Abstract. Two different types of integrable impurities in a spin ladder system are proposed. The impurities are introduced in such a way that the integrability of the models is not violated. The models are solved exactly with the Bethe ansatz equations as well as the energy eigenvalues obtained. We show for both models that a phase transition between gapped and gapless spin excitations occurs at a critical value of the rung coupling J. In addition, the dependence of the impurities on this phase transition is determined explicitly. In one of the models the spin gap decreases by increasing the impurity strength Λ. Moreover, for a fixed Λ, a reduction in the spin gap by increasing the impurity concentration is also observed.

PACS numbers: 75.10.Jm, 71.10.Fd, 03.65.Fd

Print publication: Issue 2 (17 January 2003)
Received 11 September 2002, in final form 8 November 2002
Published 17 December 2002