Properties of the ground state of open chains of the S=1 Heisenberg antiferromagnet are studied by a quantum Monte Carlo method. Size (length) dependences of the ground-state energy, the energy gap, the staggered magnetization 〈${\mathit{S}}_{\mathit{i}}^{\mathit{z}}$〉 and the spin-correlation function 〈${\mathit{S}}_1^{\mathit{z}}$${\mathit{S}}_{\mathit{i}}^{\mathit{z}}$〉 are investigated under free, fixed, and periodic boundary conditions. The size dependences are significant in chains with less than 25 spins, where the magnitude of the staggered magnetization is rather large. However, the fourfold degeneracy of the ground state and the exponential decay of correlations that are inherent to the Haldane system are recovered when the chain length becomes long enough. Both the staggered magnetization and the spin-correlation function decay exponentially. The correlation length is about six in lattice spacing, which agrees with the value obtained in the bulk.

• Received 19 February 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.48.913