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Pinwheel valence bond crystal ground state of the spin-12 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the shuriken lattice


Astrakhantsev, Nikita; Ferrari, Francesco; Niggemann, Nils; Müller, Tobias; Chauhan, Aishwarya; Kshetrimayum, Augustine; Ghosh, Pratyay; Regnault, Nicolas; Thomale, Ronny; Reuther, Johannes; Neupert, Titus; Iqbal, Yasir (2021). Pinwheel valence bond crystal ground state of the spin-12 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the shuriken lattice. Physical review B, 104(22):L220408.

Abstract

We investigate the nature of the ground state of the spin-12 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the shuriken lattice by complementary state-of-the-art numerical techniques, such as variational Monte Carlo (VMC) with versatile Gutzwiller-projected Jastrow wave functions, unconstrained multivariable variational Monte Carlo (mVMC), and pseudofermion/pseudo-Majorana functional renormalization group (PFFRG/PMFRG) methods. We establish the presence of a quantum paramagnetic ground state and investigate its nature, by classifying symmetric and chiral quantum spin liquids, and inspecting their instabilities towards competing valence bond crystal (VBC) orders. Our VMC analysis reveals that a VBC with a pinwheel structure emerges as the lowest-energy variational ground state, and it is obtained as an instability of the U(1) Dirac spin liquid. Analogous conclusions are drawn from mVMC calculations employing accurate BCS pairing states supplemented by symmetry projectors, which confirm the presence of pinwheel VBC order by a thorough analysis of dimer-dimer correlation functions. Our work highlights the nontrivial role of quantum fluctuations via the Gutzwiller projector in resolving the subtle interplay between competing orders.

Abstract

We investigate the nature of the ground state of the spin-12 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the shuriken lattice by complementary state-of-the-art numerical techniques, such as variational Monte Carlo (VMC) with versatile Gutzwiller-projected Jastrow wave functions, unconstrained multivariable variational Monte Carlo (mVMC), and pseudofermion/pseudo-Majorana functional renormalization group (PFFRG/PMFRG) methods. We establish the presence of a quantum paramagnetic ground state and investigate its nature, by classifying symmetric and chiral quantum spin liquids, and inspecting their instabilities towards competing valence bond crystal (VBC) orders. Our VMC analysis reveals that a VBC with a pinwheel structure emerges as the lowest-energy variational ground state, and it is obtained as an instability of the U(1) Dirac spin liquid. Analogous conclusions are drawn from mVMC calculations employing accurate BCS pairing states supplemented by symmetry projectors, which confirm the presence of pinwheel VBC order by a thorough analysis of dimer-dimer correlation functions. Our work highlights the nontrivial role of quantum fluctuations via the Gutzwiller projector in resolving the subtle interplay between competing orders.

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Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, further contribution
Communities & Collections:07 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute
Dewey Decimal Classification:530 Physics
Scopus Subject Areas:Physical Sciences > Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Physical Sciences > Condensed Matter Physics
Language:English
Date:22 December 2021
Deposited On:10 Jan 2022 12:08
Last Modified:29 Apr 2022 07:13
Publisher:American Physical Society
ISSN:2469-9950
OA Status:Green
Free access at:Publisher DOI. An embargo period may apply.
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.104.l220408
Project Information:
  • : FunderScience and Engineering Research Board
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  • : Project Title
  • : FunderDepartment of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology
  • : Grant ID
  • : Project Title
  • : FunderAbdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
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  • : FunderIndian Institute of Technology Madras
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  • : Project Title
  • : FunderAlexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
  • : Grant ID
  • : Project Title
  • : FunderSNSF
  • : Grant IDPP00P2_176877
  • : Project TitleTopological Phases: From New Fermions to Materials and Devices
  • Content: Published Version
  • Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)