Brane order and quantum magnetism in modulated anisotropic ladders

Two-leg spin-1/2ladders with anisotropy and two different dimerization patterns are analyzed at zero temperature. This model is equivalent to a modulated interacting (Kitaev) ladder. The Hartree-Fock mean-field approximation reduces the model to a sum of two quadratic effective Majorana Hamiltonians, which are dual to two quantum transverse XY chains. The mapping between the effective Hamiltonian of the ladder and a pair of chains...