Spin-Peierls instability in the three-leg Heisenberg ladder

Because the three-leg ladder behaves like a renormalized single Heisenberg chain we argue that a spin-Peierls instability must occur in this system when it is coupled to three-dimensional phonons. Using the bond-mean-field theory, we show that this is indeed the case. The dimerized state below the spin-Peierls transition temperature forms into the columnar dimerized phase not the staggered one. This contrasts with the argument based on antiferromagnetism. A physical argument based rather on spin bonding into singlets explains why the columnar configuration is favored. No quantum criticality (gaplessness) can occur in the columnar arrangement of the dimerized chains.
Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures