We calculate the spin stiffness ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{\mathit{s}}$ for the frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice by exact diagonalizations on finite clusters of up to 36 sites followed by extrapolations to the thermodynamic limit. For the nonfrustrated case, we find that ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{\mathit{s}}$=(0.183\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.003)
J1, in excellent agreement with the best results obtained by other means. Turning on frustration, the extrapolated stiffness vanishes for 0.4\ensuremath{\lesssim}
J2/
J1\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.6. In this intermediate region, the finite-size scaling works poorly---an additional sign that there is neither N\'eel nor collinear magnetic order. Using a hydrodynamic relation, and previous results for the transverse susceptibility, we also estimate the spin-wave velocity in the N\'eel-ordered region.
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 analyze the thermodynamic properties of the spin-
S two-dimensional quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice with nearest and next-nearest neighbor couplings in the N\'eel phase
(J2∕J1<0.4) employing the quantum hierarchical reference theory, a nonperturbative implementation of the renormalization group method to quantum systems. We investigate the staggered susceptibility, the structure factors, and the correlation length at finite temperature and for different values of the frustration ratio. From the finite temperature results, we also extrapolate ground state properties, such as spin stiffness and spontaneous staggered magnetization, providing an estimate of the extent of quantum corrections. The behavior of these quantities as a function of frustration may provide some hints on the breakdown of the N\'eel phase at zero temperature for larger values of
J2.
Whether at the zero spin density
m=0 and finite temperatures
T>0 the spin stiffness of the spin-
1/2XXX chain is finite or vanishes remains an unsolved and controversial issue, as different approaches yield contradictory results. Here we explicitly compute the stiffness at
m=0 and find strong evidence that it vanishes. In particular, we derive an upper bound on the stiffness within a canonical ensemble at any fixed value of spin density
m that is proportional to
m2L in the thermodynamic limit of chain length $L\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, for any finite, nonzero temperature, which implies the absence of ballistic transport for
T>0 for
m=0. Although our method relies in part on the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA), it does not evaluate the stiffness through the second derivative of the TBA energy eigenvalues relative to a uniform vector potential. Moreover, we provide strong evidence that in the thermodynamic limit the upper bounds on the spin current and stiffness used in our derivation remain valid under string deviations. Our results also provide strong evidence that in the thermodynamic limit the TBA method used by X. Zotos [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1764 (1999)] leads to the exact stiffness values at finite temperature
T>0 for models whose stiffness is finite at
T=0, similar to the spin stiffness of the spin-
1/2 Heisenberg chain but unlike the charge stiffness of the half-filled 1D Hubbard model.
The ground-state parameters of the two-dimensional
S=1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model are calculated using the stochastic series expansion quantum Monte Carlo method for $L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}L$ lattices with
L up to
16. The finite-size results for the energy
E, the sublattice magnetization
M, the long-wavelength susceptibility ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}(q=2\ensuremath{\pi}/L)$, and the spin stiffness ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s},$ are extrapolated to the thermodynamic limit using fits to polynomials in
1/L, constrained by scaling forms previously obtained from renormalization-group calculations for the nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ model and chiral perturbation theory. The results are fully consistent with the predicted leading finite-size corrections, and are of sufficient accuracy for extracting also subleading terms. The subleading energy correction $(\ensuremath{\sim}{1/L}^{4})$ agrees with chiral perturbation theory to within a statistical error of a few percent, thus providing numerical confirmation of the finite-size scaling forms to this order. The extrapolated ground- state energy per spin is $E=\ensuremath{-}0.669437(5)$. The result from previous Green's function Monte Carlo (GFMC) calculations is slightly higher than this value, most likely due to a small systematic error originating from ``population control'' bias in GFMC. The other extrapolated parameters are
M=0.3070(3), ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}=0.175(2)$, ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}=0.0625(9)$, and the spin-wave velocity
c=1.673(7). The statistical errors are comparable with those of previous estimates obtained by fitting loop algorithm quantum Monte Carlo data to finite-temperature scaling forms. Both
M and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}$ obtained from the finite-
T data are, however, a few error bars higher than the present estimates. It is argued that the
T=0 extrapolations performed here are less sensitive to effects of neglected higher-order corrections, and therefore should be more reliable.