Linked cluster series expansions for two-particle bound states

We develop strong-coupling series expansion methods to study two-particle spectra of quantum lattice models. At the heart of the method lies the calculation of an effective Hamiltonian in the two-particle subspace. We explicitly consider an orthogonality transformation to generate this block diagonalization, and find that maintaining orthogonality is crucial for systems where the ground state and the two-particle subspace are characterized by identical quantum numbers. We discuss the solution of the two-particle Schrodinger equation by using a finite lattice approach in coordinate space or by an integral equation in momentum space. These methods allow us to precisely determine the low-lying excitation spectra of the models at hand, including all two-particle bound/antibound states. Further, we discuss how to generate series expansions for the dispersions of the bound/antibound states. These allow us to employ series extrapolation techniques, whereby binding energies can be determined even when the expansion parameters are not small. We apply the method to the ~111!-dimensional transverse Ising model and the two-leg spin- 1 2 Heisenberg ladder. For the latter model, we also calculate the coherence lengths and determine the critical properties where bound states merge with the two-particle continuum.