Locality-preserving allocations Problems and coloured Bin Packing

We study the following problem, introduced by Chung et al. in 2006. We are given, online or offline, a set of coloured items of different sizes, and wish to pack them into bins of equal size so that we use few bins in total (at most $\alpha$ times optimal), and that the items of each colour span few bins (at most $\beta$ times optimal). We call such allocations $(\alpha, \beta)$-approximate. As usual in bin packing problems, we allow additive constants and consider $(\alpha,\beta)$ as the asymptotic performance ratios. We prove that for \eps>0, if we desire small $\alpha$, no scheme can beat (1+\eps, \Omega(1/\eps))-approximate allocations and similarly as we desire small $\beta$, no scheme can beat (1.69103, 1+\eps)-approximate allocations. We give offline schemes that come very close to achieving these lower bounds. For the online case, we prove that no scheme can even achieve $(O(1),O(1))$-approximate allocations. However, a small restriction on item sizes permits a simple online scheme that computes (2+\eps, 1.7)-approximate allocations

Absence of a true long-range orbital order in a two-leg Kondo ladder

We investigate, through the density-matrix renormalization group and the Lanczos technique, the possibility of a two-leg Kondo ladder present an incommensurate orbital order. Our results indicate a staggered short-range orbital order at half-filling. Away from half-filling our data are consistent with an incommensurate quasi-long-range orbital order. We also observed that an interaction between the localized spins enhances the rung-rung current correlations.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, changed the introduction and added some discussion

Renyi Entropy and Parity Oscillations of the Anisotropic Spin-s Heisenberg Chains in a Magnetic Field

Using the density matrix renormalization group, we investigate the Renyi entropy of the anisotropic spin-s Heisenberg chains in a z-magnetic field. We considered the half-odd integer spin-s chains, with s=1/2,3/2 and 5/2, and periodic and open boundary conditions. In the case of the spin-1/2 chain we were able to obtain accurate estimates of the new parity exponents $p_{\alpha}^{(p)}$ and $p_{\alpha}^{(o)}$ that gives the power-law decay of the oscillations of the $\alpha-$Renyi entropy for periodic and open boundary conditions, respectively. We confirm the relations of these exponents with the Luttinger parameter $K$, as proposed by Calabrese et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 095701 (2010)]. Moreover, the predicted periodicity of the oscillating term was also observed for some non-zero values of the magnetization $m$. We show that for $s>1/2$ the amplitudes of the oscillations are quite small, and get accurate estimates of $p_{\alpha}^{(p)}$ and $p_{\alpha}^{(o)}$ become a challenge. Although our estimates of the new universal exponents $p_{\alpha}^{(p)}$ and $p_{\alpha}^{(o)}$ for the spin-3/2 chain are not so accurate, they are consistent with the theoretical predictions.Comment: revised version, accepted to PRB. 9 pages, 3 Figures, 4 Table