Commensurate-Incommensurate Phase Transitions for Multichain Quantum Spin Models: Exact Results

Abstract

The behavior in an external magnetic field is studied for a wide class of multichain quantum spin models. It is shown that the magnetic field together with the interchain couplings cause commensurate-incommensurate phase transitions between the gapless phases in the ground state. The conformal limit of these models is studied and it is shown that the low-lying excitations for the incommensurate phases are not independent. A scenario for the transition from one to two space dimensions for the integrable multichain models is proposed. The similarities in the external field behavior for the quantum multichain spin models and a wide class of quantum field theories are discussed. The exponents for the gaps caused by relevant perturbations of the models are calculated.