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arXiv:2503.15588

A quantum monomer-dimer model on Penrose tilings

Jeet Shah, Gautam Nambiar, Alexey Vyacheslavovich Gorshkov, Victor Galitski

Published Mar 19, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

We define a quantum monomer-dimer model in the space of maximal dimer coverings of quasicrystalline Penrose tilings. Since Penrose tilings do not admit perfect dimer coverings, as shown by F. Flicker et al., PRX 10, 011005 (2020), monomers are necessarily present in our model. The model features a frustration-free Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point where the ground state is a uniform superposition of all the exponentially many maximal dimer coverings, despite the presence of a finite density of monomers. We map our model to a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory with matter and calculate various correlators to characterize the phase of the system at the RK point using classical Monte Carlo calculations. Specifically, we compute the dimer-dimer and vison-vison correlators, as well as open Wilson lines and closed Wilson loops corresponding to the monomers and the visons. We find that both the dimer-dimer and vison-vison correlators decay exponentially with distance. The open Wilson lines and closed Wilson loops decay exponentially with the same correlation length, indicating that the gauge theory is in the confined phase, which implies that the system is likely in an ordered phase.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2503.15588

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We define a quantum monomer-dimer model in the space of maximal dimer coverings of quasicrystalline Penrose tilings. Since Penrose tilings do not admit perfect dimer coverings, as shown by F. Flicker et al., PRX 10, 011005 (2020), monomers are necessarily present in our model. The model features a frustration-free Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point where the ground state is a uniform superposition of all the exponentially many maximal dimer coverings, despite the presence of a finite density of monomers. We map our model to a Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ gauge theory with matter and calculate various correlators to characterize the phase of the system at the RK point using classical Monte Carlo calculations. Specifically, we compute the dimer-dimer and vison-vison correlators, as well as open Wilson lines and closed Wilson loops corresponding to the monomers and the visons. We find that both the dimer-dimer and vison-vison correlators decay exponentially with distance. The open Wilson lines and closed Wilson loops decay exponentially with the same correlation length, indicating that the gauge theory is in the confined phase, which implies that the system is likely in an ordered phase.
We introduce the quantum dimer-pentamer model (QDPM) on the square lattice. This model is a generalization of the square-lattice quantum dimer model as its configuration space comprises fully packed hard-core dimer coverings as well as dimer configurations containing pentamers, where four dimers touch a vertex. Thus in the QDPM, the fully packed, hard-core constraint of the quantum dimer model is relaxed such that the local dimer number at each vertex is fixed modulo 3, resulting in an exact local Z3{Z}_{3}Z3​ gauge symmetry. We construct a local Hamiltonian for which the Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) equal superposition state is the exact ground state and has a ninefold topological degeneracy on the torus. Using Monte Carlo calculations, we find no spontaneous symmetry breaking in the RK wave function and that its dimer-dimer correlation function decays exponentially. By doping the QDPM RK state with a pair of monomers, we demonstrate that Z3{Z}_{3}Z3​ electric charges are deconfined. Additionally, we introduce a Z3{Z}_{3}Z3​ magnetic string operator that we find decays exponentially and shows no signatures of magnetic vortex condensation. These numerical results suggest that the ground state of the QDPM is a dimer liquid with Z3{Z}_{3}Z3​ topological order.
We consider dimers on the star lattice (aka the 3-12, Fisher, expanded kagome or triangle-honeycomb lattice). We show that dimer coverings on this lattice have Z_2 arrow and pseudo-spin representations analogous to those for the kagome lattice, and use these to construct an exactly solvable quantum dimer model (QDM) with a Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) ground state. This QDM, first discussed by Moessner and Sondhi from a different point of view, is the star-lattice analogue of a kagome-lattice QDM analyzed by Misguich et al. We give a detailed analysis of various properties of the classical equal-weight dimer model on the star lattice, most of which are related to those of the RK state. Using both the arrow representation and the fermionic path integral formulation of the Pfaffian method, we calculate the number of dimer coverings, dimer occupation probabilities, and dimer, vison, and monomer correlation functions. We show that a dimer is uncorrelated with dimers further away than on neighboring triangles, that the vison-vison correlation function vanishes, and that the monomer-monomer correlation function equals 1/4 regardless of the monomer positions (with one exception). A key result in the fermionic approach is the vanishing of the two-point Green function beyond a short distance. These properties are very similar to those of dimers on the kagome lattice. We also discuss some generalizations involving arrow representations for dimer coverings on general Fisher lattices and their reduced lattices, with the kagome, squagome, and triangular kagome lattice being examples of the latter.
We consider dimers on the star lattice (aka the 3-12, Fisher, expanded kagome or triangle-honeycomb lattice). We show that dimer coverings on this lattice have Z_2 arrow and pseudo-spin representations analogous to those for the kagome lattice, and use these to construct an exactly solvable quantum dimer model (QDM) with a Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) ground state. This QDM, first discussed by Moessner and Sondhi from a different point of view, is the star-lattice analogue of a kagome-lattice QDM analyzed by Misguich et al. We give a detailed analysis of various properties of the classical equal-weight dimer model on the star lattice, most of which are related to those of the RK state. Using both the arrow representation and the fermionic path integral formulation of the Pfaffian method, we calculate the number of dimer coverings, dimer occupation probabilities, and dimer, vison, and monomer correlation functions. We show that a dimer is uncorrelated with dimers further away than on neighboring triangles, that the vison-vison correlation function vanishes, and that the monomer-monomer correlation function equals 1/4 regardless of the monomer positions (with one exception). A key result in the fermionic approach is the vanishing of the two-point Green function beyond a short distance. These properties are very similar to those of dimers on the kagome lattice. We also discuss some generalizations involving arrow representations for dimer coverings on "general Fisher lattices" and their "reduced" lattices, with the kagome, squagome, and triangular kagome lattice being examples of the latter.
We consider a family of generalized Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) Hamiltonians, which are reverse-engineered to have an arbitrary edge-weighted superposition of dimer coverings as their exact ground state at the RK point. We focus on a quantum dimer model on the triangular lattice, with doubly periodic edge weights. For simplicity we consider a 2×12\times12×1 periodic model in which all weights are set to one except for a tunable horizontal edge weight labeled ααα. We analytically show that the model exhibits a continuous quantum phase transition at α=3α=3α=3, changing from a topological Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ quantum spin liquid (α<3α<3α<3) to a columnar ordered state (α>3α>3α>3). The dimer-dimer correlator decays exponentially on both sides of the transition with the correlation length ξ∝1/∣α−3∣ξ\propto1/|α-3|ξ∝1/∣α−3∣ and as a power-law at criticality. The vison correlator exhibits an exponential decay in the spin liquid phase, but becomes a constant in the ordered phase, which we explain in terms of loop statistics of the double-dimer model. Using finite-size scaling of the vison correlator, we extract critical exponents consistent with the 2D Ising universality class. Additionally, we analytically show that the topological Rényi entropy of order ∞\infty∞ (topological min-entropy) changes from log⁡2\log2log2 for the quantum spin liquid phase α<3α<3α<3, to 000 for the ordered phase α>3α>3α>3, thereby analytically confirming the topological nature of the phase transition.
After reviewing the concept of vison excitations in Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ dimer liquids, we study the liquid-crystal transition of the quantum dimer model on the triangular lattice by means of a semiclassical spin-wave approximation to the dispersion of visons in the context of a ``soft-dimer'' version of the model. This approach captures some important qualitative features of the transition: continuous nature of the transition, linear dispersion at the critical point, and $\sqrt{12}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\sqrt{12}$ symmetry-breaking pattern. In a second part, we present a variational calculation of the vison dispersion relation at the Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point, which reproduces the qualitative shape of the dispersion relation and the order of magnitude of the gap. This approach provides a simple but reliable approximation of the vison wave functions at the RK point.
Aiming to describe frustrated quantum magnets with nonmagnetic singlet ground states, we have extended the Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) loop expansion to derive a generalized quantum dimer model containing only connected terms up to arbitrary order. For the square-lattice frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet (${J}_{1}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{2}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{3}$ model), an expansion up to eighth order shows that the leading correction to the original RK model comes from dimer moves on length-6 loops. This model free of the original sign problem is treated by advanced numerical techniques. The results suggest that a rotationally anisotropic plaquette phase [A. Ralko, D. Poilblanc, and R. Moessner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 037201 (2008)] is the ground state of the Heisenberg model in the parameter region of maximum frustration.