We present some exact results for the effect of disorder on the critical properties of an anisotropic
XY spin chain in a transverse field. The continuum limit of the corresponding fermion model is taken and in various cases results in a Dirac equation with a random mass. Exact analytic techniques can then be used to evaluate the density of states and the localization length. In the presence of disorder the ferromagnetic-paramagnetic or Ising transition of the model is in the same universality class as the random transverse field Ising model solved by Fisher using a real-space renormalization-group decimation technique (RSRGDT). If there is only randomness in the anisotropy of the magnetic exchange then the anisotropy transition (from a ferromagnet in the x direction to a ferromagnet in the y direction) is also in this universality class. However, if there is randomness in the isotropic part of the exchange or in the transverse field then in a nonzero transverse field the anisotropy transition is destroyed by the disorder. We show that in the Griffiths' phase near the Ising transition that the ground-state energy has an essential singularity. The results obtained for the dynamical critical exponent, typical correlation length, and for the temperature dependence of the specific heat near the Ising transition agree with the results of the RSRGDT and numerical work.
The dynamic critical behavior of one-dimensional random spin systems in a field at zero temperature is investigated by a generalized transfer-matrix scaling technique. Three spin models are considered: Heisenberg in a longitudinal field, XY in a transverse field, and Ising in a transverse field, with either spin-glass or random-field disorder. Near the transition, i.e., for small values of the reduced field \ensuremath{\Delta}=(H-
Hc), where
Hc is the critical field, one finds that the dispersion relation for the low-frequency \ensuremath{\omega}, small-wave-vector k spin-wave excitations takes the scaling form \ensuremath{\omega}=
kzf(\ensuremath{\Delta}/
kcphi), and exact results are given for the dynamic exponent z and crossover exponent cphi. This form contains a crossover of the frequency \ensuremath{\omega} between two different asymptotic behaviors:
kz for \ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\ll}
kcphi and ${h}^{\ensuremath{\delta}}$ for \ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\gg}
kcphi, where the field exponent is \ensuremath{\delta}=z/cphi. In the case of the Heisenberg systems the spin-glass disorder gives rise to the nontrivial dynamic exponent z=(3/2, whereas in the random-field case it is the exponent associated to the field that becomes nontrivial, taking the value (4/3. For the transverse XY systems the random-field disorder implies nontrivial values for both the dynamic and field exponents, (3/2 and (3/4, respectively, whereas the spin-glass disorder does not affect the dynamics of the system, which behaves like a pure transverse XY ferromagnet. Finally, for the transverse Ising systems neither the random field nor the spin-glass disorder affects the dynamics, which is the same as for a pure transverse Ising ferromagnet.
The spin-1/2 quantum anisotropic XY spin chain in a transverse random magnetic field parallel to the z axis is numerically studied by means of the density-matrix renormalization group. The dependence of the spontaneous magnetization and the energy gap on both the strength of the random magnetic field and the factor of anisotropy is determined. The critical line for the order-disorder phase transition is obtained and the resulting phase diagram is drawn. Our results are compatible with the fact that models with different factors of anisotropy fall within the same universality class as the quantum Ising model in a transverse random field.
Low-energy excitations of a classical
XY ferromagnetic chain in a random sign transverse field are investigated using the coherent-potential approximation (CPA). Near the critical field strength, the dynamics of the system is similar to that of the high-field spin-glass chain system investigated earlier. The CPA reproduced the anomalous dispersion law and nontrivial dynamic and crossover exponents which were obtained by the renormalization-group technique. The CPA also predicts an explicit form of the scaling function. For symmetric and asymmetric distributions of the field, different dynamics and exponents are obtained. A brief analysis is given about the thermodynamics of the system.
Fisher's [Phys. Rev. B
51, 6411 (1995)] real-space renormalization-group (RG) treatment of random transverse-field Ising spin chains is extended into the strongly ordered and strongly disordered Griffiths phases, and asymptotically exact results are obtained. In the noncritical region the asymmetry of the renormalization of the couplings and the transverse fields is related to a nonlinear quantum control parameter \ensuremath{\Delta}, which is a natural measure of the distance from the quantum critical point. \ensuremath{\Delta}, which is found to stay invariant along the RG trajectories, and has been expressed by the initial disorder distributions, stands in the singularity exponents of different physical quantities (magnetization, susceptibility, specific heat, etc.), which are exactly calculated. In this way we have observed a weak-universality scenario: the Griffiths-McCoy singularities do not depend on the form of the disorder, provided the nonlinear quantum control parameter has the same value. The exact scaling function of the magnetization with a small applied magnetic field is calculated, and the critical point magnetization singularity is determined in a simple, direct way.