2014/12/04 by Shou-Shu Gong, Wei Zhu, Leon Balents +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Condensed matter physics #Molecule #Phase (matter) #Phase diagram #Phase transition #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Quantum phase transition #Quantum phases #Quantum spin liquid #Scalar (mathematics) #Spin polarization #Spins #Valence bond theory #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.91.075112
published as Physical Review B 91, 075112 (2015) · 8 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2014/12/04 · openalex publication_date 2015/02/17 · arxiv updated 2015/04/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the quantum phase diagram of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice with first-, second-, and third-neighbor interactions J1,J2, and J3 by means of density matrix renormalization group. For small J2 and J3, this model sustains a time-reversal invariant quantum spin-liquid phase. With increasing J2 and J3, we find in addition a q=(0,0) N'eel phase, a chiral spin-liquid phase, an apparent valence-bond crystal phase, and a complex noncoplanar magnetically ordered state with spins forming the vertices of a cuboctahedron known as a cuboc1 phase. Both the chiral spin liquid and cuboc1 phase break time-reversal symmetry in the sense of spontaneous scalar spin chirality. We show that the chiralities in the chiral spin liquid and cuboc1 are distinct, and that these two states are separated by a strong first-order phase transition. The transitions from the chiral spin liquid to both the q=(0,0) phase and to time-reversal symmetric spin liquid, however, are consistent with continuous quantum phase transitions.