Emergent Critical Phase and Ricci Flow in a 2D Frustrated Heisenberg Model
Peter P. Orth, Premala Chandra, Piers Coleman +1 more
We introduce a two-dimensional frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet on interpenetrating honeycomb and triangular lattices. Classically the two sublattices decouple, and "order from disorder" drives them into a coplanar state. Applying Friedan's geometric approach to nonlinear sigma models, we obtain the scaling of the spin stiffnesses governed by the Ricci flow of a four-dimensional metric tensor. At low temperatures, the relative phase between the spins on the two sublattices is described by a six-state clock model with an emergent critical phase.
arXiv:1206.5740•Physical Review Letters•Dec 4, 2012•19 citations