Spatial Reflection and Associated String Order in Quantum Spin Chains

Abstract

We investigate spatial reflection and associated nonlocal order in spin chain quantum systems. The proposed string order parameters, e.g., reflected via operations of the spatial reflection or combinations of it with spin reflection, are able to characterize a variety of physical systems and allow us to gain renewed insights to the statistical mechanism underlying phenomena such as the Haldane gap and quantum phase transitions. Besides revealing further the potential application of the generalized parity symmetry in numerical algorithm, we build an explicit scheme to determine the symmetry and the related string order for matrix product states so that one can construct ansatz models with presumed properties.