Finite-temperature lineshapes in gapped quantum spin chains

We consider the finite-temperature dynamical structure factor (DSF) of gapped quantum spin chains such as the spin one Heisenberg model and the transverse field Ising model in the disordered phase. At zero temperature the DSF in these models is dominated by a delta-function line arising from the coherent propagation of single particle modes. Using methods of integrable quantum field theory we determine the evolution of the lineshape at low temperatures. We show that the line shape is in general asymmetric in energy and becomes Lorentzian only at temperatures far below the gap. We discuss the relevance of our results for the analysis of inelastic neutron scattering experiments on gapped spin chain systems such as CsNiCl_3 and YBaNiO_5.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; new version contains added reference

An experimental, behavioral, and chemical analysis of food limitations in mutualistic Crematogaster ant symbionts inhabiting Macaranga host plants

Obligate mutualistic plant-ants are often constrained by their plant partner's capacity to provide resources. However, despite this limitation, some ant partners actively reject potential prey items and instead drop them from the plant rather than consuming them, leaving the ants entirely reliant on host plant-provided food, including that provided indirectly by the symbiotic scale insects that ants tend inside the plants. This dependency potentially increases the efficiency of these ants in defending their host. We hypothesize that if this ant behavior was beneficial to the symbiosis, prey rejection by ants would be observed across multiple plant host species. We also hypothesize that plant-provided food items and symbiotic scale insects from other ant plants should be rejected. We address these hypotheses in the Crematogaster ant-Macaranga plant system, in which plants provide living space and food, while ants protect plants from herbivory. We observed food acceptance and rejection behavior across five ant species and three plant host species. Ants were offered three types of food: termites as a surrogate herbivore, symbiotic scale insects, and nutritious food bodies (FB) produced by different host plant species. The unique ant species living in M. winkleri was the most likely to reject food items not provided by the plant species, followed by ants in M. glandibracteolata, while ants in M. pearsonii accepted most items offered to them. Using stable isotopes, chemical cues, and proteomic analyses, we demonstrate that this behavior was not related to differences between plant species in nutritional quality or composition of FB. Isotopic signatures revealed that certain species are primary consumers but other ant species can be secondary consumers even where surrogate herbivores are rejected, although these values varied depending on the ant developmental stage and plant species. Macaranga pearsonii and M. glandibracteolata, the two most closely related plant species, had most similar surface chemical cues of FB. However, M. glandibracteolata had strongest differences in food body nutritional content, isotopic signatures, and protein composition from either of the other two plant species studied. Taken together we believe our results point toward potential host coercion of symbiont ants by plants in the genus Macaranga Thouars (Euphorbiaceae)

Haldane Gapped Spin Chains: Exact Low Temperature Expansions of Correlation Functions

We study both the static and dynamic properties of gapped, one-dimensional, Heisenberg, anti-ferromagnetic, spin chains at finite temperature through an analysis of the O(3) non-linear sigma model. Exploiting the integrability of this theory, we are able to compute an exact low temperature expansion of the finite temperature correlators. We do so using a truncated `form-factor' expansion and so provide evidence that this technique can be successfully extended to finite temperature. As a direct test, we compute the static zero-field susceptibility and obtain an exact match to the susceptibility derived from the low temperature expansion of the exact free energy. We also study transport properties, computing both the spin conductance and the NMR-relaxation rate, 1/T_1. We find these quantities to show ballistic behaviour. In particular, the computed spin conductance exhibits a non-zero Drude weight at finite temperature and zero applied field. The physics thus described differs from the spin diffusion reported by Takigawa et al. from experiments on the Haldane gap material, AgVP_2S_6.Comment: 51 pages, 5 figure

Haldane-Gapped Spin Chains as Luttinger Liquids: Correlation Functions at Finite Field

We study the behavior of Heisenberg, antiferromagnetic, integer-spin chains in the presence of a magnetic field exceeding the attendant spin gap. For temperatures much smaller than the gap, the spin chains exhibit Luttinger liquid behavior. We compute exactly both the corresponding Luttinger parameter and the Fermi velocity as a function of magnetic field. This enables the computation of a number of correlators from which we derive the spin conductance, the expected form of the dynamic structure factor relevant to inelastic neutron scattering experiments, and NMR relaxation rates. We also comment upon the robustness of the magnetically induced gapless phase both to finite temperature and finite couplings between neighbouring chains.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures; published version includes additions discussing the robustness of the magnetically induced gapless phase to ordering between chains as well as the relationship between the spin-1 chains and spin-1/2 ladders in the presence of a magnetic fiel

Applications of quantum integrable systems

We present two applications of quantum integrable systems. First, we predict that it is possible to generate high harmonics from solid state devices by demostrating that the emission spectrum for a minimally coupled laser field of frequency $\omega$ to an impurity system of a quantum wire, contains multiples of the incoming frequency. Second, evaluating expressions for the conductance in the high temperature regime we show that the caracteristic filling fractions of the Jain sequence, which occur in the fractional quantum Hall effect, can be obtained from quantum wires which are described by minimal affine Toda field theories.Comment: 25 pages of LaTex, 4 figures, based on talk at the 6-th international workshop on conformal field theories and integrable models, (Chernogolovka, September 2002

Interplay of the Scaling Limit and the Renormalization Group: Implications for Symmetry Restoration

Symmetry restoration is usually understood as a renormalization group induced phenomenon. In this context, the issue of whether one-loop RG equations can be trusted in predicting symmetry restoration has recently been the subject of much debate. Here we advocate a more pragmatic point of view and expand the definition of symmetry restoration to encompass all situations where the physical properties have only a weak dependence upon an anisotropy in the bare couplings. Moreover we concentrate on universal properties, and so take a scaling limit where the physics is well described by a field theory. In this context, we find a large variety of models that exhibit, for all practical purposes, symmetry restoration: even if symmetry is not restored in a strict sense, physical properties are surprisingly insensitive to the remaining anisotropy. Although we have adopted an expanded notion of symmetry restoration, we nonetheless emphasize that the scaling limit also has implications for symmetry restoration as a renormalization group induced phenomenon. In all the models we considered, the scaling limit turns out to only permit bare couplings which are nearly isotropic and small. Then the one-loop beta-function should contain all the physics and higher loop orders can be neglected. We suggest that this feature generalizes to more complex models. We exhibit a large class of theories with current-current perturbations (of which the SO(8) model of interest in two-leg Hubbard ladders/armchair carbon nanotubes is one) where the one-loop beta-functions indicates symmetry restoration and so argue that these results can be trusted within the scaling limit.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, RevTe