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arXiv:1203.4816 · Physical Review B

Resonating valence bond states in the PEPS formalism

Norbert Schuch, Didier Poilblanc, J. I. Cirac, David Pérez-Garcı́a

Published Sep 7, 2012• 150 citations
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Abstract

We study resonating valence bond (RVB) states in the projected entangled pair states (PEPS) formalism. Based on symmetries in the PEPS description, we establish relations between the toric code state, the orthogonal dimer state, and the $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ singlet RVB state on the kagome lattice: We prove the equivalence of toric code and dimer state, and devise an interpolation between the dimer state and the RVB state. This interpolation corresponds to a continuous path in Hamiltonian space, proving that the RVB state is the fourfold degenerate ground state of a local Hamiltonian on the (finite) kagome lattice. We investigate this interpolation using numerical PEPS methods, studying the decay of correlation functions, the change of overlap, and the entanglement spectrum, none of which exhibits signs of a phase transition.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.86.115108

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We study resonating valence bond (RVB) states in the projected entangled pair states (PEPS) formalism. Based on symmetries in the PEPS description, we establish relations between the toric code state, the orthogonal dimer state, and the SU(2)\mathrm{SU}(2)SU(2) singlet RVB state on the kagome lattice: We prove the equivalence of toric code and dimer state, and devise an interpolation between the dimer state and the RVB state. This interpolation corresponds to a continuous path in Hamiltonian space, proving that the RVB state is the fourfold degenerate ground state of a local Hamiltonian on the (finite) kagome lattice. We investigate this interpolation using numerical PEPS methods, studying the decay of correlation functions, the change of overlap, and the entanglement spectrum, none of which exhibits signs of a phase transition.
We examine in details the connections between topological and entanglement properties of short-range resonating valence bond (RVB) wave functions using projected entangled pair states (PEPS) on kagome and square lattices on (quasi)infinite cylinders with generalized boundary conditions (and perimeters with up to 20 lattice spacings). By making use of disconnected topological sectors in the space of dimer lattice coverings, we explicitly derive (orthogonal) ``minimally entangled'' PEPS RVB states. For the kagome lattice, using the quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet as a reference model, we obtain the finite-size scaling with increasing cylinder perimeter of the vanishing energy separations between these states. In particular, we extract two separate (vanishing) energy scales corresponding (i) to insert a vison line between the two ends of the cylinder and (ii) to pull out and freeze a spin at either end. We also investigate the relations between bulk and boundary properties and show that, for a bipartition of the cylinder, the boundary Hamiltonian defined on the edge can be written as a product of a highly nonlocal projector, which fundamentally depends upon boundary conditions, with an emergent (local) SU(2)(2)(2)-invariant one-dimensional (superfluid) ttt-JJJ Hamiltonian, which arises due to the symmetry properties of the auxiliary spins at the edge. This multiplicative structure, a consequence of the disconnected topological sectors in the space of dimer lattice coverings, is characteristic of the topological nature of the states. For minimally entangled RVB states, it is shown that the entanglement spectrum, which reflects the properties of the (gapless or gapped) edge modes, is a subset of the spectrum of the local Hamiltonian, e.g., half of it for the kagome RVB state, providing a simple argument on the origin of the topological entanglement entropy ${S}_{0}=\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{ln}2$ of the Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ spin liquid. We propose to use these features to probe topological phases in microscopic Hamiltonians, and some results are compared to existing density matrix renormalization group data.
We study resonating-valence-bond (RVB) states on the square lattice of spins and of dimers, as well as SU ( N )-invariant states that interpolate between the two. These states are ground states of gapless models, although the SU (2)-invariant spin RVB state is also believed to be a gapped liquid in its spinful sector. We show that the gapless behavior in spin and dimer RVB states is qualitatively similar by studying the Rényi entropy for splitting a torus into two cylinders. We compute this exactly for dimers, showing it behaves similarly to the familiar one-dimensional log term, although not identically. We extend the exact computation to an effective theory believed to interpolate among these states. By numerical calculations for the SU (2) RVB state and its SU ( N )-invariant generalizations, we provide further support for this belief. We also show how the entanglement entropy behaves qualitatively differently for different values of the Rényi index n , with large values of n proving a more sensitive probe here, by virtue of exhibiting a striking even/odd effect.
We generalize the construction of the spin-1/2 SU(2) resonating valence bond (RVB) state to the case of the self-conjugate 6\mathbf{6}6 representation of SU(4). As for the case of SU(2) [J.-Y. Chen and D. Poilblanc, Phys. Rev. B 97, 161107(R) (2018)], we use the projected entangled pair state (PEPS) formalism to derive a simple (two-dimensional) family of generalized SU(4) RVB states on the square lattice. We show that, when longer-range SU(4)-singlet bonds are included, a local gauge symmetry is broken down from U(1) to Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​, leading to the emergence of a short-range spin liquid. Evidence for the topological nature of this spin liquid is provided by the investigation of the Renyi entanglement entropy of infinitely long cylinders and of the modular matrices. Relevance to microscopic models and experiments of ultracold atoms is discussed.
The nature of the kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet (HAFM) is under ongoing debate. While recent evidence points towards a Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ topological spin liquid, the exact nature of the topological phase is still unclear. In this paper, we introduce semionic resonating valence-bond (RVB) states, this is, resonating valence-bond states which are in the Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​-ordered double-semion phase, and study them using projected entangled pair states. We investigate their physics and study their suitability as an ansatz for the HAFM, as compared to a conventional RVB state which is in the toric-code Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ topological phase. In particular, we find that a suitably optimized ``semionic simplex RVB'' outperforms the equally optimized conventional ``simplex RVB'' state, and that the entanglement spectrum (ES) of the semionic RVB behaves very differently from the ES of the conventional RVB, which suggests using the ES to discriminate the two phases. Finally, we also discuss the possible relevance of space-group symmetry breaking in valence-bond wave functions with double-semion topological order.
We exploit a natural projected entangled-pair state (PEPS) representation for the resonating Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki loop (RAL) state. By taking advantage of PEPS-based analytical and numerical methods, we characterize the RAL states on various two-dimensional lattices. On square and honeycomb lattices, these states are critical since the dimer-dimer correlations decay as a power law. On the kagome lattice, the RAL state has exponentially decaying correlation functions, supporting the scenario of a gapped spin liquid. We provide further evidence that the RAL state on the kagome lattice is a Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ spin liquid, by identifying the four topological sectors and computing the topological entropy. Furthermore, we construct a one-parameter family of PEPS states interpolating between the RAL state and a short-range resonating valence bond state and find a critical point, consistent with the fact that the two states belong to two different phases. We also perform a variational study of the spin-1 kagome Heisenberg model using this one-parameter PEPS.
We consider a family of SU(2)-symmetric Projected Entangled Paired States (PEPS) on the square lattice, defining colored-Resonating Valence Bond (RVB) states, to describe the quantum disordered phase of the J_1-J_2 J 1 − J 2 frustrated Heisenberg model. For J_2/J_1\sim 0.55 J 2 / J 1 ∼ 0.55 we show the emergence of critical (algebraic) dimer-dimer correlations – typical of Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) points of quantum dimer models on bipartite lattices – while, simultaneously, the spin-spin correlation length remains short. Our findings are consistent with a spin liquid or a weak Valence Bond Crystal in the neighborhood of an RK point.