Instability of interfaces in the antiferromagnetic \(XXZ\) chain at zero temperature (Q1416863)

The paper deals with the interesting problem of the behaviour of the interfaces in quantum spin chains. The authors prove that in antiferromagnetic anisotropic \(XZ\) and \(XXZ\) quantum spin chains the energy of the interface depends on the momentum of the state. This implies that at zero temperature the interface is not stable, on the contrary of what happens in the ferromagnetic case. The authors use suitable modification of the techniques based on a approach to the analysis of ground states of quantum spin systems, introduced by \textit{J. R. Kirkwood} and \textit{L. E. Thomas} [Commun. Math. Phys. 88, 569--580 (1983)]. The important aspect is that with these techniques it is not necessary to use the fact that the models are exactly solvable. The authors expect the methods and results to be applicable to a larger class of models.