The a-cycle problem for transverse Ising ring

Traditionally, the transverse Ising model is mapped to the fermionic c-cycle problem, which neglects the boundary effect due to thermodynamic limit. If persisting on a perfect periodic boundary condition, we can get a so-called a-cycle problem that has not been treated seriously so far (Lieb et al 1961 Ann. Phys. 16 407). In this work, we show a little surprising but exact result in this respect. We find the odevity of the number of lattice sites, N, in the a-cycle problem plays an unexpected role even in the thermodynamic limit, N→∞, due to the boundary constraint. We pay special attention to the system with N(∈Odd)→∞, which is in contrast to the one with N(∈Even)→∞, because the former suffers a ring frustration. As a new effect, we find the ring frustration induces a low-energy gapless spectrum above the ground state. By proving a theorem for a new type of Toeplitz determinant, we demonstrate that the ground state in the gapless region exhibits a peculiar longitudinal spin–spin correlation. The entangled nature of the ground state is also disclosed by the evaluation of its entanglement entropy. At low temperature, new behavior of specific heat is predicted. We also propose an experimental protocol for observing the new phenomenon due to the ring frustration.