Abstract:
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.
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Received 29 October 1999 and Received in final form 30 December 1999
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Honecker, A., Mila, F. & Troyer, M. Magnetization plateaux and jumps in a class of frustrated ladders: A simple route to a complex behaviour. Eur. Phys. J. B 15, 227–233 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510051120
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510051120