We study the effects of bond randomness in the spin-
1/2 ${J}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{2}$ 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 the dynamical spin structure factor. By studying the bipartite entanglement spectrum of the system on cylinder geometry, we identify the features of the low-lying entanglement spectrum in the spin-liquid-like phase, which may distinguish this randomness-induced spin-liquid-like phase and the intrinsic spin-liquid phase in the clean ${J}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{2}$ triangular Heisenberg model. We further discuss the nature of this spin-liquid-like phase and the indication of our results for understanding spin-liquid-like materials with triangular-lattice structure.
The nature of quantum spin liquids is studied for the spin-
1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a square lattice containing exchange interactions between nearest-neighbor sites,
J1, and those between next-nearest-neighbor sites,
J2. We perform variational Monte Carlo simulations together with the quantum-number-projection technique and clarify the phase diagram in the ground state together with its excitation spectra. We obtain the nonmagnetic phase in the region
0.4<J2/J1≤0.6 sandwiched by the staggered and stripe antiferromagnetic (AF) phases. Our direct calculations of the spin gap support the notion that the triplet excitation from the singlet ground state is gapless in the range of
0.4<J2/J1≤0.5, while the gapped valence-bond-crystal (VBC) phase is stabilized for
0.5<J2/J1≤0.6. The VBC order is likely to have the columnar symmetry with a spontaneous symmetry breaking of the
C4v symmetry. The power-law behaviors of the spin-spin and dimer-dimer correlation functions in the gapless region are consistent with the emergence of the algebraic quantum-spin-liquid phase (critical phase). The exponent of the spin correlation
⟨S(0)S(r)⟩∝1/rz+η at a long distance
r appears to increase from
z+η∼1 at
J2/J1∼0.4 toward the continuous transition to the VBC phase at
J1/J1∼0.5. Our results, however, do not fully exclude the possibility of a direct quantum transition between the staggered AF and VBC phases with a wide critical region and deconfined criticality.
Strongly correlated systems with geometric frustrations can host the emergent phases of matter with unconventional properties. Here, we study the spin
S=1 Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice with the antiferromagnetic first- (
J1) and second-neighbor (
J2) interactions ($0.0\ensuremath{\le}{J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\le}0.5$) by means of density-matrix renormalization group. In the parameter regime ${J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.27$, the system sustains a N\'eel antiferromagnetic phase. At the large
J2 side ${J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.32$, a stripe antiferromagnetic phase is found. Between the two magnetic ordered phases $0.27\ensuremath{\lesssim}{J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.32$, we find a nonmagnetic intermediate region with a plaquette valence-bond order. Although our calculations are limited within a six unit-cell width on cylinder, we present evidence that this plaquette state could be a strong candidate for this nonmagnetic region in the thermodynamic limit. We also briefly discuss the nature of the quantum phase transitions in the system. We gain further insight into the nonmagnetic phases in the spin-1 system by comparing its phase diagram with the spin-
1/2 system.
Using the coupled-cluster method for high orders of approximation and Lanczos exact diagonalization we study the ground-state phase diagram of a quantum spin-
21 J1-
J2 model on the square lattice with plaquette structure. We consider antiferromagnetic (
J1>0) as well as ferromagnetic (
J1<0) nearest-neighbor interactions together with frustrating antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interaction
J2>0. The strength of interplaquette interaction $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ varies between $\ensuremath{\lambda}=1$ (which corresponds to the uniform
J1-
J2 model) and $\ensuremath{\lambda}=0$ (which corresponds to isolated frustrated 4-spin plaquettes). While on the classical level ($s\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$) both versions of models (i.e., with ferro- and antiferromagnetic
J1) exhibit the same ground-state behavior, the ground-state phase diagram differs basically for the quantum case
s=1/2. For the antiferromagnetic case (
J1>0) N\'eel antiferromagnetic long-range order at small
J2/J1 and $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.47$ as well as collinear striped antiferromagnetic long-range order at large
J2/J1 and $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.30$ appear which correspond to their classical counterparts. Both semiclassical magnetic phases are separated by a nonmagnetic quantum paramagnetic phase. The parameter region, where this nonmagnetic phase exists, increases with decreasing $\ensuremath{\lambda}$. For the ferromagnetic case (
J1<0) we have the trivial ferromagnetic ground state at small
J2/∣J1∣. By increasing
J2 this classical phase gives way for a semiclassical plaquette phase, where the plaquette block spins of length
s=2 are antiferromagnetically long-range ordered. Further increasing of
J2 then yields collinear striped antiferromagnetic long-range order for $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.38$, but a nonmagnetic quantum paramagnetic phase $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.38$.
Using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we study effects of disorder on the
S=1/2 Heisenberg model with exchange constant
J on the square lattice supplemented by multispin interactions
Q. It was found recently [L. Liu et al., Phys. Rev. X 8, 041040 (2018)] that the ground state of this $J\ensuremath{-}Q$ model with random couplings undergoes a quantum phase transition from the N\'eel antiferromagnetic state into a randomness-induced spin-liquid-like state that is a close analog to the well known random-singlet (RS) state of the Heisenberg chain with random couplings. This 2D RS state arises from a spontaneously symmetry-broken fourfold degenerate columnar valence-bond solid that is broken up by the disorder into finite domains, with spinons localized at topological defects. The interacting spinons form a critical collective many-body state without magnetic long range order but with the mean spin-spin correlations decaying with distance
r as ${r}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$, as in the one-dimensional RS state. The dynamic exponent $z\ensuremath{\ge}2$, varying continuously with the model parameters. In this work, we further investigate the properties of the RS state in the $J\ensuremath{-}Q$ model with random
Q couplings. We study the temperature dependence of the specific heat and various susceptibilities for large enough systems to reach the thermodynamic limit. We also analyze the size dependence of the critical magnetic order parameter and its susceptibility in the ground state. For all these quantities, we find consistency with the conventional quantum-critical scaling laws when the condition implied by the ${r}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ form of the spin correlations is imposed. In particular, all the different quantities can be explained by the same value of the dynamic exponent
z at fixed model parameters. We argue that the RS state identified in the $J\ensuremath{-}Q$ model corresponds to a generic renormalization group fixed point that can be reached in many quantum magnets with random couplings and that it has already been observed experimentally.
We study the ground-state phase diagram of the quantum ${J}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{2}$ model on a square lattice by means of an entangled-plaquette variational Ansatz. In the range $0\ensuremath{\leqslant}{J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\leqslant}1$, we find classical magnetic order of N\'eel and collinear type, for ${J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.5$ and ${J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.6$, respectively. For intermediate values of
J2/J1 the ground state is a spin liquid (i.e., paramagnetic with no valence-bond crystalline order). Our estimates of the entanglement entropy show that such a spin liquid is topological.