Quantum spin liquid in the semiclassical regime

Abstract

Quantum spin liquids have been at the forefront of correlated electron research ever since their original proposal in 1973, and the realization that they belong to the broader class of intrinsic topological orders, along with the fractional quantum Hall states. According to received wisdom, quantum spin liquids can arise in frustrated magnets with low spin $S$, where strong quantum fluctuations act to destabilize conventional, magnetically ordered states. Here we present a magnet that has a $Z_2$ quantum spin liquid ground state already in the semiclassical, large-$S$ limit. The state has both topological and symmetry related ground state degeneracy, and two types of gaps, a `magnetic flux' gap that scales linearly with $S$ and an `electric charge' gap that drops exponentially in $S$. The magnet is described by the spin-$S$ version of the spin-1/2 Kitaev honeycomb model, which has been the subject of intense studies in correlated electron systems with strong spin-orbit coupling, and in optical lattice realizations with ultracold atoms. The results apply to both integer and half-integer spins.

References in corpus (15)

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• Quantum Spin Liquid States
• Identifying Topological Order by Entanglement Entropy
• Exact results for spin dynamics and fractionization in the Kitaev Model
• Magnetic properties of the honeycomb oxide Na${}_2$Co${}_2$TeO${}_6$
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• Topological phases in ultracold polar-molecule quantum magnets
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• Frustration and Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya anisotropy in the kagome francisites Cu${}_3$Bi(SeO${}_3{)}_2$O${}_2$X
• Generalized Hardcore Dimer Models approach to low-energy Heisenberg frustrated antiferromagnets: general properties and application to the kagome antiferromagnet
• Classical Heisenberg spins on a hexagonal lattice with Kitaev couplings
• Microscopic theory of the nearest-neighbor valence bond sector of the spin-1/2 kagome antiferromagnet
• Destroying a topological quantum bit by condensing Ising vortices

Cited by in corpus (34)

• Kitaev quantum spin liquid - concept and materialization
• Beyond Kitaev physics in strong spin-orbit coupled magnets
• Quantum spin liquid at finite temperature: proximate dynamics and persistent typicality
• Incipient and well-developed entropy plateaus in spin-S Kitaev models
• Kitaev-like honeycomb magnets: Global phase behavior and emergent effective models
• Heisenberg-Kitaev model in a magnetic field: $1/S$ expansion
• Unveiling the S=3/2 Kitaev Honeycomb Spin Liquids
• Unifying Kitaev magnets, kagome dimer models and ruby Rydberg spin liquids
• Unusual excitations and double-peak specific heat in a bond-alternating spin-$1$ $K$-$\Gamma$ chain
• Quantum and classical behavior of spin-$S$ Kitaev models in an anisotropic limit
• Plaquette order in classical spin liquid stabilized by strong off-diagonal exchange
• Scattering Signatures of Bond-Dependent Magnetic Interactions
• Quantum liquids of the S=3/2 Kitaev honeycomb and related Kugel-Khomskii models
• Flux mobility delocalization in the Kitaev spin ladder
• Extent of frustration in the classical Kitaev-$\Gamma$ model via bond anisotropy
• Insights into the Anisotropic Spin-$S$ Kitaev Chain
• Order by disorder in classical kagome antiferromagnets with chiral interactions
• Spin-$S$ Kitaev-Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice: A high-order treatment via the many-body coupled cluster method
• Symmetry analysis of bond-alternating Kitaev spin chains and ladders
• Unconventional magnetic field response of the hyperhoneycomb Kitaev magnet $\beta -{\text{Li}}_2{\text{IrO}}_3$
• Islands of Chiral Solitons in Integer Spin Kitaev Chains
• The complex non-collinear magnetic orderings in Ba2YOsO6: A new approach to tuning spin-lattice interactions and controlling magnetic orderings in frustrated complex oxides
• Order by singularity in Kitaev clusters
• Magnetism and field-induced effects in the S = 5/2 honeycomb lattice antiferromagnet FeP3SiO11
• Chiral spin state and nematic ferromagnet in the spin-1 Kitaev-$\Gamma$ model
• Quantum-classical crossover in the spin-1/2 Heisenberg-Kitaev kagome magnet
• Exact deconfined gauge structures in the higher-spin Yao-Lee model: a quantum spin-orbital liquid with spin fractionalization and non-Abelian anyons
• Classical and quantum liquids induced by quantum fluctuations
• Kitaev honeycomb antiferromagnet in a field: quantum phase diagram for general spin
• Chiral bosonic quantum spin liquid in the integer-spin Heisenberg-Kitaev model
• The nature of low-temperature spin-freezing in frustrated Kitaev magnets
• Complex orders and chirality in the classical Kitaev-$\Gamma$ model
• Thermodynamic behavior of modified integer-spin Kitaev models on the honeycomb lattice
• Spin-basis wavefunctions for the one-dimensional Kitaev model