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arXiv:1512.00324 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Projective symmetry group classification of chiral spin liquids

Samuel Bieri, C. Lhuillier, Laura Messio

Published Mar 30, 2016• 101 citations
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Abstract

We present a general review of the projective symmetry group classification of fermionic quantum spin liquids for lattice models of spin $S=1/2$. We then introduce a systematic generalization of the approach for symmetric ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ quantum spin liquids to the one of chiral phases (i.e., singlet states that break time reversal and lattice reflection, but conserve their product). We apply this framework to classify and discuss possible chiral spin liquids on triangular and kagome lattices. We give a detailed prescription on how to construct quadratic spinon Hamiltonians and microscopic wave functions for each representation class on these lattices. Among the chiral ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ states, we study the subset of U(1) phases variationally in the antiferromagnetic ${J}_{1}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{2}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{d}$ Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice. We discuss static spin structure factors and symmetry constraints on the bulk spectra of these phases.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.93.094437

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We present a general review of the projective symmetry group classification of fermionic quantum spin liquids for lattice models of spin S=1/2S=1/2S=1/2. We then introduce a systematic generalization of the approach for symmetric Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ quantum spin liquids to the one of chiral phases (i.e., singlet states that break time reversal and lattice reflection, but conserve their product). We apply this framework to classify and discuss possible chiral spin liquids on triangular and kagome lattices. We give a detailed prescription on how to construct quadratic spinon Hamiltonians and microscopic wave functions for each representation class on these lattices. Among the chiral Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ states, we study the subset of U(1) phases variationally in the antiferromagnetic J1\ensuremath-J2\ensuremath-Jd{J}_{1}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{2}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{d}J1​\ensuremath-J2​\ensuremath-Jd​ Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice. We discuss static spin structure factors and symmetry constraints on the bulk spectra of these phases.
Motivated by recent experiments on the Heisenberg S=1/2S=1/2S=1/2 quantum spin liquid candidate material kapellasite, we classify all possible chiral (time-reversal symmetry breaking) spin liquids with fermionic spinons on the kagome lattice. We obtain the phase diagram for the physically relevant extended Heisenberg model, comparing the energies of a wide range of microscopic variational wave functions. We propose that, at low temperature, kapellasite exhibits a gapless chiral spin liquid phase with spinon Fermi surfaces. This two-dimensional state inherits many properties of the nearby one-dimensional phase of decoupled antiferromagnetic spin chains, but also shows some remarkable differences. We discuss the spin structure factors and other physical properties.
Projective symmetry groups beyond spin-1/21/21/2: Classifying integer-spin quantum spin liquids
Wen's projective symmetry group (PSG), introduced a quarter of a century ago, reduced the classification of symmetric quantum spin liquids to an algebraic problem and has guided the study of spin-1/21/21/2 models and materials ever since. Many current candidate materials and quantum simulators, however, have spin-111 or larger moments, and no comparable classification exists for them. We formulate the PSG for fermionic partons of arbitrary spin SSS. Integer and half-odd-integer spins already differ in their gauge structure. Half-odd-integer spins give the familiar SU(2)\mathrm{SU}(2)SU(2), U(1)\mathrm{U}(1)U(1), and Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ invariant gauge groups, while integer spins give a different hierarchy that includes U(1)⋊Z2\mathrm{U}(1)\rtimes\mathbb{Z}_2U(1)⋊Z2​ and Z2×Z2\mathbb{Z}_2\times\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​×Z2​; the latter has no spin-1/21/21/2 counterpart. Three lattice-independent results follow for integer spin. Singlet pairing of the partons is odd under site exchange. A lattice symmetry can exchange the particle and hole representations of the local constraint, which forces symmetry-related sites into opposite constraint sectors. And a time-reversal-symmetric U(1)\mathrm{U}(1)U(1) state with the same constraint on every site can be gapped only if the number of sites per unit cell is a multiple of 2S+12S+12S+1. We apply the formalism to the spin-111 diamond lattice, realized in frustrated A-site spinels, and find ten fully symmetric Ansätze up to second neighbors. In the J1J_1J1​-J2J_2J2​ Heisenberg model at the mean-field level, the ground state depends on how the constraint is imposed. With the particle and hole representations, the lowest states are fully gapped U(1)\mathrm{U}(1)U(1) states whose two sublattices sit in opposite constraint sectors, and one of them is gauge equivalent to a paired Ansatz. The classification provides a starting point for integer-spin quantum spin liquids on other lattices and in other materials.
We calculate dynamical spin structure factors for gapped chiral spin liquid states in the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice using Schwinger-boson mean-field theory. In contrast to static (equal-time) structure factors, the dynamical structure factor shows clear signatures of time-reversal symmetry breaking for chiral spin liquid states. In particular, momentum inversion $\mathbit{k}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{-}\mathbit{k}$ symmetry as well as the sixfold rotation symmetry around the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$ point are lost. We highlight other interesting features, such as a relatively flat onset of the two-spinon continuum for the cuboc1 state. Our work is based on the projective symmetry group classification of time-reversal symmetry breaking Schwinger-boson mean-field states by Messio, Lhuillier, and Misguich.
Projective symmetry groups are the mathematical tools which make it possible to list and classify mean-field spin liquids (SLs) based on a parton construction. The seminal work of Wen [Phys. Rev. B 65, 165113 (2002)] and its subsequent extension to bosons by Wang and Vishwanath [Phys. Rev. B 74, 174423 (2006)] concerned the so-called symmetric SLs; i.e., states that break neither lattice symmetries nor time reversal invariance. Here we generalize this tool to chiral (time reversal symmetry breaking) SLs described in a Schwinger boson mean-field approach and illustrate it on the triangular lattice, which can harbor nine different weakly symmetric SLs (two symmetric SLs and seven chiral SLs) with nearest neighbor bond operators only. Results for other lattices (square and kagome) are given in the Appendixes. Application of this new approach has recently led to the discovery of two chiral ground states on the kagome lattice [Messio et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 207204 (2012); F\aa{}k et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 037208 (2012)]. The signature of a time reversal symmetry breaking SL is the presence in the ground state of nontrivial fluxes of loop operators that break some lattice point group symmetries. The physical significance of these gauge invariant quantities is discussed both in the classical limit and in the quantum SL and their expressions in terms of spin observables are given.
Abstract We present a systematic classification and variational study of chiral quantum spin liquids on the pyrochlore lattice based on fermionic parton constructions. Focusing on chiral U ( 1 ) and Z 2 spin-liquid Ansätze , we characterize their symmetry properties, flux structures, and low-energy spinon spectra within a projective symmetry group framework, and incorporate gauge fluctuations through Gutzwiller-projected wave functions studied by variational Monte Carlo. From the equal-time spin structure factor, we develop correlation-based diagnostics that distinguish gauge-dominated Coulomb phases from states with substantial matter-field and short-range contributions. Distinct chiral flux sectors, though close in energy, exhibit markedly different degrees of emergent U ( 1 ) gauge-field dominance, reflected in the geometry and contrast of pinch-point singularities. Although these states are not competitive ground states of the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg model, they define a physically meaningful family of proximate chiral phases relevant to extended pyrochlore Hamiltonians.
The ruby lattice has been the subject of much interest recently due its realization in Rydberg atom arrays, where its rich variety of frustrated interactions gives rise to topologically ordered quantum spin liquids. Similarly, numerical studies of ruby-lattice spin models, with both isotropic and anisotropic interactions, have provided evidence of gapped and gapless spin-liquid ground states with different low-energy gauge structures. Motivated by these findings, we perform a projective symmetry group (PSG) classification of U(1) and Z2\mathbb{Z}_{2}Z2​ fermionic spinon mean-field theories$\unicode{x2014}$respecting space-group and time-reversal symmetries$\unicode{x2014}$for S=1/2S=1/2S=1/2 spins. We obtain a total of 50 U(1) and 64 Z2\mathbb{Z}_{2}Z2​ PSGs, and upon restricting their realization via mean-field Ansa¨tze\textit{Ansätze}Ansa¨tze with up to second-nearest-neighbor singlet amplitudes (relevant to the models studied here), only 8 U(1) and 18 Z2\mathbb{Z}_{2}Z2​ distinct states are obtained. We present the singlet fields for all Ansa¨tze\textit{Ansätze}Ansa¨tze up to third-nearest-neighboring bonds and discuss their spinon dispersions as well as their dynamical spin structure factors. Building on this information, we also obtain the phase diagram of the Heisenberg model in the presence of first (J1J_{1}J1​), second (J1′J_{1}'J1′​), and third (J2J_{2}J2​) neighbor antiferromagnetic couplings within a self-consistent mean-field approximation.