Quantum criticality of spinons

Abstract

Magnon bound states emerging in one-dimensional (1D) spin chains still lack a rigorous understanding. In this Rapid Communication we show that the length-1 spin strings significantly dominate the critical properties of spinons, magnons, and free fermions in the 1D antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain. Using the Bethe ansatz solution, we analytically calculate the scaling functions of the thermal and magnetic properties of the model, providing a rigorous understanding of the quantum criticality of spinons. It turns out that the double maxima in specific heat elegantly mark two crossover temperatures fanning out from the critical point, indicating three quantum phases: the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL), the quantum critical, and fully polarized ferromagnetic phases. For the TLL phase, the Wilson ratio RW=4Ks remains almost temperature independent, where Ks is the Luttinger parameter. Furthermore, by applying our results, we precisely determine the quantum scalings and critical exponents of all magnetic properties in the ideal 1D spin-1/2 antiferromagnet Cu(C4H4N2)(NO3)2, recently studied by Kono et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 037202 (2015)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.114.037202]. We further find that the magnetization maximum used in experiments is not a good quantity to map out the finite-temperature TLL phase boundary. Show more