We prove that for a wide class of quantum spin systems with isotropic Heisenberg coupling the energy eigenvalues which belong to a total spin quantum number S have upper and lower bounds depending at most quadratically on S . The only assumption adopted is that the mean coupling strength of any spin with respect to its neighbours is constant for all N spins. The coefficients of the bounding parabolas are given in terms of special eigenvalues of the N × N coupling matrix which are usually easily evaluated. In addition, we show that the bounding parabolas, if properly shifted, provide very good approximations of the true boundaries of the spectrum. We present numerical examples of frustrated rings, a cube, and an icosahedron.
We prove that for a wide class of quantum spin systems with isotropic Heisenberg coupling the energy eigenvalues which belong to a total spin quantum number S have upper and lower bounds depending at most quadratically on S . The only assumption adopted is that the mean coupling strength of any spin with respect to its neighbours is constant for all N spins. The coefficients of the bounding parabolas are given in terms of special eigenvalues of the N × N coupling matrix which are usually easily evaluated. In addition, we show that the bounding parabolas, if properly shifted, provide very good approximations of the true boundaries of the spectrum. We present numerical examples of frustrated rings, a cube, and an icosahedron.
PACS. 75.10.Jm – Quantized spin models. PACS. 75.10.Hk – Classical spin models. PACS. 75.50.Xx – Molecular magnets. Abstract. – We prove that for a wide class of quantum spin systems with isotropic Heisenberg coupling the energy eigenvalues which belong to a total spin quantum number S have upper and lower bounds depending at most quadratically on S. The only assumption adopted is that the mean coupling strength of any spin w. r. t. its neighbours is constant for all N spins. The coefficients of the bounding parabolas are given in terms of special eigenvalues of the N × N coupling matrix which are usually easily evaluated. In addition we show that the bounding parabolas, if properly shifted, provide very good approximations of the true boundaries of the spectrum. We present numerical examples of frustrated rings, a cube, and an icosahedron. Introduction. – The study of finite spin systems is not only interesting in its own right but has also important applications for understanding so-called “molecular magnets”. The synthesis of these systems has undergone rapid progress in recent years building on successes in coordination and polyoxometalate chemistry [1–4]. Each of the identical molecular units can
Recently, Schmidt et al. proved that the energy spectrum of a Heisenberg spin system (HSS) is bounded by two parabolas, i.e. lines which depend on the total spin quantum number S as S(S+1). The prove holds for homonuclear HSSs which fulfill a weak homogenity condition. Moreover, the extremal values of the exact spectrum of various HSS which were studied numerically were found to lie on approximate parabolas, named rotational bands, which could be obtained by a shift of the boundary parabolas. In view of this, it has been claimed that the rotational band structure (RBS) of the energy spectrum is a general behavior of HSSs. Furthermore, since the approximate parabolas are very close to the true boundaries of the spectrum for the examples discussed, it has been claimed that the methods allow to predict the detailed shape of the spectrum and related properties for a general HSS. In this comment I will show by means of examples that the RBS hypothesis is not valid for general HSSs. In particular, weak homogenity is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for a HSS to exhibit a spectrum with RBS.
We slightly strengthen an operator inequality identified by Correggi et al. that lower bounds the energy of a Heisenberg-coupled graph of s=1/2 spins using the total spin. In particular, ΔH≥CΔS2 for a graph-dependent constant C, where ΔH is the energy above the ground state and ΔS2 is the amount by which the square of the total spin S=∑iσi/2 falls below its maximum possible value. We obtain explicit constants in the special case of a cubic lattice. We briefly discuss the interpretation of this bound in terms of low-energy, approximately non-interacting magnons in spin wave theory and contrast it with another inequality found by Bärwinkel et al.
Results of exact numerical work on the spectra and thermodynamic properties are presented for finite clusters in one and two dimensions, for the isotropic Heisenberg Hamiltonian and the Heisenberg Hamiltonian with longitudinal anisotropy. Eigenvalues of the isotropic Heisenberg loops (that is, those with periodic boundary conditions) of $N\ensuremath{\le}12, 8, 6, 5$, 5 particles, each of spin \textonehalf{}, 1, 23, 2 and 25, respectively, are found. It is shown that the spin-S linear chain ($N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$) will have ground-state energy per spin $\frac{{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}}^{s}}{2J}=\ensuremath{-}1.404\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.002, \ensuremath{-}2.85\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03, \ensuremath{-}4.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.4 \mathrm{and} \ensuremath{-}7.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5$, for S=1,23,2,and25, respectively. For antiferromagnetic interaction, the lowest excited states of the loops with even number of particles have spin 1 and the familiar double sine spectrum; while for the spin-\textonehalf{} case the eigenvalues are very different from the result of the spin-wave theory, they approach this limit as the spin increases, and for spin 25, the infinite-spin results of the spin-wave theory should be quite accurate. For ferromagnetic loops, there exist spin-wave bound states for higher spins just like those familiar in the spin-\textonehalf{} linear chain. Effective magnetic moments for these loops are tabulated. We also present the moments for the N=8 spin-\textonehalf{} chain (with open ends), and find the difference to be small. Results on the 3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}4 two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet are presented and compared with experimental data. Finally, we show some examples of the violation of the nondegeneracy rule, similar to those found by Heilmann and Lieb; levels belonging to different representations of a symmetry group remain permanently degenerate when a parameter is varied.
We give a polynomial-time algorithm for computing upper bounds on some of the smaller energy eigenvalues in a spin-1/2 ferromagnetic Heisenberg model with any graph G for the underlying interactions. An important ingredient is the connection between Heisenberg models and the symmetric products of G. Our algorithms for computing upper bounds are based on generalized diameters of graphs. Computing the upper bounds amounts to solving the minimum assignment problem on G, which has well-known polynomial-time algorithms from the field of combinatorial optimization. We also study the possibility of computing the lower bounds on some of the smaller energy eigenvalues of Heisenberg models. This amounts to estimating the isoperimetric inequalities of the symmetric product of graphs. By using connections with discrete Sobolev inequalities, we show that this can be performed by considering just the vertex-induced subgraphs of G. If our conjecture for a polynomial time approximation algorithm to solve the edge-isoperimetric problem holds, then our proposed method of estimating the energy eigenvalues via approximating the edge-isoperimetric properties of vertex-induced subgraphs will yield a polynomial time algorithm for estimating the smaller energy eigenvalues of the Heisenberg ferromagnet.