Hierarchical Mean-Field Theories in Quantum Statistical Mechanics

We present a theoretical framework and a calculational scheme to study the coexistence and competition of thermodynamic phases in quantum statistical mechanics. The crux of the method is the realization that the microscopic Hamiltonian, modeling the system, can always be written in a hierarchical operator language that unveils all symmetry generators of the problem and, thus, possible thermodynamic phases. In general one cannot compute the thermodynamic or zero-temperature properties exactly and an approximate scheme named ``hierarchical mean-field approach'' is introduced. This approach treats all possible competing orders on an equal footing. We illustrate the methodology by determining the phase diagram and quantum critical point of a bosonic lattice model which displays coexistence and competition between antiferromagnetism and superfluidity.Comment: 4 pages, 2 psfigures. submitted Phys. Rev.

Coupled S=1/2S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chains in an effective staggered field

We present a systematic study of coupled $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chains in an effective staggered field. We investigate several effects of the staggered field in the {\em higher} ({\em two or three}) {\em dimensional} spin system analytically. In particular, in the case where the staggered field and the inter-chain interaction compete with each other, we predict, using mean-field theory, a characteristic phase transition. The spin-wave theory predicts that the behavior of the gaps induced by the staggered field is different between the competitive case and the non-competitive case. When the inter-chain interactions are sufficiently weak, we can improve the mean-field phase diagram by using chain mean-field theory and the analytical results of field theories. The ordered phase region predicted by the chain mean-field theory is substantially smaller than that by the mean-field theory.Comment: 13pages, 12figures, to be published in PR

Antiferromagnetically coupled alternating spin chains

The effect of antiferromagnetic interchain coupling in alternating spin (1,1/2) chains is studied by mean of a spin wave theory and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). In particular, two limiting cases are investigated, the two-leg ladder and its two dimensional (2D) generalization. Results of the ground state properties like energy, spin gap, magnetizations, and correlation functions are reported for the whole range of the interchain coupling $J_{\perp}$. For the 2D case the spin wave results predict a smooth dimensional crossover from 1D to 2D keeping the ground state always ordered. For the ladder system, the DMRG results show that any $J_{\perp}>0$ drives the system to a gapped ground state. Furthermore the behaviour of the correlation functions closely resemble the uniform spin-1/2 ladder. For $J_{\perp}$ lower than 0.3, however, the gap behaves quadratically as $\Delta\sim0.6 J^2_{\perp}$. Finally, it is argued that the behaviour of the spin gap for an arbitrary number of mixed coupled spin chains is analogous to that of the uniform spin-1/2 chains.Comment: 5 pages, 7 ps-figure