Quantum phase transition in the three-dimensional anisotropic frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnetic model

Abstract

The phase diagram of the anisotropic quantum spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet in the presence of competitive nearest $({J}_{1})$- and next-nearest $({J}_{2}=\ensuremath{\alpha}{J}_{1})$-neighbor interactions on a simple cubic lattice is studied within the framework of the differential operator technique. The Hamiltonian is solved by using an effective-field theory in a two-spin cluster. We propose a function for the free energy, which is similar to the Landau expansion, in order to find the ground state $(T=0)$ and the finite-$T$ phase diagram. At zero temperature, we find a first-order quantum phase transition in the point ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}(\ensuremath{\Delta})$ between the antiferromagnetic (AF) and superantiferromagnetic (SAF) phases. This is dependent on the anisotropy parameter $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ ($\ensuremath{\Delta}=0$ and 1 correspond to the isotropic Heisenberg and Ising models, respectively). The quantum critical values of ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}(\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\ne}1)={\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}^{q}(\ensuremath{\Delta})$ are smaller than those of the classical model ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}(\ensuremath{\Delta}=1)={\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}^{c}=1/4$ (for example, for $\ensuremath{\Delta}=0$, we find ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}^{q}(0)=0.21$). The former monotonically increases with the anisotropy parameter $\ensuremath{\Delta}$. The phase diagram in $T\text{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\alpha}$ plane presents a second-order transition at ${T}_{2}(\ensuremath{\alpha})$ between the AF and paramagnetic (P) phases. The phase transition between the SAF and P phases is of first-order ${T}_{1}(\ensuremath{\alpha})$ for all values of $\ensuremath{\Delta}∊[0,1]$. The phase transition lines ${T}_{1}(\ensuremath{\alpha})$ and ${T}_{2}(\ensuremath{\alpha})$ merge in a critical end point (CEP) that is dependent on $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ [i.e., ${T}_{\text{CEP}}(\ensuremath{\Delta})$ and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{\text{CEP}}(\ensuremath{\Delta})$ are the temperature and frustration parameters at the CEP]. The ordered phases (AF and SAF) are separated by first-order transitions and exhibit a nontrivial re-entrant behavior at low temperatures.