NMR relaxation in Ising spin chains

TL;DR

This paper investigates the NMR relaxation in quantum Ising chains, providing exact results and universal scaling laws that clarify experimental discrepancies in quantum disordered phases.

Contribution

It offers the first exact low-temperature NMR relaxation rate calculations for the integrable quantum Ising model and derives universal scaling near the quantum critical point.

Findings

Exact low-temperature NMR relaxation rate derived

Universal scaling laws established for Ising chains

Resolves experimental discrepancies in CoNb₂O₆

Abstract

We examine the low frequency spin susceptibility of the paramagnetic phase of the quantum Ising chain in transverse field at temperatures well below the energy gap. We find that the imaginary part is dominated by rare quantum processes in which the number of quasiparticles changes by an odd number. We obtain exact results for the NMR relaxation rate in the low temperature limit for the integrable model with nearest-neighbor Ising interactions, and derive exact universal scaling results applicable to generic Ising chains near the quantum critical point. These results resolve certain discrepancies between the energy scales measured with different experimental probes in the quantum disordered paramagnetic phase of the Ising chain system CoNb$_{2}$O$_{6}$.