We propose an experiment to identify the potential existence of a spinon Fermi surface by looking for oscillatory coupling between two ferromagnets via a spin liquid spacer. Three candidate spin liquids are investigated, and it is found that in all cases, long period oscillations should be present, the period of which would identify the Fermi wavevector of the spinon surface.
We investigate the quantum phase transition from antiferromagnetism ($AF$) to algebraic spin liquid ($ASL$). {\it We propose that spin 1/2 fermionic spinons in the $ASL$ fractionalize into spin 1/2 bosonic spinons and spinless fermions at the quantum critical point ($QCP$) between the $AF$ and the $ASL$}. Condensation of the bosonic spinons leads to the $AF$, where the condensed bosonic spinons are confined with the spinless fermions to form the fermionic spinons. These fermionic spinons are also confined to make antiferromagnons as elementary excitations in the $AF$. {\it Approaching the $QCP…
In this paper a description of the energy eingenstates of the Hubbard model on the square lattice with nearest-neighbor transfer integral $t$, on-site repulsion $U$, and $N_a^2\gg 1$ sites in terms of occupancy configurations of charge $c$ fermions, spin-1/2 spinons, and $η$-spin-1/2 $η$-spinons is introduced. Such objects emerge from a suitable electron - rotated-electron unitary transformation. In chromodynamics the quarks have color but all quark-composite physical particles are color-neutral. Within our description the $η$-spinon (and spinons) that are not invariant under the electron - ro…
We study the stability of the 2+1 dimensional U(1) spin liquid state against proliferation of instantons in the presence of spinon Fermi surface. By mapping the spinon Fermi surface into an infinite set of 1+1 dimensional chiral fermions, it is argued that an instanton has an infinite scaling dimension for any nonzero number of spinon flavors. Therefore, the spin liquid phase is stable against instantons and the non-compact U(1) gauge theory is a good low energy description.
Motivated by recent numerical and experimental studies of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on kagome, we formulate a many-body model for fermionic spinons introduced by us earlier [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 187203 (2009)]. The spinons interact with an emergent U(1) gauge field and experience strong short-range attraction in the S=0 channel. The ground state of the model is generically a $Z_2$ liquid. We calculate the edge of the two-spinon continuum and compare the theory to the slave-fermion approach to the Heisenberg model.
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 statistics. Holonic quasiparticles introduced by doping are also fermions and we explain the origin of this counterintuitive result.
A realization of Majorana fermions is proposed in the frustrated magnets via the topological proximity effect. Specifically, we consider a theoretical model, where a topological insulator is coupled to a frustrated magnetic material through the spin exchange interaction. Using the renormalization group-based self-consistent mean-field approach, and calculating the self-energy correction due to the topological insulator, we find that the spin texture and the spin-momentum locking of the Dirac cone will be inherited by the spinons in the nearby frustrated magnets. This leads to a particular topo…
Effective gauge theories based on slave particle construction are widely used to describe quantum number fractionalization in strongly correlated electron systems. However, even setting aside the intense debates on the confinement issue of the slave particles, there are still significant conflicts between theory and experiment. In particular, a $T^{2/3}$ specific heat anomaly has been predicted as the key signature of low-lying gauge fluctuation in a $U(1)$ spin liquid with a large spinon Fermi surface, which is however never observed. Here we show that such an anomaly is actually an artifact …
We study the theory of a U(1) gauge field coupled to a spinon Fermi surface. Recently this model has been proposed as a possible description of the organic compound $κ-(BEDT-TTF)_2 Cu_2 (CN)_3$. We calculate the susceptibility of this system and in particular examine the effect of pairing of the underlying spin liquid. We show that this proposed theory is consistent with the observed susceptibility measurements.
We investigate the quantum antiferromagnetism arising from algebraic spin liquid via spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. We claim that in the antiferromagnet massive Dirac spinons can appear to make broad continuum spectrum at high energies in inelastic neutron scattering. The mechanism of spinon deconfinement results from the existence of fermion zero modes in single monopole potentials. Neel vectors can make a skyrmion configuration around a magnetic monopole of compact U(1) gauge fields. Remarkably, in the monopole-skyrmion composite potential the Dirac fermion is shown to have a zero mod…
Spin liquid states for spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a hyperkagome lattice are studied. We classify and study flux states according to symmetries. Applying this model to Na4Ir3O8, we propose that the high temperature state may be described by a spinon Fermi surface, which forms a paired state with line nodes below 20 K. The possible mixed spin singlet and spin triplet pairing states are discussed according to the lattice symmetry which breaks inversion.
We address the problem of a magnetic impurity in a two dimensional $U(1)$ spin liquid where the spinons have gap-less excitations near the Fermi-surface and are coupled to an emergent gap-less gauge field. Using a large N expansion we analyze the strong coupling behavior and obtain the Kondo temperature which was found to be the same as for a Fermi-liquid. In this approximation we also study the specific heat and the magnetic susceptibility of the impurity. These quantities present no deviations from the Fermi-liquid ones, consistent with the notion that the magnetic impurity is only sensitive…
We study the transverse electrical conductivity and the corresponding magnetic noise of a two-dimensional U(1) spin liquid state with a spinon Fermi surface. We show that in the quasi-static regime these responses have the same wave-vector dependence as that of a metal but are reduced by a dimensionless pre-factor controlled by the ratio of orbital diamagnetic susceptibilities of the spinons and chargons, correcting previous work. We estimate that this quasi-static regime is comfortably accessed by the typical NV center splittings of a few GHz and estimate that the expected T1 times for an NV …
Inelastic neutron scattering is used to study the low-energy magnetic excitations in the spin-1 triangular lattice of the 6H-B phase of Ba$_3$NiSb$_2$O$_9$. We study two powder samples: Ba$_3$NiSb$_2$O$_9$ synthesized under high pressure and Ba$_{2.5}$Sr$_{0.5}$NiSb$_2$O$_9$ in which chemical pressure stabilizes the 6H-B structure. The measured excitation spectra show broad gapless and nondispersive continua at characteristic wave vectors. Our data rules out most theoretical scenarios that have previously been proposed for this phase, and we find that it is well described by an exotic quantum …
1T-TaS$_2$ is a cluster Mott insulator on the triangular lattice with 13 Ta atoms forming a star of David cluster as the unit cell. We derive a two dimensional XXZ spin-1/2 model with four-spin ring exchange term to describe the effective low energy physics of a monolayer 1T-TaS$_2$, where the effective spin-1/2 degrees of freedom arises from the Kramers degenerate spin-orbital states on each star of David. A large scale density matrix renormalization group simulation is further performed on this effective model and we find a gapless spin liquid phase with spinon Fermi surface at moderate to l…
In this paper we study the nonlinear current response of $U(1)$ spin liquids with large spinon Fermi surfaces under the perturbation of a time-dependent ac electric field $\mathbf{E}(t)$ within the framework of an effective $U(1)$ gauge theory. In particular, the third-order nonlinear current response to ac electric fields is derived. We show that as in the case of linear current response, an in-gap power-law ($\simω^η$) response is found for the nonlinear current at low frequency. The nonlinear susceptibility may also induce through process of third harmonic generation propagating EM wave wit…
The ground state of the quantum kagome antiferromagnet Zn-brochantite, ZnCu$_3$(OH)$_6$SO$_4$, which is one of only a few known spin-liquid (SL) realizations in two or three dimensions, has been described as a gapless SL with a spinon Fermi surface. Employing nuclear magnetic resonance in a broad magnetic-field range down to millikelvin temperatures, we show that in applied magnetic fields this enigmatic state is intrinsically unstable against a SL with a full or a partial gap. A similar instability of the gapless Fermi-surface SL was previously encountered in an organic triangular-lattice ant…
In this paper we study the optical properties of $U(1)$ spin liquids with large spinon Fermi surfaces based on a simple formula for the bulk optical conductivity obtained through the Ioffe-Larkin composition rule. We show that the optical conductivity of $U(1)$ spin liquids at energies above the charge gap has a unique feature that distinguishes them from ordinary insulators. In particular we show the existence of a long-life surface plasmon mode propagating along the interface between a linear medium and the spin liquid at frequencies above the charge gap, which can be detected by the widely …
In this paper we generalize the fermionic representation for $S=1/2$ spins to arbitrary spins. Within a mean field theory we obtain several spin liquid states for spin $S=1$ antiferromagnets on triangular lattices, including gapless f-wave spin liquid and topologically nontrivial $p_x+ip_y$ spin liquid. After considering different competing orders, we construct a phase diagram for the $J_1$-$J_3$-$K$ model. The application to recently discovered material $\mathrm{NiGa_2S_4}$ is discussed.
Recent experimental evidence for a field-induced quantum spin liquid (QSL) in $α$-RuCl$_3$ calls for an understanding for the ground state of honeycomb Kitaev model under a magnetic field. In this work we address the nature of an enigmatic gapless paramagnetic phase in the antiferromagnetic Kitave model, under an intermediate magnetic field perpendicular to the plane. Combining theoretical and numerical efforts, we identify this gapless phase as a $U(1)$ QSL with spinon Fermi surfaces. We also reveal the nature of continuous quantum phase transitions involving this $U(1)$ QSL, and obtain a pha…
We study the interplay of competing interactions in spin-$1/2$ triangular Heisenberg model through tuning the first- ($J_1$), second- ($J_2$), and third-neighbor ($J_3$) couplings. Based on large-scale density matrix renormalization group calculation, we identify a quantum phase diagram of the system and discover a new {\it gapless} chiral spin liquid (CSL) phase in the intermediate $J_2$ and $J_3$ regime. This CSL state spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry with finite scalar chiral order, and it has gapless excitations implied by a vanishing spin triplet gap and a finite central charge…
Resorting to a recently developed theoretical device called dimensional regularization for quantum criticality with a Fermi surface, we examine a metal-insulator quantum phase transition from a Landau's Fermi-liquid state to a U(1) spin-liquid phase with a spinon Fermi surface in two dimensions. Unfortunately, we fail to approach the spin-liquid Mott quantum critical point from the U(1) spin-liquid state within the dimensional regularization technique. Self-interactions between charge fluctuations called holons are not screened, which shows a run-away renormalization group flow, interpreted as…
The momentum bands, energy dispersions, and velocities of the charge $c$ fermions and spin-neutral two-spinon $s1$ fermions of a square-lattice quantum liquid referring to the Hubbard model on such a lattice of edge length $L$ in the one- and two-electron subspace are studied. The model involves the effective nearest-neighbor integral $t$ and on-site repulsion $U$ and can be experimentally realized in systems of correlated ultra-cold fermionic atoms on an optical lattice and thus our results are of interest for such systems. Our investigations profit from a general rotated-electron description…
The search for exotic quantum spin liquid states in simple yet realistic spin models remains a central challenge in the field of frustrated quantum magnetism. Here we consider the canonical nearest-neighbor kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet restricted to a quasi-1D strip consisting entirely of corner-sharing triangles. Using large-scale density matrix renormalization group calculations, we identify in this model an extended gapless quantum phase characterized by central charge $c=2$ and power-law decaying spin and bond-energy correlations which oscillate at tunably incommensurate wave vectors.…
With the organic compound $κ$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$-Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$ in mind, we consider a spin liquid system where a spinon Fermi surface is coupled to a U(1) gauge field. Using the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism, we derive the Quantum Boltzmann Equation (QBE) for this system. In this system, however, one cannot a priori assume the existence of Landau quasiparticles. We show that even without this assumption one can still derive a linearized equation for a generalized distribution function. We show that the divergence of the effective mass and of the finite temperature self-energy do not …
An exactly solvable model describing the dilute spin-3/2 fermion gas in one-dimensional optical trap is proposed. The diagonalization of the model Hamiltonian is derived by means of the Bethe ansatz method. Exotic spin excitations such as the heavy spinon with fractional spin 3/2, the neutral spinon with spin zero and the dressed spinon with spin 1/2 are found based on the exact solution.
Two-dimensional triangular-lattice antiferromagnets are predicted under some conditions to exhibit a quantum spin liquid ground state whose low-energy behavior is described by a spinon Fermi surface. Directly imaging the resulting spinons, however, is difficult due to their fractional, chargeless nature. Here we use scanning tunneling spectroscopy to image spinon density modulations arising from a spinon Fermi surface instability in single-layer 1T-TaSe$_2$, a two-dimensional Mott insulator. We first demonstrate the existence of localized spins arranged on a triangular lattice in single-layer …
Recent experiments on the organic compound κ-(ET)_2Cu_2(CN)_3 have provided a promising example of a two dimensional spin liquid state. This phase is described by a two-dimensional spinon Fermi sea coupled to a U(1) gauge field. We study Kohn-Luttinger-like pairing instabilities of the spinon Fermi surface due to singular interaction processes with twice-the-Fermi-momentum transfer. We find that under certain circumstances the pairing instability occurs in odd-orbital-angular-momentum/spin-triplet channels. Implications to experiments are discussed.
The Kitaev model with an applied magnetic field in the $H||[111]$ direction shows two transitions: from a non-abelian gapped quantum spin liquid (QSL) to a gapless QSL at $H_{c1} \simeq 0.2K$ and a second transition at a higher field $H_{c2} \simeq 0.35K$ to a gapped partially polarized phase, where $K$ is the strength of the Kitaev exchange interaction. We identify the intermediate phase to be a gapless U(1) QSL and determine the spin structure function $S({\bf k}) $ and the Fermi surface $ε_F^S({\bf k})$ of the gapless spinons using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method for …
Several experimental candidates for quantum spin liquids have been discovered in the past few years which appear to support gapless fermionic $S = {1\over 2}$ excitations called spinons. The spinons may form a Fermi sea coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field, and may undergo a pairing instability. We show that despite being charge neutral, the spinons couple to phonons in exactly the same way that electrons do in the long wavelength limit. Therefore we can use sound attenuation to measure the spinon mass and lifetime. Furthermore, transverse ultrasonic attenuation is a direct probe of the onset of pa…
We present new experimental low-temperature heat capacity and detailed dynamical spin-structure factor data for the quantum spin liquid candidate material Ca$_{10}$Cr$_7$O$_{28}$. The measured heat capacity shows an almost perfect linear temperature dependence in the range $0.1$ K $\lesssim T\lesssim0.5$ K, reminiscent of fermionic spinon degrees of freedom. The spin structure factor exhibits two energy regimes of strong signal which display rather different but solely diffuse scattering features. We theoretically describe these findings by an effective spinon hopping model which crucially rel…
Spin excitations in an ordered Heisenberg magnet are magnons--bosons with spin 1. That may change when frustration and quantum fluctuations suppress the order and restore the spin-rotation symmetry. We show that spin excitations in the $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet on kagome are spinons--fermions with spin 1/2. In the ground state the system can be described as a collection of small, heavy pairs of spinons with spin 0. A magnetic excitation of lowest energy amounts to breaking up a pair into two spinons at a cost of $0.06 J$.
We introduce an exactly solvable SU(2) symmetric Kitaev model with exotic spin excitations. With time reversal symmetry (TRS), the ground state is a spin liquid with gapless or gapped spin-1 but fermionic excitations. When TRS is broken, the resulting spin liquid exhibits deconfined vortex excitations which carry spin-1/2 quantum number and obey non-Abelian statistics. We show that this SU(2) invariant non-Abelian spin liquid exhibits spin quantum Hall effect with quantized spin Hall conductivity σ^s_{xy}=\hbar/2π, and that the spin response is effectively described the SO(3) level-1 Chern-Sim…
We solve the problem of a magnetic impurity coupled to a U(1) quantum spin liquid with spinon Fermi surface and compute the impurity spectral function. Using the slave rotor mean field approach combined with gauge field fluctuations, we find that a peak located at the top of the lower Hubbard band and one at the bottom of the upper Hubbard band can emerge in the impurity spectral function. The peaks at the Hubbard band edges arise from the gauge field fluctuations induced spinon chargon binding inside the spinon Kondo screening cloud of the magnetic impurity. For a magnetic impurity embedded i…
A recent experiment has reported oscillations of the thermal conductivity of $α$-RuCl$_3$ driven by an in-plane magnetic field that are reminiscent of the quantum oscillations in metals. At first glance, these observations are consistent with the presence of the long-sought-after spinon Fermi surface state. Strikingly, however, the experiment also reported vanishing thermal Hall conductivity coexisting with the oscillations of the longitudinal one. Such absence of the thermal Hall effect must originate from crystalline symmetries of $α$-RuCl$_3$. But if the system was a traditional spinon ferm…
Quantum spin liquids are exotic states of matter that may be realized in frustrated quantum magnets and feature fractionalized excitations and emergent gauge fields. Here, we consider a gapless U(1) spin liquid with spinon Fermi pockets in two spatial dimensions. Such a state appears to be the most promising candidate to describe the exotic field-induced behavior observed in numerical simulations of the antiferromagnetic Kitaev honeycomb model. A similar such state may also be responsible for the recently-reported quantum oscillations of the thermal conductivity in the field-induced quantum pa…
We discuss the application of the two-band spin-dopon representation of the t-J model to address the issue of the Fermi surface reconstruction observed in the cuprates. We show that the electron no double occupancy (NDO) constraint plays a key role in this formulation. In particular, the auxiliary lattice spin and itinerant dopon degrees of freedom of the spin-dopon formulation of the t-J model are shown to be confined in the emergent U(1) gauge theory generated by the NDO constraint. This constraint is enforced by the requirement of an infinitely large spin-dopon coupling. As a result, the t-…
The exact one-to-one mapping between (spinless) Jordan-Wigner lattice fermions and (spin-1/2) spinons is established for all eigenstates of the one-dimensional s = 1=2 XX model on a lattice with an even or odd number N of lattice sites and periodic boundary conditions. Exact product formulas for the transition rates derived via Bethe ansatz are used to calculate asymptotic expressions of the 2-spinon and 4-spinon parts (for large even N) as well as of the 1-spinon and 3-spinon parts (for large odd N) of the dynamic spin structure factors. The observability of these spectral contributions is as…
In this paper the spin configurations of the ground state and one- and two-electron excited states of the Hubbard model on the square lattice are studied. We profit from a general rotated-electron description, which is consistent with the model global $SO(3)\times SO(3)\times U(1)$ symmetry. For rotated electrons, doubly and single occupancy are good quantum numbers for on-site repulsion $U>0$. The above states are within that description generated by occupancy configurations of charge $c$ fermions and spin-singlet two-spinon $s1$ bond particles. Those describe the charge and spin degrees of f…
Triangular lattice of rare-earth ions with interacting effective spin-$1/2$ local moments is an ideal platform to explore the physics of quantum spin liquids (QSLs) in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling, crystal electric fields, and geometrical frustration. The Yb delafossites, NaYbCh$_2$ (Ch=O, S, Se) with Yb ions forming a perfect triangular lattice, have been suggested to be candidates for QSLs. Previous thermodynamics, nuclear magnetic resonance, and muon spin rotation measurements on NaYbCh$_2$ have supported the suggestion of the QSL ground states. The key signature of a QSL, the…
We study the transverse dynamical spin susceptibility of the two dimensional U(1) spinon Fermi surface spin liquid in a small applied Zeeman field. We show that both short-range interactions, present in a generic Fermi liquid, as well as gauge fluctuations, characteristic of the U(1) spin liquid, qualitatively change the result based on the frequently assumed non-interacting spinon approximation. Short-range interaction leads to a new collective mode: a "spinon spin wave" which splits off from the two-spinon continuum at small momentum and disperses downward. Gauge fluctuations renormalize the…
Motivated by the recent proposal of the spinon Fermi surface spin liquids for several candidate materials such as YbMgGaO4, we explore the experimental consequences of the external magnetic fields on this exotic state. Specifically, we focus on the weak field regime where the spin liquid state is well preserved and the spinon remain to be a good description of the magnetic excitations. From the spin-1/2 nature of the spinon excitation, we predict the unique features of the spinon continuum when the weak magnetic field is applied to the system. Due to the small energy scale of the exchange inte…
Recent theoretical studies have found quantum spin liquid states with spinon Fermi surfaces upon the application of a magnetic field on a gapped state with topological order. We investigate the thermal Hall conductivity across this transition, describing how the quantized thermal Hall conductivity of the gapped state changes to an unquantized thermal Hall conductivity in the gapless spinon Fermi surface state. We consider two cases, both of potential experimental interest: the state with non-Abelian Ising topological order on the honeycomb lattice, and the state with Abelian chiral spin liquid…
A number of experiments on the hyperkagome iridate, Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$, suggest existence of a gapless quantum spin liquid state at low temperature. Circumventing the slave particle approach commonly used in theoretical analyses of frustrated magnets, we provide a more intuitive, albeit more phenomenological, construction of a quantum spin liquid state for the hyperkagome Heisenberg model. An effective monomer-dimer model on the hyperkagome lattice is proposed a la Hao and Tchernyshyov's approach cultivated from the Husimi cactus model. Employing an arrow representation for the monomer-dimer mo…
The mapping between the fermion and spinon compositions of eigenstates in the one-dimensional spin-1/2 XX model on a lattice with N sites is used to describe the spinon interaction from two different perspectives: (i) For finite N the energy of all eigenstates is expressed as a function of spinon momenta and spinon spins, which, in turn, are solutions of a set of Bethe ansatz equations. The latter are the basis of an exact thermodynamic analysis in the spinon representation of the XX model. (ii) For N -> infinity the energy per site of spinon configurations involving any number of spinon orbit…
Motivated by a search for experimental probes to access the physics of fractionalized excitations called spinons in a spin liquids, we study the interaction of spinons with lattice vibrations. We consider the case of algebraic spin liquid, when spinons have fermionic statistics and a Dirac-like dispersion. We establish the general procedure for deriving spinon-phonon interactions which is based on a symmetry considerations. The procedure is illustrated for four different algebraic spin liquids: pi-flux and staggered-flux phases on a square lattice, pi-flux phase on a kagome lattice, and zero f…
We show how the electron gas methods of Luttinger, Ward and Nozières can be applied to the infinite U Anderson impurity model within a Schwinger boson treatment. Working to all orders in a 1/N expansion, we show how the Friedel Langreth relationship, the Yamada-Yosida-Yoshimori and the Shiba-Korringa relations can be derived, under the assumption that the spinon and holon fields are gapped. One of the remarkable features of this treatment, is that the Landau amplitudes depend on the exchange of low energy virtual spinons and holons. We end the paper with a discussion on the extension of our ap…
We consider orbital magnetic field effects in a spin liquid phase of a half-filled triangular lattice Hubbard system close to the Mott transition, continuing an earlier exploration of a state with spinon Fermi surface. Starting from the Hubbard model and focusing on the insulator side, we derive an effective spin Hamiltonian up to four-spin exchanges in the presence of magnetic field, and find that the magnetic field couples linearly to spin chirality on the triangles. The latter corresponds to a flux of an internal gauge field in a gauge theory description of the spin liquid, and therefore a …
In this paper a description of the Hubbard model on the square lattice with nearest-neighbor transfer integral $t$, on-site repulsion $U$, and $N_a^2\gg 1$ sites consistent with its exact global $SO(3)\times SO(3)\times U(1)$ symmetry is constructed. Our studies profit from the interplay of that recently found global symmetry of the model on any bipartite lattice with the transformation laws under a suitable electron - rotated-electron unitary transformation of a well-defined set of operators and quantum objects. For $U/4t>0$ the occupancy configurations of these objects generate the energy ei…
Quantum fluctuations of the Néel state of the square lattice antiferromagnet are usually described by a $\mathbb{CP}^1$ theory of bosonic spinons coupled to a U(1) gauge field, and with a global SU(2) spin rotation symmetry. Such a theory also has a confining phase with valence bond solid (VBS) order, and upon including spin-singlet charge 2 Higgs fields, deconfined phases with $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order possibly intertwined with discrete broken global symmetries. We present dual theories of the same phases starting from a mean-field theory of fermionic spinons moving in $π$-flux in each…
We study a model of correlated electrons coupled by tunnelling to a layer of itinerant metallic electrons, which allows to interpolate from a frustrated limit favorable to spin liquid states to a Kondo-lattice limit favorable to interlayer coherent heavy metallic states. We study the competition of the spinon fermi surface state and the interlayer coherent heavy Kondo metal that appears with increasing tunnelling. Employing a slave rotor mean-field approach, we obtain a phase diagram and describe two regimes where the spin liquid state is destroyed by weak interlayer tunnelling, (i) the Kondo …
Motivated by a recent experiment on Cs2CuCl4, we study the spin dynamics of the spin-liquid phase of the spin-1/2 frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the anisotropic triangular lattice. There have been two different proposals for the spin-liquid phase of Cs2CuCl4. These spin-liquid states support different statistics of spinons; the bosonic Sp(N) large-N mean field theory predicts bosonic spinons while the SU(2) slave-boson mean field theory leads to fermionic spinons. We compute the dynamical spin structure factor for both types of spin-liquid state at zero and finite temperatures. While…
Using a phenomenological model, we discuss the consequences of spinon-holon binding in the U(1) slave-boson approach to $t-J$ model. Within a small $x$ ($x=$ hole concentration) expansion, we show that spinon-holon binding produces a pseudo-gap normal state with a segmented Fermi surface and the superconducting state is formed by opening an "additional" d-wave gap on the segmented Fermi surface. The d-wave gap merge with the pseudo-gap smoothly as temperature $T\to0$. The quasi-particles in the superconducting state are coupled to external electromagnetic field with a coupling constant of orde…
Gapless spin liquids have recently been observed in several frustrated Mott insulators, with elementary spin excitations - "spinons" - reminiscent of degenerate Fermi systems. However, their precise role at the Mott point, where charge fluctuations begin to proliferate, remains controversial and ill-understood. Here we present the simplest theoretical framework that treats the dynamics of emergent spin and charge excitations on the same footing, providing a new physical picture of the Mott metal-insulator transition at half filing. We identify a generic orthogonality mechanism leading to stron…
We propose that resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) is an effective probe of the fractionalized excitations in three-dimensional (3D) Kitaev spin liquids. While the non-spin-conserving RIXS responses are dominated by the gauge-flux excitations and reproduce the inelastic-neutron-scattering response, the spin-conserving (SC) RIXS response picks up the Majorana-fermion excitations and detects whether they are gapless at Weyl points, nodal lines, or Fermi surfaces. As a signature of symmetry fractionalization, the SC RIXS response is suppressed around the $Γ$ point. On a technical level, w…