Signature of the Luttinger liquid phase in alternating Heisenberg spin-12chains: Analytical and numerical approaches

Abstract

We have studied the zero- and low-temperature behaviors of anisotropic alternating antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic Heisenberg spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ chains in a transverse magnetic field. Using the analytical spinless fermion approach, the thermodynamic behavior of the model has been studied. We have introduced a different order parameter to distinguish the gapless Luttinger liquid phase from the other gapped phases. The exact diagonalization Lanczos results are also used to compare with the spinless fermion ones. We have found a double peak structure in the specific-heat curves for the region between the two quantum critical points. Using the numerical full diagonalization results, the existence of the double peak structure is confirmed.