The selection of the ground state among nearly degenerate states due to quantum fluctuations is studied for the S=1/2 XY-like Heisenberg antiferromagnets on the triangular lattice in the magnetic field applied along the hard axis, which was first pointed out by Nikuni and Shiba. We find that the selected ground state sensitively depends on the degree of the anisotropy and the magnitude of the magnetic field. This dependence is similar to that in the corresponding classical model at finite temperatures where various types of field induced phases appear due to the entropy effect. It is also found that the similarity of the selected states in the classical and quantum models are not the case in a two-leg ladder lattice, although the lattice consists of triangles locally and the ground state of this lattice in the classical case is the same as that of the triangular lattice.
The selection of the ground state among nearly degenerate states due to quantum fluctuations is studied for the S=1/2 XY-like Heisenberg antiferromagnets on the triangular lattice in the magnetic field applied along the hard axis, which was first pointed out by Nikuni and Shiba. We find that the selected ground state sensitively depends on the degree of the anisotropy and the magnitude of the magnetic field. This dependence is similar to that in the corresponding classical model at finite temperatures where various types of field induced phases appear due to the entropy effect. It is also found that the similarity of the selected states in the classical and quantum models are not the case in a two-leg ladder lattice, although the lattice consists of triangles locally and the ground state of this lattice in the classical case is the same as that of the triangular lattice.
We present the zero-temperature phase diagram of a Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a frustrated triangular lattice with nearest-neighbor (J1) and next-nearest-neighbor (J2) interactions, in a magnetic field. We show that the classical model has an accidental degeneracy for all J2/J1 and all fields, but the degeneracy is lifted by quantum fluctuations. We show that at large spin S, for J2/J1<1/8, quantum fluctuations select the same sequence of three sublattice co-planar states in a field as for J2=0, and for 1/8<J2/J1<1, they select the canted stripe state for all nonzero fields. The transition between the two states is first order in all fields, with the hysteresis width set by quantum fluctuations. We study the model with arbitrary S, including S=1/2, near the saturation field by exploring the fact that near saturation the density of bosons is small for all S. We show that for S>1, the transition remains first order, with a finite hysteresis width, but for S=1/2 and, possibly, S=1, there appears a new intermediate phase without a quasiclassical long-range order.
The triangular lattice of S=1/2 spins with XXZ anisotropy is a ubiquitous model for various frustrated systems in different contexts. We determine the quantum phase diagram of the model in the plane of the anisotropy parameter and the magnetic field by means of a large-size cluster mean-field method with a scaling scheme. We find that quantum fluctuations break up the nontrivial continuous degeneracy into two first-order phase transitions. In between the two transition boundaries, the degeneracy-lifting results in the emergence of a new coplanar phase not predicted in the classical counterpart of the model. We suggest that the quantum phase transition to the nonclassical coplanar state can be observed in triangular-lattice antiferromagnets with large easy-plane anisotropy or in the corresponding optical-lattice systems.
We use a combination of numerical density matrix renormalization group calculations and several analytical approaches to comprehensively study a simplified model for a spatially anisotropic spin-21 triangular lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet: the three-leg triangular spin tube (TST). The model is described by three Heisenberg chains, with exchange constant J, coupled antiferromagnetically with exchange constant ${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ along the diagonals of the ladder system, with periodic boundary conditions in the shorter direction. Here, we determine the full phase diagram of this model as a function of both spatial anisotropy (between the isotropic and decoupled chain limits) and magnetic field. We find a rich phase diagram, which is remarkably dominated by quantum states: the phase corresponding to the classical ground state appears only in an exceedingly small region. Among the dominant phases generated by quantum effects are commensurate and incommensurate coplanar quasiordered states, which appear in the vicinity of the isotropic region for most fields, and in the high-field region for most anisotropies. The coplanar states, while not classical ground states, can at least be understood semiclassically. Even more strikingly, the largest region of phase space is occupied by a spin density wave phase, which has incommensurate collinear correlations along the field. This phase has no semiclassical analog, and may be ascribed to enhanced one-dimensional fluctuations due to frustration. Cutting across the phase diagram is a magnetization plateau, with a gap to all excitations and ``up-up-down'' spin order, with a quantized magnetization equal to 31 of the saturation value. In the TST, this plateau extends almost but not quite to the decoupled chains limit. Most of the above features are expected to carry over to the two-dimensional system, which we also discuss. At low field, a dimerized phase appears, which is particular to the one-dimensional nature of the TST, and which can be understood from quantum Berry phase arguments.
We study the S= quantum antiferromagnetic XY model on finite triangular lattices with N sites in both longitudinal and transverse magnetic fields. We calculate physical quantities in the ground state using a diagonalization for spins N\ensuremath{\leqslant}27, and those at finite temperatures using a quantum transfer Monte Carlo method for N\ensuremath{\leqslant}24. In the longitudinal magnetic field, the long-range chiral order parameter seems to have a finite, nonzero value at low temperatures suggesting the occurrence of a classical umbrella-type phase. In the transverse magnetic field, the 1/3 plateau of the magnetization curve appears even at low temperatures, in contrast with the classical model. The magnetic-field dependences of the order parameters suggest that the chiral-ordered, the ferrimagnetic, and the spin-flop phases appear successively as the magnetic field is increased. The transition temperatures are estimated from the peak position of the specific heat, and the phase diagrams are predicted in both longitudinal and transverse magnetic fields.
At zero temperature, thermal fluctuation is eliminated and phase transitions will occur due to quantum fluctuations that arise from the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Magnetic insulators, described by the Heisenberg model Hamiltonian, are a known class of physical systems that can undergo quantum phase transitions when submitted to a magnetic field. The magnetic field induces the transition by closing energy gaps through the Zeeman effect. Examples of systems that undergo these transitions are the antiferromagnetic spin-1 chain, the antiferromagnetic spin- 1/2 ladder, the ferrimagnetic mixed spin-1 and spin- 1/2 chains and ladders. The presence of a gap in the energy spectrum with zero magnetic field leads to a magnetization plateau in the magnetization curve. We use the density matrix renormalization group to investigate the magnetization curves of the mixed spin-1 and spin- 1/2 ladder, for antiferromagnetic and ferro- magnetic couplings between the ladder legs J⊥. For J⊥ > 0, the ground-state is ferrimagnetic with the total spin equal to 1/3 of the saturation value, in accord with the Lieb-Mattis theorem. The magnetization curve presents a plateau at total magnetization 1/3 of the saturation value, the 1/3-plateau since the ground state has a gap to excitations that increase the total spin by 1 unit. Decreasing J⊥ below zero, the ground state becomes a singlet, but the 1/3-plateau survives down to a critical value J⊥ = Jc. Given that the gap closes with the magnetization fixed, it is a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition type. To determine Jc, we have made a finite-size scale analysis of the plateau width.
The ground-state properties of the triangular antiferromagnetic Ising model with Ising constant J in a transverse field h are investigated by a real-space renormalisation group method. For h=0, the known properties (energy=-J, finite entropy, no order) are recovered. For h not=0, the ground state remains highly degenerate, no order exists and the correlation function exhibits power-law behaviour up to (h/J)c approximately=1.41, where a phase transition takes place to a non-degenerate ground state. At h/J=(h/J)c, power-law behaviour is still observed for the correlation function but with a different exponent. Just above this region a gap Delta opens ( Delta approximately ((h/J)-(h/J)c)s with s=0.8) and the coherence length of the correlation function xi diverges as xi varies as ((h/J)-(h/J)c)-v with v=0.8. This corresponds to a three-dimensional classical model where h is replaced by the temperature. In this type of system, where the ground state has a degeneracy proportional to N2/3 it is predicted that a transition will occur at a finite T c to a low-temperature phase without order but with power-law behaviour for the correlation function, as for the classical XY model in two dimensions.