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arXiv:2609.04319

Exact quantum spin liquids with topological order on maple-leaf and trellis lattices

Li Ern Chern, Roderich Moessner, Claudio Castelnovo

Published Sep 3, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We construct spin models with bond-dependent anisotropic interactions on the penta-coordinated maple-leaf and trellis lattices, which yield exact $\mathbb{Z}_2$ quantum spin liquids akin to the Kitaev honeycomb model. We characterize the resulting ground states by their flux sectors, Chern numbers, and topological excitations. Using replica exchange quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we find that the gauge fluxes are ordered at sufficiently low temperatures such that every unit triangle has $\pm π/2$-flux, where the sign is uniform across the system, and every unit hexagon (square) has $0$-flux ($π$-flux) within the parameter space of interest. We map out the topological phase diagram for each model, which reveals parameter regimes hosting $\mathbb{Z}_2$ and Ising topological orders, and we derive an analytical expression for the mass term of the Majorana fermions, the vanishing of which indicates a transition between these phases. We further establish the correspondence between individual vortices (i.e., flux excitations) and two species of anyons in the dimer limit, overcoming the obstacle faced by degenerate perturbation theory in treating odd-length elementary plaquettes. Interestingly, we find that two dimer limits of the maple-leaf model with distinct assignments of anyon species can be smoothly connected to each other in the vortex-free sector, but they are separated by fermion-gap-closing transitions in certain two-vortex sectors.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2609.04319

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We construct spin models with bond-dependent anisotropic interactions on the penta-coordinated maple-leaf and trellis lattices, which yield exact Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ quantum spin liquids akin to the Kitaev honeycomb model. We characterize the resulting ground states by their flux sectors, Chern numbers, and topological excitations. Using replica exchange quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we find that the gauge fluxes are ordered at sufficiently low temperatures such that every unit triangle has ±π/2\pm π/2±π/2-flux, where the sign is uniform across the system, and every unit hexagon (square) has 000-flux (πππ-flux) within the parameter space of interest. We map out the topological phase diagram for each model, which reveals parameter regimes hosting Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ and Ising topological orders, and we derive an analytical expression for the mass term of the Majorana fermions, the vanishing of which indicates a transition between these phases. We further establish the correspondence between individual vortices (i.e., flux excitations) and two species of anyons in the dimer limit, overcoming the obstacle faced by degenerate perturbation theory in treating odd-length elementary plaquettes. Interestingly, we find that two dimer limits of the maple-leaf model with distinct assignments of anyon species can be smoothly connected to each other in the vortex-free sector, but they are separated by fermion-gap-closing transitions in certain two-vortex sectors.
We study the spin-1/21/21/2 Kitaev-Heisenberg model on the square-hexagon-dodecagon lattice with a symmetry-preserving tri-coloring of the Kitaev exchanges. We focus on two cases: (i) the pure Kitaev model with anisotropic exchanges and (ii) the Kitaev-Heisenberg model with isotropic Kitaev exchange. In the absence of Heisenberg interactions, we use the standard mapping of the Kitaev model onto a quadratic Majorana-fermion problem in a Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ gauge field. We find a gapped energy spectrum throughout the positive-coupling phase diagram, except at a single point where the twofold-degenerate energy bands form a Dirac cone. This unique gapped region corresponds to a toric code phase. However, depending on the couplings, vortex excitations on square, hexagonal, and dodecagonal plaquettes realize three distinct relative assignments to the eee and mmm anyons. We determine these relative assignments from the physical fermion parity of the vortex sectors and locate their boundaries by tracking zero crossings of vortex-bound Majorana levels. For the isotropic Kitaev-Heisenberg model, we combine graph-based projected entangled-pair-state calculations, exact diagonalizations, and linear spin-wave theory to study the entire phase diagram. Apart from the toric code topological phases that are robust around the Kitaev limits, we obtain four collinear magnetically ordered phases that can be characterized by their local and relative orderings of hexagonal plaquettes. We also identify a special point at which the ground state is a product state.
The ruby lattice is a four-valent lattice interpolating between honeycomb and triangular lattices. In this work we investigate the topological spin-liquid phases of a spin Hamiltonian with Kitaev interactions on the ruby lattice using exact diagonalization and perturbative methods. The latter interactions combined with the structure of the lattice yield a model with ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ gauge symmetry. We mapped out the phase diagram of the model and found gapped and gapless spin-liquid phases. While the low-energy sector of the gapped phase corresponds to the well-known topological color code model on a honeycomb lattice, the low-energy sector of the gapless phases is described by an effective spin model with three-body interactions on a triangular lattice. A gap is opened in the spectrum in small magnetic fields, where we showed that the ground state has a finite topological entanglement entropy. We argue that the gapped phases could be possibly described by exotic excitations, and their corresponding spectrum is richer than the Ising phase of the Kitaev model.
In the field of frustrated magnetism, Kitaev models provide prototypical examples of exactly solvable quantum spin liquids, in which the spin degrees of freedom fractionalize into Majorana fermions coupled to an emergent Z2 gauge field. While the ground states of these models are already well understood as exhibiting different kinds of Majorana (semi)metals, it has still been an open task to achieve a detailed understanding of the thermodynamics, and, namely, the low-temperature ordering of the gauge field into different Z2 flux configurations. In this thesis, we investigate the thermodynamics of Kitaev systems in two and three spatial dimensions with sign-problem-free quantum Monte Carlo simulations. In a first study of elementary 3D Kitaev models, we verify that the ground state Z2 flux sectors of these systems are entirely determined by their elementary plaquette length – a result which shows the validity of Lieb’s theorem for lattice geometries which lack the geometric requirements for its proof. We closely investigate the low-temperature phase transition associated with gauge-ordering, which is a particular realization of an inverted Ising phase transition, as it occurs in general lattice Z2 gauge theories. Our results corroborate the understanding of this transition as separating different regimes in terms of vison-loop excitations, by showing a clear correlation between the critical temperature and the vison gap. We also introduce the concept of “gauge frustration”, which, for a particular 3D Kitaev model, leads to the suppression of the phase transition and a more complex physical behavior at low temperatures. A second quantum Monte Carlo study focuses on a generalized 2D Kitaev model on a five-coordinated lattice system. Here, the gauge ordering is accompanied by the spontaneous breaking of time-reversal symmetry, a scenario which not only allows for a variety of topological ground states, but also for the occurrence of a phase transition in two spatial dimensions. We show that this model exhibits such a transition at a particularly high temperature scale. Moreover, the system possesses a number of phases where the Z2 fluxes are only partially ordered.
We study a frustrated two-dimensional lattice spin model with Kitaev-type interaction. The lattice is obtained from the honeycomb lattice by replacing half of its sites with triangles. Using the SO(3) Majorana representation of spin, the model is exactly mapped into a Z2{Z}_{2}Z2​ lattice gauge theory of complex fermions with standard Gauss law constraint. We show that the ground state of the model is a chiral spin liquid, and it has gapless excitations. The Chern number of the ground state is $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1$, implying the existence of a chiral edge mode. The vortex excitation of the model is bound with a Majorana zero mode, such mode behaves as non-Abelian anyons.
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