Ground state of the S = 1/2 Heisenberg spin chain with random ferro- and antiferromagnetic couplings

We study the Heisenberg S=1/2 chain with random ferro- and antiferromagnetic couplings, using quantum Monte Carlo simulations at ultra-low temperatures, converging to the ground state. Finite-size scaling of correlation functions and excitation gaps demonstrate an exotic critical state in qualitative agreement with previous strong-disorder renormalization group calculations, but with scaling exponents depending on the coupling distribution. We find dual scaling regimes of the transverse correlations versus the distance, with an L independent form C (r) =r^- for r L and C (r, L) =L^-f (r/L) for r/L > 0, where > and the scaling function is delivered by our analysis. These results are at variance with previous spin-wave and density-matrix renormalization group calculations, thus highlighting the power of unbiased quantum Monte Carlo simulations.