We report spin wave and density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) studies of the ground and low-lying excited states of uniform and dimerized alternating spin chains. The DMRG procedure is also employed to obtain low-temperature thermodynamic properties of the system. The ground state of a 2N spin system with spin-1 and spin- alternating from site to site and interacting via an antiferromagnetic exchange is found to be ferrimagnetic with total spin
sG=N/2 from both DMRG and spin wave analysis. Both the studies also show that there is a gapless excitation to a state with spin
sG-1 and a gapped excitation to a state with spin
sG+1. Surprisingly, the correlation length in the ground state is found to be very small from both the studies for this gapless system. For this very reason, we show that the ground state can be described by a variational ansatz of the product type. DMRG analysis shows that the chain is susceptible to a conditional spin-Peierls' instability. The DMRG studies of magnetization, magnetic susceptibility (\ensuremath{\chi}), and specific heat show strong magnetic-field dependence. The product \ensuremath{\chi}T shows a minimum as a function of temperature (T) at low-magnetic fields and the minimum vanishes at high-magnetic fields. This low-field behavior is in agreement with earlier experimental observations. The specific heat shows a maximum as a function of temperature and the height of the maximum increases sharply at high-magnetic fields. It is hoped that these studies will motivate experimental studies at high-magnetic fields.
We study the properties of the ground state and the low-lying excited states of an alternating spin-1 and spin-
21 antiferromagnetic chain with ferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor coupling with a variety of methods, namely, spin-wave analysis, density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) method, and exact-diagonalization method. The ground state of this model with
2N spins is ferrimagnetic with the total spin
SG=N∕2 for all parameter values. In the long chain limit, a gapless excitation is found with characteristics of goldstone mode of the ferromagnetic order with total spin $S={S}_{G}\ensuremath{-}1$. The lowest gapped excitation, however, exists in the total spin
S=SG+1 sector. Interestingly, we find that with the increase in ferromagnetic coupling, spin-wave gapped excitation becomes lower than the massless mode for the large wave numbers. Correspondingly, from DMRG analysis we find that the excitation in the total spin
S=SG+1 is lower than that in the total spin $S={S}_{G}\ensuremath{-}1$ when the size of the chain is short and the ferromagnetic interaction is large. Characteristics of these excitations are also reflected in the low temperature thermodynamic quantities, where the low-energy properties are strongly affected by the system size and the coupling strength.
The magnetic and thermodynamic properties of spin-
1∕2 Heisenberg diamond chains are investigated in three different cases: (a)
J1,
J2,
J3>0 (frustrated), (b)
J1,
J3<0,
J2>0 (frustrated), and (c)
J1,
J2>0,
J3<0 (nonfrustrated), where the bond coupling
Ji (i=1,2,3)>0 stands for an antiferromagnetic (AF) interaction, and
<0 for a ferromagnetic (F) interaction. The density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) technique is invoked to study the properties of the system in the ground state, while the transfer-matrix renormalization-group (TMRG) technique is applied to explore the thermodynamic properties. The local magnetic moments, spin-correlation functions, and static structure factors are discussed in the ground state for the three cases. It is shown that the static structure factor
S(q) shows peaks at wave vectors $q=a\ensuremath{\pi}∕3$
(a=0,1,2,3,4,5) for different couplings in a zero magnetic field, which, however, in the magnetic fields where the magnetization plateau with
m=1∕6 pertains, exhibits the peaks only at
q=0, $2\ensuremath{\pi}∕3$, and $4\ensuremath{\pi}∕3$, which are found to be couplings independent. The DMRG results of the zero-field static structure factor can be nicely fitted by a linear superposition of six modes, where two fitting equations are proposed. It is observed that the six modes are closely related to the low-lying excitations of the system. At finite temperatures, the magnetization, susceptibility, and specific heat show various behaviors for different couplings. The double-peak structures of the susceptibility, and specific heat against temperature are obtained, where the peak positions and heights are found to depend on the competition of the couplings. It is also uncovered that the
XXZ anisotropy of F and AF couplings leads the system of case (c) to display quite different behaviors. In addition, the experimental data of the susceptibility, specific heat, and magnetization for the compound
Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 are fairly compared with our TMRG results.
The magnetization process, the susceptibility, and the specific heat of the spin-
1∕2 antiferromagnet (AF)-AF-ferromagnet (F) and F-F-AF trimerized quantum Heisenberg chains have been investigated by means of the transfer matrix renormalization group (TMRG) technique as well as the modified spin-wave (MSW) theory. A magnetization plateau at
m=1∕6 for both trimerized chains is observed at low temperature. The susceptibility and the specific heat show various behaviors for different ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions and in different magnetic fields. The TMRG results of susceptibility and the specific heat can be nicely fitted by a linear superposition of double two-level systems, where two fitting equations are proposed. Three branch excitations, one gapless excitation and two gapful excitations, for both systems are found within the MSW theory. It is observed that the MSW theory captures the main characteristics of the thermodynamic behaviors at low temperatures. The TMRG results are also compared with the possible experimental data.
Thermodynamic properties of a tetrameric bond-alternating Heisenberg spin chain with ferromagnetic-ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic exchange interactions are studied using the transfer-matrix renormalization group and compared to experimental measurements. The temperature dependence of the uniform susceptibility exhibits typical ferrimagnetic features. Both the uniform and staggered magnetic susceptibilities diverge in the limit $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, indicating that the ground state has both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic long-range orders. A double-peak structure appears in the temperature dependence of the specific heat. Our numerical calculation gives a good account for the temperature and field dependence of the susceptibility, the magnetization, and the specific heat for $\mathrm{Cu}{(3\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{Clpy})}_{2}{({\mathrm{N}}_{3})}_{2}$ $(3\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{Clpy}=3\text{\ensuremath{-}}\text{Chloroyridine})$.
The thermodynamic properties of a spin
S=1/2 tetrameric Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain with alternating interactions
AF1-AF2-AF1-F (AF and F denote the antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic couplings, respectively) are studied by means of the transfer-matrix renormalization-group method and Jordan-Wigner transformation. It is found that in the absence of magnetic field, the thermodynamic behaviors are closely related to the gapped low-lying excitations, and a novel structure with three peaks in the temperature dependence of specific heat is unveiled. In a magnetic field, a phase diagram in the temperature-field plane for the couplings satisfying
JAF1=JAF2=JF is obtained, in which various phases are identified. The temperature dependence of thermodynamic quantities including the magnetization, susceptibility, and specific heat are studied to characterize the corresponding phases. It is disclosed that the magnetization has a crossover behavior at low temperature in the Luttinger liquid phase, which is shown falling into the same class as that in the
S=1 Haldane chain. In the plateau regime, the thermodynamic behaviors alter at a certain field, which results from the crossing of two excitation spectra. By means of the fermion mapping, it is uncovered that the system has four spectra from fermion and hole excitations that are responsible for the observed thermodynamic behaviors.