Ground state of antiferromagnetic Heisenberg two-leg ladder in terms of the valence-bond solid picture

Abstract

We have proposed the plaquette-singlet solid (PSS) ground state for the spin-1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg two-leg ladder. Based on the PSS picture, we discuss the correspondence of the PSS state to the valence-bond solid (VBS) state of the ground state of spin-2 chain by introducing an appropriate composite spin picture. When the bond alternation is introduced, there occur quantum phase transitions and each phase can be identified with that in the dimerized spin-2 chain. Furthermore, we argue that the VBS picture of spin-2S chain can be applied to the ground state of spin-S two-leg ladder.