2019/01/31 by Hyun-Yong Lee, Ryui Kaneko, Tsuyoshi Okubo +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.quant-gas #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.123.087203
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 087203 (2019)
arxiv created 2019/08/27 · arxiv updated 2019/08/28
We provide a framework for understanding the gapless Kitaev spin liquid (KSL) in the language of tensor network(TN). Without introducing Majorana fermion, most of the features of the KSL including the symmetries, gauge structure, criticality and vortex-freeness are explained in a compact TN representation. Our construction reveals a hidden string gas structure of the KSL. With only two variational parameters to adjust, we obtain an accurate KSL ansatz with the bond dimension D = 8 in a compact form, where the energy is about 0.007% higher than the exact one. In addition, the opening of gap and non-Abelian phase driven by a magnetic field are naturally understood in our construction.