Quantum decoration transformation for spin models

TL;DR

This paper introduces an exact quantum decoration transformation for spin models, explores its properties, and assesses its validity and accuracy through theoretical analysis and numerical comparisons, especially for Heisenberg and Ising-Heisenberg chains.

Contribution

It proposes a novel quantum decoration transformation, analyzes its properties, and evaluates its applicability and accuracy for specific quantum spin lattice models.

Findings

Transformation preserves symmetry and can break symmetry.

Approximate mapping is valid in the classical limit and for weak anisotropy.

Numerical results agree with exact solutions in specific regimes.

Abstract

It is quite relevant the extension of decoration transformation for quantum spin models since most of the real materials could be well described by Heisenberg type models. Here we propose an exact quantum decoration transformation and also showing interesting properties such as the persistence of symmetry and the symmetry breaking during this transformation. Although the proposed transformation, in principle, cannot be used to map exactly a quantum spin lattice model into another quantum spin lattice model, since the operators are non-commutative. However, it is possible the mapping in the "classical" limit, establishing an equivalence between both quantum spin lattice models. To study the validity of this approach for quantum spin lattice model, we use the Zassenhaus formula, and we verify how the correction could influence the decoration transformation. But this correction could be useless to improve the quantum decoration transformation because it involves the second-nearest-neighbor and further nearest neighbor couplings, which leads into a cumbersome task to establish the equivalence between both lattice models. This correction also gives us valuable information about its contribution, for most of the Heisenberg type models, this correction could be irrelevant at least up to the third order term of Zassenhaus formula. This transformation is applied to a finite size Heisenberg chain, comparing with the exact numerical results, our result is consistent for weak xy-anisotropy coupling. We also apply to bond-alternating Ising-Heisenberg chain model, obtaining an accurate result in the limit of the quasi-Ising chain.