Finite-size study of the ground-state energy, susceptibility, and spin-wave velocity for the Heisenberg antiferromagnet

The Green’s-function Monte Carlo (GFMC) method is used to calculate very accurate ground-state energies of the two-dimensional, spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet. The computations are performed on L×L square lattices up to L=16 with varying uniform magnetization, which allows the extraction of the perpendicular susceptibility (χ) and spin-wave velocity (c). These two quantities are the lattice- or cutoff-dependent parameters that allow one to map the long-wavelength properties of the antiferromagnet onto the nonlinear σ model and so are of general interest. Systematic errors present in previous GFMC calculations are addressed and corrected to yield results in excellent agreement with other numerical methods. I find, for the ground-state energy per site, -0.669 34(3); the susceptibility renormalization factor, ${\mathit{Z}}_{\mathrm{\chi }}$=0.535(5); and the spin-wave velocity renormalization factor, ${\mathit{Z}}_{\mathit{c}}$=1.10(3). Finite-size effects in the extraction of ${\mathit{Z}}_{\mathit{c}}$ and ${\mathit{Z}}_{\mathrm{\chi }}$ are discussed. The value of ${\mathit{Z}}_{\mathrm{\chi }}$ computed here is in agreement with the series-expansion results of Singh and of Zheng, Oitmaa, and Hamer, thereby clearing up a previous inconsistency between the series-expansion and quantum Monte Carlo predictions.