Magnetization plateaux and jumps in a class of frustrated ladders: A simple route to a complex behaviour

We study the occurrence of plateaux and jumps in the magnetization curves of a class of frustrated ladders for which the Hamiltonian can be written in terms of the total spin of a rung. We argue on the basis of exact diagonalization of finite clusters that the ground state energy as a function of magnetization can be obtained as the minimum - with Maxwell constructions if necessary - of the energies of a small set of spin chains with mixed spins. This allows us to predict with very elementary methods the existence of plateaux and jumps in the magnetization curves in a large parameter range, and to provide very accurate estimates of these magnetization curves from exact or DMRG results for the relevant spin chains.