  The magnetic and thermodynamic properties of the two-dimensional quantum
Heisenberg antiferromagnet that incorporates both a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and
pseudo-dipolar interactions are studied within the framework of a generalized
nonlinear sigma model (NLSM). We calculate the static uniform susceptibility
and sublattice magnetization as a function of temperature and we show that: i)
the magnetic-response is anisotropic and differs qualitatively from the
expected behavior of a conventional easy-axis QHAF; ii) the Neel second-order
phase transition becomes a crossover, for a magnetic field B perpendicular to
the CuO(2) layers. We provide a simple and clear explanation for all the
recently reported unusual magnetic anisotropies in the low-field susceptibility
of La(2)CuO(4), L. N. Lavrov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 017007 (2001), and we
demonstrate explicitly why La(2)CuO(4) can not be classified as an ordinary
easy-axis antiferromagnet.
