Nonlinear excitations on a quantum ferromagnetic chain.

Abstract

We use a spin-coherent representation to derive the spectrum of nonlinear excitations in a spin-S quantum ferromagnetic Heisenberg chain in the continuum limit. Quantum effects split the semiclassical spectrum into two branches---a lower branch of spin-wave-like, large-width solitary waves with negligible quantum corrections for all S, and an upper branch of particlelike, small-width solitary waves subject to significant quantum corrections for low S. The stability of these excitations is briefly discussed.