No Arabic abstract
We believe that a necessary first step in understanding the ground state properties of the spin-${scriptstylefrac{1}{2}}$ kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet is a better understanding of this models very large number of low energy singlet states. A description of the low energy states that is both accurate and amenable for numerical work may ultimately prove to have greater value than knowing only what these properties are, in particular when these turn on the delicate balance of many small energies. We demonstrate how this program would be implemented using the basis of spin-singlet dimerized states, though other bases that have been proposed may serve the same purpose. The quality of a basis is evaluated by its participation in all the low energy singlets, not just the ground state. From an experimental perspective, and again in light of the small energy scales involved, methods that can deliver all the low energy states promise more robust predictions than methods that only refine a fraction of these states.
We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of the spin-$frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg model with breathing anisotropy (i.e., with different coupling strength on the upward and downward triangles) on the kagome lattice. Our study relies on large scale tensor network simulations based on infinite projected entangled-pair state and infinite projected entangled-simplex state methods adapted to the kagome lattice. Our energy analysis suggests that the U(1) algebraic quantum spin-liquid (QSL) ground-state of the isotropic Heisenberg model is stable up to very large breathing anisotropy until it breaks down to a critical lattice-nematic phase that breaks rotational symmetry in real space through a first-order quantum phase transition. Our results also provide further insight into the recent experiment on vanadium oxyfluoride compounds which has been shown to be relevant platforms for realizing QSL in the presence of breathing anisotropy.
We clarify the existence of several magnetization plateaux for the kagome $S=1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model in a magnetic field. Using approximate or exact localized magnon eigenstates, we are able to describe in a similar manner the plateau states that occur for magnetization per site $m=1/3$, $5/9$, and $7/9$ of the saturation value. These results are confirmed using large-scale Exact Diagonalization on lattices up to 63 sites.
We determine dynamical response functions of the S=1/2 Heisenberg quantum antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice based on large-scale exact diagonalizations combined with a continued fraction technique. The dynamical spin structure factor has important spectral weight predominantly along the boundary of the extended Brillouin zone and energy scans reveal broad response extending over a range of 2 sim 3J concomitant with pronounced intensity at lowest available energies. Dispersive features are largely absent. Dynamical singlet correlations -- which are relevant for inelastic light probes -- reveal a similar broad response, with a high intensity at low frequencies omega/J lesssim 0.2J. These low energy singlet excitations do however not seem to favor a specific valence bond crystal, but instead spread over many symmetry allowed eigenstates.
We study the spin liquid candidate of the spin-$1/2$ $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice by means of density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations. By applying an external Aharonov-Bohm flux insertion in an infinitely long cylinder, we find unambiguous evidence for gapless $U(1)$ Dirac spin liquid behavior. The flux insertion overcomes the finite size restriction for energy gaps and clearly shows gapless behavior at the expected wave-vectors. Using the DMRG transfer matrix, the low-lying excitation spectrum can be extracted, which shows characteristic Dirac cone structures of both spinon-bilinear and monopole excitations. Finally, we confirm that the entanglement entropy follows the predicted universal response under the flux insertion.
The topological quantum spin liquids (SL) and the nature of quantum phase transitions between them have attracted intensive attentions for the past twenty years. The extended kagome spin-1/2 antiferromagnet emerges as the primary candidate for hosting both time reversal symmetry (TRS) preserving and TRS breaking SLs based on density matrix renormalization group simulations. To uncover the nature of the novel quantum phase transition between the SL states, we study a minimum XY model with the nearest neighbor (NN) ($J_{xy}$), the second and third NN couplings ($J_{2xy}=J_{3xy}=J_{xy}$). We identify the TRS broken chiral SL (CSL) with the turn on of a small perturbation $J_{xy}sim 0.06 J_{xy}$, which is fully characterized by the fractionally quantized topological Chern number and the conformal edge spectrum as the $ u=1/2$ fractional quantum Hall state. On the other hand, the NN XY model ($J_{xy}=0$) is shown to be a critical SL state adjacent to the CSL, characterized by the gapless spin singlet excitations and also vanishing small spin triplet excitations. The quantum phase transition from the CSL to the gapless critical SL is driven by the collapsing of the neutral (spin singlet) excitation gap. By following the evolution of entanglement spectrum, we find that the transition takes place through the coupling of the edge states with opposite chiralities, which merge into the bulk and become gapless neutral excitations. The effect of the NN spin-$z$ coupling $J_z$ is also studied, which leads to a quantum phase diagram with an extended regime for the gapless SL.