IMPURITY-BOND EFFECT ON THE SPIN-1 ANTIFERROMAGNETIC HEISENBERG CHAIN

Low-lying excited states of the spin-1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with an impurity bond are investigated in terms of domain-wall excitations by means of analytical methods as well as a method of numerical diagonalization. It is shown that 1) the impurity bond brings about a massive triplet mode in the Haldane gap, 2) the triplet state comprises three of the four ground states of an open chain, 3) the excited states with the domain wall trapped at the impurity bond, including the massive triplet mode, exhibit a Neel-type configuration of the magnetic moment around the impurity bond. On the basis of the present results, we propose a new energy versus magnetic-field diagram.