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.
Using the exact diagonalization technique, we study the properties of the ground state of a spin- antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model for a zigzag polymer chain with side radicals connected to the even sites. We consider the nearest-neighbour exchange J and the next-nearest-neighbour exchange ?J along the main chain, and J1 between the even site on the main chain and the radical site. For small ? the ground state is ferrimagnetic. For ?>?c 1, the ground state is a spiral phase, which is characterized by a peak of the static structure factor S(q) locating at an incommensurate value qmax. For ?>?c 2, the ground state is antiferromagnetic. With increasing J1, ?c 1 decreases while ?c 2 has a maximum at about J1 = 0.5. For very small J1 and ? = 0.5, the spin configuration on the main chain is a product of nearest-neighbour singlets. In the antiferromagnetic phase, if J1 is large enough the even site and the radical site form a singlet with exchange-decoupling from the odd site while the odd sites approximately form an antiferromagnetic chain.
A series of symmetry-protected topological(SPT) and trivial spin-gap phases in the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic--antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain with alternating next-nearest-neighbour interaction are investigated using two kinds of entanglement spectra defined by different divisions of the whole chain. In the case one of the next-nearest-neighbor interaction vanishes, the model reduces to the
Δ-chain in which a series of spin-gap phases are found in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 77, 044707 (2008). From the degeneracy of the entanglement spectra, these phases are identified as the SPT and trivial phases. It is found that the ground state phases boundaries are insensitive to the strength of the alternation in next-nearest neighbor interaction. These results are consistent with the analysis based on the nonlinear
σ model and exact solution on the ferromagnetic-nonmagnetic phase boundary.
The ground state properties of the S = 1/2 frustrated Heisenberg chain with period 3 exchange modulation are investigated using the numerical diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method. It is known that this model has a magnetization plateau at one third of the saturation magnetization M s . On the other hand, the ground state is ferrimagnetic even in the absence of frustration if one of the nearest neighbour bond is ferromagnetic and the others are antiferromagnetic. In the present work, we show that this ferrimagnetic state continues to the region in which all bonds are antiferromagnetic if the frustration is strong. This state further continues to the above-mentioned 1/3 plateau state. In between, we also find the noncollinear ferrimagnetic phase in which the spontaneous magnetization is finite but less than M s /3. The intuitive interpretation for the phase diagram is given and the physical properties of these phases are discussed.
The thermodynamics of coupled frustrated ferromagnetic chains is studied within a spin-rotation-invariant Green's-function approach. We consider an isotropic Heisenberg spin-half system with a ferromagnetic in-chain coupling
J1<0 between nearest neighbors and a frustrating antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor in-chain coupling
J2>0. We focus on the moderate strength of frustration
J2<∣J1∣/4 such that the in-chain spin-spin correlations are predominantly ferromagnetic. We consider two interchain couplings (ICs) ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp},y}$ and ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp},z}$, corresponding to the two axes perpendicular to the chain, where ferromagnetic as well as antiferromagnetic ICs are taken into account. We discuss the influence of frustration on the ground-state properties for antiferromagnetic ICs, where the ground state is of a quantum nature. The major part of our study is devoted to the finite-temperature properties. We calculate the critical temperature
Tc as a function of the competing exchange couplings ${J}_{2},{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp},y},{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp},z}$. We find that for fixed ICs,
Tc decreases monotonically with increasing frustration
J2, where as ${J}_{2}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}|{J}_{1}|/4$ the
Tc(J2) curve drops down rapidly. To characterize the magnetic ordering below and above
Tc, we calculate the spin-spin correlation functions $\ensuremath{\langle}{\mathbf{S}}_{0}{\mathbf{S}}_{\mathbf{R}}\ensuremath{\rangle}$, the magnetic order parameter
M, the uniform static susceptibility ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{0}$, as well as the correlation length $\ensuremath{\xi}$. Moreover, we discuss the specific heat
CV and the temperature dependence of the excitation spectrum ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{\mathbf{q}}$. As ${J}_{2}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}|{J}_{1}|/4$, some unusual frustration-induced features were found, such as an increase of the in-chain spin stiffness (in the case of ferromagnetic ICs) or of the in-chain spin-wave velocity (in the case of antiferromagnetic ICs) with growing temperature.
By using the method of density-matrix renormalization-group to solve the different spin–spin correlation functions, the nearest-neighbouring entanglement (NNE) and the next-nearest-neighbouring entanglement (NNNE) of one-dimensional alternating Heisenberg XY spin chain are investigated in the presence of alternating the-nearest-neighbouring interaction of exchange couplings, external magnetic fields and the next-nearest neighbouring interaction. For a dimerised ferromagnetic spin chain, the NNNE appears only above a critical dimerized interaction, meanwhile, the dimerized interaction a effects a quantum phase transition point and improves the NNNE to a large extent. We also study the effect of ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic next-nearest neighbouring (NNN) interaction on the dynamics of NNE and NNNE. The ferromagnetic NNN interaction increases and shrinks the NNE below and above a critical frustrated interaction respectively, while the antiferromagnetic NNN interaction always reduces the NNE. The antiferromagnetic NNN interaction results in a large value of NNNE compared with the case where the NNN interaction is ferromagnetic.