The interplay of electronic interactions and frustration in crystalline systems leads to a panoply of correlated phases, including exotic Mott insulators with non-trivial patterns of entanglement. Disorder introduces additional quantum interference effects that can drive localization phenomena. Quasicrystals, which are neither disordered nor perfectly crystalline, are interesting playgrounds for studying the effects of interaction, frustration, and quantum interference. Here we consider a solvable example of a quantum spin liquid on a tri-coordinated quasicrystal. We extend Kitaev's original construction for the spin model to our quasicrystalline setting and perform a large scale flux-sampling to find the ground-state configuration in terms of the emergent majorana fermions and flux excitations. This reveals a fully gapped and time-reversal symmetric quantum spin liquid, regardless of the exchange anisotropies, accompanied by a tendency towards non-trivial (de-)localization at the edge and the bulk. The advent of moiré materials and a variety of quantum simulators provide a new platform to bring phases of quasicrystalline quantum matter to life in a controlled fashion.
We study quantum SU($M$) spins with all-to-all and random Heisenberg exchange interactions of root-mean-square strength $J$. The $M \rightarrow \infty$ model has a spin liquid ground state with the spinons obeying the equations of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. Numerical studies of the SU(2) model with $S=1/2$ spins show spin glass order in the ground state, but also display SYK spin liquid behavior in the intermediate frequency spin spectrum. We employ a $1/M$ expansion to describe the crossover from fractionalized fermionic spinons to a confining spin glass state with weak spin glass ord…
Quantum spin liquids are long-range entangled phases whose magnetic correlations are determined by strong quantum fluctuations. While an overarching principle specifying the precise microscopic coupling scenarios for which quantum spin-liquid behavior arises is unknown, it is well-established that they are preferably found in spin systems where the corresponding classical limit of spin magnitudes $S\rightarrow\infty$ exhibits a macroscopic ground state degeneracy, so-called classical spin liquids. Spiral spin liquids represent a special family of classical spin liquids where degenerate manifol…
我们发现，在石墨烯中的局部相互作用允许半金属和反铁磁Mott绝缘相之间的新的自旋液体，分别与代数自旋液体和Z $_{2}$自旋液体。我们认为，代数自旋液体可以被看作是二维实现的一维自旋动力学，反铁磁相关显示完全相同的幂律依赖的价键相关。Z $_{2}$自旋液体的性质证明是$d + i d'$单线态配对，但保留了时间反演对称性，在一个谷中取$d + i d'$，在另一个谷中取$d - i d'$。我们提出量子化的热谷霍尔效应作为这种带隙自旋液态的一个基本特征。半金属、代数自旋液体和Z $_{2}$自旋液体之间的量子相变被证明是连续的，而从Z $_{2}$自旋液体到反铁磁莫特绝缘体的相变被证明是一阶的。我们强调，代数自旋液体和$d \pm id'$ Z $_{2}$自旋液体都可以通过量子蒙特卡罗模拟得到验证，显示了代数自旋液体中增强的对称性和Z $_{2}$自旋液体中量子化的热谷霍尔效应.
Despite the apparent ubiquity and variety of quantum spin liquids in theory, experimental confirmation of spin liquids remains to be a huge challenge. Motivated by the recent surge of evidences for spin liquids in a series of candidate materials, we highlight the experimental schemes, involving the thermal Hall transport and spectrum measurements, that can result in smoking-gun signatures of spin liquids beyond the usual ones. For clarity, we investigate the square lattice spin liquids and theoretically predict the possible phenomena that may emerge in the corresponding spin liquids candidates…
Motivated by spin-wave continuum (SWC) observed in recent neutron scattering experiments in Herbertsmithite, we use Gutzwiller-projected wave functions to study dynamic spin structure factor $S(\mathbf{q},ω)$ of spin liquid states on the kagome lattice. Spin-1 excited states in spin liquids are represented by Gutzwiller-projected two-spinon excited wave functions. We investigate three different spin liquid candidates, spinon Fermi-surface spin liquid (FSL), Dirac spin liquid (DSL) and random-flux spin liquid (RSL). FSL and RSL have low energy peaks in $S(\mathbf{q},ω)$ at $K$ points in the ext…
Spin liquid is a state of electron spins in which quantum fluctuation breaks magnetic ordering while maintaining spin correlation. It has been a central topic in magnetism because of its relevance to high-Tc superconductivity and topological states. However, utilizing spin liquid has been quite difficult. Typical spin liquid states are realized in one-dimensional spin systems, called quantum spin chains. Here, we show that a spin liquid in a spin-1/2 quantum chain generates and carries spin current via its long-range spin fluctuation. This is demonstrated by observing an anisotropic negative s…
Spin liquid crystals are magnetic analogs of liquid crystals, possessing properties of both liquids and solids, a typical example of which are spin nematics. Spin nematics share many features with spin liquids, and the interplay between them is a promising, but little explored, route to uncovering new phases of matter. Here, we address this question in the context of a spin-$1$ magnet on the honeycomb lattice, by considering a model with both biquadratic interactions, favouring spin-nematic states, and Kitaev-like interactions, supporting spin liquids. Accompanying these, where dipole and quad…
By using the density matrix renormalization group, we study the spin-liquid phases of spin-$1/2$ XXZ kagome antiferromagnets. We find that the emergence of spin liquid phase does not depend on the anisotropy of the XXZ interaction. In particular, the two extreme limits---Ising (strong $S^z$ interaction) and XY (zero $S^z$ interaction)---host the same spin-liquid phases as the isotropic Heisenberg model. Both the time-reversal-invariant spin liquid and the chiral spin liquid with spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking are obtained. We show they evolve continuously into each other by tuning…
In quantum spin liquids, fractional spinon excitations carry half-integer spins and other fractional quantum numbers of lattice and time-reversal symmetries. Different patterns of symmetry fractionalization distinguish different spin liquid phases. In this work, we derive a general constraint on the symmetry fractionalization of spinons in a gapped spin liquid, realized in a system with an odd number of spin-$1/2$ per unit cell. In particular, when applied to kagome/triangular lattices, we obtain a complete classification of symmetric gapped $\mathbb{Z_2}$ spin liquids.
Frustrated magnetic systems exhibit many fascinating phases. Prime among them are quantum spin liquids, where the magnetic moments do not order even at zero temperature. A subclass of quantum spin liquids called Kitaev spin liquids are particularly interesting, because they are exactly solvable, can be realized in certain materials, and show a large variety of gapless and gapped phases. Here, we show that non-symmorphic symmetries can enrich spin liquid phases, such that the low-energy spinon degrees of freedom form three-dimensional Dirac cones or nodal chains. In addition, we suggest how suc…
Quantum spin systems are by now known to exhibit a large number of different classes of spin liquid phases. By contrast, for \textit{classical} Heisenberg models, only one kind of fractionalised spin liquid phase, the so-called Coulomb or $U(1)$ spin liquid, has until recently been identified: this exhibits algebraic spin correlations and impurity moments, `orphan spins', whose size is a fraction of that of the underlying microscopic degrees of freedom. Here, we present two Heisenberg models exhibiting fractionalisation in combination with exponentially decaying correlations. These can be thou…
We describe electron spin resonance in a quantum spin liquid with significant spin-orbit coupling. We find that the resonance directly probes spinon continuum which makes it an efficient and informative probe of exotic excitations of the spin liquid. Specifically, we consider spinon resonance of three different spinon mean-field Hamiltonians, obtained with the help of projective symmetry group analysis, which model a putative quantum spin liquid state of the triangular rare-earth antiferromagnet YbMgGaO4. The band of absorption is found to be very broad and exhibit strong van Hove singularitie…
Quantum spin liquid is an exotic quantum state of matter in magnets. This state is a spin analogue of the liquid helium which does not solidify down to the lowest temperature due to strong quantum fluctuations. In conventional fluids, liquid and gas possess the same symmetry and adiabatically connect to each other by bypassing the critical end point. We find that the situation is qualitatively different in quantum spin liquids realizing in a three-dimensional Kitaev model; both gapless and gapped quantum spin liquid phases at low temperatures are always distinguished from the high-temperature …
We numerically study the Heisenberg models on triangular lattices by extending it from the simplest equilateral lattice with only the nearest-neighbor exchange interaction. We show that, by including an additional weak next-nearest-neighbor interaction, a quantum spin-liquid phase is stabilized against the antiferromagnetic order. The spin gap (triplet excitation gap) and spin correlation at long distances decay algebraically with increasing system size at the critical point between the antiferromagnetic phase and the spin-liquid phase. This algebraic behavior continues in the spin-liquid phas…
Recent experiments suggest a quantum spin liquid ground state in the material PbCuTe$_2$O$_6$, where $S=1/2$ moments are coupled by antiferromagnetic Heisenberg interactions into a three dimensional structure of corner sharing triangles dubbed the hyper-hyperkagome lattice. It exhibits a richer connectivity, and thus likely a stronger geometric frustration, than the relatively well studied hyperkagome lattice. Here, we investigate the possible quantum spin liquids in the $S=1/2$ hyper-hyperkagome magnet using the complex fermion mean field theory. Extending the results of a previous projective…
We study the effects of bond randomness in the spin-$1/2$ $J_1-J_2$ triangular Heisenberg model using exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group. With increasing bond randomness, we identify a randomness induced spin-liquid-like phase without any magnetic order, dimer order, spin glass order, or valence-bond glass order. The finite-size scaling of gaps suggests the gapless nature of both spin triplet and singlet excitations, which is further supported by the broad continuum of dynamical spin structure factor. By studying the bipartite entanglement spectrum of the system on …
In this paper, we explore the relationship between strong spin-orbit coupling and spin liquid physics. We study a very general model on the triangular lattice where spin-orbit coupling leads to the presence of highly anisotropic interactions. We use variational Monte Carlo to study both $U(1)$ quantum spin liquid states and ordered ones, via the Gutzwiller projected fermion construction. We thereby obtain the ground state phase diagram in this phase space. We furthermore consider effects beyond the Gutzwiller wavefunctions for the spinon Fermi surface quantum spin liquid, which are of particul…
We show that the best variational ground state of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Kagome antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with nearest-neighboring exchange coupling(NN-KAFH) is a $Z_{2}$ spin liquid state, rather than the widely believed $U(1)$ Dirac spin liquid state. The spinon excitation in the $Z_{2}$ spin liquid state has a small gap of about $1/40$ of the spinon band width. We find that while the $Z_{2}$ and the $U(1)$ spin liquid state have a large overlap on finite clusters and are thus very close in energy, they host totally different spinon excitation spectrum. The strength of the RVB theor…
The spin liquid phase is one of the prominent strongly interacting topological phases of matter whose unambiguous confirmation is yet to be reached despite intensive experimental efforts on numerous candidate materials. Recently, a new family of correlated honeycomb materials, in which strong spin-orbit coupling allows for various bond-dependent spin interactions, have been promising candidates to realize the Kitaev spin liquid. Here we study a model with bond-dependent spin interactions and show numerical evidence for the existence of an extended quantum spin liquid region, which is possibly …
Topological spin liquids in two spatial dimensions are stable phases in the presence of a small magnetic field, but may give way to field-induced phenomena at intermediate field strengths. Sandwiched between the low-field spin liquid physics and the high-field spin-polarized phase, the exploration of magnetic phenomena in this intermediate regime however often remains elusive to controlled analytical approaches. Here we numerically study such intermediate-field magnetic phenomena for two representative Kitaev models (on the square-octagon and decorated honeycomb lattice) that exhibit either Ab…
In quasi-1D conducting nanowires spin-orbit coupling destructs spin-charge separation, intrinsic to Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL). We study renormalization of a single scattering impurity in a such liquid. Performing bosonization of low-energy excitations and exploiting perturbative renormalization analysis we extend the phase portrait in $K_s$ - $K_c$ space, obtained previously for TLL with decoupled spin-charge channels.
Spin systems with frustrated anisotropic interactions are of significant interest due to possible exotic ground states. We have explored their phase diagram on a nearest-neighbor triangular lattice using the density-matrix renormalization group and mapped out the topography of the region that can harbor a spin liquid. We find that this spin-liquid phase is continuously connected to a previously discovered spin-liquid phase of the isotropic $J_1\!-\!J_2$ model. The two limits show nearly identical spin correlations, making the case that their respective spin liquids are isomorphic to each other…
Metallic spin liquid has been reported in several correlated metals, but a satisfactory theoretical description is not yet available. Here we propose a potential route to realize the metallic spin liquid and construct an effective $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory with charged fractionalized excitations on the triangular Kondo lattice. This leads to a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ metallic spin liquid featured with long-lived, heavy holon excitations of spin 0 and charge $+e$ and a partially enlarged electron Fermi surface. It differs from the weak-coupling FL$^*$ state proposed earlier and may be viewed as a frac…
Mott insulators under sufficiently strong spin-orbit coupling can display quantum spin liquid phases with topological order and fractional excitations. Quantum magnets with pure Kitaev spin exchange interactions can host a gapped quantum spin liquid with a single Majorana edge mode propagating in the counter-clockwise direction when a small positive magnetic field is applied. Here, we show how under a sufficiently strong positive magnetic field a topological transition into a gapped quantum spin liquid with two Majorana edge modes propagating in the clockwise direction occurs. The Dzyaloshinsk…
Spin Liquid Regimes at Nonzero Temperature in Quantum Spin Ice
量子自旋液体是具有涌现规范结构、分数自旋子激发和其他不寻常性质的量子系统的高度纠缠基态。虽然这些特征清楚地将量子自旋液体与传统的在零温度（T）下的类平均场状态区分开来，但它们在T>0时的状态不太清楚。严格地说，已知大多数量子自旋液体在非零温度下失去它们的特性，在这种情况下，它们可被热力学变换成平凡的顺磁体。这是最近提出的在量子自旋冰高温超导体中出现的U（1）量子自旋液体态的情况。然而，在这里，我们提出，在实践中，后者的量子自旋液体可以被视为不同的相从高温顺磁体。通过规范平均场论计算和物理推理相结合，我们认为，这些系统同时支持量子自旋液体和热自旋液体相，分别由量子涨落和熵，占主导地位。这些阶段被一阶“热约束”跃迁分开，使得对于低于跃迁的温度，自旋子和出射光子是相干传播的激发，并且在其之上动力学是经典的。即使对于基态是磁有序的而不是量子自旋液体的参数，也会发生这种强的一阶跃迁，从而抢占常规的朗道型临界性。我们认为，这张照片解释了在量子自旋冰材料Yb 2 Ti 2 O 7中观察到的异常低温相变。
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.
Quantum spin ice materials, pyrochlore magnets with competing Ising and transverse exchange interactions, have been widely discussed as candidates for a quantum spin-liquid ground state. Here, motivated by quantum chemical calculations for Pr pyrochlores, we present the results of a study for frustrated transverse exchange. Using a combination of variational calculations, exact diagonalisation, numerical linked-cluster and series expansions, we find that the previously-studied U(1) quantum spin liquid, in its pi-flux phase, transforms into a nematic quantum spin liquid at a high-symmetry, SU(2…
We describe a coupled-chain construction for chiral spin liquids in two-dimensional spin systems. Starting from a one-dimensional zigzag spin chain and imposing SU(2) symmetry in the framework of non-Abelian bosonization, we first show that our approach faithfully describes the low-energy physics of an exactly solvable model with a three-spin interaction. Generalizing the construction to the two-dimensional case, we obtain a theory that incorporates the universal properties of the chiral spin liquid predicted by Kalmeyer and Laughlin: charge-neutral edge states, gapped spin-1/2 bulk excitation…
The magnetization process of the $S=1$ spin ladder system is investigated using the numerical exact diagonalization of finite-size clusters. The field-induced spin nematic liquid phase was predicted to appear by our previous work. Several ground-state phase diagrams in the plane of the single-ion anisotropy and the external magnetic field are obtained in the present study.
We study possible spin liquids on square lattice that respect all lattice symmetries and time-reversal symmetry within the framework of Schwinger boson (mean-field) theory. Such spin liquids have spin gap and emergent Z_2 gauge field excitations. We classify them by the projective symmetry group method, and find six spin liquid states that are potentially relevant to the J_1-J_2 Heisenberg model. The properties of these states are studied under mean-field approximation. Interestingly we find a spin liquid state that can go through continuous phase transitions to either the Néel magnetic order …
Quantum spin liquids may be considered "quantum disordered" ground states of spin systems, in which zero point fluctuations are so strong that they prevent conventional magnetic long range order. More interestingly, quantum spin liquids are prototypical examples of ground states with massive many-body entanglement, of a degree sufficient to render these states distinct phases of matter. Their highly entangled nature imbues quantum spin liquids with unique physical aspects, such as non-local excitations, topological properties, and more. In this review, we discuss the nature of such phases and …
Quantum spin liquids are highly fascinating quantum liquids in which the spin degrees of freedom fractionalize. An interesting class of spin liquids are the exactly solvable, three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquids. Their fractionalized excitations are Majonara fermions, which may exhibit a variety of topological band structures --- ranging from topologically protected Weyl semi-metals over nodal semi-metals to systems with Majorana Fermi surfaces. We study the entanglement spectrum of such Kitaev spin liquids and verify that it is closely related to the topologically protected edge spectrum. Mo…
Coulomb spin liquids are topological magnetic states obeying an emergent Gauss' law. Little distinction has been made between different kinds of Coulomb liquids. Here we show how a series of distinct Coulomb liquids can be generated straightforwardly by varying the constraints on a classical spin system. This leads to pair creation, and coalescence, of topological defects of an underlying vector field. The latter makes higher-rank spin liquids, of recent interest in the context of fracton theories, with attendant multi-fold pinch points in the structure factor, appear naturally. New Coulomb li…
Experimental identification of quantum spin liquids remains a challenge, as the pristine nature is to be seen in asymptotically low temperatures. We here theoretically show that the precursor of quantum spin liquids appears in the spin dynamics in the paramagnetic state over a wide temperature range. Using the cluster dynamical mean-field theory and the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method, which are newly developed in the Majorana fermion representation, we calculate the dynamical spin structure factor, relaxation rate in nuclear magnetic resonance, and magnetic susceptibility for the h…
