The phase diagrams of highly frustrated quantum spin systems can exhibit first-order quantum phase transitions and thermal critical points even in the absence of any long-ranged magnetic order. However, all unbiased numerical techniques for investiga
ting frustrated quantum magnets face significant challenges, and for generic quantum Monte Carlo methods the challenge is the sign problem. Here we report on a general quantum Monte Carlo approach with a loop-update scheme that operates in any basis, and we show that, with an appropriate choice of basis, it allows us to study a frustrated model of coupled spin-1/2 trimers: simulations of the trilayer Heisenberg antiferromagnet in the spin-trimer basis are sign-problem-free when the intertrimer couplings are fully frustrated. This model features a first-order quantum phase transition, from which a line of first-order transitions emerges at finite temperatures and terminates in a thermal critical point. The trimer unit cell hosts an internal degree of freedom that can be controlled to induce an extensive entropy jump at the quantum transition, which alters the shape of the first-order line. We explore the consequences for the thermal properties in the vicinity of the critical point, which include profound changes in the lines of maxima defined by the specific heat. Our findings reveal trimer quantum magnets as fundamental systems capturing in full the complex thermal physics of the strongly frustrated regime.
A preponderance of evidence suggests that the ground state of the nearest-neighbor $S = 1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice is a gapless spin liquid. Many candidate materials for the realization of this model possess in addi
tion a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. We study this system by tensor-network methods and deduce that a weak but finite DM interaction is required to destabilize the gapless spin-liquid state. The critical magnitude, $D_c/J simeq 0.012(2)$, lies well below the DM strength proposed in the kagome material herbertsmithite, indicating a need to reassess the apparent spin-liquid behavior reported in this system.
The one-band Hubbard model on the pyrochlore lattice contains an extended quantum spin-liquid phase formed from the manifold of singlet dimer coverings. We demonstrate that the massive and deconfined spinon excitations of this system have fermionic s
tatistics. Holonic quasiparticles introduced by doping are also fermions and we explain the origin of this counterintuitive result.
We follow the evolution of the elementary excitations of the quantum antiferromagnet TlCuCl3 through the pressure-induced quantum critical point, which separates a dimer-based quantum disordered phase from a phase of long-ranged magnetic order. We de
monstrate by neutron spectroscopy the continuous emergence in the weakly ordered state of a low-lying but massive excitation corresponding to longitudinal fluctuations of the magnetic moment. This mode is not present in a classical description of ordered magnets, but is a direct consequence of the quantum critical point.
We extend previous real-space Hartree-Fock studies of static stripe stability to determine the phase diagram of the Hubbard model with anisotropic nearest-neighbor hopping t, by varying the on-site Coulomb repulsion U and investigating locally stable
structures for representative hole doping levels x=1/8 and x=1/6. We also report the changes in stability of these stripes in the extended Hubbard model due to next-neighbor hopping t and to a nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction V.
The ferromagnetic Kondo lattice model with an antiferromagnetic interaction between localized spins is a minimal description of the competing kinetic t and magnetic K energy terms which generate the rich physics of manganite systems. Motivated by the
discovery in one dimension of homogeneous ``island phases, we consider the possibility of analogous phases in higher dimensions. We characterize the phases present at commensurate fillings, and consider in detail the effects of phase separation in all filling and parameter regimes. We deduce that island and flux phases are stable for intermediate values of K/t at the commensurate fillings n = 1/4, 1/3, 3/8, and 1/2. We discuss the connection of these results to the charge and magnetic ordering observed in a wide variety of manganite compounds.
We consider a bilayer version of the extended $t$-$J$ model, with a view to computing the form of certain experimentally observable properties. Using the slave-boson decomposition, we show at the mean-field level that in the bilayer system the existe
nce of in-plane $d$-wave singlet pairing excludes any interplane singlet order for reasonable values of the interplane superexchange parameter. Restricting the analysis to the regime of no interplane singlet pairing, we deduce parameter sets reproducing the Fermi surfaces of YBCO- and BSCCO-like bilayer systems. From these we calculate the form of the dynamic susceptibility $chi( {bf q}, omega )$ in both systems, and of the anomalies in frequency and linewidth of selected phonon modes in YBCO. We compare the results with experiment, and discuss the features which differ from the single-layer case.
We consider the implications of spin-phonon coupling within the slave-boson, mean-field treatment of the extended t-J model of a high-temperature superconductor. In bilayer cuprates such as YBaCuO, where the $CuO_2$ plane is buckled, this interaction
is linear in $O$ displacement along the c-axis, and the coupling constant is found to be large. The formation of a spin singlet causes additional contributions to the phonon self-energy, and we calculate from these the superconductive phonon anomalies. The magnitude and sign of the frequency shift and linewidth broadening for various mode symmetries correspond well with Raman and infra-red light scattering experiments, and with neutron scattering studies. In the t-J model, spin singlet formation and superconductivity do not coincide in the low-doping regime, giving rise to spin-gap features and a variety of temperature scales in the spin response observed by NMR and neutron investigations. Phonon anomalies in underdoped YBaCuO compounds indeed show evidence of spin-gap phenomena with the same characteristic temperature, suggesting that the theory may offer the possibility of a unified understanding of the anomalies in magnetic and lattice properties. While the origin of the superconducting interaction is electronic, this spin-phonon coupling affords the possibility of a small isotope effect, and our estimate is in good agreement with recent site-selective $O$-substitution experiments.
We consider the effects on phonon dynamics of spin-lattice coupling within the slave-boson mean-field treatment of the extended $t$-$J$ model. With no additional assumptions the theory is found to give a semi-quantitative account of the frequency and
linewidth anomalies observed by Raman and neutron scattering for the 340$cm^{-1}$ $B_{1g}$ phonon mode in $YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ at the superconducting transition. We discuss the applicability of the model to phonon modes of different symmetries, and report a connection to spin-gap features observed in underdoped YBCO. The results suggest the possibility of a unified understanding of the anomalies in transport, magnetic and lattice properties.
