Quantum phase transitions in alternating transverse Ising chains

This chapter is devoted to a discussion of quantum phase transitions in regularly alternating spin-1/2 Ising chain in a transverse field. After recalling some generally-known topics of the classical (temperature-driven) phase transition theory and some basic concepts of the quantum phase transition theory I pass to the statistical mechanics calculations for a one-dimensional spin-1/2 Ising model in a transverse field, which is the simplest possible system exhibiting the continuous quantum phase transition. The essential tool for these calculations is the Jordan-Wigner fermionization. The latter technique being completed by the continued fraction approach permits to obtain analytically the thermodynamic quantities for a `slightly complicated' model in which the intersite exchange interactions and on-site fields vary regularly along a chain. Rigorous analytical results for the ground-state and thermodynamic quantities, as well as exact numerical data for the spin correlations computed for long chains (up to a few thousand sites) demonstrate how the regularly alternating bonds/fields effect the quantum phase transition. I discuss in detail the case of period 2, swiftly sketch the case of period 3 and finally summarize emphasizing the effects of periodically modulated Hamiltonian parameters on quantum phase transitions in the transverse Ising chain and in some related models.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures, talk at the "Ising lectures" (ICMP, L'viv, March 2002

Jordan-Wigner Fermionization and the Theory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Spin Models. Dynamic Properties

The Jordan-Wigner transformation is known as a powerful tool in condensed matter theory, especially in the theory of low-dimensional quantum spin systems. The aim of this chapter is to review the application of the Jordan-Wigner fermionization technique for calculating dynamic quantities of low-dimensional quantum spin models. After a brief introduction of the Jordan-Wigner transformation for one-dimensional spin one-half systems and some of its extensions for higher dimensions and higher spin values we focus on the dynamic properties of several low-dimensional quantum spin models. We start from the famous s=1/2 XX chain. As a first step we recall well-known results for dynamics of the z-spin-component fluctuation operator and then turn to the dynamics of the dimer and trimer fluctuation operators. The dynamics of the trimer fluctuations involves both the two-fermion (one particle and one hole) and the four-fermion (two particles and two holes) excitations. We discuss some properties of the two-fermion and four-fermion excitation continua. The four-fermion dynamic quantities are of intermediate complexity between simple two-fermion (like the zz dynamic structure factor) and enormously complex multi-fermion (like the xx or xy dynamic structure factors) dynamic quantities. Further we discuss the effects of dimerization, anisotropy of XY interaction, and additional Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on various dynamic quantities. Finally we consider the dynamic transverse spin structure factor $S_{zz}({\bf{k}},\omega)$ for the s=1/2 XX model on a spatially anisotropic square lattice which allows one to trace a one-to-two-dimensional crossover in dynamic quantities.Comment: 53 pages, 22 figure

There is life in the old horse yet or what else we can learn studying spin-1/2 XY chains

We review some recent results on statistical mechanics of the one-dimensional spin-1/2 XY systems paying special attention to the dynamic and thermodynamic properties of the models with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, correlated disorder, and regularly alternating Hamiltonian parameters.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure