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Gapless chiral spin liquid in a kagome Heisenberg model

Samuel Bieri, Laura Messio, Bernard Bernu, and Claire Lhuillier
Phys. Rev. B 92, 060407(R) – Published 14 August 2015
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Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments on the Heisenberg S=1/2 quantum spin liquid candidate material kapellasite, we classify all possible chiral (time-reversal symmetry breaking) spin liquids with fermionic spinons on the kagome lattice. We obtain the phase diagram for the physically relevant extended Heisenberg model, comparing the energies of a wide range of microscopic variational wave functions. We propose that, at low temperature, kapellasite exhibits a gapless chiral spin liquid phase with spinon Fermi surfaces. This two-dimensional state inherits many properties of the nearby one-dimensional phase of decoupled antiferromagnetic spin chains, but also shows some remarkable differences. We discuss the spin structure factors and other physical properties.

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  • Received 6 November 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.060407

©2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Samuel Bieri*, Laura Messio, Bernard Bernu, and Claire Lhuillier

  • Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de la Matière Condensée, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris VI, CNRS UMR 7600, F-75252 Paris, France

  • *samuel.bieri@alumni.epfl.ch

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Issue

Vol. 92, Iss. 6 — 1 August 2015

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