Quantum spin liquids on the diamond lattice

Abstract

We perform a projective symmetry group classification of spin $S=1/2$ symmetric quantum spin liquids with different gauge groups on the diamond lattice. Employing the Abrikosov fermion representation, we obtain $8$ $SU(2)$, $62$ $U(1)$ and $80$ ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ algebraic PSGs. Constraining these solutions to mean-field parton Ansätze with short-range amplitudes, the classification reduces to only $2$ $SU(2)$, $7$ $U(1)$ and $8$ ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ distinctly realizable phases. We obtain both the singlet and triplet fields for all Ansätze, discuss the spinon dispersions, and present the dynamical spin structure factors within a self-consistent treatment of the Heisenberg Hamiltonian with up to third-nearest neighbor couplings. Interestingly, we find that a zero-flux $SU(2)$ state and some descendent $U(1)$ and ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ states host robust gapless nodal loops in their dispersion spectrum, owing their stability at the mean-field level to the projective implementation of rotoinversion and screw symmetries. A nontrivial connection is drawn between one of our $U(1)$ spinon Hamiltonians (belonging to the nonprojective class) and the Fu-Kane-Mele model for a three-dimensional topological insulator on the diamond lattice. We show that Gutzwiller projection of the 0- and $\pi$-flux $SU(2)$ spin liquids generates long-range Néel order.

Editors' Suggestion. 36 pages, 9 figures, 9 tables