Fractional and composite excitations of antiferromagnetic quantum spin trimer chains

Using quantum Monte Carlo, exact diagonalization, and perturbation theory, we study the spectrum of the S = 1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg trimer chain by varying the ratio g = J2/J1 of the intertrimer and intratrimer coupling strengths. The doublet ground states of trimers form effective interacting S = 1/2 degrees of freedom described by a Heisenberg chain. Therefore, the conventional two-spinon continuum of width ∝ J1 when g = 1 evolves into to a similar continuum of width ∝ J2 when g → 0. The intermediate-energy and high-energy modes are termed doublons and quartons which fractionalize with increasing g to form the conventional spinon continuum. In particular, at g ≈ 0.716, the gap between the low-energy spinon branch and the high-energy band with mixed doublons, quartons, and spinons closes. These features should be observable in inelastic neutron scattering experiments if a quasi-one-dimensional quantum magnet with the linear trimer structure and J2 < J1 can be identified. Our results may open a window for exploring the high-energy fractional excitations.

Conformal quantum mechanics & the integrable spinning Fishnet

In this paper we consider systems of quantum particles in the 4d Euclidean space which enjoy conformal symmetry. The algebraic relations for conformal-invariant combinations of positions and momenta are used to construct a solution of the Yang-Baxter equation in the unitary irreducibile representations of the principal series ∆ = 2 + iν for any left/right spins ℓ,$$ \dot{\ell} $$ ℓ ̇ of the particles. Such relations are interpreted in the language of Feynman diagrams as integral star-triangle identites between propagators of a conformal field theory. We prove the quantum integrability of a spin chain whose k-th site hosts a particle in the representation (∆k, ℓk,$$ \dot{\ell} $$ ℓ ̇ k) of the conformal group, realizing a spinning and inhomogeneous version of the quantum magnet used to describe the spectrum of the bi-scalar Fishnet theories [1]. For the special choice of particles in the scalar (1, 0, 0) and fermionic (3/2, 1, 0) representation the transfer matrices of the model are Bethe-Salpeter kernels for the double-scaling limit of specific two-point correlators in the γ-deformed $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 and $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 supersymmetric theories.

Decay and renormalization of a longitudinal mode in a quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnet

An ongoing challenge in the study of quantum materials, is to reveal and explain collective quantum effects in spin systems where interactions between different modes types are important. Here we approach this problem through a combined experimental and theoretical study of interacting transverse and longitudinal modes in an easy-plane quantum magnet near a continuous quantum phase transition. Our inelastic neutron scattering measurements of Ba2FeSi2O7 reveal the emergence, decay, and renormalization of a longitudinal mode throughout the Brillouin zone. The decay of the longitudinal mode is particularly pronounced at the zone center. To account for the many-body effects of the interacting low-energy modes in anisotropic magnets, we generalize the standard spin-wave theory. The measured mode decay and renormalization is reproduced by including all one-loop corrections. The theoretical framework developed here is broadly applicable to quantum magnets with more than one type of low energy mode.