# REFERENCES

Comment on “Density Matrix Renormalization Group Study of the Haldane Phase in Random One-Dimensional Antiferromagnets”  In a recent Letter, Hida presented numerical results indicating that the Haldane phase of the Heisenberg antiferromagnetic (HAF) spin-1 chain is stable against bond randomness, for box distributions of the bond strength, even when the box distribution stretches to zero bond strength. The author thus concluded that the Haldane phase is stable against bond randomness for any distribution of the bond strength, no matter how broad. This conclusion contradicts our earlier prediction that a sufficiently broad bond distribution drives the HAF spin-1 chain through a critical point into the Random Singlet phase. In this Comment, we (i) point out that the randomness distributions studied in Ref.  do not represent the broadest possible distributions, and therefore these numerical results do not lead to the conclusion that the Haldane phase is stable against any randomness; and (ii) provide a semiquantitative estimate of the critical randomness beyond which the Haldane phase yields to the Random Singlet phase, in a specific class of random distribution functions for the bond strength.

(i) The box distribution function for bond strength $`J`$ used in Ref.  takes the form $`P_{box}(J)=1/W`$ for $`1W/2J1+W/2`$, and $`P_{box}(J)=0`$ otherwise. There is no randomness for $`W=0`$, and the randomness increases with $`W`$. The maximum randomness for this class of distribution functions is reached at $`W=2`$, as further increasing $`W`$ would introduce ferromagnetic bonds to the system and change the physics completely. On the other hand, the $`W=2`$ distribution does not represent the broadest possible distribution among all possible bond distributions. In fact, it is a member of the class of power-law distributions: $`P_{pow}(J)=\alpha J^{1+\alpha }`$ for $`0J1`$, and $`P_{pow}(J)=0`$ otherwise. The case $`W=2`$ of $`P_{box}`$ corresponds to $`\alpha =1`$ in $`P_{pow}`$. The power-law distributions are of particular interest and importance in studies of random spin chains, because under real space renormalization group (RSRG) transformations, all generic distribution functions will flow to power-law distributions in a HAF spin-1/2 chain. The broadness of a power-law distribution is parameterized by the single positive exponent $`\alpha >0`$. The smaller $`\alpha `$ is, the broader the distribution is on a logarithmic scale (the width is $`1/\alpha `$). Clearly, for any $`0<\alpha <1`$, the distribution function $`P_{pow}(J)`$ is broader than those studied in Ref. . Thus the numerical results of Ref.  do not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the Haldane phase in HAF spin-1 chain is stable against any bond randomness, no matter how broad the distribution.

Hida also argues that the persistence of the string order is a consequence of the absence of translation symmetry in the effective spin-1/2 description of the random HAF spin-1 chain, similar to what happens in the random dimerized spin-1/2 chain. We point out that the Random Singlet phase in the effective spin-1/2 model does not have translational symmetry, and that broken translational symmetry and string order are not synonymous.

(ii) While a naive extension of the original form of the RSRG cannot be applied directly to the random HAF spin-1 chain unless the initial distribution function is sufficiently broad, we have developed a RG scheme that is suitable for the random HAF spin-1 and other random spin chains. The key ingredient of this scheme is to project out the highest energy state(s) in the strongest bond and keep all lower energy states at each RG step. Details of this scheme will be presented elsewhere. Using this scheme to simulate the HAF spin-1 chain with power law distributions, we have found two phases separated by a critical point $`\alpha _c0.67`$. For $`\alpha >\alpha _c`$ (which includes the flat distributions of Ref. ) the system is in the Haldane phase characterized by the string order, while for $`\alpha <\alpha _c`$ it is in the Random Singlet phase. While there are approximations involved and our estimate of $`\alpha _c`$ may not be very accurate numerically, it clearly suggests that one needs bond distributions that are broader than those studied to destabilize the Haldane phase.

K.Y. was supported by NSF DMR-9971541 and the Sloan Foundation.

Kun Yang   
NHMFL and Physics Department   
Florida State University   
Tallahassee, Florida 32310

R. A. Hyman   
Department of Physics   
DePaul University   
Chicago, IL 60614-3504