Polytypes of long-period stacking structures synchronized with chemical order in a dilute Mg-Zn-Y alloy

A series of structural polytypes formed in an Mg-1at.%Zn-2at.%Y alloy has been identified, which are reasonably viewed as long-period stacking derivatives of the hcp Mg structure with alternate AB stacking of the close-packed atomic layers. Atomic-resolution Z-contrast imaging clearly revealed that the structures are long-period chemical-ordered as well as stacking-ordered; unique chemical order along the stacking direction occurs as being synchronized with a local faulted stacking of AB'C'A, where B' and C' layers are commonly enriched by Zn/Y atoms.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; submitted to Philosophical Magazine Letter

Spin-Chirality Separation and S_3-Symmetry Breakings in the Magnetization Plateau of the Quantum Spin Tube

We study the magnetization plateau state of the three-leg spin-1/2 tube in the strong rung coupling region, where S_3-symmetry breakings and low-energy chirality degree of freedom play crucial roles. On the basis of the effective chirality model and density matrix renormalization group, we clarify that, as the leg coupling increases, the chirality liquid with gapless non-magnetic excitations, the spin imbalance phase and the vector-spin-chirality ordered phase emerge without closing the plateau spin gap. The relevance of these results to experiments is also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, detailed results of the spin imbalance state are adde

Gapless Excitation above a Domain Wall Ground State in a Flat Band Hubbard Model

We construct a set of exact ground states with a localized ferromagnetic domain wall and with an extended spiral structure in a deformed flat-band Hubbard model in arbitrary dimensions. We show the uniqueness of the ground state for the half-filled lowest band in a fixed magnetization subspace. The ground states with these structures are degenerate with all-spin-up or all-spin-down states under the open boundary condition. We represent a spin one-point function in terms of local electron number density, and find the domain wall structure in our model. We show the existence of gapless excitations above a domain wall ground state in dimensions higher than one. On the other hand, under the periodic boundary condition, the ground state is the all-spin-up or all-spin-down state. We show that the spin-wave excitation above the all-spin-up or -down state has an energy gap because of the anisotropy.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure. Typos are fixe

Smooth Paths on Three Dimensional Lattice

A particular class of random walks with a spin factor on a three dimensional cubic lattice is studied. This three dimensional random walk model is a simple generalization of random walk for the two dimensional Ising model. All critical diffusion constants and associated critical exponents are calculated. Continuum field theories such as Klein-Gordon, Dirac and massive Chern-Simons theories are constructed near several critical points.Comment: 7 pages,NUP-A-94-

Quantum phase transitions of the asymmetric three-leg spin tube

We investigate quantum phase transitions of the S=1/2 three-leg antiferromagnetic spin tube with asymmetric inter-chain (rung) exchange interactions. On the basis of the electron tube system, we propose a useful effective theory to give the global phase diagram of the asymmetric spin tube. In addition, using other effective theories we raise the reliability of the phase diagram. The density-matrix renormalization-group and the numerical diagonalization analyses show that the finite spin gap appears in a narrow region around the rung-symmetric line, in contrast to a recent paper by Nishimoto and Arikawa [Phys. Rev. B78, 054421 (2008)]. The numerical calculations indicate that this global phase diagram obtained by use of the effective theories is qualitatively correct. In the gapless phase on the phase diagram, the numerical data are fitted by a finite-size scaling in the c=1 conformal field theory. We argue that all the phase transitions between the gapful and gapless phases belong to the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless universality class.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 2 column, final versio

One-Dimensional S=1 Spin-Orbital Model with Uniaxial Single-Ion Anisotropy

We investigate ground-state properties of a one-dimensional S=1 spin-orbital model with or without uniaxial single-ion anisotropy. By means of the density matrix renormalization group method, we compute the ground-state energy, the magnetization curves and the correlation functions. We discuss how the ground-state properties depend on the two exchange couplings for orbital and spin sectors. The phase diagram obtained is compared with that for the S=1/2 model. We also address the effect of uniaxial single-ion anisotropy.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Quantum Phase Transitions in the One-Dimensional S=1 Spin-Orbital Model: Implications for Cubic Vanadates

We investigate ground-state properties and quantum phase transitions in the one-dimensional S=1 spin-orbital model relevant to cubic vanadates. Using the density matrix renormalization group, we compute the ground-state energy, the magnetization and the correlation functions for different values of the Hund's coupling $J_H$ and the external magnetic field. It is found that the magnetization jumps at a certain critical field, which is a hallmark of the field-induced first-order phase transition. The phase transition driven by $J_H$ is also of first order. We also consider how the lattice-induced ferro-type interaction between orbitals modifies the phase diagram, and discuss the results in a context of the first-order phase transition observed in YVO$_3$ at 77K.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figur

An extended massless phase and the Haldane phase in a spin-1 isotropic antiferromagnetic chain

We study the phase transition of isotropic spin-1 models in the vicinity of the Uimin-Lai-Sutherland model by using the SU(3)_1 WZW model with certain marginal perturbations. The unstable RG trajectory by a marginally relevant perturbation generates a mass gap for the Haldane phase, and thus the universality class of the transition from the massless phase to the Haldane phase at ULS point becomes the BKT type. Our results support recent numerical studies by F\'ath and S\'olyom. In the massless phase, we calculate logarithmic finite-size corrections of the energy for the SU(\nu)-symmetric and asymmetric models.Comment: 19 pages, RevTe

Gauge Theory Description of Spin Ladders

A s=1/2 antiferromagnetic spin chain is equivalent to the two-flavor massless Schwinger model in an uniform background charge density in the strong coupling. The gapless mode of the spin chain is represented by a massless boson of the Schwinger model. In a two-leg spin ladder system the massless boson aquires a finite mass due to inter-chain interactions. The gap energy is found to be about .25 k |J'| when the inter-chain Heisenberg coupling J' is small compared with the intra-chain Heisenberg coupling. k is a constant of O(1). It is also shown that a cyclically symmetric N-leg ladder system is gapless or gapful for an odd or even N, respectively.Comment: 8 pages. CORRIGENDUM has been incorporated. (A factor 2 error has been corrected.

The phase diagram of the extended anisotropic ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain

By using Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) technique we study the phase diagram of 1D extended anisotropic Heisenberg model with ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor and antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interactions. We analyze the static correlation functions for the spin operators both in- and out-of-plane and classify the zero-temperature phases by the range of their correlations. On clusters of $64,100,200,300$ sites with open boundary conditions we isolate the boundary effects and make finite-size scaling of our results. Apart from the ferromagnetic phase, we identify two gapless spin-fluid phases and two ones with massive excitations. Based on our phase diagram and on estimates for the coupling constants known from literature, we classify the ground states of several edge-sharing materials.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure