Chiral spin liquid with spinon Fermi surfaces in spin-$1/2$ triangular Heisenberg model

Abstract

We study the interplay of competing interactions in spin-$1/2$ triangular Heisenberg model through tuning the first- ($J_1$), second- ($J_2$), and third-neighbor ($J_3$) couplings. Based on large-scale density matrix renormalization group calculation, we identify a quantum phase diagram of the system and discover a new {\it gapless} chiral spin liquid (CSL) phase in the intermediate $J_2$ and $J_3$ regime. This CSL state spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry with finite scalar chiral order, and it has gapless excitations implied by a vanishing spin triplet gap and a finite central charge on the cylinder. Moreover, the central charge grows rapidly with the cylinder circumference, indicating emergent spinon Fermi surfaces. To understand the numerical results we propose a parton mean-field spin liquid state, the $U(1)$ staggered flux state, which breaks time-reversal symmetry with chiral edge modes by adding a Chern insulator mass to Dirac spinons in the $U(1)$ Dirac spin liquid. This state also breaks lattice rotational symmetries and possesses two spinon Fermi surfaces driven by nonzero $J_2$ and $J_3$, which naturally explains the numerical results. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a gapless CSL state with coexisting spinon Fermi surfaces and chiral edge states, demonstrating the rich family of novel phases emergent from competing interactions in triangular-lattice magnets.

4 pages, 4 figures, with Supplemental Material