Thermally induced metallic phase in a gapped quantum spin liquid: Monte Carlo study of the Kitaev model with parity projection

Chris N. Self, Johannes Knolle, Sofyan Iblisdir, and Jiannis K. Pachos
Phys. Rev. B 99, 045142 – Published 25 January 2019

Abstract

Thermalization is a probabilistic process. As such, it is generally expected that when we increase the temperature of a system, its classical behavior dominates its quantum coherences. By employing the Gibbs state of a translationally invariant quantum spin liquid—Kitaev's honeycomb lattice model—we demonstrate that an insulating phase at T=0 becomes metallic purely by increasing temperature. In particular, we compute the finite-temperature distribution of energies and show that it diverges logarithmically, as we move to small energies. The corresponding wave functions become critical like at Anderson transitions. These characteristics are obtained within an exact Monte Carlo method that simulates the finite-temperature behavior of the Kitaev model. In particular, we take into account the projection onto the physical parity sectors, required for identifying the topological degeneracy of the model. Our work opens the possibility to detect thermal metal behavior in spin liquid experiments.

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  • Received 12 September 2018
  • Revised 26 November 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.045142

©2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsStatistical Physics & Thermodynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Chris N. Self1,2, Johannes Knolle3, Sofyan Iblisdir4,5,6, and Jiannis K. Pachos1

  • 1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
  • 2Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
  • 3Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
  • 4Departament de Física Quàntica i Astronomía and Institut de Ciències del Cosmos, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
  • 5Departamento de Análisis Matemático y Matemática Aplicada, Facultad de Matemáticas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
  • 6Instituto de Ciencias Matemáticas, Campus Cantoblanco UAM, 28049 Madrid, Spain

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Issue

Vol. 99, Iss. 4 — 15 January 2019

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