The Kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet is mapped onto an effective Hamiltonian on the star superlattice by Contractor Renormalization. Comparison of ground state energies on large lattices to Density Matrix Renormalization Group justifies truncation of effective interactions at range 3. Within our accuracy, magnetic and translational symmetries are not broken (i.e. a spin liquid ground state). However, we discover doublet spectral degeneracies which signal the onset of p6 - chirality symmetry breaking. This is understood by simple mean field analysis. Experimentally, the p6 chiral order parameter should split the optical phonons degeneracy near the zone center. Addition of weak next to nearest neighbor coupling is discussed.
Magneto-transport of hard core bosons (HCB) is studied using an XXZ quantum spin model representation, appropriately gauged on the torus to allow for an external magnetic field. We find strong lattice effects near half filling. An effective quantum mechanical description of the vortex degrees of freedom is derived. Using semiclassical and numerical analysis we compute the vortex hopping energy, which at half filling is close to magnitude of the boson hopping energy. The critical quantum melting density of the vortex lattice is estimated at 6.5x10-5 vortices per unit cell. The Hall conductance is computed from the Chern numbers of the low energy eigenstates. At zero temperature, it reverses sign abruptly at half filling. At precisely half filling, all eigenstates are doubly degenerate for any odd number of flux quanta. We prove the exact degeneracies on the torus by constructing an SU(2) algebra of point-group symmetries, associated with the center of vorticity. This result is interpreted as if each vortex carries an internal spin-half degree of freedom (vspin), which can manifest itself as a charge density modulation in its core. Our findings suggest interesting experimental implications for vortex motion of cold atoms in optical lattices, and magnet-transport of short coherence length superconductors.
A model of charged hole-pair bosons, with long range Coulomb interactions and very weak interlayer coupling, is used to calculate the order parameter -Phi- of underdoped cuprates. Model parameters are extracted from experimental superfluid densities and plasma frequencies. The temperature dependence -Phi(T)- is characterized by a trapezoidal shape. At low temperatures, it declines slowly due to harmonic phase fluctuations which are suppressed by anisotropic plasma gaps. Above the single layer Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) temperature, Phi(T) falls rapidly toward the three dimensional transition temperature. The theoretical curves are compared to c-axis superfluid density data by H. Kitano et al., (J. Low Temp. Phys. 117, 1241 (1999)) and to the -transverse nodal velocity- measured by angular resolved photoemmission spectra on BSCCO samples by W.S. Lee et al., (Nature 450, 81 (2007)), and by A. Kanigel, et al., (Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 157001 (2007)).
A strong periodic potential generally enhances the short wavelength fluctuations of a superfluid beyond the validity of standard continuum approaches. Here we report some recent results on hard core bosons on finite lattices. We find several interesting effects of the periodic potential on the ground state, vortex dynamics, and and Hall conductivity. For example, the Magnus field on a vortex abruptly reverses direction at half filling. A rotating Bose condensate on an optical lattice may allow an experimental test of our results. Insight may also be gained about strongly fluctuating superconductors modelled by charge 2e lattice bosons.
Directly observing a zero energy Majorana state in the vortex core of a chiral superconductor by tunneling spectroscopy requires energy resolution better than the spacing between core states $Delta^2/eF$. We show that nevertheless, its existence can be decisively tested by comparing the temperature broadened tunneling conductance of a vortex with that of an antivortex even at temperatures $T >> Delta^2/eF$.
These lectures review the large N Schwinger Bosons Mean Field approach to the quantum Heisenberg model. The method applies to ordered and disordered phases in all dimensions, at zero and at finite temperature. Extension to frustrated models is explained. An example for an experimentally useful application, is the temperature dependent staggered magnetization of the layered antiferromagnet.
