  The properties and mechanism of the magnetic phase transition of the
perovskite-type Ti oxides, which is driven by the Ti-O-Ti bond angle
distortion, are studied theoretically by using the effective spin and
pseudospin Hamiltonian with strong Coulomb repulsion. It is shown that the
A-type antiferromagnetic (AFM(A)) to ferromagnetic (FM) phase transition occurs
as the Ti-O-Ti bond angle is decreased. Through this phase transition, the
orbital state changes only little whereas the spin-exchange coupling along the
c-axis is expected to change from positive to negative nearly continuously and
approaches zero at the phase boundary. The resultant strong two-dimensionality
in the spin coupling causes rapid suppression of the critical temperature, as
observed experimentally. It may induce large quantum fluctuations in this
region.
