Anomalous Thermodynamic Response in the Vicinity of a Pseudo-Transition of a Spin-1/2 Ising Diamond Chain

Abstract

The spin-1/2 Ising diamond chain in a magnetic field displays a remarkable pseudo-transition whenever it is driven sufficiently close to a ground-state phase boundary between a classical ferrimagnetic phase and a highly degenerate frustrated phase. The pseudo-transition of the spin-1/2 Ising diamond chain relates to intense thermal excitations from a nondegenerate ferrimagnetic ground state to a highly degenerate manifold of excited states with a frustrated character, which are responsible for an anomalous behavior of thermodynamic quantities. Temperature dependences of entropy and specific heat are indeed reminiscent of a temperature-driven phase transition of a discontinuous (entropy) or continuous (specific heat) nature though there are no true singularities of these thermodynamic quantities at a pseudo-critical temperature.