Lanczos Study of the S=1/2 Frustrated Square-Lattice Antiferromagnet in a Magnetic Field

We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of the frustrated square-lattice S=1/2 antiferromagnet in an external magnetic field numerically with the Lanczos algorithm. For strong frustration, we find disordered phases at high (and low) magnetic fields. Between these two disordered phases we find a plateau in the magnetization curve at half of the saturation magnetization which corresponds to a state with up-up-up-down (uuud) spin order. This and other considerations [cond-mat/0003343] suggest an unusual ordering scenario: There are an ordered phase with a spin gap (the plateau) and disordered magnetically gapless phases above and below. The transition to saturation is studied in further detail and problematic conclusions in earlier investigations of this region are pointed out.Comment: 4 pages REVTeX, 5 PostScript figures included using psfig.sty; submitted to the proceedings of the conference Highly Frustrated Magnetism 2000, Waterloo, June 11-15, 2000 (to appear in Canadian Journal of Physics

Exact low-temperature properties of a class of highly frustrated Hubbard models

We study the repulsive Hubbard model both analytically and numerically on a family of highly frustrated lattices which have one-electron states localized on isolated trapping cells. We construct and count exact many-electron ground states for a wide range of electron densities and obtain closed-form expressions for the low-temperature thermodynamic quantities. Furthermore, we find that saturated ferromagnetism is obtained only for sufficiently high electron densities and large Hubbard repulsion $U$ while there is no finite average moment in the ground states at lower densities.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Critical Properties of the One-Dimensional Forest-Fire Model

The one-dimensional forest-fire model including lightnings is studied numerically and analytically. For the tree correlation function, a new correlation length with critical exponent \nu ~ 5/6 is found by simulations. A Hamiltonian formulation is introduced which enables one to study the stationary state close to the critical point using quantum-mechanical perturbation theory. With this formulation also the structure of the low-lying relaxation spectrum and the critical behaviour of the smallest complex gap are investigated numerically. Finally, it is shown that critical correlation functions can be obtained from a simplified model involving only the total number of trees although such simplified models are unable to reproduce the correct off-critical behaviour.Comment: 24 pages (plain TeX), 4 PostScript figures, uses psfig.st

Magnetocaloric effect in two-dimensional spin-1/2 antiferromagnets

The magnetocaloric effect is studied at the transition to saturation in the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on the simplest two-dimensional lattices, namely the square and the triangular lattice. Numerical results are presented for the entropy which are consistent with identical universal properties. However, the absolute values of the entropy are bigger on the geometrically frustrated triangular lattice than on the non-frustrated square lattice, indicating that frustration improves the magnetocaloric properties.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures included, to appear in Physica B (proceedings of SCES'05

Enhanced low-temperature entropy and flat-band ferromagnetism in the t-J model on the sawtooth lattice

Using the example of the sawtooth chain, we argue that the t-J model shares important features with the Hubbard model on highly frustrated lattices. The lowest single-fermion band is completely flat (for a specific choice of the hopping parameters $t_{i,j}$ in the case of the sawtooth chain), giving rise to single-particle excitations which can be localized in real space. These localized excitations do not interact for sufficient spatial separations such that exact many-electron states can also be constructed. Furthermore, all these excitations acquire zero energy for a suitable choice of the chemical potential $\mu$. This leads to: (i) a jump in the particle density at zero temperature, (ii) a finite zero-temperature entropy, (iii) a ferromagnetic ground state with a charge gap when the flat band is fully occupied and (iv) unusually large temperature variations when $\mu$ is varied adiabatically at finite temperature.Comment: 2 pages including 2 figures, uses elsart style files; (proceedings of ICM 2006

Magnetocaloric effect in quantum spin-s chains

We compute the entropy of antiferromagnetic quantum spin-s chains in an external magnetic field using exact diagonalization and Quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The magnetocaloric effect, i.e., temperature variations during adiabatic field changes, can be derived from the isentropes. First, we focus on the example of the spin-s=1 chain and show that one can cool by closing the Haldane gap with a magnetic field. We then move to quantum spin-s chains and demonstrate linear scaling with $s$ close to the saturation field. In passing, we propose a new method to compute many low-lying excited states using the Lanczos recursion.Comment: 11 pages including 6 figures, to appear in Condensed Matter Physics (Lviv

Jordan-Wigner approach to the frustrated spin one-half XXZ chain

The Jordan-Wigner transformation is applied to study the ground state properties and dimerization transition in the $J_1-J_2$ $XXZ$ chain. We consider different solutions of the mean-field approximation for the transformed Hamiltonian. Ground state energy and the static structure factor are compared with complementary exact diagonalization and good agreement is found near the limit of the Majumdar-Ghosh model. Furthermore, the ground state phase diagram is discussed within the mean-field theory. In particular, we show that an incommensurate ground state is absent for large $J_2$ in a fully self-consistent mean-field analysis.Comment: final version to appear in Eur. Phys. J. B; 5 pages including 4 figures; some small extensions including additional reference

Field-Induced Order and Magnetization Plateaux in Frustrated Antiferromagnets

We argue that collinearly ordered states which exist in strongly frustrated spin systems for special rational values of the magnetization are stabilized by thermal as well as quantum fluctuations. These general predictions are tested by Monte Carlo simulations for the classical and Lanczos diagonalization for the S=1/2 frustrated square-lattice antiferromagnet.Comment: 4 pages, 2 PostScript figures included; to appear in the proceedings of SCES2001, Ann Arbor, August 6-10, 2001 (Physica B

Magnetization plateaux and jumps in a class of frustrated ladders: A simple route to a complex behaviour

We study the occurrence of plateaux and jumps in the magnetization curves of a class of frustrated ladders for which the Hamiltonian can be written in terms of the total spin of a rung. We argue on the basis of exact diagonalization of finite clusters that the ground state energy as a function of magnetization can be obtained as the minimum - with Maxwell constructions if necessary - of the energies of a small set of spin chains with mixed spins. This allows us to predict with very elementary methods the existence of plateaux and jumps in the magnetization curves in a large parameter range, and to provide very accurate estimates of these magnetization curves from exact or DMRG results for the relevant spin chains.Comment: 14 pages REVTeX, 7 PostScript figures included using psfig.sty; this is the final version to appear in Eur. Phys. J B; some references added and a few other minor change