Numerical diagonalization study of an S=1/2 ladder model with open boundary conditions

Diverging Heisenberg spin ladders: ground state and low energy excitations

We consider a two-leg ladder system with interactions varying from constant rung coupling to systematic diminishing of rung interactions leading to diverging chains. We compare and contrast their ground state and excitation characteristics using density matrix renormalization group methods. We find that the finite spin gap in a constant coupling ladder develops into a gapless excitation with slight diminishing of the distance dependent coupling. Varying the spatial range of the rung coupling, we derive the effective length scale of triplet excitations in these ladder classes of systems.

The phase diagram and hidden order for generalized spin ladders

We investigate the phase diagram of antiferromagnetic spin ladders with additional exchange interactions on diagonal bonds by variational and numerical methods. These generalized spin ladders interpolate smoothly between the [Formula: see text] chain with competing nn and nnn interactions, the [Formula: see text] chain with alternating exchange and the antiferromagnetic (AF) S = 1 chain. The Majumdar - Ghosh ground states are formulated as matrix product states and are shown to exhibit the same type of hidden order as the AF S = 1 chain. Generalized matrix product states are used for a variational calculation of the ground state energy and the spin and string correlation functions. Numerical (Lanczos) calculations of the energies of the ground state and of the low-lying excited states are performed, and compare reasonably with the variational approach. Our results support the hypothesis that the dimer and Majumdar - Ghosh points are in the same phase as the AF S = 1 chain.