Magnetism of classical and quantum systems of localized spins

The static critical properties of localized are studied spin systems. Several models are discussed: (a) the anisotropic quantum Heisenberg ferromagnet on square lattice (with quenched bond-dilution and random anisotropy) and on simple cubic lattice; (b) the Z(4) ferromagnetic model on square lattice; (c) the Ising model on the Cayley tree, in the presence of competing interactions. The (a) and (b) problems are studied within a real-space Renormalisation Group (RG) approach. In both cases, methods to perform the relevant partial tracings, that are better than those available in the literature are developed. The critical frontiers obtained reproduce all known exact results, and they are high precision ones everywhere. Correlation lenght critical exponents (υ) and the crossover exponents (Φ) are also calculated. The values are, in degree of approximation, equal or superior to those obtained using the Migdal-Kadanoff RG. The (c) problem is investigated by constructing recursive relations (similar to RG); the resulting phase diagram (numerically exact) presents a set of modulated phases, besides the ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic ones. It is worth to stress the presence of metastability phenomena and the existence of the paramagnetic phase at arbitrary non-vanishing small temperatures. In addition to the previous works a study of the energy eigenvalues and the specific heat of a general anharmonic single quantum oscillator, by using the Turschner and WKB approximations was performed. Comparisons between them, exhibit the superiority of the Turschner approximation. (author)