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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Magnetic fragmentation and fractionalized Goldstone modes in a bilayer quantum spin liquid

Aayush Vijayvargia1, Emilian Marius Nica1,2, Roderich Moessner3, Yuan-Ming Lu4, and Onur Erten1

  • 1Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston 77005 Texas, USA
  • 3Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
  • 4Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio 43210, USA

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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L022062 – Published 22 June, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.L022062

Abstract

We study the phase diagram of a bilayer quantum spin liquid model with Kitaev-type interactions on a square lattice. We show that the low energy limit is described by a π-flux Hubbard model with an enhanced SO(4) symmetry. The antiferromagnetic Mott transition of the Hubbard model signals a magnetic fragmentation transition for the spin and orbital degrees of freedom of the bilayer. The fragmented “Néel order” features a nonlocal string order parameter for an in-plane Néel component, in addition to an anisotropic local order parameter. The associated quantum order is characterized by an emergent Z2×Z2 gauge field when the Néel vector is along the ẑ direction, and a Z2 gauge field otherwise. We underpin these results with a perturbative calculation, which is consistent with the field theory analysis. We conclude with a discussion on the low energy collective excitations of these phases and show that the Goldstone boson of the Z2×Z2 phase is fractionalized and nonlocal.

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Corrections

22 April, 2024

Correction: Typographical errors in the NSF award numbers in the Acknowledgment section have been fixed.

Article Text

Supplemental Material

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 5, L022062– Published 22 June, 2023
  • Received 15 March 2023
  • Accepted 7 June 2023
  • Corrected 22 April 2024
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