Quantum spin liquids (QSL) are phases of matter which are distinguished not by the symmetries they break, but rather by the patterns of entanglement within them. Although these entanglement properties have been widely discussed for ground states, the way in which QSL form at finite temperature remains an open question. Here we introduce a method of characterizing both the depth and spatial structure of entanglement, and use this to explore how patterns of entanglement form as temperature is reduced in two widely studied models of QSL, the Kitaev honeycomb model, and the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a Kagome lattice. These results enable us to evaluate both the temperature at which spins within the high-temperature paramagnet first become entangled, and the temperature at which the system first develops the structured, multipartite entanglement characteristic of its QSL ground state.
Quantum spin liquids (QSL) are phases of matter which are distinguished not by the symmetries they break, but rather by the patterns of entanglement within them. Although these entanglement properties have been widely discussed for ground states, the way in which QSL form at finite temperature remains an open question. Here we introduce a method of characterizing both the depth and spatial structure of entanglement, and use this to explore how patterns of entanglement form as temperature is reduced in two widely studied models of QSL, the Kitaev honeycomb model, and the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a Kagome lattice. These results enable us to evaluate both the temperature at which spins within the high-temperature paramagnet first become entangled, and the temperature at which the system first develops the structured, multipartite entanglement characteristic of its QSL ground state.
In 1935, as part of a broader debate about the interpretation of quantum mechanics, Schrödinger introduced the term “verschränkung” (entanglement) to describe the way in which mutually-exclusive experimental outcomes could be woven together in a single quantum mechanical state. Ninety years later, entanglement is no longer a philosophical curiosity but a technological resource, central to the pursuit of quantum advantage sought in the entanglement of a few hundred qubits. In the context of condensed matter physics, the most celebrated example of entanglement arises in quantum spin liquids (QSL), exotic magnetic phases where, at comparable temperatures, billions of spins can be entangled. The sharpest distinctions between conventional magnetic phases, QSL, and states driven by disorder, are expected to be found in their entanglement properties. Yet exactly what these distinctions are, or how they might be used in experiments, remains poorly understood. In this thesis, we explore how material-based imperfections such as bond disorder and finite temperature affect experimentally accessible entanglement-based diagnostics in models of quantum spin liquids (QSLs). We ask: (1) Can spin liquid states be reliably distinguished from disorder-driven phases using such diagnostics? (2) What can these experimentally accessible entanglement witnesses reveal about the microscopic structure of entanglement in QSLs? In particular, we examine the robustness of these quantum correlations under realistic conditions where thermal fluctuations are unavoidable. In addressing (1), we find that measures like concurrence become unreliable in disordered systems. In contrast, the finite temperature scaling of multipartite diagnostics such as the quantum Fisher information (QFI) provides a more effective means of distinguishing QSLs from competing disorder-dominated phases. For (2), we investigate how the finite temperature behavior of multipartite entanglement measures obtained from semidefinite programming (SDP) methods supports a two step picture for how a high temperature paramagnet crosses over into a QSL ground state. In particular, these results provide a conceptual framework that places quantitative bounds on the temperature window over which candidate materials can be expected to exhibit the characteristic physics of the QSL ground state.
Quantum fluctuations from frustration can trigger quantum spin liquids (QSLs) at zero temperature. However, it is unclear how thermal fluctuations affect a QSL. We employ state-of-the-art tensor network-based methods to explore the spin-1/2 kagom\'e Heisenberg antiferromagnet (KHA). Its ground state is shown to be a gapless U(1) QSL. By studying the behaviors of specific heat and magnetic susceptibility, we propose a finite-temperature phase diagram for the spin-1/2 KHA in a magnetic field. It is unveiled that there exists an algebraic paramagnetic liquid (APL) that possesses both paramagnetic and algebraic behaviors inherited from the QSL. The APL is induced under the interplay between quantum fluctuations from geometrical frustration and thermal fluctuations. Our work suggests that even when the QSL at zero temperature is frozen into a solid state by a magnetic field, proper thermal fluctuations could melt the system into a liquid-like state. We speculate that an APL phase could generally emerge after proper thermal fluctuations intervene in a gapless QSL.
The Kitaev model, whose ground state is a quantum spin liquid (QSL), was originally conceived for spin S=1/2 moments on a honeycomb lattice. In recent years, the model has been extended to higher S from both theoretical and experimental interests, but the stability of the QSL ground state has not been systematically clarified for general S, especially in the presence of other additional interactions, which inevitably exist in candidate materials. Here we study the spin-S Kitaev-Heisenberg models by using an extension of the pseudofermion functional renormalization group method to general S. We show that, similar to the S=1/2 case, the phase diagram for higher S contains the QSL phases in the vicinities of the pristine ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic Kitaev models, in addition to four magnetically ordered phases. We find, however, that the QSL phases shrink rapidly with increasing S, becoming vanishingly narrow for $S\ensuremath{\ge}2$, whereas the phase boundaries between the ordered phases remain almost intact. Our results provide a reference for the search for higher-S Kitaev materials.
Abstract Quantum spin liquids (QSLs) give rise to exotic emergent particles by weaving intricate entanglement patterns in the underlying electrons. Bipartite measures between subregions can detect the presence of anyons, but little is known about the full entanglement structure of QSLs. Here, we study the multiparty entanglement of QSLs via entanglement microscopy. We find that in contrast to conventional matter, the genuine multiparty entanglement (GME) between spins is absent in the smallest subregions, a phenomenon we call ``entanglement frustration.'' Instead, GME is more collective, and arises solely in loops. By exploiting exact results and large-scale numerics, we confirm these properties in various gapped and gapless QSLs realized in physically motivated Hamiltonians, as well as with string-net wavefunctions hosting abelian or non-abelian anyons. Our results shed new light on the phase diagram of Kitaev’s honeycomb model in a Zeeman field, and the Kagome Heisenberg model under various perturbations. Going beyond QSLs, we provide evidence that entanglement loops are a universal property of quantum gauge theories. This leads to a new understanding of fractionalization, and the means by which gauge bosons encode quantum information.
Quantum spin liquids, systems in which quantum fluctuations prevent the magnetic ordering of the spin degrees of freedom down to zero temperature, have been the source of much recent theoretical and experimental interest. These systems are characterised by their long ranged entangled states, preserve symmetries down to zero Kelvin, and have been shown to exhibit fascinating properties such as a topological ground state degeneracy and fractionalised spin excitations. In this thesis, we study several of these phases. The first, Kitaev spin liquids, appear in strongly spin-orbit coupled systems, where the SU(2) spin symmetry is broken. Within our mean field approach, we study the quantum phase transition from the gapless Z 2 spin liquid to a magnetically ordered phase within the Heisenberg-Kitaev model. Beyond the mean field theory, we argue that the gauge structure of the spin liquid plays a crucial role in this transition, leading to a confinement of spinons and the generation of magnetic order. We also discuss the three-dimensional iridate compounds, where the Kitaev spin liquid phase has topologically protected bulk and surface excitations. We next discuss spin liquids appearing on the geometrically frustrated kagome lattice. First, we consider non-Kramers spin liquids, in which the spin structure of the theory is protected by lattice, rather than time-reversal, symmetry. As a result, more phases are allowed, which have different properties than those which transform as Kramers doublets. In addition, these may have positive experimental signatures in the Raman scattering intensity, offering a clear path to detect such a state. Finally, we examine possible spin liquid phases on a breathing kagome lattice, where we find a stable Z2 spin liquid to be the ground state. This may help to guide future numerical studies of the kagome lattice Heisenberg model, and may also be relevant to DQVOF, a recently discovered spin liquid candidate compound.
Unraveling the Kagome Antiferromagnetic 3J Model and Its Materials: An Integrated Approach
We investigate the ground-state and finite-temperature properties of the kagome antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with three inequivalent couplings, dubbed the 3J model, which is designed for the candidate Dirac quantum spin liquid (QSL) material YCu3(OH)6Br2[Br1−x(OH)x] (see, e.g., Zeng et al., 2024). Employing large-scale density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) supplemented by neural quantum states (NQS) simulations, we identify an intermediate QSL phase between two magnetically ordered phases. We also find that this QSL is separated from the kagome spin liquid ground state at the isotropic limit. To establish a direct comparison with experiments, we compute the specific heat of the model by means of advanced exponential (XTRG) and tangent-space (tanTRG) thermal tensor-network methods. In the magnetically ordered phase, the specific heat over temperature exhibits a shoulder at a temperature that is a fraction of the coupling strength Jh, which disappears in the QSL phase. These universal behaviors are consistent with the experimentally observed specific heat in 3J materials for both ordered and QSL candidate samples. Our work thus connects microscopic models with experimentally measurable signatures, exemplifying an integrated approach to understanding QSL phenomena in frustrated quantum magnets~ (see Meng et al., 2026), with 3J materials serving as a representative case and providing a foundation for future studies.