Thermal transport in the Kitaev model

Ioanna Kourkoulou

Zhoushen Huang, Daniel P. Arovas

Hirokazu Taguchi, Yuta Murakami, Akihisa Koga

We study how stable the Majorana-mediated spin transport in a quantum spin Kitaev model is against thermal fluctuations. Using the time-dependent thermal pure quantum state method, we examine finite-temperature spin dynamics in the Kitaev model. The model exhibits two characteristic temperatures, ${T}_{L}$ and ${T}_{H}$, which correspond to energy scales of the local flux and the itinerant Majorana fermion, respectively. At low temperatures $(T\ensuremath{\ll}{T}_{L})$, an almost flux-free state is realized, and the spin excitation propagates in a similar way to that for the ground state. Namely, after the magnetic pulse is introduced at one of the edges, the itinerant Majorana fermions propagate the spin excitations even through the quantum spin liquid state region, and oscillations in the spin moment appear in the other edge with a tiny magnetic field. When $T\ensuremath{\sim}{T}_{L}$, larger oscillations in the spin moments are induced in the other edge, compared with the results at the ground state. At higher temperatures, excited ${Z}_{2}$ fluxes disturb the coherent motion of the itinerant Majorana fermions, which suppresses the spin propagation. Our results demonstrate a crucial role of thermal fluctuations in the Majorana-mediated spin transport.

Hirokazu Taguchi, Akihisa Koga, Yuta Murakami

We consider the time-dependent thermal pure quantum state method and introduce the efficient scheme to evaluate the change in physical quantities induced by the time-dependent perturbations, which has been proposed in our previous paper [H. Taguchi et al., Phys. Rev. B 105, 125137 (2022)]. Here, we treat the Kitaev model to consider the Majorana-mediated spin transport, as an example. We demonstrate how efficient our scheme is to evaluate spin oscillations induced by the magnetic field pulse.

Alexandros Metavitsiadis, Christina Psaroudaki, Wolfram Brenig

We identify fingerprints of a proximate quantum spin liquid (QSL), observable by finite-temperature dynamical thermal transport within a minimal version of the idealized Kitaev model on a two-leg ladder if subjected to inevitably present Heisenberg couplings. Using exact diagonalization and quantum typicality, we uncover (i) an insulator-conductor crossover induced by recombination of fractionalized excitations at small Heisenberg couplings, (ii) low- and high-energy signatures of fractionalized excitations, which survive far off the pure QSL point, and (iii) a nonmonotonous current lifetime versus Heisenberg couplings. Guided by perturbation theory, we find (iv) a Kitaev-exchange-induced ``one-magnon'' contribution to the dynamical heat transport in the strong Heisenberg rung limit.

Joji Nasu