Topological nature of magnetization plateaus in periodically modulated quantum spin chains

Abstract

We unveil nontrivial topological properties of zero-temperature magnetization plateau states in periodically modulated quantum spin chains under a uniform magnetic field. As positions of plateaus are uniquely determined by the modulation period of exchange couplings, we find that the topologically nontrivial plateau state can be characterized by a nonzero integer Chern number and has nontrivial edge excitations. Our study clarifies the topological origin of the well-known phenomena of quantized magnetization plateaus in one-dimensional quantum spin systems and relates the plateau state to the correlated topological insulator.