Majorana liquids: the complete fractionalization of the electron

Abstract

We describe ground states of correlated electron systems in which the electron fractionalizes into separate quasiparticles which carry its spin and its charge, and into real Majorana fermions which carry its Fermi statistics. Such parent states provide a unified theory of previously studied fractionalized states: their descendants include insulating and conducting states with neutral spin S=1/2 fermionic spinons, and states with spinless fermionic charge carriers. We illustrate these ideas on the honeycomb lattice, with field theories of such states and their phase transitions.

4 pages, 1 figure; (v2) Expanded introductory discussion, see arXiv:1010.3745 for technical deltails

References in corpus (10)

• "Deconfined" quantum critical points
• Quantum spin-liquid emerging in two-dimensional correlated Dirac fermions
• Fractionalized Fermi liquids
• On the stability of U(1) spin liquids in two dimensions
• Theory of interacting electrons on the honeycomb lattice
• Algebraic charge liquids
• Global phase diagrams of frustrated quantum antiferromagnets in two dimensions: doubled Chern-Simons theory
• Fluctuating spin density waves in metals
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• $Z_2$ spin liquid and chiral antiferromagnetic phase in Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice: duality between Schwinger-fermion and Schwinger-boson representations
• Spin liquids on a honeycomb lattice: Projective Symmetry Group study of Schwinger fermion mean-field theory
• Stiefel Liquids: Possible Non-Lagrangian Quantum Criticality from Intertwined Orders
• Correlated Dirac Particles and Superconductivity on the Honeycomb Lattice
• Deconfined criticality and ghost Fermi surfaces at the onset of antiferromagnetism in a metal
• Geometric phases and competing orders in two dimensions
• Spin-charge separated quasiparticles in one dimensional quantum fluids
• Modern Physics of the Condensed State: Strong Correlations and Quantum Topology
• Nesting instability of gapless U(1) spin liquids with spinon Fermi pockets in two dimensions