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Parton mean-field theory of a Rydberg quantum spin liquid induced by density-dependent Peierls phases

Benno Bock, Simon Ohler, and Michael Fleischhauer

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Phys. Rev. B 112, 125137 – Published 16 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/bh7y-k8x9

Abstract

We derive a parton mean-field Hamiltonian for Rydberg excitations on a honeycomb lattice with nearest and density-dependent, complex next-nearest neighbor hopping. Numerical results obtained from exact diagonalization of small systems have given indications for a ground state that is a chiral spin liquid (CSL) [Phys. Rev. Res. 5, 013157 (2023)]. Here we provide further evidence for this. Calculating the ground-state wavefunction self-consistently, we show that the mean-field Hamiltonian fulfills the requirements for a CSL ground state, resulting from a projected symmetry group classification and verify the expected twofold topological degeneracy on a torus. Furthermore we find very good overlap with the ground-state wavefunctions obtained by exact diagonalization of the original Hamiltonian.

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Phys. Rev. B 112, 125137– Published 16 September, 2025
  • Received 1 July 2025
  • Accepted 25 August 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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