Magnetic Susceptibility of an integrable anisotropic spin ladder system

We investigate the thermodynamics of a spin ladder model which possesses a free parameter besides the rung and leg couplings. The model is exactly solved by the Bethe Ansatz and exhibits a phase transition between a gapped and a gapless spin excitation spectrum. The magnetic susceptibility is obtained numerically and its dependence on the anisotropy parameter is determined. A connection with the compounds KCuCl3, Cu2(C5H12N2)2Cl4 and (C5H12N)2CuBr4 in the strong coupling regime is made and our results for the magnetic susceptibility fit the experimental data remarkably well.