Thermal and magnetic properties of integrable spin-1 and spin-3/2 chains with applications to real compounds

TL;DR

This paper investigates the thermodynamic and magnetic properties of integrable spin-1 and spin-3/2 chains using exact solutions, comparing theoretical predictions with experimental data, and highlighting the models' relevance to real quantum spin systems.

Contribution

It introduces exact solutions for spin-1 and spin-3/2 chains with chemical potential terms, applying Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz and High Temperature Expansion methods.

Findings

Identification of a gapped phase in spin-1 chains with large anisotropy

Theoretical curves match experimental data for spin-1 compounds

Discovery of a degenerate gapped phase and magnetization plateau in spin-3/2 chains

Abstract

The ground state and thermodynamic properties of spin-1 and spin-3/2 chains are investigated via exactly solved su(3) and su(4) models with physically motivated chemical potential terms. The analysis involves the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz and the High Temperature Expansion (HTE) methods. For the spin-1 chain with large single-ion anisotropy, a gapped phase occurs which is significantly different from the valence-bond-solid Haldane phase. The theoretical curves for the magnetization, susceptibility and specific heat are favourably compared with experimental data for a number of spin-1 chain compounds. For the spin-3/2 chain a degenerate gapped phase exists starting at zero external magnetic field. A middle magnetization plateau can be triggered by the single-ion anisotropy term. Overall, our results lend further weight to the applicability of integrable models to the physics of low-dimensional quantum spin systems. They also highlight the utility of the exact HTE method.