Exact momentum-space analysis of small spin-1/2 $J_1$-$J_2$ rings

Abstract

This paper considers an $N$-site spin-1/2 $J_1$-$J_2$ ring with $N=6$ and $8$. With the help of a set of exact few-magnon Bloch states, we obtain the block-diagonalized Hamiltonian consisting of block matrices of at most four dimensions. Partial of the eigenstates are analytically solved. For the six-site anisotropic ring, we reveal a subset of eigenstates that are simultaneous eigenstates of the Hamiltonian and the total angular momentum operator, even though the latter is not conserved. For both the six- and eight-site isotropic rings, we achieve momentum-space manifestations of several important states, including the famous Majumdar-Ghosh (MG) ground states and the Hamada-Kane-Nakagawa-Natsume (HKNN) ground state. The equivalence of these states with their real-space counterparts is explicitly shown for $N=6$. The structure of the HKNN ground state for small rings suggests that for any even number $N$ this state might behave like a ``bound state" with $N/2$ successive down spins binding together.