1 and experimental verification of the existence of nonlinear excitations. In this field magnetic chain systems have played an important part.2 Chain systems with an easy-plane anisotropy, such as (C6 H11 NH3 )CuBr3 (CHAB) and CsNiF3 , which are subjected to a symmetry breaking field, were found to be soliton bearing.3 Theoretically the description of the nonlinear effect is based on the mapping of the spin dynamics on a sine-Gordon model. Further research4 indicated that the interpretation of the thermodynamical properties of real systems in terms of the sine-Gordon model required however quantum and anisotropy corrections. Since the dipolar interactions between the spins in the chain are considered to be negligible, the direction of the spin chain in configuration space with respect to any preferred direction in spin space does not enter explicitly in the Hamiltonian. This makes it interesting to define a site-dependent z direction in spin space which makes an angle (Θn ,φn ) with the z direction in configuration space. The model Hamiltonian can then be written in terms of the spin operators defined with respect to the site-dependent quantization axis. The representation with equal quantization axis for all the sites is related to the representation with different quantization axes at each site by a rotation in spin space. The unitary transformation that describes the rotation contains the angles (Θn ,φn ), which we have treated as random variables. Based on this observation we have proposed a new variational approach for the quantum spin chain. We will outline the main results here. A full account is published elsewhere.5 In our approach the free energy of the system can be separated in a quantum part and a classical part. The free energy F of the chain is then approximated by an upper bound F<Fcl +Fqm , where βFcl =−ln[E(exp−βVcl )] and βFqm =−ln Tr(exp−β〈Hqm 〉). The first part is a configurational classical free energy, depending on the choice of the probability distribution for the quantization axes via the expectation E. The second contribution is the free energy of a modified quantum chain, whose parameters are classical averages and can be obtained from the configurational classical free energy. For easy-plane ferromagnetic chains, the nonlinear excitations are comprised in the classical part, whereas the quantum part contains predominantly linear excitations. For those thermodynamical quantities that are insensitive to the contribution of the quantum excitations, the chain is thermodynamically equivalent with a classical sine-Gordon system. The out-of-plane corrections are incorporated in the quantum part of the free energy. This behavior is corroborated experimentally by measurements of the excess heat capacity of CHAB for different magnetic fields with the same in-plane component.6 The validity of our approach is, however, not restricted to easy-plane ferromagnetic chains. Also for more complex systems with, for example, an orthorhombic or helical symmetry, the introduction of stochastic quantization axes can shed new light on some of the thermodynamical properties of these quantum systems in terms of their classical equivalent.