Topological Phases of Spin-1/2 Ferromagnetic--Antiferromagnetic Alternating Heisenberg Chains with Alternating Next-Nearest-Neighbour Interaction

Abstract

A series of symmetry-protected topological(SPT) and trivial spin-gap phases in the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic--antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain with alternating next-nearest-neighbour interaction are investigated using two kinds of entanglement spectra defined by different divisions of the whole chain. In the case one of the next-nearest-neighbor interaction vanishes, the model reduces to the $\Delta$-chain in which a series of spin-gap phases are found in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 77, 044707 (2008). From the degeneracy of the entanglement spectra, these phases are identified as the SPT and trivial phases. It is found that the ground state phases boundaries are insensitive to the strength of the alternation in next-nearest neighbor interaction. These results are consistent with the analysis based on the nonlinear $\sigma$ model and exact solution on the ferromagnetic-nonmagnetic phase boundary.