Does the Heisenberg model describe the multimagnon spin dynamics in antiferromagnetic CuO layers ?

We compute the absorption spectrum for multimagnon excitations assisted by phonons in insulating layered cuprates using exact diagonalization in clusters of up to 32 sites. The resulting line shape is very sensitive to the underlying magnetic Hamiltonian describing the spin dynamics. For the usual Heisenberg description of undoped Cu-O planes we find, in accordance with experiment, a two-magnon peak followed by high energy side bands. However the relative weight of the side bands is too small to reproduce the experiment. An extended Heisenberg model including a sizable four-site cyclic exchange term is shown to be consistent with the experimental data.Comment: To appear in Physical Review Letter

Exact Jastrow-Slater wave function for the one-dimensional Luttinger model

We show that it is possible to describe the ground state of the Luttinger model in terms of a Jastrow-Slater wave function. Moreover, our findings reveal that one-particle excitations and their corresponding dynamics can be faithfully represented only when a Jastrow factor of a similar form is applied to a coherent superposition of many Slater determinants. We discuss the possible relevance of this approach for the theoretical description of photoemission spectra in higher dimensionality, where the present wave function can be straightforwardly generalized and can be used as a variational ansatz, that is exact for the 1D Luttinger model.Comment: 10 pages, one figure, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Correlated geminal wave function for molecules: an efficient resonating valence bond approach

We show that a simple correlated wave function, obtained by applying a Jastrow correlation term to an Antisymmetrized Geminal Power (AGP), based upon singlet pairs between electrons, is particularly suited for describing the electronic structure of molecules, yielding a large amount of the correlation energy. The remarkable feature of this approach is that, in principle, several Resonating Valence Bonds (RVB) can be dealt simultaneously with a single determinant, at a computational cost growing with the number of electrons similarly to more conventional methods, such as Hartree-Fock (HF) or Density Functional Theory (DFT). Moreover we describe an extension of the Stochastic Reconfiguration (SR) method, that was recently introduced for the energy minimization of simple atomic wave functions. Within this extension the atomic positions can be considered as further variational parameters, that can be optimized together with the remaining ones. The method is applied to several molecules from Li_2 to benzene by obtaining total energies, bond lengths and binding energies comparable with much more demanding multi configuration schemes.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, to be published in the Journal of Chemical Physic

Theoretical constraints for the magnetic-dimer transition in two-dimensional spin models

From general arguments, that are valid for spin models with sufficiently short-range interactions, we derive strong constraints on the excitation spectrum across a continuous phase transition at zero temperature between a magnetic and a dimerized phase, that breaks the translational symmetry. From the different symmetries of the two phases, it is possible to predict, at the quantum critical point, a branch of gapless excitations, not described by standard semi-classical approaches. By using these arguments, supported by intensive numerical calculations, we obtain a rather convincing evidence in favor of a first-order transition from the ferromagnetic to the dimerized phase in the two-dimensional spin-half model with four-spin ring-exchange interaction, recently introduced by A.W. Sandvik et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 247201 (2002)].Comment: 7 pages and 5 figure

Alleviation of the Fermion-sign problem by optimization of many-body wave functions

We present a simple, robust and highly efficient method for optimizing all parameters of many-body wave functions in quantum Monte Carlo calculations, applicable to continuum systems and lattice models. Based on a strong zero-variance principle, diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix in the space spanned by the wav e function and its derivatives determines the optimal parameters. It systematically reduces the fixed-node error, as demonstrated by the calculation of the binding energy of the small but challenging C$_2$ molecule to the experimental accuracy of 0.02 eV

Two spin liquid phases in the spatially anisotropic triangular Heisenberg model

The quantum spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a two dimensional triangular lattice geometry with spatial anisotropy is relevant to describe materials like ${\rm Cs_2 Cu Cl_4}$ and organic compounds like {$\kappa$-(ET)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$}. The strength of the spatial anisotropy can increase quantum fluctuations and can destabilize the magnetically ordered state leading to non conventional spin liquid phases. In order to understand these intriguing phenomena, quantum Monte Carlo methods are used to study this model system as a function of the anisotropic strength, represented by the ratio $J'/J$ between the intra-chain nearest neighbor coupling $J$ and the inter-chain one $J'$. We have found evidence of two spin liquid regions. The first one is stable for small values of the coupling J'/J \alt 0.65, and appears gapless and fractionalized, whereas the second one is a more conventional spin liquid with a small spin gap and is energetically favored in the region 0.65\alt J'/J \alt 0.8. We have also shown that in both spin liquid phases there is no evidence of broken translation symmetry with dimer or spin-Peirls order or any broken spatial reflection symmetry of the lattice. The various phases are in good agreement with the experimental findings, thus supporting the existence of spin liquid phases in two dimensional quantum spin-1/2 systems.Comment: 35 pages, 24 figures, 3 table

Gaussian quantum Monte Carlo methods for fermions

We introduce a new class of quantum Monte Carlo methods, based on a Gaussian quantum operator representation of fermionic states. The methods enable first-principles dynamical or equilibrium calculations in many-body Fermi systems, and, combined with the existing Gaussian representation for bosons, provide a unified method of simulating Bose-Fermi systems. As an application, we calculate finite-temperature properties of the two dimensional Hubbard model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Revised version has expanded discussion, simplified mathematical presentation, and application to 2D Hubbard mode

UV finiteness of 3D Yang-Mills theories with a regulating mass in the Landau gauge

We prove that three-dimensional Yang-Mills theories in the Landau gauge supplemented with a infrared regulating, parity preserving mass term are ultraviolet finite to all orders. We also extend this result to the Curci-Ferrari gauge.Comment: 6 page