The strong interest in strongly correlated systems in condensed matter physics has continued unabated for the past few decades. In recent years, the number of novel, exotic quantum phases found in theoretical studies has seen a phenomenal rise. Among those interesting quantum states are bose liquids and spin liquids, where strong quantum fluctuations have prevented the systems from developing a long range order. Our work in this thesis seeks to further the understanding of frustrated systems. In the study of a hard-core boson model with ring-only exchange interactions on a square lattice, we obtain concrete numerical realization of the unconventional Exciton Bose Liquid (EBL) phase, which possesses interesting properties such as a "Bose surface" which resembles the Fermi surface in a metal, as well as unusual thermodynamic properties such as a T Log T dependence for specific heat. An equally important result from this work is the demonstration that the widely used Gutzwiller projection on slave-particle wave functions may generally fail to capture the correct long wavelength physics in the respective systems. For the Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice, which is a promising candidate for realizing a spin-disordered ground state, our variational study shows that the projected Schwinger boson wave function is energetically better than the Dirac spin liquid wave function when a small antiferromagnetic second-neighbor spin coupling is added to the nearest-neighbor model. We also study the anisotropic triangular Heisenberg antiferromagnetic in magnetic field, and find simple, yet accurate wave functions for various regions of the surprisingly rich phase diagram, thus providing insights into the energetics of the competing phases in this interesting model. Finally, our work also highlights permanent-type wave functions as potentially useful constructions in variational studies of systems with short-ranged correlations, e.g., a Mott insulator and a gapped spin liquid.
The strong interest in strongly correlated systems in condensed matter physics has continued unabated for the past few decades. In recent years, the number of novel, exotic quantum phases found in theoretical studies has seen a phenomenal rise. Among those interesting quantum states are bose liquids and spin liquids, where strong quantum fluctuations have prevented the systems from developing a long range order. Our work in this thesis seeks to further the understanding of frustrated systems. In the study of a hard-core boson model with ring-only exchange interactions on a square lattice, we obtain concrete numerical realization of the unconventional Exciton Bose Liquid (EBL) phase, which possesses interesting properties such as a "Bose surface" which resembles the Fermi surface in a metal, as well as unusual thermodynamic properties such as a T Log T dependence for specific heat. An equally important result from this work is the demonstration that the widely used Gutzwiller projection on slave-particle wave functions may generally fail to capture the correct long wavelength physics in the respective systems. For the Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice, which is a promising candidate for realizing a spin-disordered ground state, our variational study shows that the projected Schwinger boson wave function is energetically better than the Dirac spin liquid wave function when a small antiferromagnetic second-neighbor spin coupling is added to the nearest-neighbor model. We also study the anisotropic triangular Heisenberg antiferromagnetic in magnetic field, and find simple, yet accurate wave functions for various regions of the surprisingly rich phase diagram, thus providing insights into the energetics of the competing phases in this interesting model. Finally, our work also highlights permanent-type wave functions as potentially useful constructions in variational studies of systems with short-ranged correlations, e.g., a Mott insulator and a gapped spin liquid.
The quantum nature of electrons emerges in various exotic ways when they are put together with quantum many-body interactions. In Mott insulating systems with strong electron correlation, frustration and strong quantum fluctuations promote localized electron spins to form nontrivial quantum paramagnetic phases such as quantum spin liquid and valence bond solid preventing the development of conventional magnetic orders. In this thesis, we study such exotic quantum phases in various different frustrated quantum magnets. First, encouraged by the spin liquid phenomenology observed in Ba3XSb2O9 (X=Cu, Ni), we investigate Z2 spin liquids on a three dimensional triangular lattice by employing the Schwinger boson mean-field theory with projective symmetry group analysis. It is found that a nematic spin liquid is energetically favorable on this lattice structure rather than symmetric spin liquids. Next, we study various valence bond solid phases that can appear in kagome lattice antiferromagnets by generalizing the recently proposed phenomenological Z2 gauge theory for the topological Z2 spin liquid state found in the nearest-neighbor kagome lattice Heisenberg model. This work provides a bridge between the topological spin liquid and valence bond solid phases previously proposed for kagome lattice antiferromagnets via vison condensation in the gauge theory. Then, we consider optical conductivity in Mott insulators as an experimental probe to detect quantum paramagnetic phases like valence bond solid. Applying this idea to deformed kagome lattice antiferromagnet Rb2Cu3SnF12 with a 12-site valence bond solid state, we estimate the size of optical conductivity in this quantum magnet. After this, another quantum paramagnet BiCu2PO6 is carefully investigated to clarify its puzzling ground state nature and quasiparticle excitations. Utilizing recent high resolution neutron scattering data, we construct a microscopic spin model and also an effective theory for the low energy spin excitations in the compound. We find significant influences of magnetic anisotropies on the ground state and quasiparticle dynamics. Lastly, we investigate emergent quantum phases in the thin film geometries of the pyrochlore iridates, where a number of exotic quantum ground states are proposed to occur in bulk materials as a result of the interplay between electron correlation and strong spin-orbit coupling. The fate of these bulk phases, as well as the novel quantum states that may arise only in a thin film setting, are studied via a theoretical model that allows layer-dependent magnetic structures.
In this thesis, we investigate strongly correlated phenomena in quantum spin systems. In the first part of this work, we study geometrically frustrated antiferromagnets (AFMs). Generalizing the SU(2) Heisenberg Hamiltonian to Sp(N) symmetry, we obtain, in the large-N limit, the mean-field phase diagrams for the planar pyrochlore and cubic AFMs. We then use gauge theories to consider fluctuation effects about their respective mean-field configurations. We find, in addition to conventional Neel states, a plethora of novel magnetically disordered phases: two kinds of spin liquids, Z2 in 2+1D and U(1)in 3+1D, and several valence bond solids such as two and three-dimensional plaquette and columnar singlet states. We use the same approach to study the diamond lattice AFM which possesses extended classical ground state degeneracy. We demonstrate that quantum and entropic fluctuations lift this degeneracy in different ways. In the second part of the thesis, we study ultracold spinor atoms confined in optical lattices. We first demonstrate the feasibility of experimental realization of rotor models using ultracold spin-one Bose atoms in a spin-dependent and disordered optical lattice. We show that the ground state of such disordered rotor models with quadrupolar interactions can exhibit biaxial nematic ordering in the disorder-averaged sense, and suggest an imaging experiment to detect the biaxial nematicity in such systems. Finally, using variational wavefunction methods, we study the Mott phases and superfluid-insulator transition of spin-three bosons in an optical lattice with an anisotropic two dimensional optical trap. We chart out the phase diagrams for Mott states with n = 1 and n = 2 atoms per lattice site. We show that the long-range dipolar interaction stabilizes a state characterized by antiferromagnetic chains made of ferromagnetically aligned spins. We also obtain the mean-field phase boundary for the superfluid-insulator transition, and show that inside the superfluid phase and near the superfluid-insulator phase boundary, the system undergoes a first order antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic spin ordering transition.
Quantum mechanical systems of strongly interacting particles in two dimensions comprise a realm of condensed matter physics for which there remain many unanswered theoretical questions. In particular, the most formidable challenges may lie in cases where the ground states show no signs of ordering, break no symmetries, and support many gapless excitations. Such systems are known to exhibit exotic, disordered ground states that are notoriously difficult to study analytically using traditional perturbation techniques or numerically using the most recent methods (e.g., tensor network states) due to the large amount of spatial entanglement. Slave particle descriptions provide a glimmer of hope in the attempt to capture the fundamental, low-energy physics of these highly non-trivial phases of matter. To this end, this dissertation describes the construction and implementation of trial wave functions for use with variational Monte Carlo techniques that can easily model slave particle states. While these methods are extremely computationally tractable in two dimensions, we have applied them here to quasi-one-dimensional systems so that the results of other numerical techniques, such as the density matrix renormalization group, can be directly compared to those determined by the trial wave functions and so that exclusively one-dimensional analytic approaches, namely bosonization, can be employed. While the focus here is on the use of variational Monte Carlo, the sum of these different numerical and analytical tools has yielded a remarkable amount of insight into several exotic quantum ground states. In particular, the results of research on the d-wave Bose liquid phase, an uncondensed state of strongly correlated hard-core bosons living on the square lattice whose wave function exhibits a d-wave sign structure, and the spin Bose-metal phase, a spin-1/2, SU(2) invariant spin liquid of strongly correlated spins living on the triangular lattice, will be presented. Both phases support gapless excitations along surfaces in momentum space in two spatial dimensions and at incommensurate wave vectors in quasi-one dimension, where we have studied them on three- and four-leg ladders. An extension of this work to the study of d-wave correlated itinerant electrons will be discussed.
Frustrated quantum magnets have received a lot of attention in the past decades for they are expected to host exotic magnetic states such as quantum spin liquids exhibiting fractionalized excitations and topological properties. One way to study these spin liquid phases is to perform a parton construction of the quantum Heisenberg Hamiltonian. This mean-field method has the valuable advantage of treating magnetically ordered states and spin-liquid states on an equal footing. In this thesis, we have employed such a method based on the Schwinger boson mean-field theory (SBMFT) to study two magnetically frustrated systems. After a brief introduction of the core concepts behind frustrated magnetic systems in chapter 1 we will introduce the Schwinger boson theory and the associated numerical tools in chapter 2. In chapter 3, we will present the full phase diagram of the J1-J2 Heisenberg model on the square-kagome lattice with a particurlarly interesting ground state in the form of a topological nematic spin liquid. We will then make connections with a recently synthesized compound exhibiting perfect square-kagome geometry. In the final chapter of this manuscript, we will turn to the J1-J2-J3 Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice in the case where J2=J3=J. Once again, a full phase diagram is obtained thanks to our SBMFT self-consistent procedure. It is composed of three distinct ground states: a chiral spin liquid for J<1/3, a chiral long-range order for J>1/2 and a symmetric spin liquid in between. Finally, we will make connections with previous quantum and classical works, especially by discussing the presence of half-moon patterns in the static structure factor of an excited state of the model for J>1/2. In conclusion, we have revealed both rich and complex phase diagrams presenting various exotic spin-liquid states on the two frustrated systems studied in this manuscript.
Strongly correlated electron systems have the potential to host very exoticphases of matter. In order to have relevance to real materials, this exoticphysics often must emerge from relatively simple models. The quantumwavefunctions which describe such phases may bear little resemblance to theoriginal microscopic models. In these cases a variety of complex analytictools often must be supplemented with controlled numerical calculations tofully understand the essential behavior of these models. In this dissertation,we study such quantum phases of matter and their relationship to real materials.We focus on three main problems. First, we explore the relationship betweenstrong spin-orbit coupling and spin liquid physics by studying a very generalmodel on the triangular lattice where spin-orbit coupling leads to the presenceof highly anisotropic interactions. We use variational Monte Carlo to study bothU(1) quantum spin liquid states and ordered ones, via the Gutzwiller projectedfermion construction. We thereby obtain the ground state phase diagram in thisphase space. We furthermore consider effects beyond the Gutzwiller wavefunctionsfor the spinon Fermi surface quantum spin liquid, which are of particularimportance when spin-orbit coupling is present.Second we show that the interplay between a high density two-dimensional electrongas and localized electrons in a neighboring Mott insulator leads to kineticmagnetism unique to the Mott/band insulator interface. Our study is based upona bilayer Hubbard model at U=infty with a potential difference between thetwo layers. We combine analytic results with DMRG simulations to show thatmagnetism, and especially kinetic ferromagnetism, is greatly enhanced relative by theproximity of the two subsystems. Third we study the effect of interactions on the properties of a model 2Dtopological Kondo insulator phase. We introduce a model Hamiltonian which webelieve captures the essential physics of the different competing phases.Perhaps the most dramatic example of many-body physics in symmetry protectedtopological phases is the existence of exotic gapless edge states. We comment onthe potentially dramatic effects that interactions can have on such edge states.
Ever since the introduction of resonating valence bond states by P.\\ W.\\ Anderson in 1970s, the search for exotic many--body quantum behavior in peculiar states of matter known as quantum spin liquids has been a central challenge in the field of condensed matter physics. An important searching ground for such \\emph{quantum--ness} is the low energy physics of frustrated magnets. In a quantum system, frustration---the inability of a physical system to achieve a global state that consistently minimizes its energy locally---enables the unavoidable quantum fluctuations to hybridize an extensive number of classical states into highly entangled quantum states at low temperatures. It can be argued that this is the most practical approach to achieve genuine many--body quantum behavior at large scales. The fundamental source of frustration in many physical systems, is the existence of local non--commuting terms. In the case of antiferromagnet spin theories the simplest examples are triangles of nearest--neighboring sites. Consequently, lattices with triangles as building blocks have long been studied in hopes of discovering spin liquids physics. In particular the kagome lattice, which is composed of corner--sharing triangles, has been the center of at least four decades of spin liquid research. This is due to the underconstrained nature of system made out of corner--sharing triangles. After the first three chapters, introduction in chapter~\\ref{chap:intro}, preliminary physics in chapter~\\ref{chap:prelim}, and a brief introduction to spin--liquids in chapter~\\ref{chap:QSLs}, in chapter~\\ref{chap:kagome} I tackle a simpler version of the long-standing problem of spin--1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets by considering a quasi--1D lattice consisting entirely of corner--sharing triangles, \\emph{kagome strip}. I illustrate that the standard Heisenberg antiferromagnet Hamiltonian over kagome strip is an extended gapless quantum phase, that is well characterized by two fermionic/bosonic gapless modes and power--law decaying spin and bond--energy correlations. I also demonstrate that the correlation functions oscillate at tunably incommensurate wave vectors. It turns out that this phase can be identified by a particular marginal instability of a two-band spinon Fermi surface coupled to an emergent U(1) gauge field. This interpretation is supported by analytic Abelian bosonization and with extensive numerical large--scale density matrix renormalization group study as well as variational Monte Carlo calculations on Gutzwiller ans\\"atz wave functions. This intriguing result is the first numerical demonstration of emergent fermionic spinons in a simple SU(2) invariant nearest-neighbor Heisenberg model beyond the strictly 1D (Bethe chain) limit. The unexpected success of the fermionic spinons in describing the low energy physics of kagome antiferromagnet, reintroduces the questions about the validity of spinon physics as an effective theory of quantum spin liquids. However, numerical methods are still far behind the theoretical advances. And still even today, an accurate description of the quantum spin liquid states using tensor network methods is notoriously challenging. It is known that for large quasi-1D systems, the density matrix renormalization group and related methods usually require significant computational resources and sometimes fail to converge to a satisfactory state. On the other hand, variational wavefunctions acquired from the Gutzwiller projection of gaussian fermionic theories have long served as both a theoretical starting point for the construction of such spin liquid states and as an inspiration for numerical variational Monte Carlo (VMC) to calculate observables of interest. Noting this observation I examine a different method by exploring the possibility of constructing a matrix product state (MPS) representation for a Gutzwiller--projected state from two given MPS representations of gaussian fermionic theories in the \\ref{chap:gutz} chapter. I investigate the complexity of different approaches to achieve Gutzwiller projection for MPSs and introduce the novel algorithm which we call the Guzwiller zipper method. The performance of the algorithm is tested against two copies of a single half-filled band of spin-1/2 fermionic spinons. In a successful attempt to describe the nature of spin liquid states on quasi-1D strips of triangular and kagome-like lattices, I apply this method to two MPS of multi-band fermionic spinon theories and compare with the complexity of the traditional VMC approach. In particular, we methodically disprove the conjecture of a spinon fermi surface spin liquid for the triangular lattice. Finally, I conclude this thesis by laying out a bird's eye view of the current and future of spin liquid physics in kagome and triangular lattices and pointing out numerous possible applications of the novel Gutzwiller zipper method. In addition, I would also discuss its possible extensions to more complicated tensor networks as well as versions for higher spatial dimensions.