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International Journal of Modern Physics C

An Efficient Monte Carlo Approach to Low-Lying Excitations of Quantum Spin Chains

Shoji Yamamoto

Published Jun 1, 1997• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We give a full description of a recently developed efficient Monte Carlo Approach to low-lying excitations of one-dimensional quantum spin systems. The idea is in a word expressed as extracting the lower edge of the excitation spectrum from imaginary-time quantum Monte Carlo data at a sufficiently low temperature. First, the method is applied to the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains of S=1/2, 1, 3/2, and 2. In the cases of S=1/2 and S=1, comparing the present results with the previous findings, we discuss the reliability of the method. The spectra for S=3/2 and S=2 turn out to be massless and massive, respectively. In order to demonstrate that our method is very good at treating long chains, we calculate the S=2 chain with length up to 512 spins and give a precise estimate of the Haldane gap. Second, we show its fruitful use in studying quantum critical phenomena of bond-alternating spin chains. Using the conformal invariance of the system as well, we calculate the central charge of the critical S=1 chain, which results in the Gaussian universality class. Third, we study an alternating-spin system composed of two kinds of spins S=1 and 1/2, which shows the ferrimagnetic behavior. We find a quadratic dispersion relation in the small-momentum region. The numerical findings are qualitatively explained well in terms of the spin-wave theory. Finally, we argue a possibility of applying the method to the higher excitations, where we again deal with the S=1 Heisenberg antiferromagnet and inquire further into its unique low-energy structure. All the applications demonstrate the wide applicability of the method and its own advantages.

DOI
10.1142/s0129183197000527

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•Jan 1, 2005•0 citations
We give a full description of a recently developed efficient Monte Carlo Approach to low-lying excitations of one-dimensional quantum spin systems. The idea is in a word expressed as extracting the lower edge of the excitation spectrum from imaginary-time quantum Monte Carlo data at a sufficiently low temperature. First, the method is applied to the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains of S=1/2, 1, 3/2, and 2. In the cases of S=1/2 and S=1, comparing the present results with the previous findings, we discuss the reliability of the method. The spectra for S=3/2 and S=2 turn out to be massless and massive, respectively. In order to demonstrate that our method is very good at treating long chains, we calculate the S=2 chain with length up to 512 spins and give a precise estimate of the Haldane gap. Second, we show its fruitful use in studying quantum critical phenomena of bond-alternating spin chains. Using the conformal invariance of the system as well, we calculate the central charge of the critical S=1 chain, which results in the Gaussian universality class. Third, we study an alternating-spin system composed of two kinds of spins S=1 and 1/2, which shows the ferrimagnetic behavior. We find a quadratic dispersion relation in the small-momentum region. The numerical findings are qualitatively explained well in terms of the spin-wave theory. Finally, we argue a possibility of applying the method to the higher excitations, where we again deal with the S=1 Heisenberg antiferromagnet and inquire further into its unique low-energy structure. All the applications demonstrate the wide applicability of the method and its own advantages.
A world-line Monte Carlo approach is proposed to calculate the elementary excitations of quantum systems. The lowest energies as a function of momentum are successfully extracted from an imaginary-time correlation function evaluated at a sufficiently low temperature. The method is applied to the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains of S=12,1,32,S\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\frac{1}{2},1,\frac{3}{2},S=21​,1,23​, and 222 with length up to 64. The spectra for S=12S\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\frac{1}{2}S=21​ and 1 coincide well with the result by des Cloizeaux and Pearson and with the result by Takahashi, respectively. The spectra for S=32S\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\frac{3}{2}S=23​ and 2 turn out to be massless and massive, respectively. The S=2S\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}2S=2 Haldane gap is estimated to be $0.049\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.018$.
A world-line quantum Monte Carlo method is employed to study the elementary excitations of S=1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains with bond alternation described by the Hamiltonian, scrH=J tsumi{\mathit{tsum}}_{\mathit{i}}tsumi​ [1-(-1)i{)}^{\mathit{i}})i\ensuremath{\delta}]Si{\mathrm{S}}_{\mathit{i}}Si​\ensuremath{\cdot}Si+1{\mathrm{S}}_{\mathit{i}+1}Si+1​. Imaginary-time correlation functions of this system at low-enough temperatures exhibit almost single-exponential decay and thus the lowest excitation spectrum can be successfully extracted from them. As \ensuremath{\delta} increases from 0 to 1, the system encounters a continuous phase transition at \ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.25, where the energy(E)-momentum(q) relation is fitted well to the form E(q)=(v2{\mathit{v}}^{2}v2 sin2{\mathrm{sin}}^{2}sin2q+${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}}^{2}$)1/2{)}^{1/2})1/2 with the effective light velocity v=2.46\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.08 and the energy gap \ensuremath{\Delta} which vanishes in the long chain limit. The central charge c at the massless critical point is estimated to be 1.02\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.09, which suggests the universality class of the Gaussian model.
In a previous paper (Liu et al 2012 Phys. Rev. B 85 195144 ), a variational Monte Carlo method (based on Gutzwiller projected states) was generalized to S = 1 systems. This method provided very good trial ground states for the gapped phases of an S = 1 bilinear-biquadratic (BLBQ) Heisenberg chain. In this paper, we extend the approach to study the low-lying elementary excitations in S = 1 chains. We calculate the one-magnon and two-magnon excitation spectra of the BLBQ Heisenberg chain and the results agree very well with recent data in the literature. In our approach, the difference of the excitation spectrum between the Haldane phase and the dimer phase (such as the even/odd size effect) can be understood from their different topologies of the corresponding mean field theory. We especially study the Takhtajan–Babujian critical point. Despite the fact that the 'elementary excitations' are spin-1 magnons, which are different from the spin-1/2 spinons in Bethe solution, we show that the excitation spectrum, critical exponent ( ) and central charge ( c = 1.45) calculated from our theory agree well with the Bethe ansatz solution and conformal field theory predictions.
An efficient Monte Carlo method is proposed to calculate the elementary excitation spectrum of quantum systems. The lowest energy with arbitrary momentum is obtained by the projector Monte Carlo method. This is applied to the spin-(1/2 and -1 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain with length 32. For the S=(1/2 case, the spectrum coincides completely with the spectrum of des Cloiseaux and Pearson. For the S=1 case, the spectrum has a gap at momentum \ensuremath{\pi} as was predicted by Haldane. The value of the gap coincides with the calculation of Nightingale and Blote. The spectrum satisfies a variational relation with the structure factor.
We study the low-temperature properties of S = 1 and S = 1/2 alternating spin chains with antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbour exchange couplings using analytical techniques as well as a quantum Monte Carlo method. The spin-wave approach predicts two different low-lying excitations, which are gapped and gapless, respectively. The structure of low-lying levels is also discussed using perturbation theory in terms of the strength of the Ising anisotropy. These analytical findings are compared with the results of quantum Monte Carlo calculations, and it turns out that spin-wave theory describes the present system well. We conclude that the quantum ferrimagnetic chain exhibits both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic aspects.
In this thesis the quantum Monte Carlo loop algorithm is applied to study the properties of correlation functions in low-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets. Two different types of lattice models are investigated. The first system is the quantum critical XXZ chain. The second class of models emerges when coupling the square lattice Heisenberg model to phonons. In case of the quantum critical XXZ chain, the loop algorithm is used to compute the two-point spin and dimer correlation functions at low temperatures. Starting from the well-known asymptotic expressions from conformal field theory for the decay of the correlations, the crossover from the finite-temperature to the ground state behavior is investigated. In addtion, the Monte Carlo data are used to extract numerical estimates for the correlation amplitudes. The deviations from asymptotic scaling at low finite temperatures and intermediate distances are examined. The results are also used to study the algebraic and logarithmic corrections in the ground state. The method is further applied to compute the low-temperature spin correlations of the square lattice Heisenberg model coupled to dispersionless Einstein phonons. Also, statically dimerized Heisenberg models in two dimensions are investigated. Here the quantum Monte Carlo technique is used to determine the specific pattern of dimerized bonds which has the largest gain in the magnetic energy. A direct comparison of ground state energies is only possible for a small number of dimerized systems. For this reason an alternative approach is developed, which allows to study a significantly larger class of models. Starting from a Landau expansion of the free energy, this amounts to a computation of specific structure factors of the dimer correlations of the uniform Heisenberg model. As a consequence, a Landau theory for the two-dimensional counterpart of the spin-Peierls transition is established. This adiabatic approach also applies to the Heisenberg model coupled to dispersive phonons. In this case the data for the dimer correlations are used to study the impact of the spin-phonon coupling on the phonon dispersion relations. In particular, the softening of phonon modes is investigated, which is relevant for experimental studies on substances with a quasi two-dimensional magnetic structure.