Spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking without magnetism in an S=1 spin chain

Article

关键词: VALENCE-BOND;    STATES;    MODEL;    YBA2CU3O7;    PHASE;   

DOI  :  10.1103/PhysRevB.102.174404

来源: SCIE

【 摘 要 】

States of matter that break time-reversal symmetry are invariably associated with magnetism or circulating currents. Recently, one of us proposed a phase, the directional scalar spin chiral order (DSSCO), as an exception: it breaks time-reversal symmetry via chiral ordering of spins along a particular direction, but is spin-rotation symmetric. In this work we prove the existence of this state via state-of-the-art density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) analysis on a spin-1 chain with nearest-neighbor bilinear-biquadratic interactions and additional third-neighbor ferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange. Despite the large entanglement introduced by the third-neighbor coupling, we are able to access system sizes up to L = 918 sites. We find first-order phase transitions from the DSSCO into the famous Haldane phase as well as a spin-quadrupolar phase where spin nematic correlations dominate. In the Haldane phase we demonstrate a method for detecting the topological edge states using DMRG that could be useful for other topological phases too. This method can be understood as the well-known active operators applied only at the boundary.

【 授权许可】

Free