Non-rigid hole band in the extended t-J model

The dispersion of one hole in an extended $t$-$J$ model with additional hopping terms to second and third nearest neighbours and a frustration term in the exchange part has been investigated. Two methods, a Green's function projection technique describing a magnetic polaron of minimal size and the exact diagonalization of a $4*4$ lattice, have been applied, showing reasonable agreement among each other. Using additional hopping integrals which are characteristic for the CuO$_2$ plane in cuprates we find in the nonfrustrated case an isotropic minimum of the dispersion at the point $(\pi/2,\pi/2)$ in $k$-space in good coincidence with recent angle-resolved photoemission results for the insulating compound Sr$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$. Including frustration or finite temperature which shall simulate the effect of doping, the dispersion is drastically changed such that a flat region and an extended saddle point may be observed between $(\pi/2,0)$ and $(\pi,0)$ in agreement with experimental results for the optimally doped cuprates.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, 6 figures on request, submitted to Zeitschrift fuer Physi

The DSUBmm Approximation Scheme for the Coupled Cluster Method and Applications to Quantum Magnets

A new approximate scheme, DSUB$m$, is described for the coupled cluster method. We then apply it to two well-studied (spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet) spin-lattice models, namely: the $XXZ$ and the $XY$ models on the square lattice in two dimensions. Results are obtained in each case for the ground-state energy, the sublattice magnetization and the quantum critical point. They are in good agreement with those from such alternative methods as spin-wave theory, series expansions, quantum Monte Carlo methods and those from the CCM using the LSUB$m$ scheme.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

Modeling host-associating microbes under selection

The concept of fitness is often reduced to a single component, such as the replication rate in a given habitat. For species with multi-step life cycles, this can be an unjustified oversimplification, as every step of the life cycle can contribute to the overall reproductive success in a specific way. In particular, this applies to microbes that spend part of their life cycles associated to a host. In this case, there is a selection pressure not only on the replication rates, but also on the phenotypic traits associated to migrating from the external environment to the host and vice-versa (i.e., the migration rates). Here, we investigate a simple model of a microbial lineage living, replicating, migrating and competing in and between two compartments: a host and an environment. We perform a sensitivity analysis on the overall growth rate to determine the selection gradient experienced by the microbial lineage. We focus on the direction of selection at each point of the phenotypic space, defining an optimal way for the microbial lineage to increase its fitness. We show that microbes can adapt to the two-compartment life cycle through either changes in replication or migration rates, depending on the initial values of the traits, the initial distribution across the two compartments, the intensity of competition, and the time scales involved in the life cycle versus the time scale of adaptation (which determines the adequate probing time to measure fitness). Overall, our model provides a conceptual framework to study the selection on microbes experiencing a host-associated life cycle

Absence of magnetic order for the spin-half Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the star lattice

We study the ground-state properties of the spin-half Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the two-dimensional star lattice by spin-wave theory, exact diagonalization and a variational mean-field approach. We find evidence that the star lattice is (besides the \kagome lattice) a second candidate among the 11 uniform Archimedean lattices where quantum fluctuations in combination with frustration lead to a quantum paramagnetic ground state. Although the classical ground state of the Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the star exhibits a huge non-trivial degeneracy like on the \kagome lattice, its quantum ground state is most likely dimerized with a gap to all excitations. Finally, we find several candidates for plateaux in the magnetization curve as well as a macroscopic magnetization jump to saturation due to independent localized magnon states.Comment: new extended version (6 pages, 6 figures) as published in Physical Review

Ground-state phase diagram of the spin-1/2 square-lattice J1-J2 model with plaquette structure

Using the coupled cluster method for high orders of approximation and Lanczos exact diagonalization we study the ground-state phase diagram of a quantum spin-1/2 J1-J2 model on the square lattice with plaquette structure. We consider antiferromagnetic (J1>0) as well as ferromagnetic (J1<0) nearest-neighbor interactions together with frustrating antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interaction J2>0. The strength of inter-plaquette interaction lambda varies between lambda=1 (that corresponds to the uniform J1-J2 model) and lambda=0 (that corresponds to isolated frustrated 4-spin plaquettes). While on the classical level (s \to \infty) both versions of models (i.e., with ferro- and antiferromagnetic J1) exhibit the same ground-state behavior, the ground-state phase diagram differs basically for the quantum case s=1/2. For the antiferromagnetic case (J1 > 0) Neel antiferromagnetic long-range order at small J2/J1 and lambda \gtrsim 0.47 as well as collinear striped antiferromagnetic long-range order at large J2/J1 and lambda \gtrsim 0.30 appear which correspond to their classical counterparts. Both semi-classical magnetic phases are separated by a nonmagnetic quantum paramagnetic phase. The parameter region, where this nonmagnetic phase exists, increases with decreasing of lambda. For the ferromagnetic case (J1 < 0) we have the trivial ferromagnetic ground state at small J2/|J1|. By increasing of J2 this classical phase gives way for a semi-classical plaquette phase, where the plaquette block spins of length s=2 are antiferromagnetically long-range ordered. Further increasing of J2 then yields collinear striped antiferromagnetic long-range order for lambda \gtrsim 0.38, but a nonmagnetic quantum paramagnetic phase lambda \lesssim 0.38.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figure

High-Order Coupled Cluster Calculations Via Parallel Processing: An Illustration For CaV4_4O9_9

The coupled cluster method (CCM) is a method of quantum many-body theory that may provide accurate results for the ground-state properties of lattice quantum spin systems even in the presence of strong frustration and for lattices of arbitrary spatial dimensionality. Here we present a significant extension of the method by introducing a new approach that allows an efficient parallelization of computer codes that carry out ``high-order'' CCM calculations. We find that we are able to extend such CCM calculations by an order of magnitude higher than ever before utilized in a high-order CCM calculation for an antiferromagnet. Furthermore, we use only a relatively modest number of processors, namely, eight. Such very high-order CCM calculations are possible {\it only} by using such a parallelized approach. An illustration of the new approach is presented for the ground-state properties of a highly frustrated two-dimensional magnetic material, CaV$_4$O$_9$. Our best results for the ground-state energy and sublattice magnetization for the pure nearest-neighbor model are given by $E_g/N=-0.5534$ and $M=0.19$, respectively, and we predict that there is no N\'eel ordering in the region $0.2 \le J_2/J_1 \le 0.7$. These results are shown to be in excellent agreement with the best results of other approximate methods.Comment: 4 page

Effect of anisotropy on the ground-state magnetic ordering of the spin-one quantum J1XXZJ_{1}^{XXZ}--J2XXZJ_{2}^{XXZ} model on the square lattice

We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of the $J_{1}^{XXZ}$--$J_{2}^{XXZ}$ Heisenberg model for spin-1 particles on an infinite square lattice interacting via nearest-neighbour ($J_1 \equiv 1$) and next-nearest-neighbour ($J_2 > 0$) bonds. Both bonds have the same $XXZ$-type anisotropy in spin space. The effects on the quasiclassical N\'{e}el-ordered and collinear stripe-ordered states of varying the anisotropy parameter $\Delta$ is investigated using the coupled cluster method carried out to high orders. By contrast with the spin-1/2 case studied previously, we predict no intermediate disordered phase between the N\'{e}el and collinear stripe phases, for any value of the frustration $J_2/J_1$, for either the $z$-aligned ($\Delta > 1$) or $xy$-planar-aligned ($0 \leq \Delta < 1$) states. The quantum phase transition is determined to be first-order for all values of $J_2/J_1$ and $\Delta$. The position of the phase boundary $J_{2}^{c}(\Delta)$ is determined accurately. It is observed to deviate most from its classical position $J_2^c = {1/2}$ (for all values of $\Delta > 0$) at the Heisenberg isotropic point ($\Delta = 1$), where $J_{2}^{c}(1) = 0.55 \pm 0.01$. By contrast, at the XY isotropic point ($\Delta = 0$), we find $J_{2}^{c}(0) = 0.50 \pm 0.01$. In the Ising limit ($\Delta \to \infty$) $J_2^c \to 0.5$ as expected.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

Quantum phase transitions of a square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet with two kinds of nearest-neighbor bonds: A high-order coupled-cluster treatment

We study the zero-temperature phase diagram and the low-lying excitations of a square-lattice spin-half Heisenberg antiferromagnet with two types of regularly distributed nearest-neighbor exchange bonds [J&gt;0 (antiferromagnetic) and -∞&lt;J'&lt;∞] using the coupled cluster method (CCM) for high orders of approximation (up to LSUB8). We use a Ne´el model state as well as a helical model state as a starting point for the CCM calculations. We find a second-order transition from a phase with Ne´el order to a finite-gap quantum disorderedphase for sufficiently large antiferromagnetic exchange constants J'&gt;0. For frustrating ferromagnetic couplings J'&lt;0 we find indications that quantum fluctuations favor a first-order phase transition from the Ne´el order to a quantum helical state, by contrast with the corresponding second-order transition in the corresponding classical model. The results are compared to those of exact diagonalizations of finite systems (up to 32sites) and those of spin-wave and variational calculations. The CCM results agree well with the exact diagonalization data over the whole range of the parameters. The special case of J'=0, which is equivalent to the honeycomb lattice, is treated more closely

The spin-half XXZ antiferromagnet on the square lattice revisited: A high-order coupled cluster treatment

We use the coupled cluster method (CCM) to study the ground-state properties and lowest-lying triplet excited state of the spin-half {\it XXZ} antiferromagnet on the square lattice. The CCM is applied to it to high orders of approximation by using an efficient computer code that has been written by us and which has been implemented to run on massively parallelized computer platforms. We are able therefore to present precise data for the basic quantities of this model over a wide range of values for the anisotropy parameter Δ in the range −1≤Δ1) regimes, where Δ→∞ represents the Ising limit. We present results for the ground-state energy, the sublattice magnetization, the zero-field transverse magnetic susceptibility, the spin stiffness, and the triplet spin gap. Our results provide a useful yardstick against which other approximate methods and/or experimental studies of relevant antiferromagnetic square-lattice compounds may now compare their own results. We also focus particular attention on the behaviour of these parameters for the easy-axis system in the vicinity of the isotropic Heisenberg point (Δ=1), where the model undergoes a phase transition from a gapped state (for Δ>1) to a gapless state (for Δ≤1), and compare our results there with those from spin-wave theory (SWT). Interestingly, the nature of the criticality at Δ=1 for the present model with spins of spin quantum number s=12 that is revealed by our CCM results seems to differ qualitatively from that predicted by SWT, which becomes exact only for its near-classical large-s counterpart