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arXiv:2310.09582 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Majorana Fermi surface state in a network of quantum spin chains

Fabrizio G. Oliviero, Weslei Bernardino Fontana, Rodrigo G. Pereira

Published Feb 15, 2024• 2 citations
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Abstract

We use junctions of critical spin-1 chains as the basic elements to construct a honeycomb network that harbors a gapless chiral spin liquid phase. The low-energy modes are described by spin-1 Majorana fermions that form a two-dimensional Fermi surface when the interactions at the junctions are tuned to the vicinity of chiral fixed points with staggered chirality. We discuss the physical properties and the stability of this chiral spin liquid phase against perturbations from the point of view of the effective field theory for the network. We find clear connections with the excitation spectrum obtained in parton constructions on the kagome lattice.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.109.075135

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We use junctions of critical spin-1 chains as the basic elements to construct a honeycomb network that harbors a gapless chiral spin liquid phase. The low-energy modes are described by spin-1 Majorana fermions that form a two-dimensional Fermi surface when the interactions at the junctions are tuned to the vicinity of chiral fixed points with staggered chirality. We discuss the physical properties and the stability of this chiral spin liquid phase against perturbations from the point of view of the effective field theory for the network. We find clear connections with the excitation spectrum obtained in parton constructions on the kagome lattice.
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We show that a honeycomb lattice of Heisenberg spin-1/2 chains with three-spin junction interactions allows for controlled analytical studies of chiral spin liquids (CSLs). Tuning these interactions to a chiral fixed point, we find a Kalmeyer-Laughlin CSL phase which here is connected to the critical point of a boundary conformal field theory. Our construction directly yields a quantized spin Hall conductance and localized spinons with semionic statistics as elementary excitations. We also outline the phase diagram away from the chiral point where spinons may condense. Generalizations of our approach can provide microscopic realizations for many other CSLs.
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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.
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Using a perturbative renormalization group approach, we show that the extended ( J_1-J_2-J_d J 1 − J 2 − J d ) Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice with a staggered chiral interaction ( J_\chi J χ ) can exhibit a gapless chiral quantum spin liquid phase. Within a coupled-chain construction, this phase can be understood as a chiral sliding Luttinger liquid with algebraic decay of spin correlations along the chain directions. We calculate the low-energy properties of this gapless chiral spin liquid using the effective field theory and show that they are compatible with the predictions from parton mean-field theories with symmetry-protected line Fermi surfaces. These results may be relevant to the state observed in the kapellasite material.