Thermal conductivity of a quantum spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic chain with magnetic impurities

• Published in: Физика низких температур
• Date: 2008
• Main Author: Zvyagin, A.A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Фізико-технічний інститут низьких температур ім. Б.І. Вєркіна НАН України 2008
• Subjects: Низкоразмерные и неупорядоченные системы
• Online Access: https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/116849
• Journal Title: Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
• Cite this: Thermal conductivity of a quantum spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic chain with magnetic impurities / A.A. Zvyagin // Физика низких температур. — 2008. — Т. 34, № 3. — С. 273–277. — Бібліогр.: 15 назв. — англ.

We present an exact theory that describes how magnetic impurities change the behavior of the thermal conductivity for the integrable Heisenberg antiferromagnetic quantum spin-1/2 chain. Single magnetic impurities and a large concentration of impurities with similar values of the couplings to the host chain (a weak disorder) do not change the linear-in-temperature low-T behavior of the thermal conductivity: Only the slope of that behavior becomes smaller, comparing to the homogeneous case. The strong disorder in the distribution of the impurity-host couplings produces more rapid temperature growth of the thermal conductivity, compared to the linear in T dependence of the homogeneous chain and the chain with a weak disorder. Recent experiments on the thermal conductivity in inhomogeneous quasi-one-dimensional quantum spin systems manifest qualitative agreement with our results.