Numerical Methods in Quantum Mechanics - Dipartimento di Fisica
Numerical Methods in Quantum Mechanics - Dipartimento di Fisica
Numerical Methods in Quantum Mechanics - Dipartimento di Fisica
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Chapter 11<br />
Exact <strong>di</strong>agonalization of<br />
quantum sp<strong>in</strong> models<br />
Systems of <strong>in</strong>teract<strong>in</strong>g sp<strong>in</strong>s are used s<strong>in</strong>ce many years to model magnetic phenomena.<br />
Their usefulness extends well beyond the field of magnetism, s<strong>in</strong>ce<br />
many <strong>di</strong>fferent physical phenomena can be mapped, exactly or approximately,<br />
onto sp<strong>in</strong> systems. Many models exists and many techniques can be used to<br />
determ<strong>in</strong>e their properties under various con<strong>di</strong>tions. In this chapter we will deal<br />
with the exact solution (i.e. f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g the ground state) for the Heisenberg model,<br />
i.e. a quantum sp<strong>in</strong> model <strong>in</strong> which sp<strong>in</strong> centered at lattice sites <strong>in</strong>teract via<br />
the exchange <strong>in</strong>teraction. The hyper-simplified model we are go<strong>in</strong>g to study is<br />
sufficient to give an idea of the k<strong>in</strong>d of problems one encounters when try<strong>in</strong>g to<br />
solve many-body systems without resort<strong>in</strong>g to mean-field approximations (i.e.<br />
reduc<strong>in</strong>g the many-body problem to that of a s<strong>in</strong>gle sp<strong>in</strong> under an effective field<br />
generated by the other sp<strong>in</strong>s). Moreover it allows to <strong>in</strong>troduce two very important<br />
concepts <strong>in</strong> numerical analysis: iterative <strong>di</strong>agonalization and sparseness of<br />
a matrix.<br />
11.1 The Heisenberg model<br />
Let us consider a set of atoms <strong>in</strong> a crystal, each atom hav<strong>in</strong>g a magnetic moment,<br />
typically due to localized, partially populated states such as 3d states <strong>in</strong><br />
transition metals and 4f states <strong>in</strong> rare earths. The energy of the crystal may <strong>in</strong><br />
general depend upon the orientation of the magnetic moments. In many cases 1<br />
these magnetic moments tend to spontaneously orient (at sufficiently low temperatures)<br />
along a given axis, <strong>in</strong> the same <strong>di</strong>rection. This phenomenon is known<br />
as ferromagnetism. Other k<strong>in</strong>ds of ordered structures are also known, and <strong>in</strong><br />
particular antiferromagnetism: two or more sublattices of atoms are formed,<br />
hav<strong>in</strong>g opposite magnetization. Well before the advent of quantum mechanics,<br />
it was realized that these phenomena could be quite well modeled by a system<br />
of <strong>in</strong>teract<strong>in</strong>g magnetic moments. The orig<strong>in</strong> of the <strong>in</strong>teraction was however<br />
mysterious, s<strong>in</strong>ce <strong>di</strong>rect <strong>di</strong>pole-<strong>di</strong>pole <strong>in</strong>teraction is way too small to justify the<br />
1 but not for our model: it can be demonstrated that the magnetization vanishes at T ≠ 0,<br />
for all 1-d models with short-range <strong>in</strong>teractions only<br />
79