Low dimensionality enhances quantum fluctuations, triggering novel states of quantum matter to emerge. In real materials, low dimensionality usually arises from spatially strongly anisotropic couplings. Here, we demonstrate a different mechanism: in two-dimensional systems with coupled alternating ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin-
1/2 chains, an applied magnetic field may drive a dimensional reduction. Under magnetic field, the FM chains polarize and stiffen, suppressing the propagation of transverse AFM fluctuations from one chain to another, and effectively induce one-dimensional behavior at low energies. For a model describing botallackite, Cu
2(OH)
3Br, quantum Monte Carlo dynamics show that beyond a critical magnetic field, the low-energy spectrum reduces to that of a one-dimensional AFM Heisenberg spin-
1/2 chain with field-dependent incommensurate two-spinon fluctuations, providing clear signatures for inelastic neutron scattering.
The electronic structure of the strongly correlated one dimensional Hubbard model is calculated by the resonating Hartree-Fock (Res HF) method. In the strong correlation regime with the Coulomb repulsion U >∼6, SDW solitons localize almost on the central two sites and only one kind of neutral soliton pair has a much smaller energy than the other pairs. As quantum fluctuations in a periodic chain with 12 sites, we consider up to three diradical breathers consisting of the low energy neutral soliton pair. The Res HF ground state can explain 77.8% ( U =6) and 80.1% ( U =8) of the exact correlation energy. This is much better than the Gutzwiller method to use the SDW as the reference state that explains about 50% of the correlation energy. The breather fluctuations explain the rapid decreases in the short distance of the spin and staggered spin correlation functions. Other correlation functions and the excited states due to the quantum fluctuations are studied.
Abstract. We studied the thermodynamics of the one-dimensional J1-J2 spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain for ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor bonds J1 < 0 and frustrating antiferromagnetic nextnearest-neighbor bonds J2> 0 using full diagonalization of finite rings and a second-order Green-function formalism. Thereby we focus on J2 < |J1|/4 where the ground state is still ferromagnetic, but the frustration influences the thermodynamic properties. We found that their critical indices are not changed by J2. The analysis of the low-temperature behavior of the susceptibility χ leads to the conclusion that this behavior changes from χ ∝ T −2 at J2 < |J1|/4 to χ ∝ T −3/2 at the quantum-critical point J2 = |J1|/4. Another effect of the frustration is the appearance of an extra low-T maximum in the specific heat Cv(T) for J2 � |J1|/8, indicating its strong influence on the low-energy spectrum. Introduction: In low-dimensional frustrated quantum magnets thermal and quantum fluctuations strongly influence the low-temperature physics [1,2]. Special attention has been paid to one-dimensional (1D) J1-J2 quantum Heisenberg magnets, see Ref. [3] and references therein. Recent experimental studies have shown that edge-shared chain cuprates, such as LiVCuO4, Li(Na)Cu2O2, Li2ZrCuO4, and Li2CuO2 [4–13], represent a family of quantum magnets for