Thermodynamics of Finite Quantum Systems: Application to Spin Magnetism

Samuel Sitotaw, Rostislav A. Serota

We argue that certain aspects of conventional thermodynamics are valid only for temperatures larger than the mean energy level spacing for a finite quantum fermion system (the Kubo particle) and evaluate its heat capacity and spin susceptibility.

Masanori Ohya, Dėnes Petz

S Sitotaw, Rostislav A. Serota

We extend our study of thermodynamics of a Kubo particle to temperatures smaller than the mean interlevel spacing. We obtain the distribution functions of spin susceptibility and heat capacity for Poisson and Wigner-Dyson level statistics. We evaluate the line shape of the Knight shift due to spin effects both in a single particle and for the ensemble average and compare it with orbital and spin-orbit contributions.

Alessandro Cuccoli, V. Tognetti, Ruggero Vaia +1 more

Paul B. Slater

Yousef Rahnavard

In this thesis, I use a quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method based on the stochastic series expansion (SSE) to study transport, quantum phase diagrams, and dynamics of several one- and quasi-one-dimensional spin systems, including spin-1/2 and spin-1 chains, a frustrated four-leg spin tube, and N-leg spin-1/2 ladders. I establish a diffusive channel for the finite temperature spin transport of the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain. Extensive finite size studies are detailed, allowing to extract the diffusion kernel in the thermodynamic limit. The diffusion is found to exhibit no anomalous exponent, moreover it is shown to survive for finite values of exchange anisotropy and magnetic fields, however with a strong suppression away from the isotropic point and for increasing magnetic fields. In the case of the spin-1 chain, I obtain the quantum phase diagram and spin dynamics in the combined presence of finite single-ion anisotropies and external magnetic fields. I also prove the existence of magnon modes and multi-particle continua and determine their evolutions as a function of anisotropies and magnetic fields. Moreover, I calculate the magnetic field dependence of the nuclear magnetic relaxation as a function of the single ion anisotropy. For the quasi-one-dimensional spin system of a frustrated four-leg tube, I investigate the regime of large rung coupling, where QMC is applicable. I evaluate the uniform spin susceptibility and the dynamic structure factor and show that in this regime the spin-tube exhibts a crossover from a gapped effective antiferromagnetic spin-2 chain behavior with massive magnons to a gapless Luttinger liquid phase with spinon excitations. Finally, I investigate the spin dynamics of N-leg spin-1/2 ladders with spacially isotropic interactions for N=1,..,5. I obtain the low-lying excitations of the spin ladders as a function of the number of legs and show that they exhibt an even-odd oscillation which is consistent with Haldane's conjecture and other known results for the thermodynamics of spin ladders.