Disorder Induced Quantum Phase transitions in Random-Exchange Spin-1/2 Chains

Abstract

We investigate the effect of quenched bond disorder on the anisotropic antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 (XXZ) chain as a model for disorder-induced quantum phase transitions. We find nonuniversal behavior of the average correlation functions for weak disorder, followed by a quantum phase transition into a strongly disordered phase with only short-range xy correlations. We find no evidence for the universal strong-disorder fixed point predicted by the real-space renormalization group, suggesting a qualitatively different view of the relationship between quantum fluctuations and disorder.