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Abstract

We investigate the phase diagram and the spin-orbital entanglement of a one-dimensional SU(2) circle times XXZ model with SU (2) spin exchange and anisotropic XXZ orbital exchange interactions and negative exchange coupling constant. As a unique feature, the spin-orbital entanglement entropy in the entangled ground states increases here linearly with system size. In the case of Ising orbital interactions, we identify an emergent phase with long-range spin-singlet dimer correlations triggered by a quadrupling of correlations in the orbital sector. The peculiar translational-invariant spin-singlet dimer phase has finite von Neumann entanglement entropy and survives when orbital quantum fluctuations are included. It even persists in the isotropic SU (2) circle times SU (2) limit. Surprisingly, for finite transverse orbital coupling, the long-range spin-singlet correlations also coexist in the antiferromagnetic spin and alternating orbital phase making this phase also unconventional. Moreover, we also find a complementary orbital singlet phase that exists in the isotropic case but does not extend to the Ising limit. The nature of entanglement appears essentially different from that found in the frequently discussed model with positive coupling. Furthermore, we investigate the collective spin and orbital wave excitations of the disentangled ferromagnetic-spin/ ferro-orbital ground state and explore the continuum of spin-orbital excitations. Interestingly, one finds among the latter excitations two modes of exciton bound states. Their spin-orbital correlations differ from the remaining continuum states and exhibit logarithmic scaling of the von Neumann entropy with increasing system size. We demonstrate that spin-orbital excitons can be experimentally explored using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, where the strongly entangled exciton states can be easily distinguished from the spin-orbital continuum.