We study a spin- 1/2 Heisenberg model H=J 1 Sigma i=2 N S 1 S i +J 2 Sigma i=2 N S i S i+1 ; J 1 , J 2 >or=0 (Heisenberg star) which may be considered either as an essential structure element of a lattice with frustration or, alternatively, as an antiferromagnetic linear chain with a perturbation. We discuss general relations for the energy eigenvalues, the eigenstates as well as the spin correlation of the system in dependence on J 2 /J 1 . The correlation function (S 1 S i ) scales with 1/Z, where Z =N-1 is the number of nearest neighbours i of the central spin 1. In the mean-field limit (Z to infinity ) (S 1 S i ) goes to -0.25 for small J 2 /J 1 , but vanishes for strong frustration J 2 /J 1 . Adding exact numerical results for N=5, 7, ..., 23 we discuss the ground-state phase diagram, in particular, the ground-state spin correlations versus J 2 /J 1 . Analysing the spin correlation of frustrated and non-frustrated stars we suggest an upper bound -0.25 for the ground-state correlator (S i S j )0 of two antiferromagnetically interacting spins i and j in a non-frustrated Heisenberg spin- 1/2 antiferromagnet. We argue that any measured nearest-neighbour spin correlation (S i S j )0 larger than this bound indicates of frustration in quantum spin Heisenberg antiferromagnets.
Abstract We generalize the Heisenberg star consisting of a spin-1/2 central spin and a homogeneously coupled spin bath modeled by the XXX ring [Richter J and Voigt A 1994 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 27 1139-1149] to the case of arbitrary central-spin size S < N/2, where N is the number of bath spins. We describe how to block-diagonalize the model based on the Bethe ansatz solution of the XXX ring, with the dimension of each block Hamiltonian ≤ 2S + 1. We obtain all the eigenenergies and explicit expressions of the sub-ground states in each l-subspace with l being the total angular momentum of the bath. Both the eigenenergies and the sub-ground states have distinct structures depending whether S ≤ l or l < S. The absolute ground-state energy and the corresponding l as functions of the intrabath coupling are numerically calculated for N = 16 and S = 1, 2, ⋯ ,7 and their behaviors are quantitatively explained in the weak and strong intrabath coupling limits. We then study the dynamics of the antiferromagnetic order within an XXX bath prepared in the Néel state. Effects of the initial state of the central spin, the value of S, and the system-bath coupling strength on the staggered magnetization dynamics are investigated. By including a Zeeman term for the central spin and the anisotropy in the intrabath coupling, we also study the polarization dynamics of the central spin for a bath prepared in the spin coherent state. Under the resonant condition and at the isotropic point of the bath, the polarization dynamics for S > 1/2 exhibit collapse-revival behaviors with fine structures. However, the collapse-revival phenomena are found to be fragile with respect to the anisotropy of the intrabath coupling.
The ground-state properties of the S=1/2 frustrated Heisenberg spin chain with interactions up to fourth nearest neighbors are investigated by the exact-diagonalization method and density matrix renormalization group method. Our numerical calculations clarify that the ferrimagnetic state is realized in the ground state in spite of the fact that a multi-sublattice structure in the shape of the system is absent. We find that there are two types of ferrimagnetic phases: one is the well-known ferrimagnetic phase of the Lieb-Mattis type and the other is the nontrivial ferrimagnetic phase that is different from that of the Lieb-Mattis type. Our results suggest that a multi-sublattice structure of the shape is not necessarily required for the occurrence of ferrimagnetism.
We present a class of exactly solvable quantum spin models which consist of two Heisenberg subsystems coupled via a long-range Lieb-Mattis interaction. The total system is exactly solvable whenever the individual subsystems are solvable and allows to study the effects of frustration. We consider i) the antiferromagnetic linear chain and ii) the Lieb-Mattis antiferromagnet for the subsystem Hamiltonians and present i) the complete ground-state phase diagram and ii) the full thermodynamic phase diagram. We find a novel phase which exhibits order-from-disorder phenomena.
The thermodynamics of coupled frustrated ferromagnetic chains is studied within a spin-rotation-invariant Green's-function approach. We consider an isotropic Heisenberg spin-half system with a ferromagnetic in-chain coupling
J1<0 between nearest neighbors and a frustrating antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor in-chain coupling
J2>0. We focus on the moderate strength of frustration
J2<∣J1∣/4 such that the in-chain spin-spin correlations are predominantly ferromagnetic. We consider two interchain couplings (ICs) ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp},y}$ and ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp},z}$, corresponding to the two axes perpendicular to the chain, where ferromagnetic as well as antiferromagnetic ICs are taken into account. We discuss the influence of frustration on the ground-state properties for antiferromagnetic ICs, where the ground state is of a quantum nature. The major part of our study is devoted to the finite-temperature properties. We calculate the critical temperature
Tc as a function of the competing exchange couplings ${J}_{2},{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp},y},{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp},z}$. We find that for fixed ICs,
Tc decreases monotonically with increasing frustration
J2, where as ${J}_{2}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}|{J}_{1}|/4$ the
Tc(J2) curve drops down rapidly. To characterize the magnetic ordering below and above
Tc, we calculate the spin-spin correlation functions $\ensuremath{\langle}{\mathbf{S}}_{0}{\mathbf{S}}_{\mathbf{R}}\ensuremath{\rangle}$, the magnetic order parameter
M, the uniform static susceptibility ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{0}$, as well as the correlation length $\ensuremath{\xi}$. Moreover, we discuss the specific heat
CV and the temperature dependence of the excitation spectrum ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{\mathbf{q}}$. As ${J}_{2}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}|{J}_{1}|/4$, some unusual frustration-induced features were found, such as an increase of the in-chain spin stiffness (in the case of ferromagnetic ICs) or of the in-chain spin-wave velocity (in the case of antiferromagnetic ICs) with growing temperature.
Using a combination of quantum Monte Carlo simulations in adapted cluster bases, the finite-temperature Lanczos method, and an effective Hamiltonian approach, we explore the thermodynamic properties of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the star lattice. We consider various parameter regimes on this strongly frustrated Archimedean lattice, including the case of homogeneous couplings as well as the distinct parameter regimes of dominant vs weak dimer coupling. For the latter case, we explore the quantum phase diagram in the presence of inhomogeneous trimer couplings, preserving inversion symmetry. We compare the efficiency of different cluster decoupling schemes for the quantum Monte Carlo simulations in terms of the sign problem, contrast the thermodynamic properties to those of other strongly frustrated quantum magnets such as the kagome lattice model, and comment on previous results from tensor-network calculations regarding a valence bond crystal phase in the regime of weak dimer coupling. Finally, we relate our results to recently reported experimental findings on a Cu-based quantum magnetic spin-1/2 compound with an underlying star lattice structure.