We investigate the spin-
21 Heisenberg model on a rectangular lattice, using the Gutzwiller projected variational wave function known as the staggered flux state. Using Monte Carlo techniques, the variational parameters and instantaneous spin-spin correlation function for different coupling anisotropies $\ensuremath{\gamma}={J}_{y}/{J}_{x}$ are calculated. We observe a gradual evolution of the ground state energy towards a value which is very close to the one-dimensional (1D) estimate provided by the Bethe ansatz and a good agreement between the finite-size scaling of the energies. The spin-spin correlation functions exhibit a power-law decay with varying exponents for different anisotropies. Though the lack of N\'eel order makes the staggered flux state energetically unfavorable in the symmetric case $\ensuremath{\gamma}=1$, it appears to capture the essence of the system close to 1D. Hence we believe that the staggered flux state provides an interesting starting point to explore the crossover from quantum disordered chains to the N\'eel ordered two-dimensional square lattices.
Fractionalization remains one of the most fascinating manifestations of strong interactions in quantum many-body systems. In quantum magnetism, the existence of spinons—collective magnetic excitations that behave as quasiparticles with fractional quantum numbers—is proven in spin chains, but the criteria for their appearance in higher dimensions remain disputed. Motivated by experiments reporting the observation of spinons at high energies in the square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet, we adopt the approach of extrapolating from where spinons are well defined. We study the dynamical properties of a Gutzwiller-projected wave function, the staggered-flux state, on a rectangular spin-1/2 Heisenberg lattice as a function of the spatial coupling ratio, γ = J y / J x . By studying the spectrum and the spinon separation distribution we show how, as the system evolves from one-dimensional (1D) towards 2D, the spinons become progressively more confined over most of reciprocal space, but remain deconfined at specific wave vectors.
The first part of this thesis presents the theoretical study of an anomaly of unknown origin in the excitation spectrum of the Quantumspin-1/2 Heisenberg Square lattice Anti-Ferromagnet. The anomaly manifests itself in Inelastic Neutron Scattering data for short wavelength/high energy excitations. Instead of the expected sharp semi-classical harmonic modes, a broad continuum emerges suggesting the possibility of fractionalized excitations. A theoretical framework based on the Gutzwiller projection is developed and allows to link the observed continuum to unbound fractional quasiparticle pairs while the sharp harmonic excitations may be described by bound ones. The second part of this thesis presents the detailed theoretical modeling of the spin-wave dispersion relation measured in insulating cuprate materials. Starting from the one-band Hubbard model with extended hopping amplitudes, an effective low-energy theory is derived allowing to describe on the same footing different insulating cuprate magnetic excitation spectra. The effective theory is fitted against experimental data and microscopic model parameters are extracted. The high level of details included in our effective theory allows a consistent characterization of the studied materials as measured by various magnetic or electronic experimental techniques.
We propose a class of variational wave functions, namely the correlated valence bond states, for the frustrated Hamiltonian in the paramagnetic phase. This class of wave functions admits negative amplitude and the same sub-lattice pairing when a bipartite lattice is considered, thus suffers from the negative sign problem. However if applied to small systems, the sign problem is manageable using the standard variational Monte Carlo method. We optimize the wave functions for the J1-J2 Anti ferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a square lattice in the coupling region J2/J1 \in [0.45 : 0.56] for system sizes L = 4, 6, 8. To calculate the correlation functions and the order parameters for larger systems, we make the extensive Monte Carlo samplings using the variational parameters optimized at system size L = 8. We find that the paramagnetic phase is a gap-less spin liquid in the entire range of J2/J1 \in [0.45 : 0.56] with a gap-less singlet excitation and a gaped triplet excitation.
This thesis investigates two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets, with a focus on the spin-
21 antiferromagnetic easy-axis XXZ model on a square and a honeycomb lattice. Describing the excitations and interactions of magnons in these models is of substantial interest, as magnons are the fundamental quasiparticles and can thus explain experimental observations. Already for the paradigmatic antiferromagnetic spin-
21 Heisenberg model on the square lattice, high-energy features of the magnon dispersion are understood via strong magnon-magnon interactions. Besides that, interesting high-energy features were recently observed in the honeycomb lattice, including a possible decay of the single-magnon mode. The goal of this thesis is to obtain effective descriptions of the aforementioned systems that capture the relevant features of the magnon excitations and their interactions. To study these features, this thesis employs continuous similarity transformations (CSTs), which enables a systematic derivation of an effective quasiparticle picture via so-called flow equations. The approach enables decoupling different magnon sectors and thus for investigating ground-state properties, single-magnon excitations, and multi-magnon bound states. The magnon description is derived from the non-Hermitian Dyson-Maleev representation, which describes fluctuations around a long-range magnetically ordered ground state. The flow equations are set up in momentum space, truncated by the scaling dimension, retaining only operators up to scaling dimension of two, and solved numerically. For the square lattice, a magnon-conserving effective Hamiltonian is obtained across the full anisotropy range by interpolating between the Ising limit and the Heisenberg limit. The ground-state energy, staggered magnetization, dispersion, and critical exponents are in excellent agreement with the literature, supporting the validity of CST also for gapped phases. Two-magnon excitations in the
Sz=0 subspace comprise four bound states, which are tracked across the anisotropy range. Their successive decay into the two-magnon continuum is determined by using the inverse participation ratio. For the honeycomb lattice, the magnon-conserving CST is reliable only up to
λ≲0.57; an adapted CST scheme that decouples only the ground state while preserving couplings between different higher-magnon sectors yields effective descriptions for all
λ and confirms stable long-range order. The low-energy properties determined in this way match the literature values. However, in the Heisenberg limit, the adapted approach fails to capture high-energy features, such as the experimentally observed decay into the multi-particle continuum at corners of the Brillouin zone. A termination of the magnon-conserving flow equations at a finite flow parameter before the divergence reveals a single-magnon decay at high energies, which is connected to a crossing of a two-magnon bound state with the single-magnon mode. The observed energy dip qualitatively agrees with Quantum Monte Carlo results, but magnon–magnon interactions are overestimated, hindering a fully quantitative characterization of the single-magnon dispersion. Analyzing multi-magnon bound states over the anisotropy range unveils that the crossing of a three-magnon bound state with the single-magnon mode accounts for the breakdown of the magnon-conserving CST at higher
λ. This work demonstrates that CST with scaling-dimension truncation provides a powerful framework for studying two-dimensional quantum magnets, capturing low-energy properties and bound states. Nevertheless, challenges remain in accurately describing high-energy features arising from a persistent overlap of magnon sectors due to strong binding effects.
The ground-state properties of the quasi-one-dimensional spin-
1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model is investigated by using a variational method. Spins on chains along the
x direction are antiferromagnetically coupled with exchange
J>0, while spins between chains in the
y direction are coupled either ferromagnetically (${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}<0$) or antiferromagnetically (${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}>0$). The staggered and the colinear antiferromagnetic magnetizations are computed and their dependence on the anisotropy parameter $\ensuremath{\lambda}=|{J}^{\ensuremath{'}}|/J$ is analyzed. It is found that an infinitesimal interchain coupling parameter is sufficient to stabilize a long-range order with either a staggered magnetization
ms (${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}>0$) or a colinear antiferromagnetic magnetization
mcaf (${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}<0$), both behaving as $\ensuremath{\simeq}{\ensuremath{\lambda}}^{1/2}$ for $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$.