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Orbital-Peierls State in NaTiSi2O6

Jasper van Wezel, Jeroen van den Brink

cond-mat.str-elarXiv:cond-mat/0512591

Abstract

Does the quasi one-dimensional titanium pyroxene NaTiSi2O6 exhibit the novel orbital-Peierls state? We calculate its groundstate properties by three methods: Monte Carlo simulations, a spin-orbital decoupling scheme and a mapping onto a classical model. The results show univocally that for the spin and orbital ordering to occur at the same temperature --an experimental observation-- the crystal field needs to be small and the orbitals are active. We also find that quantum fluctuations in the spin-orbital sector drive the transition, explaining why canonical bandstructure methods fail to find it. The conclusion that NaTiSi2O6 shows an orbital-Peierls transition is therefore inevitable.

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