Quantum spin nanotubes -- frustration, competing orders and criticalities

Abstract

Recent developments of theoretical studies on spin nanotubes are reviewed, especially focusing on the $S=1/2$ three-leg spin tube. In contrast to the three-leg spin ladder, the tube has a spin gap in case of the regular-triangle unit cellwhen the rung interaction is sufficiently large. The effective theory based on the Hubbard Hamiltonian indicates a quantum phase transition to the gapless spin liquid due to the lattice distortion to an isosceles triangle. This is also supported by the numerical diagonalization and the density matrix renormalization group analyses. Furthermore, combining analytical and numerical approaches, we reveal several novel magnetic-field-induced phenomena: Néel, dimer, chiral and/or inhomogeneous orders, new mechanism for the magnetization plateau formation,and others. The recently synthesized spin tube materials are also briefly introduced.

Published in JPCM as a topical review, 24 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Magnetic characterization of the frustrated three-leg ladder compound [(CuCl2tachH)3Cl]Cl2
• Frustrated three-leg spin tubes: from spin 1/2 with chirality to spin 3/2
• Quantum phase transitions of the asymmetric three-leg spin tube
• Low-lying excitations of the three-leg spin tube using the density-matrix renormalization group method
• Heat capacity uncovers physics of a frustrated spin tube
• Coexistence of vector chiral order and Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid in the frustrated three-leg spin tube in a magnetic field