6.

3 N&I Order versus Valence Bond States 321

which has several distinct T = 0 phases [102]. It turns out that the pure
Heisenberg model (& = 0), and the VBS model (& = J/3) are indeed
closely related, in the sense that they belong to the same Haldane phase
which stretches over the interval - J < Q < J . The Haldane phase is
gapped, and homogeneous: a glance at (6.145) shows that the bonds
are energetically equivalent.
Is the valence bond state completely disordered? In the usual sense
of the word, it is: it does not break any global symmetry, and its spin-
spin correlation function decays exponentially. Still, we would expect
that the ground state of an interacting system should show some inter-
esting coherence property, and such is indeed the case. The eigenstates
of Sz are 1, 0, and -1; let us denote the corresponding states by 1, 0,
L
and 1. For instance, the state 1 arises from both constituent 1/2-spins
being t. If the ground state were completely featureless, a “snapshot”
would give an arbitrary sequence of these species, say lO~lOOlll0.. ..
In particular, a 1 site could be followed either by another 1, or by T,
or a 0. Let us, however, consider the construction of the VBS state
(6.145), and assume that site j = 2 is in the state 1. This means that
from both bonds ending at 2, we used up the ?-electron. Consequently,
at the site j = 3, we can use only the &-electronfrom the bond [23],and
thus site 3 cannot be in the state 1. It follows that in the VBS state,
1 can be followed only by 0 or 1, but not by 1, and similarly, T can be
followed only by 1 or 0, but not by 1. If we contract the state by
_ _leaving
_
out the zeros, we get the ideal antiferromagnetic sequence 111111.. ..
However, this feature is not manifested in AFM long-range order, not
even in quasi-long-range order, because between any two 1 and sites,
an arbitrary number of 0 sites can be inserted. Therefore one speaks
of hidden order. What we have just met is saturated hidden order in
_ sense that, after leaving out the zeros, a 1 is always followed by a
the
1, and vice versa. We may also envisage hidden order reduced by quan-
tum fluctuations, so that following 1 by I is no longer certain but still
has ~ 5 0 %probability. We have convinced ourselves that hidden order
is saturated in the VBS point. It can be shown that it is non-saturated
but non-vanishing in the entire Haldane phase41.
41The existence and degree of N6el order could be detected by calculating
l i m m + m ( S ~ S ~ + mQuantifying
). the hidden order is not so simple: it requires check-