Niraj Srivastava

Integrable and Nonintegrable Classical Spin Clusters: Trajectories and Geometric Structure of Invariants

This study investigates the nonlinear dynamics of a pair of exchange-coupled spins with biaxial exchange and single-site anisotropy. It represents a Hamiltonian system with 2 degrees of freedom for which we have already established the (nontrivial) integrability criteria and constructed the integrals of the motion provided they exist. Here we present a comparative study of the phase-space trajectories for two specific models with the same symmetry properties, one of which (the XY model with exchange anisotropy) is integrable, and the other (the XY model with single-site anisotropy) nonintegrable. In the integrable model, the integrals of the motion (analytic invariants) can be reconstructed numerically by means of time averages of dynamical variables over all trajectories. In the nonintegrable model, such time averages over trajectories define nonanalytic invariants, where the nonanalyticities are associated with the presence of chaotic trajectories. A prominent feature in the nonintegrable model is the occurrence of very long time scales caused by the presence of low-flux cantori, which form “sticky” coats on the boundary between chaotic regions and regular islands or “leaky” walls between different chaotic regions. These cantori dominate the convergence properties of time averages and presumably determine the long-time asymptotic properties of dynamic correlation functions. Finally, we present a special class of integrable systems containing arbitrarily many spins coupled by general biaxial exchange anisotropy.

Hamiltonian chaos

Cartesian coordinates, generalized coordinates, canonical coordinates, and, if you can solve the problem, action-angle coordinates. That is not a sentence, but it is classical mechanics in a nutshell. You did mechanics in Cartesian coordinates in introductory physics, probably learned generalized coordinates in your junior year, went on to graduate school to hear about canonical coordinates, and were shown how to solve a Hamiltonian problem by finding the action-angle coordinates. Perhaps you saw the action-angle coordinates exhibited for the harmonic oscillator, and were left with the impression that you (or somebody) could find them for any problem. Well, you now do not have to feel badly if you cannot find them. They probably do not exist! Laplace said, standing on Newton’s shoulders, “Tell me the force and where we are, and I will predict the future!” That claim translates into an important theorem about differential equations—the uniqueness of solutions for given initial conditions. It turned out to be an elusive claim, but it was not until more than 150 years after Laplace that this elusiveness was fully appreciated. In fact, we are still in the process of learning to concede that the proven existence of a solution does not guarantee that we can actually determine that solution. In other words, deterministic time evolution does not guarantee predictability. Deterministic unpredictability or deterministic randomness is the essence of chaos. Mechanical systems whose equations of motion show symptoms of this disease are termed nonintegrable. Nonintegrability is not the result of insufficient brainpower or inadequate computational power. It is an intrinsic property of most nonlinear differential equations with three or more variables. In principle, Newton’s laws can predict the indefinite future of a mechanical system. But the distant future of a nonintegrable system must be “discovered” by numerical integration, one time step after another. The further into the future that prediction is to be made, or the more precise it is to be, the more precise must be our knowledge of the initial conditions, and the more precise must be the numerical integration procedure. For chaotic systems the necessary precision (for example, the number of digits to be retained) increases exponentially with time. The practical limit that this precision imposes on predictions made by real, necessarily finite, computation was emphasized in a recent article in this column. In the Hamiltonian formulation of classical dynamics, a system is described by a pair of first-order ordinary differential equations for each degree of freedom i. The dynamical variables are a canonical coordinate qi and its conjugate

Chaos in spin clusters: Quantum invariants and level statistics

The energy‐level sequence, whose spacings distribution is the most frequently invoked indicator of quantum chaos, can be derived (for systems with two degrees of freedom) from a two‐dimensional representation of quantum invariants by projection. In this representation, such properties of level sequences as effective randomness in integrable models and level repulsion in nonintegrable models can be more directly interpreted in terms of physical properties. In integrable models, anharmonicities convert quasiperiodic level sequences into effectively random sequences.

Classical spin clusters: Integrability and dynamical properties

A pair of exchange‐coupled classical spins with biaxial exchange and single‐site anisotropy represents a Hamiltonian system with two degrees of freedom for which the integrability question is nontrivial. We have found that such a system is completely integrable if the model parameters satisfy a certain condition. For the integrable cases, the second integral of the motion (in addition to the Hamiltonian), which guarantees integrability, is determined explicitly. It can be reconstructed numerically by means of time averages of dynamical variables over all trajectories. In the nonintegrable cases, the existence of the time averages is still guaranteed, but they no longer define an analytic invariant, and their determination is subject to long‐time anomalies. Our numerical calculation of time averages for two lines of initial conditions reveals a number of interesting features of such nonanalytic invariants.

Chaos in spin clusters: Correlation functions and spectral properties

We investigate dynamic correlation functions for a pair of exchange‐coupled classical spins with biaxial exchange and/or single‐site anisotropy. This represents a Hamiltonian system with two degrees of freedom for which we have previously established the integrability criteria. We discuss the impact of (non‐)integrability on the autocorrelation functions and their spectral properties. We point out the role of long‐time anomalies caused by low‐flux cantori, which dominate the convergence properties of time averages and determine the long‐time asymptotic behavior of autocorrelation functions in nonintegrable cases.

Deterministic and stochastic spin diffusion in classical Heisenberg magnets

This computer simulation study provides further evidence that spin diffusion in the one‐dimensional classical Heisenberg model at T=∞ is anomalous: 〈Sj(t)⋅Sj〉 ∼t−α1 withα1 ≳1/2. However, the exponential instability of the numerically integrated phase‐space trajectories transforms the deterministic transport of spin fluctuations into a computationally generated stochastic process in which the global conservation laws are still satisfied to high precision. This may cause a crossover in 〈Sj(t)⋅Sj〉 from anomalous spin diffusion (α1 ≳ 1/2) to normal spin diffusion (α1 = 1/2) at some characteristic time lag that depends on the precision of the numerical integration.

Quantum and classical spin clusters: disappearance of quantum numbers and Hamiltonian chaos

We present a direct link between manifestations of classical Hamiltonian chaos and quantum nonintegrability effects as they occur in quantum invariants. In integrable classical Hamiltonian systems, analytic invariants (integrals of the motion) can be constructed numerically by means of time averages of dynamical variables over phase-space trajectories, whereas in near-integrable models such time averages yield nonanalytic invariants with qualitatively different properties. Translated into quantum mechanics, the invariants obtained from time averages of dynamical variables in energy eigenstates provide a topographical map of the plane of quantized actions (quantum numbers) with properties which again depend sensitively on whether or not the classical integrability condition is satisfied. The most conspicuous indicator of quantum chaos is the disappearance of quantum numbers, a phenomenon directly related to the breakdown of invariant tori in the classical phase flow. All results are for a system consisting of two exchange-coupled spins with biaxial exchange and single-site anisotropy, a system with a nontrivial integrability condition.

Spin diffusion in classical Heisenberg magnets with uniform, alternating, and random exchange

We have carried out an extensive simulation study for the spin autocorrelation function at T=∞ of the one‐dimensional classical Heisenberg model with four different types of isotropic bilinear nearest‐neighbor coupling: uniform exchange, alternating exchange, and two kinds of random exchange. For the long‐time tails of all but one case, the simulation data seem incompatible with the simple ∼t−1/2 leading term predicted by spin diffusion phenomenology.

Regular and Chaotic Dynamics of Classical Spin Systems

In the context of the present discussion of the nature of quantum chaos /1/, the dynamics of spin clusters has been the subject of several investigations /2–6/ recently. The interest is focussed on the characteristic properties of quantum spin systems whose classical counterparts are nonintegrable. As a basis for the investigation of regular and chaotic spin motion, we have examined the problem of integrability of classical spin clusters /7, 8/.