Studying the dynamical spin structure factor in frustrated spin chains with spontaneously dimerized ground state we show that besides the gapped spin-wave excitations there appears at finite temperatures also a sharp central peak. The latter can be attributed to deconfined spinons, accounted well within the variational approach. The central peak remains well pronounced within the local spin dynamics and may be relevant for experiments on materials with 1D frustrated spin chains.
We introduce an entanglement entropy analysis to quantitatively identify the confinement and deconfinement of the spinons in the spin excitations of quantum magnets. Our proposal is implemented by the parton construction of a honeycomb-lattice antiferromagnet exhibiting high-energy anomalous spectra. To obtain the quasiparticles of spin excitations for entanglement entropy calculations, we develop an effective Hamiltonian using the random phase approximation. We elaborate quantitatively the deconfinement-to-confinement transition of spinons in the anomalous spectra with the increase of the Hub…
We consider topological order and dimer order in several frustrated spin ladder models, which are related to higher dimensional models of current interest; we also address the occurrence of fractionalized phases with deconfined spinon excitations in these models. Combining results obtained with both analytic and numerical methods, we discuss how the occurrence of dimerized or fractionalized phases are dictated by the system's geometry.
The confinement of a spinon liberated by doping two-dimensional frustrated quantum antiferromagnets with a non-magnetic impurity or a mobile hole is investigated. For a static vacancy, an intermediate behavior between complete deconfinement (kagome) and strong confinement (checkerboard) is identified in the J_1{-}J_2{-}J_3 model on the square lattice, with the emergence of two length scales, a spinon confinement length larger than the magnetic correlation length. For mobile holes, this translates into an extended spinon-holon boundstate allowing one to bridge momentum (ARPES spectral function)…
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…
The ground states of Klein type spin models on the pyrochlore and checkerboard lattice are spanned by the set of singlet dimer coverings, and thus possess an extensive ground--state degeneracy. Among the many exotic consequences is the presence of deconfined fractional excitations (spinons) which propagate through the entire system. While a realistic electronic model on the pyrochlore lattice is close to the Klein point, this point is in fact inherently unstable because any perturbation $ε$ restores spinon confinement at $T = 0$. We demonstrate that deconfinement is recovered in the finite--te…
We use Monte Carlo methods to study spinons in two-dimensional quantum spin systems, characterizing their intrinsic size $λ$ and confinement length $Λ$. We confirm that spinons are deconfined, $Λ\to \infty$ and $λ$ finite, in a resonating valence-bond spin-liquid state. In a valence-bond solid, we find finite $λ$ and $Λ$, with $λ$ of a single spinon significantly larger than the bound-state---the spinon is soft and shrinks as the bound state is formed. Both $λ$ and $Λ$ diverge upon approaching the critical point separating valence-bond solid and Néel ground states. We conclude that the spinon …
We revisit the phase transition from the Néel ordered to a valence bond solid (VBS) state in the two-dimensional $J_1-J_2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model. In the first part we address the question whether or not this transition could be an example of a second order phase transition due to a deconfinement of spinons. We give arguments based on series expansion and spin-wave theory that this is not the case and the transition is most likely first order. The method proposed here to detect first order phase transitions seems to be very sensitive and might be useful in other models as well. In …
A quantum mechanical picture is presented to describe the behavior of confined spinons in a variety of S=1/2 chains. The confinement is due to dimerization and frustration and it manifests itselfas a nonlinear potential V(x)~ |x|^b, centered at chain ends (b <= 1) or produced by modulation kinks (b > 1). The calculation extends to weak or zero frustration some previous ideas valid for spinons in strongly frustrated spin chains. The local magnetization patterns of the confined spinons are calculated. A (minimum) enhancement of the local moments of about 11/3 over a single S=1/2 is found. Estima…
Spin dynamics of the spin-1/2 kagome lattice antiferromagnet Cs$_2$Cu$_3$SnF$_{12}$ was studied using high-resolution, time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering. The flat mode, a characteristic of the frustrated kagome antiferromagnet, and the low-energy dispersive mode, which is dominated by magnons, can be well described by the linear spin-wave theory. However, the theory fails to describe three weakly dispersive modes between 9 and 14 meV. These modes could be attributed to two-spinon bound states, which decay into free spinons away from the zone center and at a high temperature, giving r…
We investigate magnetic excitations in the frustrated zigzag spin-1/2 chain compound $β$-TeVO$_4$ by inelastic neutron scattering. In the magnetically ordered ground state, the excitation spectrum exhibits coexisting magnon dispersion, characteristic of long-range magnetic order, and a spinon-like continuum that prevails above 2 meV, indicating the dominance of intrachain interactions. Combining linear-spin-wave-theory and pre-calculated spinon-continuum results, we reproduce the experimental spectrum. Our analysis offers a minimal exchange-network model which determines dominant intrachain in…
The quantum phase transitions induced by a magnetic field are theoretically studied in a frustrated two-leg spin ladder. Using the density-matrix renormalization-group method, we find some magnetic phase transitions and plateaux in two different cases of strong and weak rung couplings. With the strong rung coupling, the three magnetization plateaux are found at 1/3, 1/2, and 2/3 due to the frustration. Those can be understood in terms of a quasi-spinon reconstructed from the singlet and the triplets of spins on a rung. The plateau at 1/2 corresponds to the valence bond solid of the quasi-spino…
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…
In this publication I discuss the phase diagram of a frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg model suggested in A. A. Nersesyan and A. M. Tsvelik, Phys. Rev. B{\bf 67}, 024422 (2003). The phase diagram contains $(π,0)$ and $(π,π)$ antiferromagnetic phases separated by the Valence Bond Crystal (VBC) state. I argue that the point of the phase diagram with deconfined spinons, predicted in the aforementioned work, is situated in the middle of VBC state, at the point where the dimerization order parameter changes sign.
We use the variational matrix-product ansatz to study elementary excitations in the S=1/2 ladder with additional diagonal coupling, equivalent to a single S=1/2 chain with alternating exchange and next-nearest neighbor interaction. In absence of alternation the elementary excitation consists of two free S=1/2 particles ("spinons") which are solitons in the dimer order. When the nearest-neighbor exchange alternates, the "spinons" are confined into one S=1 excitation being a soliton in the generalized string order. Variational results are found to be in a qualitative agreement with the exact dia…
The antiferromagnetic Ising model on a checkerboard lattice has an ice-like ground state manifold with extensive degeneracy. and, to leading order in J_xy, deconfined spinon excitations. We explore the role of cyclic exchange arising at order J^2_xy/J_z on the ice states and their associated spinon excitations. By mapping the original problem onto an equivalent quantum six--vertex model, we identify three different phases as a function of the chemical potential for flippable plaquettes - a phase with long range Neel order and confined spinon excitations, a non-magnetic state of resonating squa…
We investigate the quantum phase transition of the O(3) nonlinear $σ$ model {\it without Berry phase} in two spacial dimensions. Utilizing the $CP^{1}$ representation of the nonlinear $σ$ model, we obtain an effective action in terms of bosonic spinons interacting via compact U(1) gauge fields. Based on the effective field theory, we find that the bosonic spinons are deconfined to emerge at the quantum critical point of the nonlinear $σ$ model. It is emphasized that the deconfinement of spinons is realized {\it in the absence of Berry phase}. This is in contrast to the previous study of Senthi…
Motivated by the rich phase diagrams recently unveiled in frustrated spin-1 chains with competing next-nearest neighbour and four-spin interactions, we investigate the nature of the elementary excitations of spin-1 chains in the vicinity of phase transitions using the matrix-product state (MPS) representation of elementary excitations. First, we show that both spinons and magnons naturally arise in SU(2) invariant spin chains when describing ground states and elementary excitations using MPS. Then we investigate the nature of the elementary excitations across the first-oder transition between …
The familiar spin-1/2 quantum Heisenberg antiferromanget in a 2d square lattice is shown, within the non linear sigma model approximations, to be another novel state of matter that has excitations with fractional quantum numbers above a finite energy gap. 1-skyrmion with an energy $\approx 2πJ$ is shown to be made of two `deconfined spinons' or `SU(2) vortices'. The many skyrmion operator and the wave functions that we have found are strikingly similar to quantum Hall quasi particle operators and wave functions. We also predict the presence of finite energy `spin-S spinon' for a general spin-S…
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…
Motivated by the ever-increasing experimental effort devoted to the properties of frustrated quantum magnets in a magnetic field, we present a careful and detailed theoretical analysis of a one-dimensional version of this problem, a frustrated ladder with a magnetization plateau at m=1/2. We show that even for purely isotropic Heisenberg interactions, the magnetization curve exhibits a rather complex behavior that can be fully accounted for in terms of simple elementary excitations. The introduction of anisotropic interactions (e.g., Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions) modifies significantly t…
We present a theory of three dimensional fractionalized topological insulators in the form of U(1) spin liquids with gapped fermionic spinons in the bulk and topologically protected gapless spinon surface states. Starting from a spin-1/2 model on a pyrochlore lattice, with frustrated antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic exchange interactions, we show that decomposition of the latter interactions, within slave-fermion representation of the spins, can naturally give rise to an emergent spin-orbit coupling for the spinons. This stabilizes a fractionalized topological insulators which also have bul…
The Neel magnetization of 2+1 D antiferromagnets is composed of quark-like spin 1/2 constituents, the spinons, as follows from the CP^1 mapping. These quark spinons are confined in both the Neel ordered phase and quantum paramagnetic phases. The confinement in the quantum paramagnetic phase is understood as arising from quantum tunneling events, instantons or hedgehog monopole events. In the present article, we study the approach to the quantum critical point, where the quantum paramagnetic phase ceases to exist. We find that irrespective of the intrinsic spin of the antiferromagnet, instanton…
We report the neutron scattering results on magnetic orderings and excitations in $\mathrm{Ba}_2\mathrm{CoTeO}_6$ composed of two almost isolated subsystems A and B, which are described as an $S\,{=}\,1/2$ triangular Heisenberg-like antiferromagnet and a frustrated honeycomb Ising-like antiferromagnet, respectively. Stripy ordering of subsystem B was confirmed below $T_{\rm N1}\,{=}\,12.0$ K, whereas sharp streaks were observed along $(1/3, 1/3, L)$ and $(2/3, 2/3, L)$ at 0.3 K (${\ll}\,T_{\rm N2}\,{=}\,3.0$ K). This indicates the two-dimensional nature of ordering in subsystem A. It was found…
The search for elementary excitations with fractional quantum numbers is a central challenge in modern condensed matter physics. We explore the possibility in a realistic model for several materials, the spin-1/2 spatially anisotropic frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet in two dimensions. By restricting the Hilbert space to that expressed by exact eigenstates of the Heisenberg chain, we derive an effective Schrödinger equation valid in the weak interchain-coupling regime. The dynamical spin correlations from this approach agree quantitatively with inelastic neutron measurements on the triang…
Based on the mapping between $s=1/2$ spin operators and hard-core bosons, we extend the cluster perturbation theory to spin systems and study the whole excitation spectrum of the antiferromagnetic $J_{1}$-$J_{2}$ Heisenberg model on the square lattice. In the Néel phase for $J_{2}\lesssim0.4J_{1}$, in addition to the dominant magnon excitation, there is an obvious continuum close to $(π,0)$ in the Brillouin zone indicating the deconfined spin-1/2 spinon excitations. In the stripe phase for $J_{2}\gtrsim0.6J_{1}$, we find similar high-energy two-spinon continuums at $(π/2,π/2)$ and $(π/2,π)$, r…
We show that LiVCuO4 should be described by strongly ferromagnetically coupled Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chains (HAC) in sharp contrast with the effective exchange integrals Ji given in Enderle et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 104, 237207 (2010), and the main issues of that work, namely, (i) LiVCuO4 is well described by two weakly ferromagnetically coupled interpenetrating Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chains, (ii) the extracted exchange integrals J1, J2 agree with a previous spin-wave description (Enderle et al., Euphys. Lett. vol. 70, 237 (2005)), (iii) the spectral density of inelas…
In this paper, we study the 3D $N_{\rm f}$-flavor CP$^1$ model (a set of $N_{\rm f}$ CP$^1$ variables) coupled with a dynamical compact U(1) gauge field by means of Monte-Carlo simulations. This model is relevant to 2D $s=1/2$ quantum spin models, and has a phase transition line which separates an ordered phase of global spin symmetry from a disordered one. From gauge theoretical point of view, the ordered phase is a Higgs phase whereas the disordered phase is a confinement phase. We are interested in the gauge dynamics just on the critical line, in particular, whether a Coulomb-like deconfine…
We discuss compact (2+1)-dimensional Maxwell electrodynamics coupled to fermionic matter with N replica. For large enough N, the latter corresponds to an effective theory for the nearest neighbor SU(N) Heisenberg antiferromagnet, in which the fermions represent solitonic excitations known as spinons. Here we show that the spinons are deconfined for $N>N_c=36$, thus leading to an insulating state known as spin liquid. A previous analysis considerably underestimated the value of $N_c$. We show further that for $20<N\leq 36$ there can be either a confined or a deconfined phase, depending on the i…
We use recently developed strong-coupling expansion methods to study the two-particle spectra for the frustrated alternating Heisenberg model, consisting of an alternating nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic exchange and a uniform second neighbor antiferromagnetic exchange. Starting from the limit of weakly coupled dimers, we develop high order series expansions for the effective Hamiltonian in the two-particle subspace. In the limit of a strong applied dimerization, we calculate accurately various properties of singlet and triplet bound states and quintet antibound states. We also develop seri…
We employ a variational Monte Carlo approach to efficiently obtain the dynamical structure factor for the spin-1/2 $J_1-J_2$ Heisenberg model on the square lattice. Upon increasing the frustrating ratio $J_2/J_1$, the ground state undergoes a continuous transition from a Néel antiferromagnet to a $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ gapless spin liquid. We identify the characteristic spectral features in both phases and highlight the existence of a broad continuum of excitations in the proximity of the spin-liquid phase. The magnon branch, which dominates the spectrum of the unfrustrated Heisenberg model, gradual…
We investigate the dynamical spin structure factor S(q,w) for the Heisenberg chain with ferromagnetic nearest (J1<0) and antiferromagnetic next-nearest (J2>0) neighbor exchange using bosonization and a time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group algorithm. For |J1|<< J2 and low energies we analytically find and numerically confirm two spinon branches with different velocities and different spectral weights. Following the evolution of S(q,w) with decreasing J1/J2 we find that helimagnons develop at high energies just before entering the ferromagnetic phase. Furthermore, we show that a r…
The concepts of deconfinement and topological order are of great current interest for quantum information science and for our understanding of quantum materials. Here, we introduce a simple model of three antiferromagnetically coupled Kondo impurities, a Kondo triangle, which can be used to further extend the application of these concepts to electronic systems. We show that, by tuning the magnetic frustration, the Kondo triangle undergoes a quantum phase transition between two phases of unbroken symmetry, signaling a phase transition beyond the Landau paradigm. We demonstrate that the frustrat…
Quantum phase transition from the Néel to the dimer states in an antiferromagnetic(AF) Heisenberg model on square lattice is studied. We introduce a control parameter $α$ for the exchange coupling which connects the Néel ($α=0$) and the dimer ($α=1$) states. We employ the $CP^1$ (the Schwinger boson) representation of the $s={1\over 2}$ spin operator and integrate out the half of the $CP^1$ variables at odd sites and we obtain a $CP^1$ nonlinear $σ$ model. The effective coupling constant is a function of $α$ and at $α=0$ the $CP^1$ model is in the ordered phase which corresponds to the Néel st…
We study a weakly coupled, frustrated two-leg spin-1/2 Heisenberg ladder. For vanishing coupling between the chains, elementary excitations are deconfined, gapless spin-1/2 objects called spinons. We investigate the fate of spinons for the case of a weak interchain interaction. We show that despite a drastic change in ground state, which becomes spontaneously dimerised, spinons survive as elementary excitations but acquire a spectral gap. We furthermore determine the exact dynamical structure factor for several values of momentum transfer.
The problem of deconfinement phases in strongly correlated systems is discussed. In space-time dimension $d=3+1$, a competition of confinement and Coulomb phases occurs, but in $d=2+1$ the confining phase dominates owing to monopole proliferation, but gapless fermion excitations can change the situation. Combining the Kotliar-Ruckenstein representation and fractionalized spin-liquid deconfinement picture, the Mott transition and Hubbard subbands are treated, general expressions in the case of an arbitrary bare band spectrum being obtained. The transition into a metallic state is determined by …
For the model of frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg magnet described in A. A. Nersesyan and A. M. Tsvelik, (Phys. Rev. B{\bf 67}, 024422 (2003)) we calculate correlation functions of staggered magnetization and dimerization. The model is formulated as a collection of antiferromagnetic chains weakly coupled by a frustrated exchange interaction. The calculation done for the case of four chains demonstrates that these functions do not vanish. Since the correlation functions in question factorize into a product of correlation functions of spinon creation and annihilation operators, this constitutes a …
Using Random Phase Approximation, we show that a crossed-chains model of a spin-1/2 Heisenberg spins, with frustrated interchain couplings, has a non-dimerized spin-liquid ground state in 2D, with deconfined spinons as the elementary excitations. The results are confirmed by a bosonization study, which shows that the system is an example of a `sliding Luttinger liquid'. In an external field, the system develops an incommensurate field-induced long range order with a finite transition temperature.
We study the effect of disorder on frustrated dimerized spin-1/2 chains at the Majumdar-Ghosh point. Using variational methods and density-matrix renormalization group approaches, we identify two localization mechanisms for spinons which are the deconfined fractional elementary excitations of these chains. The first one belongs to the Anderson localization class and dominates at the random Majumdar-Ghosh (RMG) point. There, spinons are almost independent, remain gapped, and localize in Lifshitz states whose localization length is analytically obtained. The RMG point then displays a quantum pha…
The dynamics of a mobile hole in two-dimensional frustrated quantum magnets is investigated by exact diagonalization techniques. Our results provide evidence for spin-charge separation upon doping the kagome lattice, a prototype of a spin liquid. In contrast, in the checkerboard lattice, a symmetry broken Valence Bond Crystal, a small quasi-particle peak is seen for some crystal momenta, a finding interpreted as a restoration of weak holon-spinon confinement.
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…
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…
In a spontaneously dimerized quantum antiferromagnet, spin-1/2 excitations (spinons) are confined in pairs by strings akin to those confining quarks in non-abelian gauge theories. The system has multiple degenerate ground states (vacua) and domain walls between regions of different vacua. For two vacua, we demonstrate that spinons on a domain wall are liberated, in a mechanism strikingly similar to domain-wall deconfinement of quarks in variants of quantum chromodynamics. This observation not only establishes a novel phenomenon in quantum magnetism, but also provides a new direct link between …
It is generally accepted that doped Mott insulators can be well characterized by the t-J model. In the t-J model, the electron fractionalization is dictated by the phase string effect. We found that in the underdoped regime, the antiferromagnetic and superconducting phases are dual: in the former, holons are confined while spinons are deconfined, and {\it vice versa} in the latter. These two phases are separated by a novel phase, the so-called Bose-insulating phase, where both holons and spinons are deconfined. A pair of Wilson loops was found to constitute a complete set of order parameters d…
Magnetic Raman scattering from a frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg-chain is considered with a focus on the uniform phase of the spin-Peierls compound CuGeO_3. The Raman intensity is analyzed in terms of a Loudon-Fleury scattering process using a spinless-fermion mean-field theory developed for the frustrated spin-chain. A comparison to experimental data is presented and the frustration and temperature dependence is studied. In good agreement with observed spectra a broad inelastic four-spinon continuum is found at low temperatures above the spin-Peierls transition. At high temperatures the intens…
We use ultrafast optical spectroscopy to observe binding of charged single-particle excitations (SE) in the magnetically frustrated Mott insulator Na$_2$IrO$_3$. Above the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature ($T_N$) the system response is due to both Hubbard excitons (HE) and their constituent unpaired SE. The SE response becomes strongly suppressed immediately below $T_N$. We argue that this increase in binding energy is due to a unique interplay between the frustrated Kitaev and the weak Heisenberg-type ordering term in the Hamiltonian, mediating an effective interaction between the spin-…
The excitation spectrum of the frustrated spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg chain is reexamined using variational and exact diagonalization calculations. We show that the overlap matrix of the short-range resonating valence bond states basis can be inverted which yields tractable equations for single and two spinons excitations. Older results are recovered and new ones, such as the bond-state dispersion relation and its size with momentum at the Majumdar-Ghosh point are found. In particular, this approach yields a gap opening at $J_2=0.25J_1$ and an onset of incommensurability in the dispersion relation a…
We study a two-leg spin-1/2 ladder with isotropic exchanges and biquadratic interactions in the basic plaquettes. It is shown that for the extremely frustrated case, the system exhibits a self-organized phase separation. In some parameter regions, the singlet rungs form a Wigner-like lattice in the triplet-rung host. There are three types of elementary excitations in this modulation phase, i.e., the spinons in a triplet domain, the broken singlet rungs and the deformation of the Wigner-like lattice. The flux phase induced by an external magnetic field in the rung-dimerized phase is also discus…
Spinons are well-known as the elementary excitations of one-dimensional antiferromagnetic chains, but means to realize spinons in higher dimensions is the subject of intense research. Here, we use resonant x-ray scattering to study the layered trimer iridate Ba4Ir3O10, which shows no magnetic order down to 0.2 K. An emergent one-dimensional spinon continuum is observed that can be well-described by XXZ spin-1/2 chains with magnetic exchange of ~55 meV and a small Ising-like anisotropy. With 2% isovalent Sr doping, magnetic order appears below TN=130 K along with sharper excitations, indicating…
We introduce a frustrated spin 1/2 Hamiltonian which is an extension of the two dimensional $J_1 - J_2$ Heisenberg model. The ground states of this model are exactly obtained at a first order quantum phase transition between two regions with different valence bond solid order parameters. At this point, the low energy excitations are deconfined spinons and spin-charge separation occurs under doping in the limit of low concentration of holes. In addition, this point is characterized by the proliferation of topological defects that signal the emergence of $Z_2$ gauge symmetry.
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…
Low dimensional quantum magnets are interesting because of the emerging collective behavior arising from strong quantum fluctuations. The one-dimensional (1D) S = 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet is a paradigmatic example, whose low-energy excitations, known as spinons, carry fractional spin S = 1/2. These fractional modes can be reconfined by the application of a staggered magnetic field. Even though considerable progress has been made in the theoretical understanding of such magnets, experimental realizations of this low-dimensional physics are relatively rare. This is particularly true for ra…
Chirality and quasi-long-range order in finite-flux Gutzwiller states for magnetized frustrated magnets
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara(加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校卡弗里理论物理研究所);Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne(科隆大学理论物理研究所);Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah(犹他大学物理与天文系);Canadian Institute for Advanced Research(加拿大高级研究院);French American Center for Theoretical Science, CNRS, KITP(法国美国理论科学中心,法国国家科学研究中心,KITP)
Quantum spin ice in pyrochlore lattice exemplifies three dimensional frustrated spin systems.In existing studies, Bose-Einstein condensation of bosonic spinons gives rise to magnetically ordered ground state.A truly liquid quantum spin superfluid state that manifests a deconfined Higgs condensate of spinons is demonstrated.This state is shown to occur in the fully antiferromagnetic case of the non-Kramers quantum spin ice with a fluctuations-induced first-order quantum phase transition from the $U(1)$ spin liquid to the spin superfluid.The spin superfluid density jump is obtained analytically.