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The Motzkin and Fredkin quantum spin chains are described by frustration-free Hamiltonians recently introduced and studied because of their anomalous behaviors in the correlation functions and in the entanglement properties. In this paper we analyze their quantum dynamical properties, focusing in particular on the time evolution of the excitations driven by a quantum quench, looking at the correlations functions of spin operators defined along different directions, and discussing the results in relation with the cluster decomposition property., 8 pages, 8 figures, submitted to JSTAT special issue "New Trends in Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics: Classical and Quantum Systems (nesmcq18)"

It has been shown recently that inhomogenous spin chains can exhibit exotic phenomena such as the breaking of the area law of the entanglement entropy. An example is given by the rainbow model where the exchange coupling constants decrease from the center of the chain. Here we show that by folding the chain around its center, the long-range entanglement becomes short-range which can lead to topological phases protected by symmetries (SPT). The phases are trivial for bond-centered foldings, and non trivial for site-centered ones. In the latter case, the folded spin 1/2 chain with $U(1)$ symmetry belongs to the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger class, while the folded chain with $SU(2)$ symmetry is in the Haldane phase. Finally, we extend these results to higher spin chains where we find a correspondence between the symmetry protection of gapped and gapless phases., 11 pages (5 pages of main text and 6 pages of supplemental materials), 9 figures

The $J_1-J_3$ Heisenberg spin models with nearest-neighbor ($J_1$) and additional isotropic three-site ($J_3$) spin interactions remain relatively less explored, although such types of competing exchange terms can naturally emerge from different sources, including the strong-coupling expansion of the multiorbital Hubbard model. Below we present a short survey of the recently published research in this field, the emphasis being on the characteristics of the variety of quantum phases supported by a few generic uniform- and alternating-spin $J_1-J_3$ Heisenberg chains. For the reason that the positive ($J_3>0$) three-site couplings tend towards the formation of local quantum dimers, the $J_1-J_3$ spin models typically experience some spontaneous dimerization upon increasing $J_3$. Actually, it occurred that the established dimer phases in spin-$S$ $J_1-J_3$ Heisenberg chains ($S>{1}/{2}$) serve as complete analogues of the famous gapped Majumdar-Ghosh dimer phase in the spin-${1}/{2}$ Heisenberg chain with next-nearest-neighbor couplings. The same dimerizations have been observed in the alternating-spin ($S,\sigma$) $J_1-J_3$ chains ($S>\sigma$), provided that the cell spin $S+\sigma=\rm{integer}$, whereas for half-integer cell spin, the local dimer formation produces gapless spin-liquid ground states. The alternating-spin $J_1-J_3$ chains also provide some typical examples of spin models supporting the so-called non-Lieb-Mattis magnetic phases., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

Motzkin and Fredkin spin chains exhibit the extraordinary amount of entanglement scaling as a square-root of the volume, which is beyond logarithmic scaling in the ordinary critical systems. Intensive study of such spin systems is urged to reveal novel features of quantum entanglement. As a study of the systems from a different viewpoint, we introduce large-N matrix models with so-called ABAB interactions, in which correlation functions reproduce the entanglement scaling in tree and planar Feynman diagrams. Including loop diagrams naturally defines an extension of the Motzkin and Fredkin spin chains. Contribution from the whole loop effects at large N gives the growth of the power of 3/2 (with logarithmic correction), further beyond the square-root scaling. The loop contribution provides fluctuating two-dimensional bulk geometry, and the enhancement of the entanglement is understood as an effect of quantum gravity., 29 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Special Issue "Selected Papers: 10th Mathematical Physics Meeting" in Symmetry; (v2) typos corrected; (v3) reference added, version close to the publication

We address the problem of analyzing the radius of convergence of perturbative expansion of nonequilibrium steady states of Lindblad-driven spin chains. A simple formal approach is developed for systematically computing the perturbative expansion of small driven systems. We consider the paradigmatic model of an open XXZ spin-1/2 chain with boundary-supported ultralocal Lindblad dissipators and treat two different perturbative cases: (i) expansion in the system-bath coupling parameter and (ii) expansion in the driving (bias) parameter. In the first case (i) we find that the radius of convergence quickly shrinks with increasing the system size, while in the second case (ii) we find that the convergence radius is always larger than 1, and in particular it approaches 1 from above as we change the anisotropy from an easy-plane (XY) to an easy-axis (Ising) regime.

Entanglement entropy has proven invaluable to our understanding of quantum criticality. It is natural to try to extend the concept to non-unitary quantum mechanics, which has seen growing interest from areas as diverse as open quantum systems, non-interacting electronic disordered systems, or non-unitary conformal field theory (CFT). We propose and investigate such an extension here, by focussing on the case of one-dimensional quantum group symmetric or supergroup symmetric spin chains. We show that the consideration of left and right eigenstates combined with appropriate definitions of the trace leads to a natural definition of R\'enyi entropies in a large variety of models. We interpret this definition geometrically in terms of related loop models and calculate the corresponding scaling in the conformal case. This allows us to distinguish the role of the central charge and effective central charge in rational minimal models of CFT, and to define an effective central charge in other, less well understood cases. The example of the $sl(2|1)$ alternating spin chain for percolation is discussed in detail., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures

Magnetic solitons can constitute a means for manipulating qubits from a distance. This would overcome the necessity of directly applying selective magnetic fields, which is unfeasible in the case of a matrix of qubits embedded in a solid-state quantum device. If the latter contained one-dimensional Heisenberg spin chains coupled to each qubit, one can originate a soliton in a selected chain by applying a time-dependent field at one end of it, far from the qubits. The generation of realistic solitons has been simulated. When a suitable soliton passes by, the coupled qubit undergoes nontrivial operations, even in the presence of moderate thermal noise., 6 pages, 5 figures

First order quantum phase transitions (1QPTs) are signalled, in the thermodynamic limit, by discontinuous changes in the ground state properties. These discontinuities affect expectation values of observables, including spatial correlations. When a 1QPT is crossed in the vicinity of a second order one, due to the correlation length divergence of the latter, the corresponding ground state is modified and it becomes increasingly difficult to determine the order of the transition when the size of the system is finite. Here we show that, in such situations, it is possible to apply finite size scaling (FSS) to entanglement measures, as it has recently been done for the order parameters and the energy gap, in order to recover the correct thermodynamic limit (Campostrini et al 2014 Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 070402). Such a FSS can unambiguously discriminate between first and second order phase transitions in the vicinity of multicritical points even when the singularities displayed by entanglement measures lead to controversial results.

We propose a method for acting on the spin state of a spin-1/2 localized particle, or `qubit', by means of a magnetic signal effectively generated by the nearby transit of a magnetic soliton, there conveyed through a transmission line. We first introduce the specific magnetic soliton of which we will make use, and briefly review the properties that make it apt to represent a signal. We then show that a Heisenberg spin chain can serve as transmission line, and propose a method for injecting a soliton into the chain by acting just on one of its ends. We finally demonstrate that the resulting magnetic pulse can indeed cause, just passing by the spin-1/2 localized particle embodying the qubit, a permanent change in its spin state, thus realizing the possibility of getting through to a single, localized qubit, and manipulate its state. A thorough analysis of how the overall dynamical system operates depending on the setting of its parameters demonstrates that fine tuning is not necessary as it exists an extended region in the parameters space that corresponds to an effective functioning. Moreover, we show that possible noise on the transmission line does not invalidate the scheme., 8 pages, 7 figures

We study a system of interacting spinless fermions in one dimension which, in the absence of interactions, reduces to the Kitaev chain [A. Yu Kitaev, Phys.-Usp. \textbf{44}, 131 (2001)]. In the non-interacting case, a signal of topological order appears as zero-energy modes localized near the edges. We show that the exact ground states can be obtained analytically even in the presence of nearest-neighbor repulsive interactions when the on-site (chemical) potential is tuned to a particular function of the other parameters. As with the non-interacting case, the obtained ground states are two-fold degenerate and differ in fermionic parity. We prove the uniqueness of the obtained ground states and show that they can be continuously deformed to the ground states of the non-interacting Kitaev chain without gap closing. We also demonstrate explicitly that there exists a set of operators each of which maps one of the ground states to the other with opposite fermionic parity. These operators can be thought of as an interacting generalization of Majorana edge zero modes., Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure; v2: a new appendix and references added

This article reviews and extends recent results concerning entanglement and frustration in multipartite systems which have some symmetry with respect to the ordering of the particles. Starting point of the discussion are Bell inequalities: their relation to frustration in classical systems and their satisfaction for quantum states which have a symmetric extension. We then discussed how more general global symmetries of multipartite systems constrain the entanglement between two neighboring particles. We prove that maximal entanglement (measured in terms of the entanglement of formation) is always attained for the ground state of a certain nearest neighbor interaction Hamiltonian having the considered symmetry with the achievable amount of entanglement being a function of the ground state energy. Systems of Gaussian states, i.e. quantum harmonic oscillators, are investigated in more detail and the results are compared to what is known about ordered qubit systems.

Recent experiments demonstrate the production of many thousands of neutral atoms entangled in their spin degrees of freedom. We present a criterion for estimating the amount of entanglement based on a measurement of the global spin. It outperforms previous criteria and applies to a wide class of entangled states, including Dicke states. Experimentally, we produce a Dicke-like state using spin dynamics in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Our criterion proves that it contains at least genuine 28-particle entanglement. We infer a generalized squeezing parameter of -11.4(5) dB., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We study the low-energy states of the 1D random-hopping model in a strongly disordered regime. The entanglement structure is shown to depend solely on the probability distribution for the length of the effective bonds P(l[subíndice]b), whose scaling and finite-size behavior are established using renormalizationgroup arguments and a simple model based on random permutations. Parity oscillations are absent in von Neumann entropy with periodic boundary conditions, but appear in the higher moments of the distribution, such as the variance. The particle-hole excited states leave the bond structure and the entanglement untouched. Nonetheless, particle addition or removal deletes bonds and leads to an effective saturation of entanglement at an effective block size given by the expected value for the longest bond. We would like to acknowledge F.C. Alcaraz and J. A. Hoyos for very useful discussions, along with CNPq for the hospitality at The São Carlos Institute of Physics (Brazil). We also acknowledge financial support from the Spanish government from grant FIS2012-33642 and the Spanish MINECO's "Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa" Programme under grant SEV-2012-0249. JR-L acknowledges support from grant FIS2012-38866-C05-1. GR. acknowledges support from grant FIS2009-11654. The use of HPC systems of the IFT UAM/CSIC is also acknowledged. Publicado

We show that strongly interacting multicomponent gases in one dimension realize an effective spin chain, offering an alternative simple scenario for the study of one-dimensional (1D) quantum magnetism in cold gases in the absence of an optical lattice. The spin-chain model allows for an intuitive understanding of recent experiments and for a simple calculation of relevant observables. We analyze the adiabatic preparation of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic ground states, and show that many-body spin states may be efficiently probed in tunneling experiments. The spin-chain model is valid for more than two components, opening the possibility of realizing SU(N) quantum magnetism in strongly interacting 1D alkaline-earth-metal or ytterbium Fermi gases. © 2014 American Physical Society. DFG/EXC/QUEST German-Israeli foundation Swiss SNF NCCR Quantum Science and Technology Swedish Research Council Lund University

We develop in full detail the formalism of tangent states to the manifold of matrix product states, and show how they naturally appear in studying time-evolution, excitations and spectral functions. We focus on the case of systems with translation invariance in the thermodynamic limit, where momentum is a well defined quantum number. We present some new illustrative results and discuss analogous constructions for other variational classes. We also discuss generalizations and extensions beyond the tangent space, and give a general outlook towards post matrix product methods., Comment: 40 pages, 8 figures

We examine the quantum correlations of spin pairs in the cyclic XX spin 1/2 chain in a trans- verse field, through the analysis of the quantum discord, the geometric discord and the information deficit. It is shown that while these quantities provide the same qualitative information, being non- zero for all temperatures and separations and exhibiting the same type of asymptotic behavior for large temperatures or separations, important differences arise in the minimizing local measurement that defines them. Whereas the quantum discord prefers a spin measurement perpendicular to the transverse field, the geometric discord and information deficit exhibit a perpendicular to parallel transition as the field increases, which subsists at all temperatures and for all separations. More- over, it is shown that such transition signals the change from a Bell state to an aligned separable state of the dominant eigenstate of the reduced density matrix of the pair. Full exact results for both the thermodynamic limit and the finite chain are provided, through the Jordan-Wigner fermionization., Facultad de Ciencias Exactas

The entanglement spectrum describing quantum correlations in many-body systems has been recently recognized as a key tool to characterize different quantum phases, including topological ones. Here we derive its analytically scaling properties in the vicinity of some integrable quantum phase transitions and extend our studies also to nonintegrable quantum phase transitions in one-dimensional spin models numerically. Our analysis shows that, in all studied cases, the scaling of the difference between the two largest nondegenerate Schmidt eigenvalues yields with good accuracy critical points and mass scaling exponents.

We examine the quantum correlations of spin pairs in the ground state of finite XY chains in a transverse field, by evaluating the quantum discord as well as other related entropic measures of quantum correlations. A brief review of the latter, based on generalized entropic forms, is also included. It is shown that parity effects are of crucial importance for describing the behavior of these measures below the critical field. It is also shown that these measures reach full range in the immediate vicinity of the factorizing field, where they become independent of separation and coupling range. Analytical and numerical results for the quantum discord, the geometric discord and other measures in spin chains with nearest neighbor coupling and in fully connected spin arrays are also provided., accepted in Int. J. Mod. Phys. B, special issue "Classical Vs Quantum correlations in composite systems" edited by L. Amico, S. Bose, V. Korepin and V. Vedral

Effective quantum-state and entanglement transfer can be obtained by inducing a coherent dynamics in quantum wires with homogeneous intrawire interactions. This goal is accomplished by optimally tuning the coupling between the wire endpoints and the two qubits there attached. A general procedure to determine such value is devised, and scaling laws between the optimal coupling and the length of the wire are found. The procedure is implemented in the case of a wire consisting of a spin-1/2 XY chain: results for the time dependence of the quantities which characterize quantum-state and entanglement transfer are found of extremely good quality also for very long wires. The present approach does not require engineered intrawire interactions nor a specific initial pulse shaping, and can be applied to a vast class of quantum channels., peer-reviewed

We examine the entanglement entropy of the even half of a translationally invariant finite chain or lattice in its ground state. This entropy measures the entanglement between the even and odd halves (each forming a 'comb' of n/2 sites) and can be expected to be extensive for short-range couplings away from criticality. We first consider bosonic systems with quadratic couplings, where analytic expressions for arbitrary dimensions can be provided. The bosonic treatment is then applied to finite spin chains and arrays by means of the random-phase approximation. Results for first-neighbor anisotropic XY couplings indicate that, while at strong magnetic fields this entropy is strictly extensive, at weak fields important deviations arise, stemming from parity-breaking effects and the presence of a factorizing field (in the vicinity of which it becomes size-independent and identical to the entropy of a contiguous half). Exact numerical results for small spin s chains are shown to be in agreement with the bosonic random-phase approximation prediction., Instituto de Física La Plata

We study the emergence of several magnetic phases in dipolar bosonic gases subject to three-body loss mechanism employing numerical simulations based on the density matrix renormalization group(DMRG) algorithm. After mapping the original Hamiltonian in spin language, we find a strong parallelism between the bosonic theory and the spin-1 Heisenberg model with single ion anisotropy and long-range interactions. A rich phase diagram, including ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic and non-local ordered phases, emerges in the half-filled one-dimensional case, and is preserved even in presence of a trapping potential., v2: 9 pages, 15 figures, extended version, new numerical calculations on the BKT transition, accepted for pubblication in PRB

We continue the study of the entanglement entropy of two disjoint intervals in conformal field theories that we started in J. Stat. Mech. (2009) P11001. We compute Tr\rho_A^n for any integer n for the Ising universality class and the final result is expressed as a sum of Riemann-Siegel theta functions. These predictions are checked against existing numerical data. We provide a systematic method that gives the full asymptotic expansion of the scaling function for small four-point ratio (i.e. short intervals). These formulas are compared with the direct expansion of the full results for free compactified boson and Ising model. We finally provide the analytic continuation of the first term in this expansion in a completely analytic form., Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures

The entanglement spectrum, i.e., the full distribution of Schmidt eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix, contains more information than the conventional entanglement entropy and has been studied recently in several many-particle systems. We compute the disorder-averaged entanglement spectrum, in the form of the disorder-averaged moments of the reduced density matrix, for a contiguous block of many spins at the random-singlet quantum critical point in one dimension. The result compares well in the scaling limit with numerical studies on the random XX model and is also expected to describe the (interacting) random Heisenberg model. Our numerical studies on the XX case reveal that the dependence of the entanglement entropy and spectrum on the geometry of the Hilbert space partition is quite different than for conformally invariant critical points., Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures

8 pages; International audience; We compute the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of the periodic integrable spin s XXX model using the coordinate Bethe ansatz. To do so, we compute explicitly the Hamiltonian of the model. These results generalize what has been obtained for spin 1/2 and spin 1 chains.

The ground state entanglement entropy between block of sites in the random Ising chain is studied by means of the Von Neumann entropy. We show that in presence of strong correlations between the disordered couplings and local magnetic fields the entanglement increases and becomes larger than in the ordered case. The different behavior with respect to the uncorrelated disordered model is due to the drastic change of the ground state properties. The same result holds also for the random 3-state quantum Potts model., 4 pages, published version, a few typos corrected

We present determinant formulae for the form factors of spin operators of general integrable XXX Heisenberg spin chains for arbitrary (finite dimensional) spin representations. The results apply to any "mixed" spin chains, such as alternating spin chains, or to spin chains with magnetic impurities., Comment: 24 pages

We analyze the communication efficiency of quantum information transfer along unmodulated spin chains by computing the communication rates of various protocols. The effects of temporal correlations are discussed, showing that they can be exploited to boost the transmission efficiency., 9 pages, 7 figures

We present an algorithm for the calculation of eigenstates with definite linear momentum in quantum lattices. Our method is related to the Density Matrix Renormalization Group, and makes use of the distribution of multipartite entanglement to build variational wave--functions with translational symmetry. Its virtues are shown in the study of bilinear--biquadratic S=1 chains., Comment: Corrected version. We have added an appendix with an extended explanation of the implementation of our algorithm

By means of the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group algorithm we study the zero-temperature dynamics of the Von Neumann entropy of a block of spins in a Heisenberg chain after a sudden quench in the anisotropy parameter. In the absence of any disorder the block entropy increases linearly with time and then saturates. We analyze the velocity of propagation of the entanglement as a function of the initial and final anisotropies and compare, wherever possible, our results with those obtained by means of Conformal Field Theory. In the disordered case we find a slower (logarithmic) evolution which may signals the onset of entanglement localization., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures

We investigate quantum phase transitions (QPTs) in spin chain systems characterized by local Hamiltonians with matrix product ground states. We show how to theoretically engineer such QPT points between states with predetermined properties. While some of the characteristics of these transitions are familiar, like the appearance of singularities in the thermodynamic limit, diverging correlation length, and vanishing energy gap, others differ from the standard paradigm: In particular, the ground state energy remains analytic, and the entanglement entropy of a half-chain stays finite. Examples demonstrate that these kinds of transitions can occur at the triple point of `conventional' QPTs., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure

We present a unified framework for renormalization group methods, including Wilson's numerical renormalization group (NRG) and White's density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG), within the language of matrix product states. This allows improvements over Wilson's NRG for quantum impurity models, as we illustrate for the one-channel Kondo model. Moreover, we use a variational method for evaluating Green's functions. The proposed method is more flexible in its description of spectral properties at finite frequencies, opening the way to time-dependent, out-of-equilibrium impurity problems. It also substantially improves computational efficiency for one-channel impurity problems, suggesting potentially \emph{linear} scaling of complexity for $n$-channel problems., revised version with application to Kondo model at large magnetic field (5 pages, 2 figures)

We introduce a picture to analyze the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) numerical method from a quantum information perspective. This leads to a variational formulation of DMRG which allows for dramatic improvements in the case of problems with periodic boundary conditions. The picture also explains some features of the method in terms of entanglement and teleportation.

We formulate the Bethe Ansatz equations for the open super spin chain based on the super Yangian of osp(M|2n) and with diagonal boundary conditions. We then study the bulk and boundary scattering of the osp(1|2n) open spin chain., references added

Many proposals for quantum devices are based on qubits that are physically realized by the spin magnetic moment of some quantum object. In this case, one of the most often adopted strategies for manipulating qubits is that of using external magnetic fields. However, selectively applying a field just to one qubit may be a practically unattainable goal, as it is, for instance, in most solid-state based setups. In this work, we present a proposal for using nonlinear excitations of solitonic type to accomplish the above task. Our scheme entails the generation of a dynamical soliton in a classical spin-chain which is locally coupled with one qubit: as the soliton runs through, the qubit behaves, due to its interaction with the chain, as if it were subject to a magnetic field with a time dependence that follows from the soliton's features. We here present results for the time evolution of the qubit density-matrix induced by the overall dynamics of the above scheme.

This is a call for contributions to a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical dedicated to quantum physics with non-Hermitian operators. The main motivation behind this special issue is to gather together recent results, developments and open problems in this rapidly evolving field of research in a single comprehensive volume. We expect that such a special issue will become a valuable reference for the broad scientific community working in mathematical and theoretical physics. The issue will be open to all contributions containing new results on non-Hermitian theories which are explicitly PT-symmetric and/or pseudo-Hermitian or quasi-Hermitian. The main novelties in the past years in this area have been many experimental observations, realizations, and applications of PT symmetric Hamiltonians in optics and microwave cavities. We especially invite contributions on the theoretical interpretations of these recent PT-symmetric experiments and on theoretical proposals for new experiments. Editorial policy The Guest Editors for this issue are Carl Bender, Andreas Fring, Uwe Guenther and Hugh Jones. The areas and topics for this issue include, but are not limited to: spectral problems novel properties of complex optical potentials PT-symmetry related threshold lasers and spectral singularities construction of metric operators scattering theory supersymmetric theories Lie algebraic and Krein-space methods random matrix models classical and semi-classical models exceptional points in model systems operator theoretic approaches microwave cavities aspects of integrability and exact solvability field theories with indefinite metric All contributions will be refereed and processed according to the usual procedure of the journal. Papers should report original and significant research that has not already been published. Guidelines for preparation of contributions The deadline for contributed papers will be 31 March 2012. This deadline will allow the special issue to appear before the end of November 2012. There is a nominal page limit of 15 printed pages per contribution (invited review papers can be longer). For papers exceeding this limit, the Guest Editors reserve the right to request a reduction in length. Further advice on publishing your work in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical may be found at iopscience.iop.org/jphysa. Contributions to the special issue should be submitted by web upload via authors.iop.org, or by email to jphysa@iop.org, quoting 'JPhysA Special issue on quantum physics with non-Hermitian operators'. Submissions should ideally be in standard LaTeX form. Please see the website for further information on electronic submissions. All contributions should be accompanied by a read-me file or covering letter giving the postal and e-mail addresses for correspondence. The Publishing Office should be notified of any subsequent change of address. The special issue will be published in the print and online versions of the journal.

We construct a general renormalization group transformation on quantum states, independent of any Hamiltonian dynamics of the system. We illustrate this procedure for translational invariant matrix product states in one dimension and show that product, GHZ, W and domain wall states are special cases of an emerging classification of the fixed points of this coarse--graining transformation., 5 pages, 2 figure

We present a proposal for the realization of entanglement Hamiltonians in one-dimensional critical spin systems with strongly interacting cold atoms. Our approach is based on the notion that the entanglement spectrum of such systems can be realized with a physical Hamiltonian containing a set of position-dependent couplings. We focus on reproducing the universal ratios of the entanglement spectrum for systems in two different geometries: a harmonic trap, which corresponds to a partition embedded in an infinite system, and a linear potential, which reproduces the properties of a half-partition with open boundary conditions. Our results demonstrate the possibility of measuring the entanglement spectra of the Heisenberg and XX models in a realistic cold-atom experimental setting by simply using gravity and standard trapping techniques., 11 pages, 6 figures

The Heisenberg-Ising spin ladder is one of the few short-range models showing confinement of elementary excitations without the need of an external field, neither transverse nor longitudinal. This feature makes the model suitable for an experimental realization with ultracold atoms. In this paper, we combine analytic and numerical techniques to precisely characterize its spectrum in the regime of Hamiltonian parameters showing confinement. We find two kinds of particles, which we dub intrachain and interchain mesons, that correspond to bound states of kinks within the same chain or between different ones, respectively. The ultimate physical reasons leading to the existence of two families of mesons is a residual double degeneracy of the ground state: the two types of mesons interpolate either between the same vacuum (intrachain) or between the two different ones (interchain). While the intrachain mesons can also be qualitatively assessed through an effective mean field description and were previously known, the interchain ones are new and they represent general features of spin ladders with confinement., 24 pages, 13 figures