Ladder ising spin configurations. I. Heat capacity

Abstract

AbstractWe consider a ladder Ising spin model (with two coupled Ising spin chains), characterized by two couplings (interchain and intrachain couplings), to study in detail, in an analytical way, its thermal behaviour and particularly the variation of the specific heat versus temperature, the ratio of interaction constants, and the magnetic field. It is interesting that when the competition between interchain and intrachain interactions is strong thespecific heat exhibits a double peak and when the competition is not so strong the specific heat has a single peak. Further, without entering into details, we give, in a numerical way, some similar results for more complicated ladder configurations (with more than two linear Ising chains). The spin \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$\documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ \- \frac{1}{2} $\end{document}$\end{document} ladders or systems of spin chains may be realized in nature by vanadyl pyrophosphate ((VO)2P2O7) or similar materials. All these intermediate systems are today important to gain further insight into the physics of one‐dimensional spin chains and two‐dimensional high‐Tc spin systems, both of which have shown interesting and unusual magnetic and superconducting properties. It is plausible that experimental and theoretical studies of ladders may lead to other interesting physical phenomena.