Excitation spectrum and correlation functions of theZ3 chiral Potts quantum spin chain

Abstract We study the excitation spectrum and the correlation functions of theZ 3 chiral Potts model in the massive high-temperature phase using perturbation expansions and numerical diagonalization. We are mainly interested in results for general chiral angles but we consider also the superintegrable case. For the parameter values considered, we find that the band structure of the low-lying part of the excitation spectrum has the form expected from a quasiparticle picture with two fundamental particles. Studying the chain-size dependence of the spectrum, we find a remarkable stability of the second fundamental particle in a limited range of the momentum, even when its energy becomes so high that it lies very high up among the multiparticle scattering states. This is not a phenomenon restricted to the superintegrable line. Calculating a non-translationally invariant correlation function, we give evidence that it is oscillating. Within our numerical accuracy we find a relation between the oscillation length and the dip position of the momentum dispersion of the lightest particle which seems to be quite independent of the chiral angles.