An effective spin-orbit Hamiltonian is derived for a spin-
1∕2 trimerized kagom\'e antiferromagnet in the second-order of perturbation theory in the ratio of two coupling constants. Low-energy singlet states of the obtained model are mapped to a quantum dimer model on a triangular lattice. The quantum dimer model is dominated by dimer resonances on a few shortest loops of the triangular lattice. The characteristic energy scale for the dimer model constitutes only a small fraction of the weaker exchange coupling constant.
The spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagomé lattice, is mapped by contractor renormalization to a spin-pseudospin Hamiltonian on the triangular superlattice. Variationally, we find a ground state with columnar dimer order. Dimer orientation fluctuations are described by an effective O(2) model at energies above an exponentially suppressed clock mass scale. Our results explain the large density of low-energy singlets observed numerically, and the nonmagnetic T2 specific heat observed experimentally.
The spin half Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the Kagome lattice, is mapped by Contractor Renormalization to a Spin-Pseudospin Hamiltonian on the triangular superlattice. Variationally, we find a ground state with columnar dimer order. Dimer orientation fluctuations are described by an effective O(2) model at energies above an exponentially suppressed clock mass scale. Our results explain the large density of low energy singlets observed numerically, and the non magnetic T-squared specific heat observed experimentally.
In analogy to the quantum dimer model on the square lattice introduced by Rokhsar and Kivelson, we identify the low-energy Hilbert space of the spin-1/2 kagom\'e Heisenberg antiferromagnet with the set of dimerized states (nearest-neighbor singlets) and derive an effective Hamiltonian which describes resonance and includes fluctuations into next-nearest-neighbor singlets. Complete diagonalization of this effective Hamiltonian for systems as large as 36 spins makes possible the study of the low-energy thermodynamics of this quantum antiferromagnet and strongly supports the double peak feature in the heat capacity.
A spin-1 Heisenberg model on trimerized kagome lattice is studied by doing a low-energy bosonic theory in terms of plaquette triplons defined on its triangular unit cells. The model considered has an intratriangle antiferromagnetic exchange interaction
J (set to 1) and two intertriangle couplings ${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}>0$ (nearest neighbor) and ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ (next nearest neighbor; of both signs). The triplon analysis performed on this model investigates the stability of the trimerized singlet ground state (which is exact in the absence of intertriangle couplings) in the ${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{-}{J}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ plane. It gives a quantum phase diagram that has two gapless antiferromagnetically ordered phases separated by the spin-gapped trimerized singlet phase. The trimerized singlet ground state is found to be stable on ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}=0$ line (the nearest-neighbor case), and on both sides of it for ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}\ensuremath{\ne}0$, in an extended region bounded by the critical lines of transition to the gapless antiferromagnetic phases. The gapless phase in the negative ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ region has a coplanar ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ antiferromagnetic order with $\sqrt{3}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\sqrt{3}$ structure. In this phase, all the magnetic moments are of equal length, and the angle between any two of them on a triangle is exactly ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$. The magnetic lattice in this case has a unit cell consisting of three triangles. The other gapless phase, in the positive ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ region, is found to exhibit a different coplanar antiferromagnetic order with ordering wave vector
q=(0,0). Here, two magnetic moments in a triangle are of the same magnitude, but shorter than the third. While the angle between two short moments is ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}\ensuremath{-}2\ensuremath{\delta}$, it is ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}+\ensuremath{\delta}$ between a short and the long one. Only when ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}={J}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, their magnitudes become equal and the relative angles ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$. The magnetic lattice in this
q=(0,0) phase has the translational symmetry of the kagome lattice with triangular unit cells of reduced (isosceles) symmetry. This reduction in the point-group symmetry is found to show up as a difference in the intensities of certain Bragg peaks, whose ratio ${I}_{(1,0)}/{I}_{(0,1)}=4{sin}^{2}(\frac{\ensuremath{\pi}}{6}+\ensuremath{\delta})$ presents an experimental measure of the deviation $\ensuremath{\delta}$ from the ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ order.
This paper is concerned with physics of the low-energy singlet excitations found to exist below the spin gap in numerical studies of the Kagome lattice quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Insight into the nature of these excitations is obtained by exploiting an approximate mapping to a fully frustrated transverse-field Ising model on the dual dice lattice. This Ising model is shown to possess at least two phases---an ordered phase that also breaks translational symmetry with a large unit cell, and a paramagnetic phase. The former is argued to be a likely candidate for the ground state of the original Kagome magnet which thereby exhibits a specific pattern of dimer ordering with a large unit cell. Comparisons with available numerical results are made.