We investigate the phase diagram of two coupled quantum spin-1/2 chains, a square ladder, allowing for anisotropies both in the interchain and intrachain coupling, using the recently introduced density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) algorithm. We consider open chains up to a length of 2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}200, while retaining up to 120 states in the truncated basis of the Hilbert space. The phase diagram is discussed in connection with exact results and bosonization analysis. Numerically, we show that the crossover from the critical behavior of the uncoupled disordered spin-1/2 chain to a gapped quantum liquid sets in for infinitesimal interchain coupling, both for ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interchain coupling. The Haldane phase of the coupled chains is, even for small interchain couplings, generically described by the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki model. We also discuss typical shortcomings of the DMRG for some choices of the interaction parameters. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We apply perturbation theory to study quantum phase transitions in anisotropic two-leg spin ladders with antiferromagnetic rungs in the strong interchain coupling limit. The energy gap is expanded up to the fourth order in the ratio of the intrachain to interchain couplings. The transition point is determined by examing the disappearance of the energy gap. Present results for the anisotropic ferromagnetic-leg spin ladder are consistent qualitatively with the nonlinear -model analysis and in good agreement with the numerical results by the diagonalization method.
We analyze an anisotropic spin-1/2 two-leg ladder in the presence of various types of random perturbations. The generic phase diagram for the pure system, in a way similar to spin one chains, consists of four phases: an antiferromagnet, a Haldane gap or a singlet phase (depending on the sign of interchain coupling), and two
XY phases designated by
XY1 and
XY2. The effects of disorder depend crucially on whether it preserves
XY symmetry (random field along
z and random exchange) or not (random anisotropy or random
XY fields). In all cases we computed the new phase diagram and the correlation length for the disordered system. The ladder exhibits a remarkable stability to disorder with
XY symmetry. Not only the singlet phases but also the massless
XY1 phase are totally unaffected by disorder in stark contrast with the single chain case. Even in the presence of an external magnetic field breaking the spin gap most of the phase diagram (including the
XY point) remains unaffected by the disorder, again in opposition with the single chain case. This stabilization towards disorder is similar, albeit stronger, to the one occurring for fermionic ladders. On the other hand, the
XY2 phase is very strongly suppressed. Disorder breaking
XY symmetry has much stronger effects and most of the phases at the exception of the singlet one are now destroyed. Interestingly, the disordered
XY1 phase has a much shorter correlation length than the disordered
XY2 phase contrarily with the case of perturbations preserving the rotation symmetry around the
z axis. The ladder system is thus in fact much more anisotropic than its single chain counterpart with identical exchanges. Finally we examine the case of strong disorder or weak interchain exchange for
XY symmetric disorder. Close to the isotropic point, when the interchain exchange is increased the system undergoes a transition between two decoupled disordered spin-1/2 chains to a singlet ladder unaffected by disorder. For more
XY like systems, the transition occurs in two steps with a nondisordered
XY1 phase occurring between the decoupled chains and the singlet phase. Comparison with other disordered gapped systems such as spin one chains is discussed.
We investigate the ground-state phase diagram of the
S=21 two-leg
XXZ spin-ladder system with an isotropic interchain coupling. In this model, there is the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition which occurs at the
XY-Haldane and
XY-rung singlet phase boundaries. It was difficult to determine the transition line using traditional methods. We overcome this difficulty using the level spectroscopy method combined with the twisted boundary condition method, and we check the consistency. We find out that the phase boundary between
XY phase and Haldane phase lies on $\ensuremath{\Delta}=0$ line. And we show that there exist two different
XY phases, which we can distinguish investigating a
XX correlation function.
We have considered the properties of anisotropic two-leg ladder models with
S=1/2 or
S=1 spins on the rungs, using White's density-matrix renormalization-group method. We have generalized the method by taking into account the symmetries of the model in order to reduce the dimensions of the matrix to be diagonalized, thereby making it possible to consider more states. The boundaries in the parameter space of the extended region, where the Haldane phase exists, are estimated.
The ground-state phase diagram of the S =1/2 X X Z ladder model is investigated by using the density-matrix renormalization-group method. This model is composed of two S =1/2 X X Z chains with ferromagnetic rung couplings (λ) and intra-chain anisotropy (Δ), and continuously changes from the two independent S =1/2 X X Z chains at λ=0 to the S =1 X X Z chain in the limit of λ→∞ . It is shown that there exist edge states at Δ=1 and λ=1 in relation to the four-fold degeneracy of the ground state and that an excitation gap opens nearly at λ=0 for 0.8≤Δ≤1. In addition, it is clarified that the transition between the Haldane phase and the antiferromagnetic phase occurs at λ=1.15 ±0.01 for Δ=1. A possible phase diagram in the λ-Δ plane is proposed, which is consistent with the scaling analysis based on the bosonization method.