260 Ch.

5 Mott Insulators

Thereby we have shown that (similarly to the S = 1/2 case studied earlier) the
antiferromagnetic S = 1 Heisenberg model can also be derived as an effective
Hamiltonian describing the low-energy states of an interacting electron system.
The origin of the coupling is the same kinetic exchange that we learned about
in Sec. 2.5.2, and in Sec. 5.1.5.
Fourth-onler processes. We would be right to feel surprised that OUT first
result (5.133) for the effective Hamiltonian has the same simple form as what
we found for S = 1/2 spins: could S = 1 spins not do something more compli-
cated? In fact they can, as we are going to find by examining the fourth-order
contributions to the energy levels.
(5.124) remains true. We can convince ourselves that in the S = 1, S"= 1
subspace only the singly ionized state found in (5.128) can be reached from
11, l ) , thus there is a 2 x 2 problem to solve. Expanding the relevant eigenvalue
to fourth order, we find

' N"--
4t2 16t4
(5.134)
ES=l U +J + (U+ J ) 3 '
The singlet subspace is larger: we find two more excited states which can
be reached from 10,O). One of them is the doubly ionized state
1
-(Cfatcfalcf6tcfbl + c 2t a t c 2t a l C ~ b f c ~ b J ) (5.135)
Ih
with excitation energy 2(U f U a b ) + J. The other one is composed of local
singlets:
-(Cla~Cla$C2b~C2b~ t )'
1 t t t t +,t l b t ,t1 6 1,t2at%a$ (5.136)
Ih
+
This state has the low excitation energy 2(U - Uab) J: it violates Hund's
rules but preserves local neutrality. The matrix of the 4 x 4 eigenvalue problem

The singlet level is now

6t2 2
EikO - u+J + 2(U + Uab) + J - 2( U - Uab)+ J
(5.138)
Again, we wish to associate the energy levels (5.124), (5.134), and (5.138)
with an effective Hamiltonian expressed in terms of S = 1 spin operators. It
cannot be of the simple (bilinear) Heisenberg form (5.133) because we know