Fragility of string orders

F. Anfuso and A. Rosch
Phys. Rev. B 76, 085124 – Published 22 August 2007

Abstract

One-dimensional gapped systems are often characterized by a “hidden” nonlocal order parameter, the so-called string order. Due to the gap, thermodynamic properties are robust against a weak higher-dimensional coupling between such chains or ladders. On the contrary, we find that the string order is not stable and decays for arbitrary weak interchain or interladder coupling. We investigate the vanishing of the order for three different systems: spin-1 Haldane chains, band insulators, and the transverse-field Ising model. Using perturbation theory and bosonization, we show that the fragility of the string order arises from nonlocal commutation relations between the nonlocal order parameter and the perturbation.

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  • Received 7 February 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.085124

©2007 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

F. Anfuso and A. Rosch

  • Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 76, Iss. 8 — 15 August 2007

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