Spin liquid phases of alkaline-earth-metal atoms at finite temperature

Abstract

We study spin liquid phases of spin-5/2 alkaline earth atoms on a honeycomb lattice at finite temperatures. Our analysis is based on a Gutzwiller projection variational approach recast to a path-integral formalism. In the framework of a saddle-point approximation we determine spin liquid phases with lowest free energy and study their temperature dependence. We identify a critical temperature, where all the spin liquid phases melt and the system goes to the paramagnetic phase. We also study the stability of the saddle-point solutions and show that a time-reversal symmetry breaking state, a so called chiral spin liquid phase is realized even at finite temperatures. We also determine the spin structure factor, which, in principle, is an experimentally measurable quantity and is the basic tool to map the spectrum of elementary excitations of the system.

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Quantum Spin Liquids
• Competing orders in the 2D half-filled SU(2N) Hubbard model through the pinning field quantum Monte-Carlo simulations
• SU(6) Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice: competition between plaquette and chiral order
• Magnetic ordering of three-component ultracold fermionic mixtures in optical lattices
• Intertwining SU($N$) symmetry and frustration on a honeycomb lattice
• Competing valence bond and symmetry breaking Mott states of spin-3/2 fermions on a honeycomb lattice
• Stabilization of the chiral phase of the SU($6m$) Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice with $m$ particles per site for $m$ larger than 1
• Quantum dimer models emerging from large-spin ultracold atoms
• Spin liquid phases of Mott insulating ultracold bosons
• Order by disorder in a four flavor Mott-insulator on the fcc lattice
• The algebraic spin liquid in the SU(6) Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice