Excitation Spectra and Edge Singularities in the One-Dimensional Anisotropic Heisenberg Model for Δ = cos(<i>π</i>/<i>n</i>), <i>n</i> = 3,4,5

Abstract

The T=0 excitation spectra of the antiferromagnetic (J>0) anisotropic Heisenberg chain of spins 1/2 are studied using the Bethe Ansatz equations for Δ=cos(π/n), n=3,4 and 5. The number of unknown functions is n−1 for Δ=cos(π/n) and can be solved numerically for a finite external field. The low-energy excitations form a Luttinger liquid parametrized by a conformal field theory with conformal charge of c=1. For higher energy excitations, the spectral functions display deviations from the Luttinger behavior arising from the curvature in the dispersion. Adding a corrective term of the form of a mobile impurity coupled to the Luttinger liquid modes corrects this difference. The “impurity” is an irrelevant operator, which if treated non-perturbatively, yields the threshold singularities in the one-spinwave particle and hole Green’s function correctly.

Keywords

• anisotropic Heisenberg model
• Bethe ansatz
• threshold singularities