Peculiarities in pseudo-transitions of a mixed spin-(1/2, 1) Ising–Heisenberg double-tetrahedral chain in an external magnetic field

Abstract

Recently, it has been rigorously verified that several one-dimensional (1D) spin models may exhibit a peculiar pseudo-transition accompanied with anomalous response of thermodynamic quantities in a close vicinity of pseudo-critical temperature. In the present work we will introduce and exactly solve a mixed spin-(1/2,1) Ising–Heisenberg double-tetrahedral chain in an external magnetic field as another particular example of 1D lattice-statistical model with short-range interactions that displays a pseudo-transition of this type. The investigated model exhibits at zero temperature three ferrimagnetic phases, three frustrated phases, and one saturated paramagnetic phase. The ground-state phase diagram involves five unusual interfaces (phase boundaries), at which the residual entropy per site equals to a larger entropy of one of two coexisting phases. Four such interfaces are between a non-degenerate ferrimagnetic phase and a macroscopically degenerate frustrated phase, while one interface is between two non-degenerate ferrimagnetic phases. Though thermal excitations typically destroy all fingerprints of zero-temperature phase transitions of 1D lattice-statistical models with short-range forces, the mixed spin-(1/2,1) Ising–Heisenberg double-tetrahedral chain is quite robust with respect to thermal excitations and it displays peculiar pseudo-transitions close to all five aforementioned interfaces.