Using exact diagonalization and tensor network techniques, we compute the gap for the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) Hamiltonian in one and two spatial dimensions. Tensor network methods are used to extract physical properties directly in the thermodynamic limit, and we support these results using finite-size scalings from exact diagonalization. Studying the AKLT Hamiltonian perturbed by an external field, we show how to obtain an accurate value of the gap of the original AKLT Hamiltonian from the field value at which the ground state verifies
e0<0, which is a quantum critical point. With the tensor network renormalization group methods we provide direct evidence of a finite gap in the thermodynamic limit for the AKLT models in the one-dimensional chain and two-dimensional hexagonal and square lattices. This method can be applied generally to Hamiltonians with rotational symmetry, and we also show results beyond the AKLT model.
The Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) point of the bilinear-biquadratic spin-1 chain is a cornerstone example of a disorder point where short-range correlations become incommensurate, and correlation lengths and momenta are nonanalytic. While the presence of singularities appears to be generic for AKLT points, we show that for a family of
SU(n) models, the AKLT point is not a disorder point: It occurs entirely within an incommensurate phase yet the wave vector remains singular on both sides of the AKLT point. We conjecture that this possibility is generic for models where the representation is not self-conjugate and the transfer matrix non-Hermitian, while for self-conjugate representations the AKLT points remain disorder points.
Abstract We elucidate the deep connection between the PXP model, which is a standard model of quantum many-body scars, and the Affleck–Kennedy–Lieb–Tasaki (AKLT) Hamiltonian. Using the framework of embedded Hamiltonians, we establish the connection between the PXP Hamiltonian and the AKLT Hamiltonian, which clarifies the reason why the PXP Hamiltonian has nonthermal energy eigenstates similar to the AKLT state. Through this analysis, we find that the presence of such nonthermal energy eigenstates reflects the symmetry in the AKLT Hamiltonian.