Integrable Impurity Spin Ladder Systems

Two integrable spin ladder systems with different types of impurities are proposed. The impurities are introduced in such a way that the integrability of the models is not violated. The models are solved exactly and the Bethe ansatz equations as well as the energy eigenvalues are 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. Remarkably, in one of the models a decreasing of the spin gap with increasing impurity strength is found.