The Ising model in transverse magnetic field is perhaps the simplest quantum spin model, yet the elements of site disorder, random magnetic fields, and tunable quantum fluctuations permit a rich array of ground states, and the rare ability to emphasize their classical or quantum character. We briefly review in this chapter experimental results from chains to crystals of spins, with magnetic, glassy, and spin liquid ground states. Singlet Ground State Magnets In a crystalline lattice, the crystal fields often take a form such that the ground states of magnetic ions are singlets separated from the higher lying spin multiplets. Sufficiently strong magnetic dipolar or exchange couplings between different sites can mix the singlets with the multiplets enough so as to induce non-zero expectation values for the magnetic dipoles at individual sites. Examples of this phenomenon are generally found among metals and insulators based on rare earths. Such metals were a subject of extensive research in the 1960's and 1970's, and the book by MacKintosh and Jensen [408] gives an excellent account of both the data as well as mean field approaches. With respect to insulating materials, LiTbF 4 emerged as a model system in the 1970's. It is an example of an ideal Ising dipolar coupled ferromagnet; here the long-range nature of the dipolar interactions leads to an upper critical dimension [149] (at which mean field theory with logarithmic corrections calculable using RG methods becomes an exact description of thermal phase transitions) of three rather than four. LiTbF 4 belongs to the LiREF 4 isostructural series of ionic salts. Li and F carry valences +1 and −1 respectively, leaving RE, which can be any rare earth atom or the nonmagnetic element Y, with a valence of +3. Figure 14.1 shows the body-centered tetragonal crystal structure for the family.
The Ising model in transverse magnetic field is perhaps the simplest quantum spin model, yet the elements of site disorder, random magnetic fields, and tunable quantum fluctuations permit a rich array of ground states, and the rare ability to emphasize their classical or quantum character. We briefly review in this chapter experimental results from chains to crystals of spins, with magnetic, glassy, and spin liquid ground states. Singlet Ground State Magnets In a crystalline lattice, the crystal fields often take a form such that the ground states of magnetic ions are singlets separated from the higher lying spin multiplets. Sufficiently strong magnetic dipolar or exchange couplings between different sites can mix the singlets with the multiplets enough so as to induce non-zero expectation values for the magnetic dipoles at individual sites. Examples of this phenomenon are generally found among metals and insulators based on rare earths. Such metals were a subject of extensive research in the 1960's and 1970's, and the book by MacKintosh and Jensen [408] gives an excellent account of both the data as well as mean field approaches. With respect to insulating materials, LiTbF 4 emerged as a model system in the 1970's. It is an example of an ideal Ising dipolar coupled ferromagnet; here the long-range nature of the dipolar interactions leads to an upper critical dimension [149] (at which mean field theory with logarithmic corrections calculable using RG methods becomes an exact description of thermal phase transitions) of three rather than four. LiTbF 4 belongs to the LiREF 4 isostructural series of ionic salts. Li and F carry valences +1 and −1 respectively, leaving RE, which can be any rare earth atom or the nonmagnetic element Y, with a valence of +3. Figure 14.1 shows the body-centered tetragonal crystal structure for the family.
Several magnetic materials, in the first approximation, can be described by idealised theoretical models, such as classical Ising or Heisenberg spin systems, and, to some extent, such models are able to qualitatively expose many experimentally observed phenomena. But often, to account for complex behavior of magnetic matter, such models have to be refined by including more terms in Hamiltonian. The compound LiHo_xY_{1-x}F_4, by increasing concentration of nonmagnetic yttrium can be tuned from a diluted ferromagnet to a spin glass. LiHoF_4 is a good realisation of the transverse field Ising model, the simplest model exhibiting a quantum phase transition. In the pure case the magnetic behaviour of this material is well described by mean-field theory. It was believed that when diluted, LiHo_xY_{1-x}F_4 would also manifest itself as a diluted transverse field Ising model which continue to be well described by mean-field theory, and, at sufficient dilution, at zero temperature, exhibit a quantum spin-glass transition. The experimental data did not support such a scenario, and it was pointed out that, to explain physics of LiHo_xY_{1-x}F_4 in transverse magnetic field, the effect of a transverse-field-generated longitudinal random field has to be considered. We explore this idea further in local mean-field studies in which all three parameters: temperature, transverse field and concentration can be consistently surveyed, and where the transverse-field-generated longitudinal random field is explicitly present in the effective spin-1/2 Hamiltonian. We suggest other materials that are possible candidates for studying quantum criticality in the transverse field Ising model, and in the diluted case, for studying the effects of transverse and longitudinal random fields. The compounds we consider are RE(OH)_3, where RE are the rare earth ions Tb^{3+}, Dy^{3+} and Ho^{3+}. Using mean-field theory, we estimate the values of the transverse magnetic field that, at zero temperature, destroy ferromagnetic order to be B_x^c=4.35 T, B_x^c=5.03 T and B_x^c=54.81 T for Ho(OH)_3, Dy(OH)_3 and Tb(OH)_3, respectively. We confirm that Ho(OH)_3 and Tb(OH)_3, similarly to LiHoF_4, can be described by an effective spin-1/2 Hamiltonian. In the case of Dy(OH)_3 there is a possibility of a first order phase transition at transverse field close to B_x^c, and Dy(OH)_3 cannot be described by a spin-1/2 effective Hamiltonian. While diluted dipolar Ising spin glass has been studied experimentally in LiHo_xY_{1-x}F_4 and in numerical simulations, there are no studies of the Heisenberg case. Example materials that are likely candidates to be realisations of the diluted dipolar Heisenberg spin glass are (Gd_xY_{1-x})_2Ti_2O_7, (Gd_xY_{1-x})_2Sn_2O_7 and (Gd_xY_{1-x})_3Ga_5O_{12}. To stimulate interest in experimental studies of these systems we present results of Monte of Carlo simulations of the diluted dipolar Heisenberg spin glass. By performing finite-size scaling analysis of the spin-glass correlation length and the spin-glass susceptibility, we provide a compelling evidence of a thermodynamical spin-glass transition in the model. Frustrated pyrochlore magnets, depending on the character of single ion anisotropy and interplay of different types of interaction over a broad range of energy scales, exhibit a large spectrum of exotic phases and novel phenomena. The pyrochlore antiferromagnet Er_2Ti_2O_7 is characterised by a strong planar anisotropy. Experimental studies reveal that Er_2Ti_2O_7 undergoes a continuous phase transition to a long-range ordered phase with a spin configuration that, in this thesis, is referred to as the Champion-Holdsworth state. Such results are not in agreement with the theoretical prediction that the ground state of the pyrochlore easy-plane antiferromagnet with dipolar interactions complementing the nearest neighbour exchange interactions, is not the Champion-Holdsworth state but the so-called Palmer-Chalker state. On the other hand, Monte Carlo simulations of the easy-plane pyrochlore antiferromagnet indicate a thermal order-by-disorder selection of the Champion-Holdsworth state. To answer the question of whether order-by-disorder selection can be the mechanism at play in Er_2Ti_2O_7, we performed Monte Carlo simulations of the easy-plane pyrochlore antiferromagnet with weak dipolar interactions. We estimate the range strengths of the dipolar interaction such that order-by-disorder selection of the Champion-Holdsworth state is not suppressed. The estimated value of the allowed strength of the dipolar interactions indicates that the model studied is likely insufficient to explain the physics of Er_2Ti_2O_7 and other types of interactions or quantum effects should be considered.
The quantum Ising model is perhaps the simplest possible model of a quantum magnetic material. Despite its simplicity, its versatility and wide range of applications, from quantum computation, to combinatorial optimization, to biophysics, make it one of the most important models of modern physics. In this thesis, we develop a general framework for studying quantum Ising systems with an arbitrary single ion Hamiltonian, with emphasis on the effects of quantum fluctuations, and the quantum phase transition between paramagnetic and ferromagnetic states that occurs when a magnetic field is applied transverse to the easy axis of the system. The magnetic insulating crystal LiHoF₄ is a physical realization of the quantum Ising model, with the additional features that the dominant coupling between spins is the long range dipolar interaction, and each electronic spin is strongly coupled to a nuclear degree of freedom. These nuclear degrees of freedom constitute a spin bath environment acting on the system. In this thesis, we present an effective low temperature Hamiltonian for LiHoF₄ that incorporates both these features, and we analyze the effects of the nuclear spin bath on the system. We find the lowest energy crystal field excitation in the system is gapped at the quantum critical point by the presence of the nuclear spins, with spectral weight being transferred down to a lower energy electronuclear mode that fully softens to zero at the quantum critical point. Furthermore, we present a toy model, the spin half spin half model, that illustrates the effects of an anisotropic hyperfine interaction on a quantum Ising system. We find the critical transverse field is increased when the longitudinal hyperfine coupling is dominant, as well as an enhancement of both the longitudinal electronic susceptibility and an applied longitudinal field. In addition, we present a field theoretic formalism for incorporating the effects of fluctuations beyond the random phase approximation in general quantum Ising systems. We find that any regular on site interaction, such as a nuclear spin bath, does not fundamentally alter the critical properties of a quantum Ising system. This formalism is used to calculate corrections to the magnetization of LiHoF₄.
The LiHo_xY_{1-x}F_4 magnetic material in a transverse magnetic \nfield B_x perpendicular to the Ising spin direction has long been used \nto study tunable quantum phase transitions in pure and random disordered systems. \nWe first present analytical and numerical evidences for the validity of an effective spin-1/2 \napproach to the description of a general dipolar spin \nglass model with strong uniaxial Ising anisotropy and subject to weak \nB_x. \n We relate this toy model to the LiHo_xY_{1-x}F_4 transverse field Ising material. \n We show that an effective spin-1/2 \n model is able to capture both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the \nphysics at small B_x. \nAfter confirming the validity of the effective spin-1/2 approach, we show that the field-induced magnetization along the \nx direction, \ncombined with the local random dilution-induced \ndestruction of crystalline mirror symmetries \ngenerates, via the predominant dipolar interactions between Ho^{3+} ions, \n random fields along the Ising z direction. \nThis identifies LiHo_xY_{1-x}F_4 in B_x as a new \nrandom field Ising system. \nWe show that the random fields explain the smearing \nof the nonlinear susceptibility at the spin glass transition \nwith increasing B_x. \nIn this thesis, we also investigate the phase diagram of non-diluted LiHoF_4 in the presence of B_x, by performing \nMonte-Carlo simulations. A previous quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation found that even for small B_x where quantum fluctuations are small, close to the classical critical \npoint, there is a discrepancy between experiment and the QMC results. We revisit this problem, focusing on \nweak B_x close to the classical T_c, using an alternative approach. For small B_x, by applying a so-called cumulant \nexpansion, the quantum fluctuations around the classical T_c are taken into account perturbatively. We derived an effective \nperturbative classical Hamiltonian, on which MC simulations are performed. With this method we \ninvestigate different proposed sources of uncertainty which can affect the numerical results. \n We fully reproduce the previous QMC results at small B_x. Unfortunately, we find that \n none of the modifications to the microscopic Hamiltonian that we explore are able to provide a B_x-T phase diagram compatible with the experiments in the small \nsemi-classical B_x regime.
Hyperuniform states of matter are characterized by anomalous suppression of long-wavelength density fluctuations. While most of the interesting cases of disordered hyperuniformity are provided by complex many-body systems such as liquids or amorphous solids, classical spin chains with certain long-range interactions have been shown to demonstrate the same phenomenon. Such spin-chain systems are ideal models for exploring the effects of quantum mechanics on hyperuniformity. It is well-known that the transverse field Ising model shows a quantum phase transition (QPT) at zero temperature. Under the quantum effects of a transverse magnetic field, classical hyperuniform spin chains are expected to lose their hyperuniformity. High-precision simulations of these cases are complicated because of the presence of highly nontrivial long-range interactions. We perform an extensive analysis of these systems using density matrix renormalization group simulations to study the possibilities of phase transitions and the mechanism by which they lose hyperuniformity. Even for a spin chain of length 30, we see discontinuous changes in properties like the ``$\ensuremath{\tau}$ order metric'' of the ground state, the measure of hyperuniformity, and the second cumulant of the total magnetization along the x-direction, all suggestive of first-order QPTs. An interesting feature of the phase transitions in these disordered hyperuniform spin chains is that, depending on the parameter values, the presence of a transverse magnetic field may lead remarkably to an increase in the order of the ground state as measured by the ``$\ensuremath{\tau}$ order metric,'' even if hyperuniformity is lost. Therefore, it would be possible to design materials to target specific novel quantum behaviors in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Our numerical investigations suggest that these spin chains can show no more than two QPTs. We further analyze the long-range interacting spin chains via the Jordan-Wigner mapping onto a system of spinless fermions, showing that under the pairwise-interaction approximation and a mean-field treatment, there can be at most two quantum phase transitions. Based on these numerical and theoretical explorations, we conjecture that for spin chains with long-range pair interactions that have convergent cosine transforms, there can be a maximum of two quantum phase transitions at zero temperature.
In this thesis, we investigate strongly correlated phenomena in quantum spin systems. In the first part of this work, we study geometrically frustrated antiferromagnets (AFMs). Generalizing the SU(2) Heisenberg Hamiltonian to Sp(N) symmetry, we obtain, in the large-N limit, the mean-field phase diagrams for the planar pyrochlore and cubic AFMs. We then use gauge theories to consider fluctuation effects about their respective mean-field configurations. We find, in addition to conventional Neel states, a plethora of novel magnetically disordered phases: two kinds of spin liquids, Z2 in 2+1D and U(1)in 3+1D, and several valence bond solids such as two and three-dimensional plaquette and columnar singlet states. We use the same approach to study the diamond lattice AFM which possesses extended classical ground state degeneracy. We demonstrate that quantum and entropic fluctuations lift this degeneracy in different ways. In the second part of the thesis, we study ultracold spinor atoms confined in optical lattices. We first demonstrate the feasibility of experimental realization of rotor models using ultracold spin-one Bose atoms in a spin-dependent and disordered optical lattice. We show that the ground state of such disordered rotor models with quadrupolar interactions can exhibit biaxial nematic ordering in the disorder-averaged sense, and suggest an imaging experiment to detect the biaxial nematicity in such systems. Finally, using variational wavefunction methods, we study the Mott phases and superfluid-insulator transition of spin-three bosons in an optical lattice with an anisotropic two dimensional optical trap. We chart out the phase diagrams for Mott states with n = 1 and n = 2 atoms per lattice site. We show that the long-range dipolar interaction stabilizes a state characterized by antiferromagnetic chains made of ferromagnetically aligned spins. We also obtain the mean-field phase boundary for the superfluid-insulator transition, and show that inside the superfluid phase and near the superfluid-insulator phase boundary, the system undergoes a first order antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic spin ordering transition.
The authors present the first example of a quasi-2D experimental realization of a transverse field Ising model, which is one of the canonical examples of a quantum phase transition driven by quantum mechanical fluctuations induced by a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the preferred direction of the magnetic moments. Experimental realizations of this model are rare, and include the prominently discussed quasi-1D Ising chain system CoNb2O6, and the 3D dipolar-coupled Ising ferromagnet LiHoF4, but the experimental realization of a quasi-2D system has been lacking until now.