The antiferromagnetic/paramagnetic transition in mixed-spin compounds R2BaNiO5

We present an extensive Quantum Monte Carlo study of the magnetic properties of the mixed-spin quantum systems R2BaNiO5 (R= magnetic rare earth) which show coexistence of 3-dimensional magnetic long-range order with 1-dimensional quantum gap excitations. We discuss the validity of the performed simulations in the critical region and show the excellent agreement with experimental results. We emphasize the importance of quantum fluctuations contained in our study which is absent in previous mean-field-like treatments.