Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-major-option-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2022/2/a/solution

The continuous internal symmetry is a common rotation around :
Both the transverse exchange and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction contain one raising and one lowering spin operator, so the phases cancel. Equivalently, and the continuous group is U(1).
The discrete internal symmetry is time reversal, , together with . Each term in contains two spin operators, so it is invariant. The operation is antiunitary; treating the reversal of all three spin components as a unitary rotation would violate the spin commutation relations. It reverses the magnetization and interchanges the two easy-axis ordered orientations. A convenient equivalent representative, composed with a rotation, is , which reverses while preserving as operators.
The statement about one continuous and one discrete internal symmetry describes generic parameters. At , additional unitary rotations about transverse axes are allowed; at , the continuous internal symmetry enlarges to full spin rotation symmetry. Spatial translations of the uniform chain are separate symmetries of the sites.

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