Topological Nematic Phase Transition in Kitaev Magnets Under Applied Magnetic Fields

Abstract

We propose a scenario of realizing the toric code phase, which can be potentially utilized for fault-tolerant quantum computation, in candidate materials of Kitaev magnets. It is demonstrated that four-body interactions among Majorana fermions in the Kitaev spin liquid state, which are induced by applied magnetic fields as well as non-Kitaev-type exchange interactions, trigger a nematic phase transition of Majorana bonds without magnetic orders, accompanying the change of the Chern number from $\pm 1$ to zero. This gapful spin liquid state with zero Chern number is nothing but the toric code phase. Our result potentially explains the topological nematic transition recently observed in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ via heat capacity measurements [O. Tanaka et al., arXiv:2007.06757].

13 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (24)

• Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models
• $\alpha$-RuCl3: a Spin-Orbit Assisted Mott Insulator on a Honeycomb Lattice
• Exact results for spin dynamics and fractionization in the Kitaev Model
• Topological characterization of quantum phase transitions in a S=1/2 spin model
• Interaction Effects in Topological Superconducting Wires Supporting Majorana Fermions
• Magnetic anisotropy in the Kitaev model systems Na2IrO3 and RuCl3
• Theory of the field-revealed Kitaev spin liquid
• Weyl spin liquids
• Transitions to valence-bond solid order in a honeycomb lattice antiferromagnet
• Kitaev-like honeycomb magnets: Global phase behavior and emergent effective models
• Impact of off-diagonal exchange interactions on the Kitaev spin liquid state of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Emergence of a nematic paramagnet via quantum order-by-disorder and pseudo-Goldstone modes in Kitaev magnets
• Crystalline Kitaev spin liquids
• Majorana-Hubbard model on the square lattice
• Functional renormalization group study of the Kitaev-$\Gamma$ model on the honeycomb lattice and emergent incommensurate magnetic correlations
• Revealing the Phase Diagram of Kitaev Materials by Machine Learning: Cooperation and Competition between Spin Liquids
• Anderson-Kitaev spin liquid
• Topological phase transition to Abelian anyon phases due to off-diagonal exchange interaction in the Kitaev spin liquid state
• Topological $Z_2$ invariant in Kitaev spin liquids: Classification of gapped spin liquids beyond projective symmetry group
• Thermodynamic evidence for field-angle dependent Majorana gap in a Kitaev spin liquid
• Quantum phases of a one-dimensional Majorana-Bose-Hubbard model
• ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ phases and Majorana spectroscopy in paired Bose-Hubbard chains
• Electric probe for the toric code phase in Kitaev materials through the hyperfine interaction
• Triangular lattice Majorana-Hubbard model: Mean field theory and DMRG on a width-4 torus

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Variational principle for optimal quantum controls in quantum metrology
• Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquids
• Evidence for the first-order topological phase transition in a Kitaev spin liquid candidate $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Dissipationless Spin Current Generation in Kitaev's Chiral Spin Liquid
• Thermodynamic evidence for field-angle dependent Majorana gap in a Kitaev spin liquid
• Electric probe for the toric code phase in Kitaev materials through the hyperfine interaction
• Polarization-dependent magnetic properties of periodically driven $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Emergent Quadrupolar Order in the Spin-$1/2$ Kitaev-Heisenberg Model
• Spin-phonon coupling and thermal Hall effect in the Kitaev model
• Magnetic field effects on the Kitaev model coupled to environment