Spin functional renormalization group for quantum Heisenberg ferromagnets: Magnetization and magnon damping in two dimensions

Abstract

We use the spin functional renormalization group recently developed by two of us [J. Krieg and P. Kopietz, Phys. Rev. B $\bf{99}$, 060403(R) (2019)] to calculate the magnetization $M ( H , T )$ and the damping of magnons due to classical longitudinal fluctuations of quantum Heisenberg ferromagnets. In order to guarantee that for vanishing magnetic field $H \rightarrow 0$ the magnon spectrum is gapless when the spin rotational invariance is spontaneously broken, we use a Ward identity to express the magnon self-energy in terms of the magnetization. In two dimensions our approach correctly predicts the absence of long-range magnetic order for $H=0$ at finite temperature $T$. The magnon spectrum then exhibits a gap from which we obtain the transverse correlation length. We also calculate the wave-function renormalization factor of the magnons. As a mathematical by-product, we derive a recursive form of the generalized Wick theorem for spin operators in frequency space which facilitates the calculation of arbitrary time-ordered connected correlation functions of an isolated spin in a magnetic field.