Destructive quantum interference in spin tunneling problems
Abstract
In some spin tunneling problems there are several different but symmetry-related tunneling paths that connect the same initial and final configurations. The topological phase factors of the corresponding tunneling amplitudes can lead to destructive interference between the different paths, so that the total tunneling amplitude is zero. In the study of tunneling between different ground-state configurations of the Kagomé-lattice quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet, this occurs when the spin s is half odd integer.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- November 1992
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.69.3236
- arXiv:
- arXiv:cond-mat/9208011
- Bibcode:
- 1992PhRvL..69.3236V
- Keywords:
-
- 75.10.Jm;
- 73.40.Gk;
- 75.50.Lk;
- Quantized spin models;
- Tunneling;
- Spin glasses and other random magnets;
- Condensed Matter
- E-Print:
- 14 pages (RevTex), 3 figures upon request