We prove that for any finite set of generalized valence bond solid (GVBS) states of a quantum spin chain there exists a translation invariant finite-range Hamiltonian for which this set is the set of ground states. This result implies that there are GVBS models with arbitrary broken discrete symmetries that are described as combinations of lattice translations, lattice reflections, and local unitary or anti-unitary transformations. We also show that all GVBS models that satisfy some natural conditions have a spectral gap. The existence of a spectral gap is obtained by applying a simple and quite general strategy for proving lower bounds on the spectral gap of the generator of a classical or quantum spin dynamics. This general scheme is interesting in its own right and therefore, although the basic idea is not new, we present it in a system-independent setting. The results are illustrated with an number of examples. Keywords: quantum spin chains, Heisenberg model, spectral gap, symmetr...
The authors show that every translation invariant valence bond state on a one-dimensional quantum spin chain arises as the unique ground state of a certain family of finite-range interactions. For each interaction in this family they show the existence of a nonzero spectral gap above the ground state energy. A special example of this structure is a state recently studied by Affleck et al. (1987). For the Hamiltonian studied by these authors they estimate the gap, and prove that it lies between 1/3 and 10/27.
To begin with, we introduce several exact models for SU(3) spin chains: First is a translationally invariant parent Hamiltonian involving four-site interactions for the trimer chain, with a threefold degenerate ground state. We provide numerical evidence that the elementary excitations of this model transform under representation
3 of SU(3) if the original spins of the model transform under representation 3. Second is a family of parent Hamiltonians for valence bond solids of SU(3) chains with spin representations 6, 10, and 8 on each lattice site. We argue that of these three models, only the latter two exhibit spinon confinement and, hence, a Haldane gap in the excitation spectrum. We generalize some of our models to
SU(n). Finally, we use the emerging rules for the construction of valence bond solid states to argue that models of antiferromagnetic chains of
SU(n) spins, in general, possess a Haldane gap if the spins transform under a representation corresponding to a Young tableau consisting of a number of boxes $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ which is divisible by
n. If $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ and
n have no common divisor, the spin chain will support deconfined spinons and not exhibit a Haldane gap. If $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ and
n have a common divisor different from
n, it will depend on the specifics of the model including the range of the interaction.
Abstract We study the stability with respect to a broad class of perturbations of gapped ground-state phases of quantum spin systems defined by frustration-free Hamiltonians. The core result of this work is a proof using the Bravyi–Hastings–Michalakis (BHM) strategy that under a condition of local topological quantum order (LTQO), the bulk gap is stable under perturbations that decay at long distances faster than a stretched exponential. Compared to previous work, we expand the class of frustration-free quantum spin models that can be handled to include models with more general boundary conditions, and models with discrete symmetry breaking. Detailed estimates allow us to formulate sufficient conditions for the validity of positive lower bounds for the gap that are uniform in the system size and that are explicit to some degree. We provide a survey of the BHM strategy following the approach of Michalakis and Zwolak, with alterations introduced to accommodate more general than just periodic boundary conditions and more general lattices. We express the fundamental condition known as LTQO by means of an indistinguishability radius, which we introduce. Using the uniform finite-volume results, we then proceed to study the thermodynamic limit. We first study the case of a unique limiting ground state and then also consider models with spontaneous breaking of a discrete symmetry. In the latter case, LTQO cannot hold for all local observables. However, for perturbations that preserve the symmetry, we show stability of the gap and the structure of the broken symmetry phases. We prove that the GNS Hamiltonian associated with each pure state has a non-zero spectral gap above the ground state.
Abstract Providing system-size independent lower bounds on the spectral gap of local Hamiltonian is in general a hard problem. For the case of finite-range, frustration free Hamiltonians on a spin lattice of arbitrary dimension, we show that a property of the ground state space is sufficient to obtain such a bound. We furthermore show that such a condition is necessary and equivalent to a constant spectral gap. Thanks to this equivalence, we can prove that for gapless models in any dimension, the spectral gap on regions of diameter n is at most o ( log ( n ) 2 + ε n ) for any positive ϵ.
Though our primary motivation is to study properties of the ground states of a Hamiltonian for quantum spin chain, in this exposition we propose a general methodology valid for a translation invariant state. To that end we study the associated Popescu systems [Po,BJKW] representing the translation invariant state and find an useful criteria for the state to be pure. As a simple consequence of this criteria we prove a surprising result which says that there exists no translation invariant lattice symmetric and SU(2)-gauge invariant pure state for half-odd integer spin chain. As a consequence of this result we prove that ground state for half-odd integer spin chain is not unique for any SU(2)-gauge invariant translation and lattice symmetric Hamiltonian. In other words this exhibits that there is a phase transition in the ground state for anti-ferromagnetic isotropic Heisenberg half-odd integer spin chain. 2 It has been known in physics literature that the spin 1
We consider a family of translation-invariant quantum spin chains with nearest-neighbor interactions and derive necessary and sufficient conditions for these systems to be gapped in the thermodynamic limit. More precisely, let
ψ be an arbitrary two-qubit state. We consider a chain of
n qubits with open boundary conditions and Hamiltonian
Hn(ψ) which is defined as the sum of rank-1 projectors onto
ψ applied to consecutive pairs of qubits. We show that the spectral gap of
Hn(ψ) is upper bounded by
1/(n−1) if the eigenvalues of a certain two-by-two matrix simply related to
ψ have equal non-zero absolute value. Otherwise, the spectral gap is lower bounded by a positive constant independent of
n (depending only on
ψ). A key ingredient in the proof is a new operator inequality for the ground space projector which expresses a monotonicity under the partial trace. This monotonicity property appears to be very general and might be interesting in its own right. As an extension of our main result, we obtain a complete classification of gapped and gapless phases of frustration-free translation-invariant spin-1/2 chains with nearest-neighbor interactions.