Spin waves in La₂CuO₄: band structure and correlation effects

We calculate the antiferromagnetic spin wave dispersion in the half-filled (electronic density n=1) Hubbard model for a two-dimensional square lattice, using the random phase approximation (RPA) in a broken symmetry (spin density wave) ground state. Our results for the spin wave dispersion, \omega(\vec q), are compared with high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering performed on La_2CuO$_4. The effects of different band structures and different values of the on-site Coulomb interaction on the spin wave spectrum is studied. Particular attention is put on the high energy dispersion values \omega(\pi/2,\pi/2) and \omega(0,\pi).