Preroughening, Diffusion, and Growth of An FCC(111) Surface

Preroughening of close-packed fcc(111) surfaces, found in rare gas solids, is an interesting, but poorly characterized phase transition. We introduce a restricted solid-on-solid model, named FCSOS, which describes it. Using mostly Monte Carlo, we study both statics, including critical behavior and scattering properties, and dynamics, including surface diffusion and growth. In antiphase scattering, it is shown that preroughening will generally show up at most as a dip. Surface growth is predicted to be continuous at preroughening, where surface self-diffusion should also drop. The physical mechanism leading to preroughening on rare gas surfaces is analysed, and identified in the step-step elastic repulsion.Comment: Revtex + uuencoded figures, to appear in Physical Review Letter

Crossover from Isotropic to Directed Percolation

Directed percolation is one of the generic universality classes for dynamic processes. We study the crossover from isotropic to directed percolation by representing the combined problem as a random cluster model, with a parameter $r$ controlling the spontaneous birth of new forest fires. We obtain the exact crossover exponent $y_{DP}=y_T-1$ at $r=1$ using Coulomb gas methods in 2D. Isotropic percolation is stable, as is confirmed by numerical finite-size scaling results. For $D \geq 3$, the stability seems to change. An intuitive argument, however, suggests that directed percolation at $r=0$ is unstable and that the scaling properties of forest fires at intermediate values of $r$ are in the same universality class as isotropic percolation, not only in 2D, but in all dimensions.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX, 4 epsf-emedded postscript figure

Roughening Induced Deconstruction in (100) Facets of CsCl Type Crystals

The staggered 6-vertex model describes the competition between surface roughening and reconstruction in (100) facets of CsCl type crystals. Its phase diagram does not have the expected generic structure, due to the presence of a fully-packed loop-gas line. We prove that the reconstruction and roughening transitions cannot cross nor merge with this loop-gas line if these degrees of freedom interact weakly. However, our numerical finite size scaling analysis shows that the two critical lines merge along the loop-gas line, with strong coupling scaling properties. The central charge is much larger than 1.5 and roughening takes place at a surface roughness much larger than the conventional universal value. It seems that additional fluctuations become critical simultaneously.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure

Nonlinear sigma model study of a frustrated spin ladder

A model of two-leg spin-S ladder with two additional frustrating diagonal exchange couplings J_{D}, J_{D}' is studied within the framework of the nonlinear sigma model approach. The phase diagram has a rich structure and contains 2S gapless phase boundaries which split off the boundary to the fully saturated ferromagnetic phase when J_{D} and J_{D}' become different. For the S=1/2 case, the phase boundaries are identified as separating two topologically distinct Haldane-type phases discussed recently by Kim et al. (cond-mat/9910023).Comment: revtex 4 pages, figures embedded (psfig

Ferrimagnetic and Long Period Antiferromagnetic Phases in High Spin Heisenberg Chains with D-Modulation

The ground state properties of the high spin Heisenberg chains with alternating single site anisotropy are investigated by means of the numerical exact daigonaization and DMRG method. It is found that the ferrimagnetic state appears between the Haldane phase and period doubled N\'eel phase for the integer spin chains. On the other hand, the transition from the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid state into the ferrimagnetic state takes place for the half-odd-integer spin chains. In the ferrimagnetic phase, the spontaneous magnetization varies continuously with the modulation amplitude of the single site anisotropy. Eventually, the magnetization is locked to fractional values of the saturated magnetization. These fractional values satisfy the Oshikawa-Yamanaka-Affleck condition. The local spin profile is calculated to reveal the physical nature of each state. In contrast to the case of frustration induced ferrimagnetism, no incommensurate magnetic superstructure is found.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Hidden Order and Dimerization Transition in S=2S=2 Chains

We study ground state properties of the $S=2$ quantum antiferromagnetic chain with a bond alternation H = \sum_{j} [ 1 + \delta (-1)^j ] \mbox{\boldmath $S$}_{j} \cdot \mbox{\boldmath $S$}_{j+1} by a Quantum Monte Carlo calculation. We find that the hidden $Z_2 \times Z_2$ symmetry is broken for $0.3 < |\delta| < 0.5$ while it is unbroken in the other regions. This confirms the successive dimerization transitions first predicted by Affleck and Haldane. Our result shows that these transitions can be understood in terms of the hidden $Z_2 \times Z_2$ symmetry breaking, as was discussed using the Valence-Bond-Solid states. Furthermore, we find that the behavior of the generalized string correlation is qualitatively very similar to that in the Valence-Bond-Solid states, including the location of zeroes as a function of the angle parameter.Comment: 3 pages (LaTex with jpsj-style files (ftp://ftp.u-tokyo.ac.jp/pub/SOCIETY/JPSJ)) and 1 Postscript figur

Density Matrix Renormalization Group Study of the Haldane Phase in Random One-Dimensional Antiferromagnets

It is conjectured that the Haldane phase of the S=1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain and the $S=1/2$ ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain is stable against any strength of randomness, because of imposed breakdown of translational symmetry. This conjecture is confirmed by the density matrix renormalization group calculation of the string order parameter and the energy gap distribution.Comment: 4 Pages, 7 figures; Considerable revisions are made in abstract and main text. Final accepted versio

Disordered Flat Phase and Phase Diagram for Restricted Solid on Solid Models of Fcc(110) Surfaces

We discuss the results of a study of restricted solid-on-solid models for fcc (110) surfaces. These models are simple modifications of the exactly solvable BCSOS model, and are able to describe a $(2\times 1)$ missing-row reconstructed surface as well as an unreconstructed surface. They are studied in two different ways. The first is by mapping the problem onto a quantum spin-1/2 one-dimensional hamiltonian of the Heisenberg type, with competing $S^z_iS^z_j$ couplings. The second is by standard Monte Carlo simulations. We find phase diagrams with the following features, which we believe to be quite generic: (i) two flat, ordered phases (unreconstructed and missing-row reconstructed); a rough, disordered phase; an intermediate disordered flat (DF) phase, characterized by monoatomic steps, whose physics is shown to be akin to that of a dimer spin state. (ii) a transition line from the $(2\times 1)$ reconstructed phase to the DF phase showing exponents which appear to be close, within our numerical accuracy, to the 2D-Ising universality class. (iii) a critical (preroughening) line with variable exponents, separating the unreconstructed phase from the DF phase. Possible signatures and order parameters of the DF phase are investigated.Comment: Revtex (22 pages) + 15 figures (uuencoded file

Interacting Arrays of Steps and Lines in Random Media

The phase diagram of two interacting planar arrays of directed lines in random media is obtained by a renormalization group analysis. The results are discussed in the contexts of the roughening of reconstructed crystal surfaces, and the pinning of flux line arrays in layered superconductors. Among the findings are a glassy flat phase with disordered domain structures, a novel second-order phase transition with continuously varying critical exponents, and the generic disappearance of the glassy ``super-rough'' phases found previously for a single array.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX 3.0, uses epsf,multicol, 3 .eps-figures, submitted to PR

Entanglement Entropy of One-dimensional Gapped Spin Chains

We investigate the entanglement entropy (EE) of gapped S=1 and $S=1/2$ spin chains with dimerization. We find that the effective boundary degrees of freedom as edge states contribute significantly to the EE. For the $S=1/2$ dimerized Heisenberg chain, the EE of the sufficiently long chain is essentially explained by the localized $S=1/2$ effective spins on the boundaries. As for S=1, the effective spins are also $S=1/2$ causing a Kennedy triplet that yields a lower bound for the EE. In this case, the residual entanglement reduces substantially by a continuous deformation of the Heisenberg model to that of the AKLT Hamiltonian.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure