The spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg octahedral chain with regularly alternating monomeric and square-plaquette sites is investigated using various analytical and numerical methods: variational technique, localized-magnon approach, exact diagonalization (ED), and density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) methods. The model belongs to the class of flatband systems and it has a rich ground-state phase diagram including phases with spontaneously broken translational symmetry. Moreover, it exhibits an anomalous low-temperature thermodynamics close to continuous or discontinuous field-driven quantum phase transitions between three quantum ferrimagnetic phases, tetramer-hexamer phase, monomer-tetramer phase, localized-magnon phase, and two different spin-liquid phases. If the intraplaquette coupling is at least twice as strong as the monomer-plaquette coupling, the variational method furnishes a rigorous proof of the monomer-tetramer ground state in a low-field region and the localized-magnon approach provides exact evidence of a single magnon trapped at each square plaquette in a high-field region. In the rest of the parameter space we have numerically studied the ground-state phase diagram and magnetization process using DMRG and ED methods. It is shown that the zero-temperature magnetization curve may involve up to four intermediate plateaus at zero, one-fifth, two-fifths, and three-fifths of the saturation magnetization, while the specific heat exhibits a striking low-temperature peak in the vicinity of discontinuous quantum phase transitions.

• Received 2 March 2017
• Revised 19 April 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.224415