Nonlinear Sigma model method for the J1-J2 Heisenberg model: disordered ground state with plaquette symmetry

We have performed a numerical investigation of the ground state properties of the frustrated quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the square lattice (``$J_1-J_2$ model''), using exact diagonalization of finite clusters with 16, 20, 32, and 36 sites. Using a finite-size scaling analysis we obtain results for a number of physical properties: magnetic order parameters, ground state energy, and magnetic susceptibility (at $q=0$). For the unfrustrated case these results agree wit...

We suggest a novel nonlinear $\sigma$-model for the description of disordered superconductors. The main distinction from existing models lies in the fact that the saddle point equation is solved non-perturbatively in the superconducting pairing field. It allows one to use the model both in the vicinity of the metal-superconductor transition and well below its critical temperature with full account for the self-consistency conditions. We show that the model reproduces a set of...

The antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a chain with nearest and next nearest neighbor couplings is mapped onto the $SO(3)$ nonlinear sigma model in the continuum limit. In one spatial dimension this model is always in its disordered phase and a gap opens to excited states. The latter form a doubly degenerate spin-1 branch at all orders in $1/N$. We argue that this feature should be present in the spin-1 Heisenberg model itself. Exact diagonalizations are used to support th...

We investigate the phase diagram of hard-core bosons on a square lattice with competing interactions. The hard-core bosons can be represented also by spin-1/2 operators and the model can therefore be mapped onto an anisotropic $J_1$-$J_2$-Heisenberg model. We find the N\'eel state and a collinear antiferromagnetic state as classical ordered phases to be suppressed for small ferromagnetic exchange terms $J_{1,2}^{x,y}$ and a ferromagnetic phase which orders in the x-y-plane fo...

We study an anisotropic version of the $J_1-J_2$ model with S=1. We find a second order transition from a N\'eel $Q=(\pi,\pi)$ phase to a disordered phase with a spin gap.

The nonlinear sigma model (NLSM) epitomises a field-theoretical approach to (interacting) electrons in disordered media. These lectures are aimed at the audience who might have vaguely heard about its existence but know very little of what is that, even less so of why it should be used and next to nothing of how it can be applied. These what, why and mainly how are the subject of the present lectures. In the first part, after a short description of why to be bothered, the NLS...

We study the ground state properties of the two-dimensional spin-1/2 J_1-J_2-Heisenberg model on a square lattice, within diagrammatic approximations using an auxiliary fermion formulation with exact projection. In a first approximation we assume a phenomenological width of the pseudofermion spectral function to calculate the magnetization, susceptibilities and the spin correlation length within RPA, demonstrating the appearance of a paramagnetic phase between the Neel ordere...

We derive the long-wavelength non-linear sigma model for a two-dimensional Heisenberg system in the presence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and pseudodipolar interactions. We show that the system is a non-conventional easy-axis antiferromagnet, displaying an anomalous coupling between the magnetic field and the staggered order parameter. Our results are in good agreement with recent experimental data for undoped La2CuO4 compounds.

We study the effects of bond and site disorder in the classical $J_{1}$-$J_{2}$ Heisenberg model on a square lattice in the order-by-disorder frustrated regime $2J_{2}>\left|J_{1}\right|$. Combining symmetry arguments, numerical energy minimization and large scale Monte Carlo simulations, we establish that the finite temperature Ising-like transition of the clean system is destroyed in the presence of any finite concentration of impurities. We explain this finding via a rando...

The large $J_2$ limit of the square-lattice $J_1-J_2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet is a classic example of order by disorder where quantum fluctuations select a collinear ground state. Here, we use series expansion methods and a meanfield spin-wave theory to study the excitation spectra in this phase and look for a finite temperature Ising-like transition, corresponding to a broken symmetry of the square-lattice, as first proposed by Chandra et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 88 (199...