Quantum spin-glass criticality in disordered frustrated dimer magnets
arXiv:2607.26151
The paper investigates the quantum phase transition between a spin‑glass phase and a dimer quantum paramagnet in a disordered triangular‑lattice bilayer Heisenberg model, using bond‑operator theory to analyze thermodynamics, excitation spectra, and the suppression of the Higgs mode.
Abstract
We study quantum phase transitions of Mott insulators between spin-glass and featureless paramagnetic phases. Specifically, we consider a triangular-lattice bilayer Heisenberg model with bond disorder. The clean system has two phases, a dimer quantum paramagnet and a non-collinear antiferromagnet, separated by a quantum critical point. Bond disorder destroys the antiferromagnetic phase via the interference of dipolar textures and results in spin-glass order, such that the system features a quantum phase transition between spin-glass and dimer phases. We study the vicinity of this transition using a variant of bond-operator theory and calculate thermodynamic observables as well as excitation spectra. Bond disorder leads to strong inhomogeneities near the transition which suppresses non-collinearities and leads to anomalously weak glassiness in the near-critical quantum spin glass. We characterize the low-energy excitations which have a strong tendency towards spatial localization, and we track the behavior of the amplitude (i.e. Higgs) mode across the glass phase whose spectral weight we find to be strongly suppressed due to interference effects.
7 pages, 6 figures + Supp. Mat