Quantum spin-liquid emerging in two-dimensional correlated Dirac fermions
arXiv:1003.5809 · doi:10.1038/nature08942
Abstract
At sufficiently low temperatures, condensed-matter systems tend to develop order. An exception are quantum spin-liquids, where fluctuations prevent a transition to an ordered state down to the lowest temperatures. While such states are possibly realized in two-dimensional organic compounds, they have remained elusive in experimentally relevant microscopic two-dimensional models. Here, we show by means of large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations of correlated fermions on the honeycomb lattice, a structure realized in graphene, that a quantum spin-liquid emerges between the state described by massless Dirac fermions and an antiferromagnetically ordered Mott insulator. This unexpected quantum-disordered state is found to be a short-range resonating valence bond liquid, akin to the one proposed for high temperature superconductors. Therefore, the possibility of unconventional superconductivity through doping arises. We foresee its realization with ultra-cold atoms or with honeycomb lattices made with group IV elements.
42 pages, 4 figures in the main text, 11 figures in the Supplementary Information
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- Spin liquids on a honeycomb lattice: Projective Symmetry Group study of Schwinger fermion mean-field theory
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- Derivation of the t-J model for finite doping
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- Evidence of a spin liquid phase in the frustrated honeycomb lattice
- Emergent Spin Liquids in the Hubbard Model on the Anisotropic Honeycomb Lattice
- Nambu-Eliashberg theory for multi-scale quantum criticality : Application to ferromagnetic quantum criticality in the surface of three dimensional topological insulators