$Z_2$ spin liquid ground state of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Kagome antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model

Abstract

We show that the best variational ground state of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Kagome antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with nearest-neighboring exchange coupling(NN-KAFH) is a $Z_2$ spin liquid state, rather than the widely believed $U(1)$ Dirac spin liquid state. The spinon excitation in the $Z_2$ spin liquid state has a small gap of about $1/40$ of the spinon band width. We find that while the $Z_2$ and the $U(1)$ spin liquid state have a large overlap on finite clusters and are thus very close in energy, they host totally different spinon excitation spectrum. The strength of the RVB theory becomes particularly clear in such a situation, as it provides not only a variational understanding of the ground state structure, but also a comprehensive picture for the excitation spectrum of the system. Our result indicates that the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ NN-KAFH should be better understood as a nearly critical system, rather than a prototypical gapped $Z_2$ spin liquid system.