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arXiv:2507.21226 · npj Quantum Materials

Magnetically ordered yet topologically robust phases emerging in concurrent Kitaev spin liquids

Muhammad Akram, Aayush Vijayvargia, Hae‐Young Kee, Onur Erten

Published Jun 25, 2026• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Spin-orbital generalizations of Kitaev model, such as Yao-Lee model, have attracted recent attention due to their enhanced stability of spin liquid phases against perturbations. Motivated by microscopic calculations for the realization of Yao-Lee model showing additional interactions, we study the phase diagram of the Yao-Lee model with added Kitaev and Heisenberg terms. While the plaquette operator is conserved even in the presence of added perturbations, the model becomes no longer exactly solvable. Using perturbation and Majorana mean-field theory, we find magnetic order can arise in the spin sector while the orbital sector remains a liquid for dominant Kitaev interactions, whereas both sectors form liquid phases when Yao-Lee interactions dominate. Additional Heisenberg exchange can enhance or suppress the magnetic order, revealing a rich coexistence of magnetic and topological phases.

DOI
10.1038/s41535-026-00912-5

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Spin-orbital generalizations of Kitaev model, such as Yao-Lee model, have attracted recent attention due to their enhanced stability of spin liquid phases against perturbations. Motivated by microscopic calculations for the realization of Yao-Lee model showing additional interactions, we study the phase diagram of the Yao-Lee model with added Kitaev and Heisenberg terms. While the plaquette operator is conserved even in the presence of added perturbations, the model becomes no longer exactly solvable. Using perturbation and Majorana mean-field theory, we find magnetic order can arise in the spin sector while the orbital sector remains a liquid for dominant Kitaev interactions, whereas both sectors form liquid phases when Yao-Lee interactions dominate. Additional Heisenberg exchange can enhance or suppress the magnetic order, revealing a rich coexistence of magnetic and topological phases.
Spin-orbital generalization of Kitaev model provides a robust extension to the original Kitaev model. However, real materials often exhibit competing interactions that break exact solvability which can give rise to new phases. Motivated by recent microscopic proposals of coexisting Yao-Lee and Kitaev couplings, we investigate the fate of the ground state when two independent exactly solvable spin liquid Hamiltonians each originally formulated on different lattice geometries are combined on a common lattice environment. We first focus on the hybrid Kitaev's honeycomb and square-lattice model. Using self-consistent mean-field analysis and perturbative calculation, we show that the strong-Kitaev regime yields magnetic order in the spin sector, while the orbital sector retains its topological order. We further analyze the hybridization of the Yao-Lee and square-lattice models and find that the model exhibits a rich evolution of Majorana Dirac bands and Lifshitz transitions. Remarkably, when the Yao-Lee and square-lattice couplings are equal and opposite, the model restores its exact solvability with a single itinerant Majorana flavor. These results demonstrate that hybrid spin liquid platforms may host various emergent phases beyond conventional exactly solvable limits.
We study the emergence of magnetic order in localized spins that interact solely through their coupling to a Kitaev-type spin liquid. Using three toy models – the Kitaev model, the Yao–Lee model, and a square-lattice generalization of the Kitaev model – we calculate the effective exchange Hamiltonians mediated by the fractionalized excitations of these spin liquids. This setup is analogous to a Kondo lattice model, where conduction electrons are replaced by itinerant Majorana fermions. In the Kitaev model, our results show that the lowest-order perturbation theory generates short-range interactions with modified couplings and extending to sixth order introduces longer-range interactions while preserving the quantum spin-liquid ground state . Models involving more Majorana flavors on honeycomb and square lattices exhibit more complex behavior. The honeycomb Yao–Lee model with three flavors of itinerant Majorana fermions generates long-range RKKY-type interactions, leading to antiferromagnetic order and partial gapping of the Majorana fermion spectrum. In contrast, the square-lattice model produces a combination of anisotropic short- and long-range interactions, which can give rise to either a dimerized quantum paramagnetic state or an Ising antiferromagnet, depending on the parameters. These results illustrate the rich variety of magnetic orders that can be mediated by Kitaev-type spin liquids.
We investigate the phase diagram of a bilayer Kitaev honeycomb model with Ising interlayer interactions, deriving effective models via perturbation theory and performing Majorana mean-field theory calculations. We show that a diverse array of magnetic and topological phase transitions occur, depending on the direction of the interlayer Ising interaction and the relative sign of Kitaev interactions. When two layers have the same sign of the Kitaev interaction, a first-order transition from a Kitaev spin liquid to a magnetically ordered state takes place. The magnetic order points along the Ising axis and it is (anti)ferromagnetic for (anti)ferromagnetic Kitaev interactions. However, when two layers have opposite signs of the Kitaev interaction, we observe a notable weakening of magnetic ordering tendencies and the Kitaev spin liquid survives up to a remarkably larger interlayer exchange. Our mean-field analysis suggests the emergence of an intermediate gapped Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ spin-liquid state, which eventually becomes unstable upon vison condensation. The confined phase is described by a highly frustrated ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ compass model. We furthermore use perturbation theory to study the model with the Ising axis pointing along the $\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{z}$ axis or lying in the xyxyxy plane. In both cases, our analysis reveals the formation of one-dimensional Ising chains, which remain decoupled in perturbation theory, resulting in a subextensive ground-state degeneracy. Our results highlight the interplay between topological order and magnetic ordering tendencies in bilayer quantum spin liquids.
The Yao-Lee model is an example of exactly solvable spin-orbital models that are generalizations of the original Kitaev honeycomb model with extra local orbital degrees of freedom. Similarly to the Kitaev model, both spin and orbital degrees of freedom are effectively represented using sets of three-flavored Majorana fermions. The Yao-Lee model exhibits a quantum spin liquid ground state with gapped and immobile Z2{Z}_{2}Z2​ fluxes and threefold degenerate itinerant Majorana fermions. Our work demonstrated that by introducing different time-reversal-symmetry- (TRS) breaking fields one can split the degeneracy of Majorana fermions and close the gap for some of the bands, thus changing its topology. We calculated a comprehensive topological phase diagram for the Yao-Lee model by considering various combinations of TRS-breaking fields. This investigation revealed the emergence of distinct topological regions, each separated by nodal lines, signifying an evolution in the model's topological properties. We also investigated the impact of vacancies in the system. Our findings revealed that while vacancies modify the low-energy spectrum of the model, their presence has a limited impact on the topological properties of the model, at least for small-enough concentrations.
Abstract The S = 1/2 Kitaev honeycomb model has attracted significant attention as an exactly solvable example with a quantum spin liquid ground state. In an properly oriented external magnetic field, the system exhibits chiral Majorana edge modes with an associated quantized thermal Hall conductance, and a distinct spin-disordered phase emerges at intermediate field strengths, below the polarized phase. However, since material realizations of Kitaev magnetism invariably display competing exchange interactions, the stability of these exotic phases with respect to additional couplings is a key issue. Here, we report a 24-site exact diagonalization study of the Heisenberg-Kitaev model in a magnetic field applied in the [001] and [111] directions. By mapping the full phase diagram of the model and contrasting the results to recent nonlinear spin-wave calculations, we show that both methods agree well, thus establishing that quantum corrections substantially modify the classical phase diagram. Furthermore, we find that, in a [111] field, the intermediate-field spin-disordered phase is remarkably stable to Heisenberg interactions and may potentially end in a novel quantum tricritical point.