Double-peak specific heat feature in frustrated antiferromagnetic clusters

Abstract

We study the nature of the double-peak specific heat structure in kagome clusters. That containing 12 spins is considered thoroughly by numerical diagonalization. Simple models are proposed revealing the low-$T$ peak nature at $T_l<Δ$ ($Δ$ is the spin gap) in this case and in those of larger clusters studied so far. We show that the rapid increase in density of states just above the spin gap gives rise to this peak. These models establish the reason for the weak magnetic field sensitivity of the low-$T$ peak. Our discussion could be appropriate for other frustrated antiferromagnetic systems too.