Spin-gap ground states with residual entropy in frustrated quantum magnets

D. V. Dmitriev, V. Ya. Krivnov, O. A. Vasilyev

We study the ground-state properties of a family of frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg models on two- and three-dimensional decorated lattices composed of connected star-shaped units. Each star is built from edge-sharing triangles with an antiferromagnetic interaction on the shared side and ferromagnetic interactions on the others. At a critical coupling ratio, the ideal star model - defined by equal ferromagnetic interactions - exhibits a macroscopically degenerate ground state, which we map onto a site percolation problem on the Lieb lattice. This mapping enables the calculation of exponential ground-state degeneracy and the corresponding residual entropy for square, triangular, honeycomb, and cubic lattices. Remarkably, the residual entropy remains high for all studied lattices, exceeding 60\% of the maximal value ln(2). Despite a gapless quadratic one-magnon spectrum, the low-temperature thermodynamics is governed by exponentially numerous gapped excitations. For a distorted-star variant of the model, the ground-state manifold is equivalent to that of decoupled ferromagnetic clusters, leading to exponential degeneracy with a lower, yet still substantial, residual entropy. At low temperature the system mimics a paramagnetic crystal of non-interacting spins with high spin value ($s=4$ for a square lattice). The obtained results establish a structural design principle for engineering quantum magnets with a high ground-state degeneracy, suggesting promising candidates for enhanced magnetocaloric cooling and quantum thermal machines.

Bruno Nachtergaele

Д. В. Дмитриев, V. Ya. Krivnov, Oleg A. Vasilyev

We study the ground-state properties of a family of frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg models on two- and three-dimensional decorated lattices composed of connected star-shaped units. Each star is built from edge-sharing triangles with an antiferromagnetic interaction on the shared side and ferromagnetic interactions on the others. At a critical coupling ratio, the ideal star model-defined by equal ferromagnetic interactions-exhibits a macroscopically degenerate ground state, which we map onto a site percolation problem on the Lieb lattice. This mapping enables the calculation of exponential ground-state degeneracy and the corresponding residual entropy for square, triangular, honeycomb, and cubic lattices. Remarkably, the residual entropy remains high for all studied lattices, exceeding 60% of the maximal value ln(2). Despite a gapless quadratic one-magnon spectrum, the low-temperature thermodynamics is governed by exponentially numerous gapped excitations. For a distorted-star variant of the model, the ground-state manifold is equivalent to that of decoupled ferromagnetic clusters, leading to exponential degeneracy with a lower, yet still substantial, residual entropy. At low temperature the system mimics a paramagnetic crystal of non-interacting spins with high spin value (s=4for a square lattice). The obtained results establish a structural design principle for engineering quantum magnets with a high ground-state degeneracy, suggesting promising candidates for enhanced magnetocaloric cooling and quantum thermal machines.

Élliott H. Lieb, Peter Schupp

Katsuhiro Morita, Naokazu Shibata

Exactly solvable frustrated quantum spin models consisting of a diamond unit structure are presented. The ground states are characterized by tetramer-dimer states with a macroscopic degeneracy in a certain range of isotropic exchange interaction. The lower bound of the excitation gap is exactly calculated to be finite and the bulk entropy in the limit of zero temperature remains finite depending on the shape of the boundary of system. Residual entropy is in a range of 0~6.1% of the entropy at high temperature for hexagonal diamond lattice and 0~8.4% for square diamond lattice. These diamond lattices are generalized to any dimensions and it is likely to be synthesized experimentally.

Hyejin Ju