Numerical study of incommensurate and decoupled phases of spin-1/2 chains with isotropic exchange J1, J2 between first and second neighbors

TL;DR

This study uses numerical methods to explore the complex quantum phase diagram of frustrated spin-1/2 chains with competing interactions, revealing incommensurate, decoupled, and gapped phases with distinct correlation properties.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis of the phase transitions and critical points in the J1-J2 spin chain, clarifying the nature of incommensurate and decoupled phases.

Findings

Identification of incommensurate phases via wave vector analysis.

Discovery of a decoupled phase with constant wave vector and broken sublattice symmetry.

Agreement and disagreement with field theory predictions at different interaction strengths.

Abstract

The spin-1/2 chain with isotropic exchange J1, J2 > 0 between first and second neighbors is frustrated for either sign of J1 and has a singlet ground state (GS) for J1/J2 $\ge - 4$. Its rich quantum phase diagram supports gapless, gapped, commensurate (C), incommensurate (IC) and other phases. Critical points J1/J2 are evaluated using exact diagonalization (ED) and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations. The wave vector $q_G$ of spin correlations is related to GS degeneracy and obtained as the peak of the spin structure factor $S(q)$. Variable $q_G$ indicates IC phases in two $J1/J2$ intervals, [ -4, -1.24] and [0.44, 2], and a C-IC point at J1/J2 = 2. The decoupled C phase in [-1.24, 0.44] has constant $q_G = {\pi}/2$, nondegenerate GS, and a lowest triplet state with broken spin density on sublattices of odd and even numbered sites. The lowest triplet and singlet excitations, $E_m$ and $E_{\sigma}$, are degenerate in finite systems at specific frustration $J1/J2$. Level crossing extrapolates in the thermodynamic limit to the same critical points as $q_G$. The $S(q)$ peak diverges at $q_G = {\pi}$ in the gapless phase with $J1/J2 > 4.148$ and quasi-long-range order (QLRO({$\pi$})). $S(q)$ diverges at $\pm {\pi}/2$ in the decoupled phase with QLRO({$\pi$}/2), but is finite in gapped phases with finite range correlations. Numerical results and field theory agree at small $J2/J1$ but disagree for the decoupled phase with weak exchange $J1$ between sublattices. Two related models are summarized: one has an exact gapless decoupled phase with QLRO({$\pi$}/2) and no IC phases; the other has a single IC phase without a decoupled phase in between.