We propose a variant of the antiferromagnetic XY model on the triangular lattice to study the interplay between the chiral and nematic orders in addition to the magnetic order. The model has a significant bi-quadratic interaction of the planar spins. When the bi-quadratic exchange energy dominates, a large temperature window is shown to exist over which the nematic and the chiral orders co-exist without the magnetic order, thus defining a chiral-nematic state. The phase diagram of the model and some of its critical properties are derived by means of the Monte Carlo simulation.
We discuss the possibility of finding n-type nematic order in the vicinity of a FM phase in the multiple--spin exchange model on the triangular lattice. We study this problem both from S=\infty (classical) and S=1/2 (quantum) limits.
Spin nematic order is investigated for a S=1 spin model on triangular lattice with bilinear-biquadratic interactions. We particularly studied an antiferro nematic order phase with three-sublattice structure, and magnetic properties are calculated at zero temperature by means of bosonization. Two types of bosonic excitations are found. One is a gapless excitation with linear energy dispersion around $k \sim 0$, and this leads to a finite spin susceptibility at T=0 and would have a specific heat $C(T) \sim T^2$ at low temperatures. These behaviors can explain many of characteristic features of r…
A bond-operator mean-field theory in the SU(3) bosons representation is developed to describe the antiferro-nematic phase of the spin-1 bilinear-biquadratic model. The calculated static structure factors reveal delicately that the antiferro-nematic state may exhibit both the ferro- and antiferro-quadruple long-range orders, which is reminiscent of the ferrimagnets or the canted antiferromagnets. This result may influence the spin wave theory concerned with this phase. Possible relevance of this unconventional state to the quasi-two-dimensional triangular material NiGa2S4 is addressed.
Motivated by the spate of recent experimental and theoretical interest in Mott insulating S=1 triangular lattice magnets, we consider a model S=1 Hamiltonian on a triangular lattice interacting with rotationally symmetric biquadratic interactions. We show that the partition function of this model can be expressed in terms of configurations of three colors of tightly-packed, closed loops with {\em non-negative} weights, which allows for efficient quantum Monte Carlo sampling on large lattices. We find the ground state has spin nematic order, i.e. it spontaneously breaks spin rotation symmetry b…
The effect of magnetic bond disorder in otherwise antiferro nematic ordered system is investigated. We introduced triangular-shaped ferromagnetic bond disorder in the S=1 bilinear-biquadratic model on a triangular lattice. It is shown that the coupling between the impurity magnetic moment and nonmagnetic excitation in the bulk yields single-moment anisotropy and long-range anisotropic interaction between impurity magnetic moments. This interaction can induce unconventional spin-freezing phenomena observed in triangular magnet, NiGa2S4.
The mechanism of the unconventional topological superconductivity (TSC) remains a long-standing issue. We investigate the quantum phase diagram of the extended $t$-$J$-$J_χ$ model including spin chiral interactions on triangular lattice based on the state-of-the-art density matrix renormalization group simulations. We identify distinct classes of superconducting phases characterized by nonzero topological Chern numbers $C=1$ and $2$, and a nematic d-wave superconducting phase with a zero Chern number. The TSC states are shown to emerge from doping either a magnetic insulator or chiral spin liq…
Recently, a number of experiments indicate the possible presence of spin liquid phases in quantum magnets with spin-1/2 and spin-1 moments sitting on triangular-lattice-based structures in Ba3CuSb2O9 and Ba3NiSb2O9 respectively. In relation to these experiments, several theoretical proposals have been made for spin liquid phases and spin-liquid-like behaviours on the stacked triangular lattice. While the crystal structures of these materials are currently under debate, it is nonetheless interesting to understand possible spin liquid phases on such frustrated lattices. In this work, we apply Sc…
The S=1 bilinear-biquadratic Heisenberg model on anisotropic triangular lattices is investigated by several complementary methods. Our focus is on the stability of the three-sublattice spin nematic state against spatial anisotropy. We find that, deviated from the case of isotropic triangular lattice, quantum fluctuations enhance and the three-sublattice spin nematic order is reduced. In the limit of weakly coupling chains, by mapping the systems to an effective one-dimensional model, we show that the three-sublattice spin nematic order develops at infinitesimal interchain coupling. Our results…
Nematic order is the breaking of rotational symmetry in the presence of translational invariance. While originally defined in the context of liquid crystals, the concept of nematic order has arisen in crystalline matter with discrete rotational symmetry, most prominently in the tetragonal Fe-based superconductors where the parent state is four-fold symmetric. In this case the nematic director takes on only two directions, and the order parameter in such "Ising-nematic" systems is a simple scalar. Here, using a novel spatially-resolved optical polarimetry technique, we show that a qualitatively…
We introduce a simple model of SO($N$) spins with two-site interactions which is amenable to quantum Monte-Carlo studies without a sign problem on non-bipartite lattices. We present numerical results for this model on the two-dimensional triangular lattice where we find evidence for a spin nematic at small $N$, a valence-bond solid (VBS) at large $N$ and a quantum spin liquid at intermediate $N$. By the introduction of a sign-free four-site interaction we uncover a rich phase diagram with evidence for both first-order and exotic continuous phase transitions.
We figure out that the ground state of a multiple-spin exchange model applicable to thin films of solid 3He possesses an octahedral spin nematic order. In the presence of magnetic field, it is deformed into an antiferro-quadrupolar order in the perpendicular spin plane, in which lattice Z3 rotational symmetry is also broken. Furthermore, this system shows a narrow magnetization plateau at half, m/m_{sat}=1/2, which resembles recent magnetization measurement [H. Nema et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 075301 (2009)].
We study the energetics of Gutzwiller projected BCS states of various symmetries for the triangular lattice antiferromagnet with a four particle ring exchange using variational Monte Carlo methods. In a range of parameters the energetically favored state is found to be a projected $d_{x^2-y^2}$ paired state which breaks lattice rotational symmetry. We show that the properties of this nematic or orientationally ordered paired spin liquid state as a function of temperature and pressure can account for many of the experiments on organic materials. We also study the ring-exchange model with ferrom…
The $U(1)$ quantum link model on the triangular lattice has two rotation-symmetry-breaking nematic confined phases. Static external charges are connected by confining strings consisting of individual strands with fractionalized electric flux. The two phases are separated by a weak first order phase transition with an emergent almost exact $SO(2)$ symmetry. We construct a quantum circuit on a chip to facilitate near-term quantum computations of the non-trivial string dynamics.
NiGa$_2$S$_4$ is a triangular lattice S=1 system with strong two-dimensionality of the lattice, actively discussed as a candidate to host spin-nematic order brought about by strong quadrupole coupling. Using Raman scattering spectroscopy we identify a phonon of E$_g$ symmetry which can modulate magnetic exchange $J_1$ and produce quadrupole coupling. Additionally, our Raman scattering results demonstrate a loss of local inversion symmetry on cooling, which we associate with sulfur vacancies. This will lead to disordered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, which can prevent long range magnetic …
We explore the possibility that the spin-1 triangular lattice magnet NiGa2 S4 may have a ferro-nematic ground state with no frozen magnetic moment but a uniform quadrupole moment. Such a state may be stabilized by biquadratic spin interactions. We describe the physical properties of this state and suggest experiments to help verify this proposal. We also contrast this state with a `non-collinear' nematic state proposed earlier by Tsunetsugu and Arikawa for NiGa2S4 .
We study the quantum phase transition between the $Z_2$ spin liquid and valence bond solid (VBS) orders on a triangular lattice. With a fully isotropic triangular lattice, the transition from a columnar or resonating-plaquette VBS order can be either first order or there could be two transitions with an intermediate phase. If the transition splits into two, then the $Z_2$ spin liquid will first experience a first order $q=3$ Potts transition to a new nematic $Z_2$ spin liquid that breaks the $2π/3$ lattice rotation symmetry (but retain translation symmetry unlike the VBS states). The second tr…
We show how a gapless spin liquid with hidden octupolar order arises in an applied magnetic field, in a model applicable to thin films of 3He with competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic (cyclic) exchange interactions. Evidence is also presented for nematic -- i.e., quadrupolar -- correlations bordering on ferromagnetism in the absence of a magnetic field.
The recent neutron-scattering data for spin-wave dispersion in $\rm Ho Mn O_3$ are well described by an anisotropic Hubbard model on a triangular lattice with a planar (XY) spin anisotropy. Best fit indicates that magnetic excitations in $\rm Ho Mn O_3$ correspond to the strong-coupling limit $U/t > \sim 15$, with planar exchange energy $J=4t^2/U \simeq 2.5$meV and planar anisotropy $ΔU \simeq 0.35$meV.
Using a specially designed Monte Carlo algorithm with directed loops, we investigate the triangular lattice Ising antiferromagnet with coupling beyond nearest neighbour. We show that the first-order transition from the stripe state to the paramagnet can be split, giving rise to an intermediate nematic phase in which algebraic correlations coexist with a broken symmetry. Furthermore, we demonstrate the emergence of several properties of a more topological nature such as fractional edge excitations in the stripe state, the proliferation of double domain walls in the nematic phase, and the Kastel…
Motivated by experiments on NiGa2S4, we discuss characteristic (finite temperature) properties of spin S = 1 quantum antiferromagnets on the triangular lattice. Several recent theoretical studies have suggested the possibility of quadrupolar (spin-nematic) ground states in the presence of sufficient biquadratic exchange. We argue that quadrupolar correlations are substantially more robust than the spin-nematic ground state, and give rise to a two peak structure of the specific heat. We characterize this behavior by a novel T > 0 semiclassical approximation, which is amenable to efficient Monte…
We provide a route to generate nematic order in a spin-1/2 system. Unlike the well-known magnon-binding mechanism, our spin nematics requires neigher the frustration effect nor a spin polarization in a high field or in the vicinity of a ferromagnet, but instead appears next to the spin singlet phase. We start from a state consisting of a quantum spin-1/2 singlet dimer placed on each site of a triangular lattice, and show that inter-dimer ring exchange interactions efficiently dope the SU(2) triplets that itinerate and interact, easily driving a stable singlet state to either Bose Einstein cond…
We consider 2D Heisenberg antiferromagnets on a triangular lattice with spatially anisotropic interactions in a high magnetic field close to the saturation. We show that this system possess rich phase diagram in field/anisotropy plane due to competition between classical and quantum orders: an incommensurate non-coplanar spiral state, which is favored classically, and a commensurate co-planar state, which is stabilized by quantum fluctuations. We show that the transformation between these two states is highly non-trivial and involves two intermediate phases -- the phase with co-planar incommen…
Amplitude modes arising from symmetry breaking in materials are of broad interest in condensed matter physics. These modes reflect an oscillation in the amplitude of a complex order parameter, yet are typically unstable and decay into oscillations of the order parameter's phase. This renders stable amplitude modes rare, and exotic effects in quantum antiferromagnets have historically provided a realm for their detection. Here we report an alternate route to realizing amplitude modes in magnetic materials by demonstrating that an antiferromagnet on a two-dimensional anisotropic triangular latti…
We investigate a highly frustrated spin-1 model on the triangular lattice, with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic $S\cdot S$ interactions and nearest-neighbor $(S\cdot S)^2$ interactions. Using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique, we find three magnetically ordered phases, namely 120$^\circ$ spiral order, stripe order, and tetrahedral order, as well as two spin nematic phases: ferroquadrupolar and antiferroquadrupolar. While our data could be consistent with a spin liquid phase between the 120$^\circ$ spiral and antiferroquadrupolar orders, the more lik…
The existence of a gapped chiral spin liquid has been recently suggested in the vicinity of the metal-insulator transition of the Hubbard model on the triangular lattice, by intensive density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations [A. Szasz, J. Motruk, M.P. Zaletel, and J.E. Moore, Phys. Rev. X {\bf 10}, 021042 (2020)]. Here, we report the results obtained within the variational Monte Carlo technique based upon Jastrow-Slater wave functions, implemented with backflow correlations. As in DMRG calculations, we consider $N$-leg cylinders. For $N=4$ and in the presence of a next-nearest n…
We study the ground state properties of the spin-1/2 frustrated ferromagnetic J1-J2 Heisenberg model on the square lattice, employing projected BCS wavefunctions with spin-triplet pairings of the spinon fields as trial wavefunctions. Based on the variational Monte Carlo analysis, we argue that, in the competing coupling regime, a certain type of the projected BCS wavefunction, dubbed the projected Z2 planar state, achieves the best optimal energy among the other competing states such as the ferromagnetic state and collinear antiferromagnetic state. Like in quantum spin liquids, the projected Z…
Motivated by recent numerical discovery of a gapped spin liquid phase in spin-$1/2$ triangular-lattice $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model, we classify symmetric $Z_2$ spin liquids on triangular lattice in the Abrikosov-fermion representation. We find 20 phases with distinct spinon symmetry quantum numbers, 8 of which have their counterparts in the Schwinger-boson representation. Among them we identify 2 promising candidates (#1 and #20), which can realize a gapped $Z_2$ spin liquid with up to next nearest neighbor mean-field amplitudes. We analyze their neighboring magnetic orders and valence bond s…
We present a large-scale density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) study of the spin-$1$ SU(3) bilinear-biquadratic model on the square lattice, which was suggested to host a nematic spin liquid state in recent DMRG calculations. We report that this spin liquid appears to strongly compete with a three-sublattice magnetic order. To further study the competition between the two states, and the reason of the emergent nematic spin liquid, we included an additional next-nearest-neighbor SU(3) symmetric interactions along one of the two plaquette diagonal directions. This allows to tune the square…
We study the quantum and thermal phase transition phenomena of the SU(3) Heisenberg model on triangular lattice in the presence of magnetic fields. Performing a scaling analysis on large-size cluster mean-field calculations endowed with a density-matrix-renormalization-group solver, we reveal the quantum phases selected by quantum fluctuations from the massively degenerate classical ground-state manifold. The magnetization process up to saturation reflects three different magnetic phases. The low- and high-field phases have strong nematic nature, and especially the latter is found only via a n…
We study a time-reversal invariant non-abelian spin-liquid state in an $SU (2)$ symmetric spin $S = 1$ quantum magnet on a triangular lattice. The spin-liquid is obtained by quantum disordering a non-collinear nematic state. We show that such a spin-liquid cannot be obtained by the standard projective construction for spin-liquids. We also study phase transition between the spin-liquid and the non-collinear nematic state and show that it cannot be described within Landau-Ginzburg- Wilson paradigm.
We investigate the interplay between spatial anisotropy and further exchange interactions in the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg antiferromagnetic model on a triangular lattice. We use the Schwinger boson theory by including Gaussian fluctuations above the mean-field approach. The phase diagram exhibits a strong reduction of the long range collinear and incommensurate spirals regions with respect to the mean-field ones. This reduction is accompanied by the emergence of its short range order counterparts, leaving an ample room for $0$-flux and nematic spin liquid regions. Remarkably, within the n…
We explore several classes of quadrupolar ordering in a system of antiferromagnetically coupled quantum spin-1 dimers, which are stacked in the triangular lattice geometry forming a bilayer. Low-energy properties of this model is described by an $\mathcal{S}=1$ hard-core bosonic degrees of freedom defined on each dimer-bond, where the singlet and triplet states of the dimerized spins are interpreted as the vacuum and the occupancy of boson, respectively. The number of bosons per dimer and the magnetic and density fluctuations of bosons are controlled by the inter-dimer Heisenberg interactions.…
The Heisenberg-Kitaev (HK) model on the triangular lattice is conceptually interesting for its interplay of geometric and exchange frustration. HK models are also thought to capture the essential physics of the spin-orbital entanglement in effective $j=1/2$ Mott insulators studied in the context of various 5d transition metal oxides. Here we argue that the recently synthesized Ba$_3$IrTi$_2$O$_9$ is a prime candidate for a microscopic realization of the triangular HK model. We establish that an infinitesimal Kitaev exchange destabilizes the 120$^\circ$ order of the quantum Heisenberg model and…
We consider a model of spinful fermions on the triangular lattice which exhibits a C=2 Chern insulator (CI) phase with a quantized anomalous Hall effect, sandwiched between two normal insulator (NI) phases. The first NI-CI quantum phase transition is driven by simultaneous mass inversion of a pair of Dirac fermions, with short range interactions being perturbatively irrelevant. The second CI-NI transition is driven by a single quadratic band touching point protected by momentum space topology and C_6 lattice symmetry. A one-loop renormalization group analysis shows that short range interaction…
Motivated by recent experiments on material Ba3NiSb2O9, we propose two novel spin liquid phases (A and B) for spin-1 systems on a triangular lattice. At the mean field level, both spin liquid phases have gapless fermionic spinon excitations with quadratic band touching, thus in both phases the spin susceptibility and C_v/T saturate to a constant at zero temperature, which are consistent with the experimental results on Ba3NiSb2O9. On the lattice scale, these spin liquid phases have Sp(4) ~ SO(5) gauge fluctuation; while in the long wavelength limit this Sp(4) gauge symmetry is broken down to U…
We provide a quantitative characterization of generic weakly first-order thermal phase transitions out of planar spin-nematic states in three-dimensional spin-one quantum magnets, based on calculations using Poisson-Dirichlet distributions (PD) within a universal loop model formulation, combined with large-scale quantum Monte Carlo calculations. In contrast to earlier claims, the thermal melting of the nematic state is not continuous, instead a weakly first-order transition is identified from both thermal properties and the distribution of the nematic order parameter. Furthermore, based on PD …
Motivated by recent reports of nematic order in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG), we investigate the impact of the triangular moiré superlattice degrees of freedom on nematicity. In TBG, the nematic order parameter is not Ising-like, as it is the case in tetragonal crystals, but has a 3-state Potts character related to the threefold rotational symmetry ($C_{3z}$) of the moiré superlattice. We find that even in the presence of static strain that explicitly breaks the $C_{3z}$ symmetry, the system can still undergo a nematic-flop phase transition that spontaneously breaks in-plane twofold rotation…
We investigate the effect of geometrical frustration on the $H$--$T$ phase diagrams of the classical Heisenberg antiferromagnets on triangular and kagome lattices. The phase diagrams for the two models are obtained from large scale Monte Carlo simulations. For the kagome antiferromagnet thermal fluctuations are unable to lift completely degeneracy and stabilize translationally disordered multipolar phases. We find a substantial difference in the temperature scales of the order by disorder effect related to different degeneracy of the low- and the high-field classical ground states in the kagom…
We study thermodynamic properties as well as the dynamical spin and quadrupolar structure factors of the O(3)-symmetric spin-1 Heisenberg model with bilinear-biquadratic exchange interactions on the triangular lattice. Based on a sign-problem-free quantum Monte Carlo approach, we access both the ferromagnetic and the ferroquadrupolar ordered, spin nematic phase as well as the SU(3)-symmetric point which separates these phases. Signatures of Goldstone soft-modes in the dynamical spin and the quadrupolar structure factors are identified, and the properties of the low-energy excitations are compa…
Platelike high-quality NaYbS$_{2}$ rhombohedral single crystals with lateral dimensions of a few mm have been grown and investigated in great detail by bulk methods like magnetization and specific heat, but also by local probes like nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), electron-spin resonance (ESR), muon-spin relaxation ($μ$SR), and inelastic neutron scattering (INS) over a wide field and temperature range. Our single-crystal studies clearly evidence a strongly anisotropic quasi-2D magnetism and an emerging spin-orbit entangled $S=1/2$ state of Yb towards low temperatures together with an absence…
Phononic enhancement and detection of hidden spin-nematicity and dynamics in quantum magnets
International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University（北京大学物理学院量子材料国际中心）；Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter（量子物质协同创新中心）
We study the $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ classical Heisenberg model with ferromagnetic $J_1$ on the triangular lattice using the nematic bond theory. For parameters where the momentum space coupling function $J_{\vec{q}}$ shows a discrete set of minima, we find that the system in general exhibits a single first-order phase transition between the high-temperature ring liquid and the low-temperature single-$\vec{q}$ planar spiral state. Close to where $J_{\vec{q}}$ shows a continuous minimum, we on the other hand find several phase transitions upon lowering the temperature. Most interestingly, we find an …
Quantum dimer models are known to host topological quantum spin liquid phases, and it has recently become possible to simulate such models with Rydberg atoms trapped in arrays of optical tweezers. Here, we present large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulation results on an extension of the triangular lattice quantum dimer model with terms in the Hamiltonian annihilating and creating single dimers. We find distinct odd and even $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquids, along with several phases with no topological order: a staggered crystal, a nematic phase, and a trivial symmetric phase with no obvious broken…
The interplay between strong correlations and non-trivial topology in twisted moiré systems can give rise to a rich landscape of ordered states that intertwine the spin, valley, and charge degrees of freedom. In this paper, we investigate the properties of a system that displays long-range valley-polarized nematic order. Besides breaking the threefold rotational symmetry of the triangular moiré superlattice, this type of order also breaks twofold rotational and time-reversal symmetries, which leads to interesting properties. First, we develop a phenomenological model to describe the onset of t…
