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arXiv:1507.07703 · Physical Review B

Engineering SU(2) invariant spin models to mimic quantum dimer physics on the square lattice

Matthieu Mambrini, Sylvain Capponi, Fabien Alet

Published Oct 16, 2015• 8 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider the spin-$1/2$ Hamiltonians proposed by Cano and Fendley [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 067205 (2010)], which were built to promote the well-known Rokshar-Kivelson (RK) point of quantum dimer models to spin-$1/2$ wave functions. We first show that these models, besides the exact degeneracy of RK point, support gapless spinless excitations as well as a spin gap in the thermodynamic limit, signatures of an unusual spin liquid. We then extend the original construction to create a continuous family of SU(2) invariant spin models that reproduces the phase diagram of the quantum dimer model and, in particular, show explicit evidences for existence of columnar and staggered phases. The original models thus appear as multicritical points in an extended phase diagram. Our results are based on the use of a combination of numerical exact simulations and analytical mapping to effective generalized quantum dimer models.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.92.134413

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We study a generalized quantum hard-core dimer model on the square and honeycomb lattices, allowing for first and second neighbor dimers. At generalized Rokhsar-Kivelson points, the exact ground states can be constructed, and ground-state correlation functions can be equated to those of interacting (1+1)-dimensional Grassmann fields. When the concentration of second neighbor dimers is small, the ground-state correlations are shown to be short ranged corresponding to a (gaped) spin liquid phase. On a 2-torus, the ground states exhibit fourfold topological degeneracy. On a finite cylinder we have found a dramatic even-odd effect depending on the circumference and propose that this can be used as a numerical diagnostic of gapped spin-liquid phases, more generally.
Recently, quantum dimer models have attracted a great deal of interest as a paradigm for the study of exotic quantum phases. Much of this excitement has centered on the claim that a certain class of quantum dimer model can support a quantum U(1)U(1)U(1)-liquid phase with deconfined fractional excitations in three dimensions. These fractional monomer excitations are quantum analogs of the magnetic monopoles found in spin ice. In this paper, we use extensive quantum Monte Carlo simulations to establish the ground-state phase diagram of the quantum dimer model on the three-dimensional diamond lattice as a function of the ratio $\ensuremath{\mu}$ of the potential to kinetic-energy terms in the Hamiltonian. We find that, for ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{c}=0.75\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02$, the model undergoes a first-order quantum phase transition from an ordered ``R\mathsf{R}R state'' into an extended quantum U(1)U(1)U(1)-liquid phase, which terminates in a quantum critical Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point for $\ensuremath{\mu}=1$. This confirms the published field-theoretical scenario. We present detailed evidence for the existence of the U(1)U(1)U(1)-liquid phase and indirect evidence for the existence of its photon and monopole excitations. Simulations are benchmarked against a variety of exact and perturbative results, and a comparison is made of different variational wave functions. We also explore the ergodicity of the quantum dimer model on a diamond lattice within a given flux sector, identifying a new conserved quantity related to transition graphs of dimer configurations. These results complete and extend the previous analysis of O. Sikora et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 247001 (2009)].
We construct a generalized quantum dimer model on two-dimensional nonbipartite lattices, including the triangular lattice, the star lattice, and the kagome lattice. At the Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point, we obtain its exact ground states that are shown to be a fully gapped quantum spin liquid with the double-semion topological order. The ground-state wave function of such a model at the RK point is a superposition of dimer configurations with a nonlocal sign structure determined by counting the number of loops in the transition graph. We explicitly demonstrate the double-semion topological order in the ground states by showing the semionic statistics of monomer excitations. We also discuss possible implications of such double-semion resonating valence bond states to candidate quantum spin-liquid systems discovered experimentally and numerically in the past few years.