Ferrimagnetic and Haldane-type phases in a mixed-spin $1$-$\tfrac{1}{2}$-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ quantum trimer chain

Abstract

Bipartite Lieb-Mattis ferrimagnetism and the symmetry-protected Haldane phase are paradigmatic mechanisms in quasi-one-dimensional quantum magnets. Both emerge, in distinct regimes, in a mixed-spin $1$-$\tfrac{1}{2}$-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg trimer chain with antiferromagnetic backbone exchange $J$ and a side spin-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ coupled to each backbone spin by an exchange $J_t$ of either sign. Using the density matrix renormalization group, we compute magnetization curves and the entanglement spectrum and entropy. For $J_t>0$ a robust ferrimagnetic plateau forms at magnetization per unit cell $m=1$, whose multiplet entropy reflects how the conserved magnetization splits between the halves. For $J_t<0$ an $m=0$ plateau opens and grows with $|J_t|$, while the $m=1$ plateau closes. As $J_t\to-\infty$ the chain maps onto a spin-$1$ Heisenberg chain with coupling $J/2$: the $m=0$ width $Δh\simeq 0.196$ matches half the Haldane gap. Exponentially localized spin-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ edge states and the even-fold degeneracy of the entanglement spectrum confirm the Haldane character of the $m=0$ phase.