Impurities in S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chains: Consequences for neutron scattering and knight shift

Duality of weak and strong scatterer in a Luttinger liquid coupled to massless bosons

We study electronic transport in a Luttinger liquid with an embedded impurity, which is either a weak scatterer (WS) or a weak link (WL), when interacting electrons are coupled to one-dimensional massless bosons (e.g., acoustic phonons). We find that the duality relation, ΔWSΔWL=1, between scaling dimensions of the electron backscattering in the WS and WL limits, established for the standard Luttinger liquid, holds in the presence of the additional coupling for an arbitrary fixed strength of boson scattering from the impurity. This means that at low temperatures such a system remains either an ideal insulator or an ideal metal, regardless of the scattering strength. On the other hand, when fermion and boson scattering from the impurity are correlated, the system has a rich phase diagram that includes a metal-insulator transition at some intermediate values of the scattering.

Multipartite entanglement detection via structure factors

We establish a relation between entanglement of a many-body system and its diffractive properties, where the link is given by structure factors. Based on these, we provide a general analytical construction of multiqubit entanglement witnesses. The proposed witnesses contain two-point correlations. They could be either measured in a scattering experiment or via local measurements, depending on the underlying physical system. For some explicit examples of witnesses we analyze the properties of the states that are detected by them. We further study the robustness of these witnesses with respect to noise.

Local density of states for individual energy levels in finite quantum wires

The local density of states in finite quantum wires is calculated as a function of discrete energies and position along the wire. By using a combination of numerical density matrix renormalization group calculations and analytical bosonization techniques, it is possible to obtain a good understanding of the local spectral weights along the wire in terms of the underlying many-body excitations.

Universal alternating order around impurities in antiferromagnets

The study of impurities in antiferromagnets is of considerable interest in condensed matter physics. In this Letter we address the elementary question of the effect of vacancies on the orientation of the surrounding magnetic moments in an antiferromagnet. In the presence of a magnetic field, alternating magnetic moments are induced, which can be described by a universal expression that is valid in any ordered antiferromagnet and turns out to be independent of temperature over a large range. The universality is not destroyed by quantum fluctuations, which is demonstrated by quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Physical predictions for finite doping are made, which are relevant for experiments probing Knight shifts and the order parameter.

Interference as a probe of spin incoherence in strongly interacting quantum wires

We show that interference experiments can be used to identify the spin-incoherent regime of strongly interacting one-dimensional conductors. Two qualitative signatures of spin incoherence are found: a strong magnetic field dependence of the interference contrast and an anomalous scaling of the interference contrast with the applied voltage, with a temperature and magnetic field dependent scaling exponent. The experiments distinguish the spin-incoherent from the spin-polarized regime, and so may be useful in deciding between alternative explanations proposed for the anomalous conductance quantization observed in quantum point contacts and quantum wires at low density.

Knight shifts around vacancies in the 2D Heisenberg model

The local response to a uniform field around vacancies in the two-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet is determined by numerical quantum Monte Carlo simulations as a function of temperature. It is possible to separate the Knight shifts into uniform and staggered contributions on the lattice which are analyzed and understood in detail. The contributions show interesting long- and short-range behavior that may be of relevance in NMR and susceptibility measurements. For more than one impurity, remarkable nonlinear enhancement and cancellation effects take place. We predict that the Curie impurity susceptibility will be observable for a random impurity concentration even in the thermodynamic limit.

Boundary susceptibility in the spin-1/2 chain: Curie-like behavior without magnetic impurities

We investigate the low-temperature thermodynamics of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with open ends. On the basis of boundary conformal field theory arguments and numerical density matrix renormalization group calculations, it is established that in the isotropic case the impurity susceptibility exhibits a Curie-like divergent behavior as the temperature decreases, even in the absence of magnetic impurities. A similar singular temperature dependence is also found in the boundary contributions of the specific heat coefficient. In the anisotropic case, for 1/2<Delta<1, these boundary quantities still show a singular temperature dependence obeying a power law with an anomalous dimension. Experimental consequences will be discussed.

Local magnetic susceptibility of the positive muon in the quasi-one-dimensional S=1/2 antiferromagnet dichlorobis (pyridine) copper (II)

We report muon spin rotation measurements of the local magnetic susceptibility around a positive muon in the paramagnetic state of the quasi-one-dimensional spin 1/2 antiferromagnet dichlorobis (pyridine) copper (II). Signals from three distinct sites are resolved and have a temperature dependent frequency shift which is significantly different than the magnetic susceptibility. This difference is attributed to a muon induced perturbation of the spin 1/2 chain. The obtained frequency shifts are compared with transfer matrix density-matrix renormalization-group numerical simulations.

Néel order in doped quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnets

We study the Néel temperature of quasi-one-dimensional S = 1/2 antiferromagnets containing nonmagnetic impurities. We first consider the temperature dependence of the staggered susceptibility of finite chains with open boundary conditions, which shows an interesting difference for even and odd length chains. We then use a mean field theory treatment to incorporate the three-dimensional interchain couplings. The resulting Néel temperature shows a pronounced drop as a function of doping by up to a factor of 5.

Scanning tunneling microscopy of a luttinger liquid

Explicit predictions for scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) on interacting one-dimensional electron systems are made using the Luttinger liquid formalism. The STM current changes with the distance from an impurity or boundary in a characteristic way, which reveals the spin-charge separation and the interaction strength in the system. The current exhibits Friedel-like oscillations, but also carries additional modulated behavior as a function of voltage and distance, which shows the spin-charge separation in real space. Moreover, very close to the boundary the current is strongly reduced, which is an indication of the interaction strength in the system.