Multi-particle excitations and spectral densities in quantum spin-systems

The excitation spectrum of the 2-leg S = 1/2 Heisenberg ladder is examined perturbatively. Using an optimally chosen continuous unitary transformation, we expand the Hamiltonian and the Raman operator about the limit of isolated rungs leading to high order series expansions allowing to calculate spectral densities quantitatively. The 2-particle sector is examined for total momentum k = 0. We show that triplet-triplet interaction gives rise to a band splitting. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.