2012/06/30 by Robert Schaffer, Subhro Bhattacharjee, Yong Baek Kim · 104 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Antiferromagnetism #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Gapless playback #Heisenberg model #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Mean field theory #Phase transition #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum mechanics #Quantum phase transition #Quantum spin liquid #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spin polarization #Spinon #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.86.224417
published in Physical Review B 86(22) (American Physical Society) · 12 pages, 6 figures
openalex publication_date 2012/12/21 · arxiv created 2013/03/13 · arxiv updated 2013/05/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We explore the nature of the quantum phase transition between a magnetically ordered state with collinear spin pattern and a gapless Z2 spin liquid in the Heisenberg-Kitaev model. We construct a slave particle mean-field theory for the Heisenberg-Kitaev model in terms of complex fermionic spinons. It is shown that this theory, formulated in the appropriate basis, is capable of describing the Kitaev spin liquid as well as the transition between the gapless Z2 spin liquid and the so-called stripy antiferromagnet. Within our mean-field theory, we find a discontinuous transition from the Z2 spin liquid to the stripy antiferromagnet. We argue that subtle spinon confinement effects, associated with the instability of gapped U(1) spin liquid in two spatial dimensions, play an important role at this transition. The possibility of an exotic continuous transition is briefly addressed.