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Effective Hamiltonian In The Problem Of A "Central Spin" Coupled To A Spin Environment, I Tupitsyn, Nikolai Prokof'ev, P Stamp

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

We consider here the problem of a "giant spin", with spin quantum number S≫1, interacting with a set of microscopic spins. Interactions between the microscopic spins are ignored. This model describes the low-energy properties of magnetic grains or magnetic macromolecules (ferromagnetically or antiferromagnetically ordered) interacting with a surrounding spin environment, such as nuclear spins. Our aim is to give a general method for truncating the model to another one, valid at low energies, in which a two-level system interacts with the environmental spins, and higher energy terms are absorbed into a new set of couplings. This is done using an …