The mixture of bond-alternating and uniform S=1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains is investigated by the density matrix renormalization group method. The ground state magnetization curve is calculated and the exchange parameters are determined by fitting to the experimentally measured magnetization curve of \CuCl
2xBr
2(1−x)(
γ-pic)
2. The low field behavior of the magnetization curve and low temperature behavior of the magnetic susceptibility are found to be sensitive to whether the bond-alternation pattern (parity) is fixed all over the sample or randomly distributed. The both quantities are compatible with the numerical results for the random parity model.
Using a numerical implementation of a strong-disorder renormalization group, we study the low-energy, long-distance properties of layers and bilayers of
S=1∕2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets with different types of disorder: bond randomness, site dilution, and dimer dilution. Generally the systems exhibit an ordered and a disordered phase separated by a phase boundary on which the static critical exponents appear to be independent of bond randomness in the strong-disorder regime, while the dynamical exponent is a continuous function of the bond disorder strength. The low-energy fixed points of the off-critical phases are affected by the actual form of the disorder, and the disorder-induced dynamical exponent depends on the disorder strength. As the strength of the bond disorder is increased, there is a set of crossovers in the properties of the low-energy singularities. For weak disorder quantum fluctuations play the dominant role. For intermediate disorder nonlocalized disorder fluctuations are relevant, which become localized for even stronger bond disorder. We also present some quantum Monte Carlo simulation results to support the strong-disorder renormalization approach.
We use extensive density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations to explore the phase diagram of the random
S=1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with a power-law distribution of the exchange couplings. We use open chains and monitor the lowest gaps, the end-to-end correlation function and the string order parameter. For this distribution at weak disorder, the system is in the gapless Haldane phase with a disorder dependent dynamical exponent,
z, and
z=1 signals the border between the nonsingular and singular regions of the local susceptibility. For strong enough disorder, which approximately corresponds to a uniform distribution, a transition into the random singlet phase is detected, at which the string order parameter as well as the average end-to-end correlation function are vanishing and at the same time the dynamical exponent is divergent. Singularities of physical quantities are found to be somewhat different in the random singlet phase and in the critical point.
The low energy properties of the spin-1/2 random Heisenberg chain with ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions are studied by means of the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) and real space renormalization group (RSRG) method for finite chains. The results of the two methods are consistent with each other. The deviation of the gap distribution from that of the random singlet phase and the formation of the large-spin state is observed even for relatively small systems. For a small fraction of the ferromagnetic bond, the effect of the crossover to the random singlet phase on the low temperature susceptibility and specific heat is discussed. The crossover concentration of the ferromagnetic bond is estimated from the numerical data.
We use a tensor network renormalization group method to study random
S=2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains with alternating bond strength distributions. In the absence of randomness, an imposed dimerization with bond alternation induces two quantum critical points between the
S=2 Haldane phase, a partially dimerized phase, and a fully dimerized phase, depending on the strength of dimerization. These three phases, called ($\ensuremath{\sigma},4\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\sigma}$) = (2,2), (3,1), and (4,0) phases, are valence-bond solid (VBS) states characterized by $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ valence bonds (effective spin-1/2 singlet pairs) forming across even links and $4\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\sigma}$ valence bonds on odd links. Here we study the effects of bond randomness on the ground states of the dimerized spin chain, calculating disorder-averaged twist order parameters and spin correlations. We classify the types of random VBS phases depending on the strength of bond randomness
R and dimerization
D using the twist order parameter, which has a negative/positive sign for a VBS phase with odd/even $\ensuremath{\sigma}$. Our results demonstrate the existence of a multicritical point in the intermediate disorder regime with finite dimerization, where (2,2), (3,1), and (4,0) phases meet. This multicritical point is at the junction of three phase boundaries in the $R\text{\ensuremath{-}}D$ plane: the (2,2)-(3,1) and (3,1)-(4,0) boundaries that extend to zero randomness, and the (2,2)-(4,0) phase boundary that connects another multicritical point in the undimerized limit. The undimerized multicritical point separates a gapless Haldane phase and an infinite-randomness critical line with the diverging dynamic critical exponent in the large-
R limit at
D=0. Furthermore, we identify the (3,1)-(4,0) phase boundary as an infinite-randomness critical line even at small
R and find the signature of infinite randomness at the (2,2)-(3,1) phase boundary only in the vicinity of the multicritical point.
A possibility of the uniform antiferromagnetic order is pointed out in an S=1/2 ferromagnetic (F) - antiferromagnetic (AF) random alternating Heisenberg quantum spin chain compound: (CH_3)_2 CHNH_3 Cu(Cl_x Br_{1-x})_3. The system possesses the bond alternation of strong random bonds that take +/- 2J and weak uniform AF bonds of -J. In the pure concentration limits, the model reduces to the AF-AF alternation chain at x=0 and to the F-AF alternation chain at x=1. The nonequilibrium relaxation of large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations exhibits critical behaviors of the uniform AF order in the intermediate concentration region, which explains the experimental observation of the magnetic phase transition. The present results suggest that the uniform AF order may survive even in the presence of the randomly located ferromagnetic bonds.