- Editors' Suggestion
- Letter
Thermodynamic signature of SU(4) spin-orbital liquid and symmetry fractionalization from Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem
Phys. Rev. B 105, L201115 – Published 31 May, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.105.L201115
Abstract
The Heisenberg model on a honeycomb lattice is expected to host a quantum spin-orbital liquid at low temperature with a surprising candidate material, . We employed the canonical thermal pure quantum state method to investigate the finite-temperature phase of this model. Exploiting the full symmetry of , calculation up to a 24-site cluster, which is equivalent to 48 sites in the spin- language, is possible. This state-of-the-art computation with large-scale parallelization enables us to capture the thermodynamic properties of the Heisenberg model on a honeycomb lattice. In particular, the specific heat shows a characteristic peak-and-shoulder structure, which should be related to the nature of the low-temperature quantum spin-orbital liquid phase. We also discuss what can be concluded from the assumption that the ground state is gapped and symmetric in view of the generalized Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem.