Ising analogs of quantum spin chains with multispin interactions

Abstract

A new family of free fermionic quantum spin chains with multispin interactions was recently introduced. Here we show that it is possible to build standard quantum Ising chains---but with inhomogeneous couplings---which have the same spectra as the novel spin chains with multispin interactions. The Ising models are obtained by associating an antisymmetric tridiagonal matrix to the polynomials that characterize the quasienergies of the system via a modified Euclidean algorithm. For the simplest nontrivial case, corresponding to the Fendley model, the phase diagram of the inhomogeneous Ising model is investigated numerically. It is characterized by gapped phases separated by critical lines with order-disorder transitions depending on the parity of the total number of energy density operators in the Hamiltonian.